Ghost Recon Breakpoint Review Fun In The Sun And Snow

Title: Ghost Recon Breakpoint

Developer: Ubisoft Paris

Publisher: Ubisoft

Genre: Tactical Shooter

Available On: PS4, Xbox One, PC, Google Stadia

Official Site: Ghost Recon Breakpoint at Ubisoft

Release Date: October 4, 2019

Version Tested: Xbox One

What would happen if Destiny 2 and The Division 2 had a baby? That infant would probably look quite a bit like Ghost Recon Breakpoint.

Ubisoft has made a cottage industry off of Tom Clancy’s themed games and it’s clear the company has a formula it likes to go to over and over. That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

In Ghost Recon Breakpoint, you’re tasked with leading a unit of Ghosts onto an island in the South Pacific. Something goes terribly wrong and your helicopters are shot down.

It doesn’t take long to realize the island is under the control of a rogue Ghost named Walker (voiced occasionally by Jon Bernthal). Now you need to figure out a way to liberate the island from the little dictatorship that’s formed, as well as take down Walker.

Along the way, you’ll run into some natives that have fashioned an underground resistance. You’ll also go head to head with a Steve Jobs type tech billionaire. You’ll meet a bevy of other baddies along the way.

One of the weirdest things about Ghost Recon Breakpoint is that a much less convoluted story would have made a game that was just as fun. Probably even more fun.

War, What is it Good For?

While the story in Ghost Recon Ghostpoint is not particularly good, the gameplay really, really is. Ubisoft went on record talking about the fact that they consulted ex-military in order to get the realism down.

Those efforts didn’t go unrewarded. While the shooting feels good, so does the sneaking up and getting the jump on someone. Not for nothing so does trying to run a bad buy down in a vehicle.

Far too many games that allow that kind of thing tend to have the victims stand there like a deer in headlights. Ghost Recon Breakpoint values realism to the point where intended victims try and dive out of the way.

That kind of thing isn’t usually something that deserves mentioning in a review, but it underlines how far the game has gone to make players think they are in a war for the island of Auroa.

War is dangerous. War is deadly. Ubisoft makes sure you know this by having little gangs of the enemy patrolling all over the island.

Considering just how big the island is, it’s hard to get from point A to the point B without running into a patrol or five. This is actually one of the more fun aspects of the game.

Yes, you will run into a patrol, but more often than not, you’ll get a heads up. That heads up means you can either sneak up on them through the tall grass or go straight at them in a truck.

Play your cards right and you can take out one of those patrols before they can even get a shot off. Don’t pull it off exactly right, and you’re going to be facing a hail of bullets.

The Year of the Looter Shooter

Sneaking up on enemies and taking them out before they see you coming isn’t all that fun if you do it with the same gun for 30 hours. It’s also hard to withstand a hail of bullets if you don’t get to upgrade your armor. That’s where Ghost Recon Breakpoint‘s loot system comes into play.

Ubisoft certainly thinks it has a winning formula in that loot game. The system in Breakpoint really does feel quite a bit like what you see in Destiny 2, as you can update and upgrade everything from your helmet to your boots.

You also upgrade the guns and you’re able to do it quite often. Between taking down enemies and finding stashes out in the world, there’s no shortage of weapons at your disposal. Like The Division 2, the fact that you can carry two different kinds of assault rifles and one pistol means even more variety in weaponry.

The shooting and looting and traversing a massive open world that has plenty of different settings, from a tropical island to snowy mountaintops bring hours of fun. If only the same could be said of the story and dialogue.

Soap Operas Have Better Dialogue

When it comes to the story in Ghost Recon Breakpoint, it might have been better to tone it way down. The number of different missions the game offers is another check in the “plus” column. The discussions you have to watch in cut scenes between those missions are … awful.

It’s also worth bringing up, this isn’t the kind of game that really needed a Hollywood star to play its’ big bad. It appears Ubisoft was paying Jon Bernthal by the word. In what is laugh out loud funny at times, the former The Walking Dead actor appears on screen and doesn’t say a word more often than not.

When he does say a word, it’s usually even hammier and over the top than one could expect.

Verdict: Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a fun romp that has plenty of things to do and see. As long as that’s what you go in expecting and can block out some of the most needless or annoying aspects of the game, it’s got plenty of replayability packed in.