Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands

“Be better than Tolkien”.

What insane standards. Jesus no wonder these games have entered a decline with him around.

marketing - they want something they can package and sell, using a predefined framework. Why they hell marketing were influencing pitches though is annoying. Marketing get TOLD what to do with products... or should. BD teams in other industries just get told to take the offering and find a way to sell it.

Having veto like that... yeah UBI has some weird blinkered internal views.

Break Point is ok, but it really needs a more coherent story and characters with more depth. The mechanics are fine in general. My friend and I have been kicking around exploring, and clearing out any parts of the map we haven't been through on foot. We beat the latest event which was ok. The other two events were better. The rebel event was a set of 3 cookie cutter missions at different locations. The sniper rifle is average and the digital scope is sub-par to what you can put on instead and it has an integral silencer.

You get some new vanity gear, a new sniper rifle, rebels can now proliferate around the landscape and fight the Mercs and Wolves, and the strike designator. The rebels are decent fighters but they are hand grenade stupid and will stand in the middle of the blast zone until they die. I like that they can fly around attack choppers and do gun runs. The strike weapon takes up an expendable weapon/item slot that causes a missile to be fired at the designated spot after five seconds.

The missile can hit trees even the leaves magically detonate it. The upside is it can take out the common UGV's with HMG's in a single shot, it will do serious damage to IFV's with the auto-cannon, does almost nil to behemoths, and will in general fuck up most enemies. The designator is technically infinite in shots but has a long cooldown, about 3 minutes and a max range of about 400 meters, roughly.

Jesus. Fucking. Christ.

So the second story DLC for Breakpoint, "Red Patriot", came out on Tuesday. I got to the final mission today and flipped my shit live on Dzwiedz 24. Before it, there's one more mission with similarly cheap shit, but the final one takes the motherfucking cake.

So, first, let's focus on the mission involving a Bodark operative (yes, the Bodark are back) codenamed Cyclops. First, you need to track a group of Skell scientists across the Scott Glacier, through Matilda's Palace and to Commander's Mine. At the glacier, you have no less than six Wolves to defeat, in a blizzard. Expect it to be difficult. And once you get to the mine, you have to defend the scientists against several waves of Wolves. With no additional supplies, which after battling your way through the glacier AND Matilda's Palace, might be difficult.

Of course, those are Wolves. Meaning, they have inhuman reaction time and a motherfucking aimbot. And the location is not only cramped, it lacks any sensible cover whatsoever, but has bushes obscuring the enemy entry points. Meaning, they can shoot you, but you cannot shoot them.

And the finale is even more fucked up. It takes place in the Skell Security Assembly Plant, that one with three silo-like buildings connected by walkways. At the beginning of the mission, there's maybe ten enemies there, three of them unreachable (the boss and his two elite Wolf mooks). After listening to the boss' Motive Rant, you need to scan a schematic and hack three panels located around the facility. Here's where the cheap fuckery starts.

First, the moment you approach the stairs to get into the room with the schematics, first extra Elite Mook pops out of the woodwork, right behind the door to the outside that you pass by. No warning, of course. And it gets worse from there. Instead of showing up in smaller or larger groups in reasonable places, allowing you to at least tag them with Recon Grenades or Echelon's pulse ability in order to locate them, the Elite Mooks (the fucking Wolves with their aimbots) will pop out of the woodwork one by one, just behind the corner, as soon as you get close to them. Meaning, you can't go two steps without some methed-up wanker showing up without warning, fuzzy red spot on the minimap or anything and trying to kill you. Which goes against the typical mission design of Breakpoint or any sane, sensible and fair kind of mission design. And, of course, there's only one spot where you can get any supplies, behind an ID-locked door. Did I mention that the Wolves disappear after you kill them and lose sight of their bodies, like, turning away from them for a second?

Sure, you get "reinforcements" in the form of rebels turning up in a car and a helicopter, but they can't do shit either way and your AI squadmates aren't much better. Whatever happens, there's nobody to defend you and, surprise surprise, approaching at least one of the panels causes the game to spawn a mook right on your back.

