23.3.2018

This has earned its place as a one of the best Clancy games. I am only halfway through the entire campaign but still like returning to Boliva to carry out hundreds of special operation missions. It is a HUGE game and will take hundreds of hours to finish. And, more besides, if you play the 2 DLC side mission add ons or Ghost War MP. I have the Gold version of game. You are leader of a small Spec Ops team.Pros1. For sheer choice of missions, this game is amazing. Endless places to visit as part of the entire campaign.2. Superb graphics. lighting and special effects. Scenery is breathtaking regardless of the location.Whether you are flying in a helicopter at dawn over mist filled rain forests - racing across a huge lake surrounded by mountains or creeping through the jungle in a thunderstorm to take out the enemies.3. Story is well written and has good sense of purpose. Day by day - week by week it is your Spec Ops team vs El Sueno Drug Cartel.4. Gadgets - As expected there are lots of tools to use from the recon drone (which has multiple upgrades), C4 bombs, Flashbangs, Noise Makers, Flares, Grenades, Diversion markers etc and Night Vision and Heat Signature modes.5. Weapons. Lots to choose from with multiple custom options. I find myself changing weapons frequently depending on scenario.6. Kill the Predator. I dont know if this add on is still available but you get chance to battle the Predator in the Jungle. Very tough but great fun, with special rewards on completion. from classic Scifi movie.7. Gameplay. Very smooth gameplay with fast load times considering map sizes.. Occasionally, you can get stuck in a precipice but mostly no problem moving around by air, land or sea.8. Fast travel - You will need this sometimes if you want to carry out essential side missions to gain fuel, medicine or communications to help local rebel groups fight Cartel. This is all part of the player, team, weapon and gadget upgrade system.9. Maps - Large towns adapted to each region, small mountain top villages, bushland and forests, lakes and rivers, dusty roads, caves or mining works, construction building in progress, vast oil refineries, drilling stations, graveyards, docklands, cold or icy regions, fuel depots, and much more besides with a very high level of detail which all adds to authenticity.10. Missions - You choose which region to play in with multiple missions in each. You can switch from one to another easily. But, I prefer to follow the storyline rather than get sidetracked.11. Pickups - Weapon upgrades, Extra Ammo, Medals for points or enhancements, Skill points (essential) for upgrades, fuel, comms and mediciine12. Guidance - The female supervisor at basecamp gives background info occasionally and helps with story telling or interrogate captured enemies.13. Character creaton. Lots of options, costumes and equipment to choose from or adapt for each situation. You can use parachute too in game.14. Vehicles - Too many to mention. You want it - you have it. My favorites are combat helicopter (stolen from cartel/unidad soliders), armored assualt vehicles, river boats, Jeeps, Trucks, Juggernauts, Lambourgini and trial bike.15. Defence - Over time, team and personal defence can be earned with better revival time, bullet resistance, explosion resistance and more.16. Rebel Support - These guys are essential in medium to large battles once you have been spotted. I use them as a distraction for Cartel to help achive my objective. They provide you will extra personnel, mortar attack (controlled from your drone above firefight), Spotting of enemies (very useful) and choice of a few vehicles or helipcopter as you require in most locations.17. Team - for best use, I use my team on stealth takedowns after spotting with drone or binoculars. Very useful for taking out enemy snipers a long way off. Most of the time, they are good in a firefight and will revive you in time before death. They have mutltiple upgrades available.Cons1. As other comments have mentioned, occasionally the game can get repetitive. That is because of the vast open terrain and similar mission types. If does need more thought put into story missions. Perhaps fewer regions with more close quarters gameplay would help.2. AI for team could be better. Often, they attack unecessarily or break out of cover. There is no way to command each team member, only group commands. Tagging system needs to be improved for enemies. Futhermore, in single player, you cannot alllow them to fly helipcopter or drive an assault vehicle so you can use battle weaponry yourself. Mostly, I find Rebel Support more useful than my own team.3. Bullet magnet - Once spotted you become a bullet magnet. So, have to fight, hide more than necessary.4. Close Quarters Stealth - This was much better in the legacy Rainbow Six Vegas games or Splinter Cell. If they integrated some of the stealth options from Rainblow Six Seige close quarters gameplay would be better. But, overall, it is not too bad. This game is mostly about open world firefights.5. Underwater missions - there are no options for scuba diving, mini subs or planting limpet mines on enemy ships.6. Climbing - I wish the main character was more agile. He cannot climb trees for stealth kills like Lara Croft or strafe along side walls for vertical overhead takedowns or jump across any distance with ease.7. So far, there are no gas knockout bombs which is a huge omission from arsenal. Sam Fisher in Splinter Cell used these a lot. Mines are pretty useless too.8. Enemy detection - this is too sensitve. Often you will get spotted without cause. Also, no option to manually hide corpse means he can be found easily and you are detected. Once detected your stealth approach is ruined unless you quit and come back later.9. Women - As usual, it is mostly men who are the bad characters. Female AI characters usually scream and run away.10. Sniper rifles - not poweful enough unless you buy the Sniper pack from Ubistore.11. It does take a long time to earn sufficient points for skills, fuel, comms and medicine so you can upgrade your character. These are usually side missions.12. Unidad soldiers - they are supposed to be neutral faction group but always end up fighting for cartel against you.13. Weather system. Not too impressed. It grows dark too quickly during day and there seems to be an obsession with tropical thunderstorms at night.14. Small Airplanes - slow, overly sensitive and very hard to control. I usually crash a lot. Helis are much better.15. No animals - No horses to ride between locations or attack dogs.In summary. I recommend getting Gold pack of the game which includes DLC. This allows you to change different scenarios entirely and avoid some of the repetition this game has. But, it is a wonderful game and quite addictive and time consuming. Despiate all flaws, well worth the purchase as I always come back and play this again and again. Well done, Ubisoft.

