Last weekend Ubisoft ran a closed beta for their upcoming open world tactical third-person shooter Ghost Recon Wildlands. We took the liberty of spending our entire weekend here at CGN jumping out of Helicopters, shooting cartel members in the face, and running each other over.
Wildlands is Ubisoft’s first military shooter set in a massive and responsive open-world. The story takes place in Bolivia, which has become the largest cocaine producer in the world due to the vicious Santa Blanca drug cartel who has turned the country into a narco-state, leading to fear, injustice, and violence. You play as Elite Covert U.S. operatives known as Ghosts, that have been sent behind enemy lines to wreak havoc and break alliances between the cartel and the corrupted government.
Customization
The customization for Wildlands is probably one of the better ones we’ve seen from a Tom Clancy’s, even a Ubisoft game that has a customization feature. The beta featured over 100+ customization options combined from; face, gender, hair, hat, top, tattoos, trousers, shoes, and more than a billion possible combinations allowing you to create your own unique character. Some of the more notable options were the clothing & camouflages which really allowed players to really be diverse.
Since there are no classes players can freely pick and choose what weapons they want, adjusting their playstyle at any given time. The gunsmith gives players the option to customize their arsenal from a wide variety of attachments and paint jobs. The game also offers a wide category of weapons, including Assault rifles, Sniper Rifles, Light machine guns, Submachine guns, Shotguns, and Handguns. The player loadout out is pretty standard for a Ghost Recon game allowing players to take two Primary weapons, a secondary, and projectiles.
Co-op
This is where the real fun begins! Wildlands hit the mark on co-op and here’s why. You can play the entire game solo or with up to three friends, and from our experience with the beta, “I think the pilot just bailed…. LMAO” co-op is where it’s at.
One of the main questions coming into the beta for us was. “open world, does that mean we have to stick together, is this going to be another Division?” The answer is no to both. You can travel as far away from your friends as you see fit. However, it can be quite a challenge to handle missions alone if the difficulty is amped up to the max. We recommend the “Ghost” setting only if you’re the patient type.
If you’re the solo type of player, you’re given a team of three AI-controlled “Ghost” who you can give orders to via a radial menu like in past Ghost Recon games.
THE WORLD
While the beta sectioned players off into 1 enclosed region out of 21 regions in total. the size of this region was easily comparable to the Division’s full game map. I’ll say the full map for this game is going to be quite the journey. It’s a good thing they have a fast travel feature.
Along with map size is all the GOODIES! That’s right, collectibles. Tossed into and scattered across the world are weapons, attachments, skill points, and more each posing a challenge for players to collect and yes that does mean exotics.
The amount of content in the beta was perfect for its length and it only leaves us with questions as to how much will be thrown into the full map.
Downright fun
We enjoyed playing it. Just based on the beta we think it’ll provide the sort of gameplay experience that a lot of us were hoping for from The Division. It’s a standard Ghost recon game, so don’t worry 5 shots to the head with a Sniper rifle will be more than enough and while it’s not perfect we here at CGN believe it will hold value for some time in the shooting category.
About the Author
Ervin Broxton
Student - Spring 2017