Spoilers please, some of us are still doing the mission chain due to having to wait for friends.

He hasn't revealed anything spoilerish just some crappy mechanics. That is a grade-A bullshit mission.

Well, I mean, he did say stuff that's nearly walkthrough-worthy, I think it is fair for someone who'd rather go in blind to it to complain about having seen it. Though of course, with that viewpoint, anything more than "X was good/X was bad" can be seen as a problem to it.

Or one can just use these

But fair.

I have just wiped out the first three goons on the top row. I love the airstrike kit from the last event.

Spoilers, what spoilers?! Bodark's involvement is laid out in the teaser trailer, that's one thing, and another one is, I'm doing it so everyone who doesn't like spoilers doesn't give Ubisoft their money.

Worse yet, there's one or two good missions, like the one with the mad bomber and the one on the garbage dump island, but the absolute cheap fuckery of the final mission and, even worse, UNSKIPPABLE MONOLOGUES paired with moronic save points in both the finale and the Cyclops mission are so infuriating they kill any fun you could have.

Also, there's one mission that involves finding a specific Wolf in a camp full of Wolves. Aside from the three hints you receive during the mission, he... can't be tagged for Sync Shot. Why?

Because FUCK YOU, THAT IS WHY.

Edited by NotSoBadassLongcoat on Sep 20th 2020 at 2:08:10 PM

Easy there. I get it they are kinda fucking up from a design perspective. But given dialogue, this genre is not exactly known for riveting speeches.

The problem is, the monologues are AFTER the save points. Which means every time the game fucks you, you have to listen to them over and over and over.

Normally, the monologues come first, and then, after the monologue, you get a save point - basic Anti-Frustration Features.

Now that is evil.

From what I'm reading of the spoilers, it seems like the involvement of the Bodarks is largely over-stated, with them having only a handful of actual spec ops involved, and the mastermind of the main game is now dead. Doesn't leave much wiggle room left for the plot to justify the Ghosts staying on Skell island now, does it?

I think the plot can hardly go any further, with all the loose ends of main storyline apparently tied up with both DLC. But, when you go through the investigations, there are still "All will be revealed in time..." clues, meaning there's still one more DLC coming later.

The first DLC revealed what happened to Midas and shed some light on the Wonderland plot, including the ties between Senator Lomax, Stone and the Mastermind. The second DLC, as Ass Pull-tastic as it is, finally sorted out Stone after we took down all his flunkies in the main storyline and the Faction storylines. Emergent AI weirdness is tied to the Raid. So what's left?

Also, yes, I think it's an atrocity. Worse yet, the Cyclops mission has you have to go and press a button to even start the conversation, which holds you in place. Final boss is, luckily, proximity-triggered.

Edited by NotSoBadassLongcoat on Sep 20th 2020 at 1:28:09 PM

With just about everyone mopped up all that is left is cleaning up the killbots and booting out the mercs.

I am glad I never bought Break Point.

Recon Wildlands does for me.

Though I've spent so much time playing STALKE Rverse games getting back into the sort of twitch shooting in Wildlands would be jarring.

I have been keeping up with the Breakpoint game and playing new events as they released. The villains are starting to get over the top. The last one was a chemical weapon-themed setup complete with gas mask mechanic. It feels like they are testing things out for the next game at this point.

Edited by TuefelHundenIV on Apr 1st 2021 at 7:06:16 AM

I redownloaded Breakpoint not too long ago and aim to tear into it again in the near future. I'm still near the beginning, lol.

Discovered Wildlands last year. Always been excited for this game, so I've been happily playing it and it's been generally satisfying.

You on PC or Console? This is one of the few games I bought on more than one system I liked it that much.

PC. Hilariously I played with a trackpad at first, and somehow managed to get far enough before realizing 'Oh right, I do need a mouse.'