2.5.2019

I've got to say, I was surprised when I picked up Ghost Recon Wildlands for all the right reasons. Open World Military based games are somewhat of a niche genre, even more so ones that focus on a very relevant and modren issue in the world today.The game revolves around a group of elite soldiers known as "Ghosts" as they hunt down a Brutal drug smuggling Syndicate known as Santa Blanca, across the vast open Jungles and Mountains of Bolivia. The exploration in the game is amazing, if you want to drive all the way to the top of the map to hunt the bad guys in the vast salt flats of Koani, or parachute from a chopper into the heart of a massive enemy base in the middle of a Swamp, you can do it,options are almost limitless here.Character customisation is also very good, you can create a male or female soldier with a decent range of different looks to choose from, gear for them to wear, and this also applies to your AI Squadmates, as of a recent update, they're also fully customizable, I waited to test all the new features from recent updates before writing this review, and I'm happy to report, with each new addition, something else cool is unlocked.Missions in the game are structured depending on where you decide to go with your squad, if for example I mentioned above, you headed into the salt flats, you'd find a smuggling underboss, who you'd need to gather intel on, track down, all the while fighting off bad guys who at times are ruthless in their quest to stop you in your tracks. You could blast your way through an enemy base, thinking you've nailed the Target and got away, only for the one guy you didn't see to call in a truck full of backup to give you a headache. In my opinion, this adds to the fun, as you never know what's next, especially at higher mission levels with the various operations within the Syndicate; it gets crazy which adds to the challenge.Bolivia itself is very well recreated, and it looks stunning, the graphics in the game are really good considering how big the environments around you are, and a day and night cycle along with varied weather only adds to the fun, imagine swimng through the Swamp in the dead of night with your Night vision on, using the environment to your advantage as rain lashes down around you, it's very immersive.Onto the Story, it's very well written and dynamic, you get most of your main Intel on your target of choice from your CIA contact, providing you've found enough Intel around the area for her to give you a shot at one of the main bad guys, you'll unlock video briefings that tell you about your targets history, how they act within the Cartel chain, and more. It's the classic Hunt the Smugglers with a very welcome Mercenaries style twist (fans of those games will feel almost instantly familiar here).When it comes to getting around, you can drive almost any vehicle you see, from SUVs and bikes, to choppers and even obscure stuff like diggers or planes, there's almost no end to variation here, although, I'd take a Humvee on a base raid over a JCB anyday, it might look funny, but trust me, it's not very wise. In terms of weapons, you've got a lot to pick from too, depending on your play style, there's something for everyone, from Assault rifles and Snipers, to UZI's and Shotguns it's a very good mix, add in the fact the guns are moddable with Scopes, etc and your all set.I could go on with the fun stuff, but the best way to experience everything on offer is to play this really decent game. It might be a couple of years into it's cycle, but I'm nowhere near bored as it's getting regular content updates, one of which even released today as I write this review, going to check it out shortly. Due to the changing nature of open world games that get updated a lot, I waited until now to give a verdict.Happy to say in it's current state, I'd give Wildlands a 9/10, as it's holding up very well.I better go get that update already, onto the Console once again :)

