Graphical polish and production values are often used as excuses to not completely dismiss a game. If a game meets a certain threshold of quality, it’s often given a pass. The buck should stop with Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint – a miserable, repetitious chore of a game that offers no redeeming qualities outside of its expensive polish, and acts as an indictment of not only its publisher, but of AAA game design as well.
Ostensibly a sequel to 2017’s stellar Wildlands, Breakpoint practically ignores that game despite featuring the same core cast and protagonist. Players are dropped into Auroa – a large fictitious country purchased by Elon Musk-adjacent Jace Skell. This country is on the bleeding edge of technology, decked out with fancy modern architecture, self-contained biomes, and oh yes: drones. Lots and lots of drones. The game kicks off with protagonist, Nomad, getting attacked by drones and crashing into Auroa, soon discovering that the landmass has been seized by former Ghost operative, Cole Walker. Thus begins a story of revenge, espionage, and broken brotherhood.
Or it should. Instead, what we get is a hokey mess.
Narrative SNAFU
Breakpoint’s narrative is not only a massive step down from the rich, nuanced espionage yarn of Wildlands, but one of the most abysmal narratives in a game this year. It’s a meaningless jumble of broad stereotypes and long-winded exposition, with absolutely no substance. Jon Bernthal turns in a suitably menacing performance as Walker, but the character is wasted on a story populated by one-note archetypes, telegraphed twists, and technobabble nonsense. The political urgency and relevance found in the previous game has been gutted and replaced with a generic techno-thriller befitting of an early January movie release.
This game also attempts to inject witty banter into its dialogue, and not in the wry, biting way that Wildlands so deftly utilized. This game throws realism out the window in favor of Joss Whedon-esque dialogue that only serves to make it feel like every other game on the market, and completely smears the Clancy brand in the mud. Tom Clancy was not a great human being, full-stop, but his writing always managed to toe the line between bitter satire and po-faced, often bleak espionage and intrigue. Wildlands understood that, and Breakpoint seemingly doesn’t know what franchise they’re working with.
Mechanical Misfire
Things aren’t much better on the gameplay front. Breakpoint’s basic gunplay and movement mechanics are functional, as are its vehicle controls. The gunplay, in fact, is a surefire improvement over the previous game and feels snappy and responsive.
The problem, though, is that the solid mechanics are betrayed by a dull mission structure, a repetitious map, and severe weapon imbalance. Missions run together, and it soon feels like the player is being tasked with the same thing across several hours as they’re drip-fed the backwash of the flat Diet Rite of a narrative. It doesn’t help that missions are stretched out across the game’s huge map, which looks functionally identical outside of some different tree varieties and a snowy mountain range. This holds doubly true for the buildings, which are largely recycled, as I would find myself entering buildings in two different areas of the map that had identical floor plans.
During these missions, I was also forced to use guns I didn’t want to because they were objectively better than entire ranges of weaponry. Despite my class being focused on assault rifles and shotguns, the absolute abysmal state of the shotguns in Breakpoint forced me to use a sniper. That’s when it became clear that snipers will take out every single enemy, just about, in one shot – regardless of distance or whether you’re aiming over the shoulder or using the scope. This makes collecting other weapons, like shotguns, SMGs, or LMGs, feel totally meaningless. One class is blatantly better than most others, so why not just use that?
What players are left with, then, is a game with a map that runs together, is stretched too far apart, and is patched together by gunfights with an increasingly homogenized arsenal. Along with totally unnecessary loot game mechanics thrown into the mix, Breakpoint starts to feel less like a game and more like a test of how much players can repeat the same task before they get sick of it.
Winning The War (By Paying)
Perhaps that’s the intent, however. Breakpoint does have Borderlands-esque loot mechanics, down to color-coded weapon rarities and unique perks plastered onto the same guns. It’s something built on repetition – meant to be played ad nauseum, not explored and mastered. Ubisoft has made a content delivery system, not a game.
Nowhere is this clearer than the game’s monetization options. As I broke down yesterday, everything can be purchased. Guns, armor, vehicles, skins, attachments, etc. Worse yet, there seem to be plans to monetize skill tree upgrades, meaning that you’ll be able to siphon money into getting the best perks in the game. If this were a single-player only game, that’d be fine. But it’s not. Ghost War is a centerpiece PvP mode, and progress is persistent across the single-player and multiplayer component. This means every advantage you pay for gets carried into a mode where you’re pitted against other players.
In no way is this acceptable. A sixty-dollar game offering these microtransactions is already bad enough, let alone allowing people to purchase competitive advantages. It’s shameful, greedy, and downright gross.
Quality Gone AWOL
What clenches it all is that Ghost Recon Breakpoint isn’t original in any way, shape, or form. Its exploration system is cribbed from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, its raid mechanics taken from The Division 2, and its loot elements lifted from practically every AAA game at this point. There’s nothing original here, unlike Wildlands, which felt like a breath of fresh air for a stagnating publisher. A very convincing argument could be made for this game’s existence being devoid of meaning. Who is it for? What purpose does it serve? I can’t answer that question.
What I can say is that Breakpoint doesn’t deserve your time or money. Despite its graphical polish (which is to say nothing of the game’s innumerous physics glitches,) Jon Bernthal’s stellar acting, and some above-par gunplay, the package is a mechanical mess tied up in an awful narrative, a snore-inducing slog of a map, unoriginal progression systems, and the most scummy monetization options in recent memory.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a waste of time and resources, and one of the biggest disappointments of 2019.
At least the Photo Mode is nice...?
1.5 Out Of 5 Stars
A PC code for Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint was provided by the publisher. The game is available now for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint sees you play as Nomad, a colonel in the Special Forces. A tactical shooter, you must navigate the world of Aurora, taking down targets and ultimately a major military threat.