Double post, but some observations I made on my own reading:

• Pac Katari's real name is Ramiro Apaza Nieves. Tupac Katari's real name was Julian Apasa Nina. Surname's similar, but there's no indication that Pac's Aymara at all. Elite Squad (likely non-canon) also reveals that Pac faked his death and learned his lesson about screwing people over (apparently.)

• There was a time when Bolivia almost became a narco-state. That would be under its worst military dictator ever, Luis Garcia Meza, whose coup (against his own cousin who was president) was funded with drug money, and he hired out army units as security to narcotraffickers. The drug baron at the time was Roberto Suarez Gomez, aka 'The King of Cocaine.' El Sueno might have had a reason for picking Bolivia after all.

• The Mexican Civil War was a thing in the Ghost Recon franchise. I wonder why there's no comment on it here.

• The sicarios' design strikes me as a little odd. Actual cartel soldiers actually tend to run with ball caps and two-hole balaclavas. The sicarios walking around with shades and do-rags looks to me as being modeled off stereotypical Latino gangsters in the US than anything else. Of course, this could be because with no police to prosecute them outside of La Paz, they don't have to hide their faces anymore.

• I'll admit, I would have really preferred it if Los Extranjeros turned out to be Former Regime Personnel of Operation Condor, the Central American Crisis (the Salvadoran Army and Nicaragua's Guardia Nacional were internationally condemned), and even the AUC and other far-right paramilitaries in Colombia. It would be basically the CIA's dirty laundry coming back to haunt them.

• Also, the sheer violence of Los Extranjeros IMO far better suits Santa Blanca, and we should've stumbled on some of the sights throughout the base game. Because actual cartels are that violent.

• I would like wire cutters and a grappling hook so I can actually climb and not get stuck, and not be defeated by mere barbed wire.

• I HC that Pac and Kataris 26 in ideology are actually Castrists/Fidelistas, hence the '26', but Pac doesn't seem to have gotten the memo that Castro loathed drugs and had a perfectly good general executed for it. Still, he decides to mash it with Katarismo nonetheless. The rebel movement by Fallen Ghosts has decided to moderate itself heavily by that they've settled for Kurd-style democratic confederalism instead of a socialist state.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Apr 1st 2021 at 8:44:09 AM

Some more details:

• Examples of Narco Armor available that somehow weren't put in the game when they should have and are only available through crates are: Armored Bulldozer, and a DIY Armored Truck that is a regular truck covered in armored plating. Both don't have external weapons, but they give you at least protection.

• You can get the UNIDAD APC from the store, and the Gunship (listed as Military Chopper) from crates.

• I noticed that Charles liked Nidia Flores. I agree. Her entire viewpoint and attitude is genuinely understandable considering the shit Latina women have to go through, and how nasty macho culture can be. She's also damn smart, and the game does exhibit that many times. Of all the boss arcs, I think hers was deliberately the most fleshed out.

• Always found it odd that Ramon Feliz was trusted enough to be an Underboss despite El Sueno's emphasis on theocracy. I think La Santera and El Cardenal should've been working together directly.

• La Santera is my favorite buchon, personally. She has a nice house.

• I wish there was more in the way of building up and actively assisting/helping the rebel forces, rather than the Ghosts doing all the fighting. The rebels make reference to capturing combat aircraft, but never use them. I would've liked to see the Ghosts actively advising them too.

• The soft music playing in La Yuri and El Polito's house is a signature tactic from South American torturers. It's to mask the sound of the screaming.

• There was an entire plot built up around Bookhart involving smuggled G36cs when that rifle is store-purchase only and not in the base game. Wut.

Edited by TheWildWestPyro on Apr 3rd 2021 at 5:45:04 AM

Some more involvement with the Rebels other than the side missions would have been nice. Like helping them get the better kit, teaching them to better use mortars, snipers, etc.

That said, using the rebels to crush bases is immensely fun. Especially once you get both the diversion and the reinforcements beefed up.