9.3.2017

Note: I haven't played any of the precious Ghost Recon games so this review won't be compared to those. I've seen reviews that say Wildlands has lost its touch from the prior Ghost Recon games and I can't comment. This is a review of the game itself from the perspective of someone who hasn't played the others.With that out of the way, holy ****, I'm addicted! I've been waiting for this game ever since the E3 reveal and it has just taken over my life. I was worried that it would be a bit like The Division and just be another failure (for me) but I was utterly wrong, and I'll happily admit that. The beta in itself I enjoyed more than playing The Division.So far,I've only played single player as I just want to do my own thing without having anyone else ruin it but the Multiplayer aspect does allow you to hop in and out pretty freely.The map is huge with around 20(?) regions. It's fun to explore and there's ALWAYS something to do. That's something a lot of games can't pull off - the ability to keep you engaged and immersed. This game, for me, is incredibly immersive and I've spent so many straight hours playing it and it's only been out for two days! You will never find yourself getting bored. One particularly great thing is that you're not forced to stick to one region, even if you haven't completed the previous one. You're completely free to explore as you wish.The story is pretty interesting and I'm enjoying it so far. I do enjoy the little bits of dialogue the characters share between each other, although at times it does bug out which can ruin your immersion.One thing I enjoy is your ability to tackle missions in your own way. You can customise your loadout to suit you and your needs (although mods and weapons will require unlocking which you can either buy or explore and retrieve). You can go stealthy and strategically, or you can just run and gun, spray and pray and hope for the best. A great feature is that you can remove your suppressor on-the-fly so you don't suffer a damage penalty (if you don't have the advanced suppressor) if you do go loud from stealth. You are able to completely customise the weapon on-the-fly too (touchpad > loadout > square) but you probably won't use it much once you have a loadout you're comfortable and happy with.The player and weapon customisations are limited to what's provided but that's fine, can't expect too much or be upset really. It's more than enough for me.One criticism is the vehicle mechanics. I always compare an open world game's vehicle mechanics to GTA's because that's the pinnacle, really, and they don't really compete. However, the vehicle mechanics aren't completely terrible and you can definitely survive with them, although I find it easiest to control a vehicle when it's at its peak speed (weirdly). The easiest, for me, is the helicopters.Ultimately, it's a great game and I'm definitely not disappointed. I may even buy the season pass! Now, if you'll excuse me, back to the game!I should add, unlike other games that ask you to liberate a city or country, this doesn't "free up" areas as you go along, by which I mean you don't liberate bases and strongholds to make them rebel-run. So, as you're going through the campaign, there will always be cartel resistance and you won't be able to take over bases to make an area easier to complete. I like this aspect, as a guy who normally liberates a whole area and then proceeds to do the story, as it keeps the challenge alive. You can never just walk through a place in utter naivety because you can't guarantee you're safe.Also, the platinum [trophy] is fairly easy to get if you want it, the maximum level is 30 and you can definitely replay the game. I played it solo initially and am now enjoying the experience of co-op with friends.

6.10.2018

The game is made very frustrating, not because of the difficulty. But, mission objectives are unclear and suddenly appear different. For example you would start off with "Locate the evidence" but it would not tell you that you actually have to do this undetected at the last minute when it didn't say it a second ago. This is the first, but second is that you don't fear failing mission, you fear the fact that you've got a fairly decent amount of loading time and then a 500m distance to the objective again - you burnout very quickly due to these things and find yourself needing to really 'be bothered' to play it. Very frustrating and puts you off doing the mission. I am sure there is scripted AI movements which occur,and it causes a memory puzzle at times at higher levels, where a certain enemy would only enter the building once a certain objective has been released and discovers all the bodies youve spent 15 or 20 minutes placing shots on unseen. Also, Unidad - the military faction is one of the most irritating and probably the worst ideas of an enemy type - imagine this, when a base is occupied by this Unidad faction, if you are detected, it becomes Wave Mode. Seriously. It causes missions to be pretty much stealth essential even when it isn't as you will have to fight and fight and fight if you are detected by them and they can even intervene at the most seemingly intentionally inconvient times, and thats that, wave mode activated. Really annoying.Very realistic, there is none of this jumping out of a helicopter, firing an RPG, and then changing weapons so you can do a 360 no-scope. Bullet damage is justifiable and like you'd expect, realism-focused, if a double-tap to the body doesn't put someone down then they have armour, and you aren't a super-solider. You will get blasted easily and it's all about strategy, tactics, and probably communicating with your team. There is a live and working very well ballistic system with a 'penetration' stat on weapons, dictating how well you to shoot through different densities and objects. The open world is by far one of the most amazing I've seen and looks stunning in 4k, the woodland environments are captivating and there are areas which genuinely make you feel like you truly are in a country as portrayed. Some of the stuff you see is silly real, you often actually need to look before you cross the road and everything. Massive customisation, playing with friends is amazing and I feel really completes the game. RPG-like skills (surface level but relatively in-depth) such as reduced sound while crouched. You really get what you put into this and attention to detail is high. If you equip a shotgun, shotgun rounds will appear on your gear etc. I played this for 14 hours, and sickened myself a bit and had to take a break because you can really overdo it being quite a hardcore game, can get burnout from it.Still glitches persisting, odd anomalies in online play where Im trying to decide if more issues occur when joining a friend's game as they are playing and started inviting, setting-up authentically and didn't have these issues - strange, but I don't doubt it will be fixed up really well since it's only been a year.

5.7.2017

Tom Clancys Ghost Recon Wildlands is a tactical squad based shooter developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. This is actually the first Ghost Recon title I've played and apparently the first one released in the series in 5 years, if you were a fan of last years criminally underrated though technically fraught Techno Thriller The Division there is a lot to like here, although I believe The Division has a superior cover based system.I actually purchased this game to try and tide me over until FarCry 5 and had only recently finished Watch Dogs 2 so I was already quite proficient/familiar with using Drones to Tag enemy combatants and track their movements.The Small Towns and Guard Posts The Santa Blanca Cartel occupy share more than a passing resemblance to FarCrys Outposts, which I love and for a Sandbox of this scale Bolivia is as beautiful and diverse an Open World Environment that is currently out there, quite similar to Just Cause 3 but has a lot more Visual Variety with Salt Flats, Tropical Jungles, Swamps and Ice Capped Mountains with fresh water streams trickling down them shimmering in the sunlight.This being an Ubisoft game there are Collectables and Trinkets galore dotted all throughout the expansive map cleverly disguised as Intel/Files on the Narcos and their Lieutenants your hell bent on bringing down. Including El Seuno there are 5 figureheads, each figurehead runs a part of the operation (Distribution, Exporting etc) with 2 Underbosses underneath them who you have to flush out (Not Unlike Mafia 3) by disrupting the business, each Underboss controls a District, gain control of each of the Districts to get a shot at one of the big bosses and ultimately, El Sueno himself. In single player your equipped with 3 near immortal team mates who revive you when you take too much damage and provide much needed suppressing fire in sticky situations.There is an extensive selection of weapons to choose from each with their own unique modifications and upgrades available for you to seek out in Bolivia, there is an Upgrade/Skill Tree of sorts that enables you to spend you hard earned Skill Points on Upgrading the battery life of your Drone or Improving the Stamina or Swiftness in which your teammates revive you. Whilst the Open World is remarkably vast in scale it lacks the Stop N' Stare aesthetics of Horizon Zero Dawn or the near limitless secrets of Breath Of The Wild (Still haven't found all the Shrines) although it is a solid Third Person Shooter with near limitless Sicarios to shoot in the face and plenty of Destinations peppered throughout the map to go out and find, Decent game that will keep you going back for more if only to gradually open up more the map, definitely recommend, Must Play.

17.3.2017

I've played Ghost Recon from the very beginning on PC and the early expansions, and the more recent advanced warfighter games. So speak as a bit of a fan. I had been keeping upto date with devs on Wildlands since it was announced with much anticipation. Ubisoft have let me down with my most recent purchases from them "siege" "watchdogs 2" and the dreadful "for Honor" but I hoped Ghost Recon pedigree would see it through. I deliberately avoided the open beta as I didn't want to spoil my experience, but did grab a sneaky peak on twitch, and no way was I cancelling my pre-order.The game map is huge open world, you have complete choice where you go, what you do, numerous transport options,

10.3.2017

Played both closed and open betas and knew it'd be worth the preorder, and I'm happy with the announced season pass content themes, so went for the gold.It's a great mix between gta and the stealth of mgs. There is no set order to the missions, it's completely open from the start, with a huge open world to explore, and a good range of vehicles that suit the environment. I love that it's a similar size to Los Santos in GTA, but instead of following a linear story I can go wherever I want, and there's always something to do nearby all over the place. Open plains make sniping easier, but if a helicopter gunship clocks you you're a sitting duck. The jungles are good for stealth,

10.3.2017

As a long time player of Ubisoft's other great tactical multiplayer Rainbow Six: Siege with my mate I was really looking forward to this game. For context, me and my buddy use the self titled moniker of 'Kill & Assist' when we play Rainbow- the reason being that my friend (Kill) has a natural affinity for precision head shots, while I (Assist) am generally better at absorbing bullets in a human shield like way and then jumping on cameras for the assisted kills. This team work led us to be a pretty formidable duo for several seasons, that was until my pal got a new girlfriend and a mortgage, started playing the game less and every time we would play,

12.3.2020

I bought this even through I had heard many negative reviews as it was a low price at the time, and, to be honest, I'm so glad I handed over my money as this turned out to be a cracking little game.The basic idea of the game is ... A third person shootout and see you are leader of a four man team who travel around Bolivia fighting and kicking the backsides of the cartel and drug barons whilst trying not to shoot civilians and rebels.You travel the lands using what ever vehicle you can find, or car-jack, tracking those you are ordered to. You then have to kill them or interrogate them in order to find information which opens up new missions and side missions.

26.3.2017

If you love using your stealth skills to the maximum then you will love this game. Even if that's not your play style you can happily run into the bases firing all guns but it will make the game a good bit harder, even on the easiest difficulty. Some missions you do have to be stealthy though or it will fail.I have played this game since it's release and play extremely stealthy, and sitting on the edge of a massive base picking people off 1 at a time not alerting anyone gives me a special feeling no other game has. I did also try the run and gun method, and while it is fun I didn't feel like I could play the entire game that way.You can play through it on your own with the help of 3 AI squad members that you can fully control through commands,

7.3.2017

GOOD THINGS:This game is excellent it's very well polished and the voice acting, plot, and the graphics are amazing.This is probably one of the most biggest open world shooter games that has ever came out since date, the map is literally huge with so many story missions and side missions and various of activities to do.Also the customisation options are excellent with a variety of different guns, attachments and clothing options.This game is great for co-op you and 3 other people can play together online or you could play the whole campaign with your friends too ( I recommend playing the game online as it is much better than playing solo as they are more features online)

19.3.2017

I wasn't expecting much from the pre release footage, showing no similarity to previous Ghost recon games, as with Rainbow 6 siege and The Division which were so poor.However, the game looks excellent, with a very large map. The customization of your soldier is good, (although let down by things you must buy) and I've played the entire game solo, with the game not kicking me out when wifi is lost. I like the plot and the story elements are provided well via video and briefings, aswell as group discussions. Each individual cartel boss has character driven missions and the whole thing feels like playing the Clear and Present danger film, with the S. American jungle element.

16.6.2020

I put off buying this till the price was under £20 as I was unsure about the negative reported issues with the 3 AI team mates, actions and chatter. But actually they're ok, haven't caused any issues with their actions and although their chatter does become repetitive it's not frequent enough to become really annoying.NB: This review is for the base game on disc!!. You can turn off the AI teammates if you download the huge online updates.Now the game itself is set in Gorgeously rendered large open world with night/day cycle, various environments with weather effects, rain, thunderstorms with lightning.For me the Vehicles control ok, certainly not as bad as some reviewers make out ,

14.3.2017

The shooting is good (third person over the shoulder and first person - aim down sights), the vehicles are a bit more hit and miss, but they are still fun to drive, ride or fly.The graphics and world detail are impressive, and the open world is immersive and amazingly varied considering it's size and the obvious constraints the developer must have been under to create this. There have been half a dozen glitches during my (so far) thirty plus hours of play, but the ones I've seen have been lag or internet related and even then, they've not broken the game or stopped me playing.The single player experience is probably less fun. This game is obviously designed (and designed really well)

19.3.2017

Bought this game for my farther at his request. From the moment he pulled off the packaging he was excited like a 6 year old on christmas. He ran to his fishing chair, set it up 60cm away from the 42" TV and started playing. Although I say "started playing" He has a 3mb connection speed. So he decided to watch a bar go from one end of the screen to the other in the time it took to cook dinner, clean the house and drive to the shop and back. When i came home I was surprised to see he was finally on the game dressing his character like a 4 year old girl does with barbies. Although dressing barbies would be a lot quicker,

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands - Reviews

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