Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (2017) - Game Review
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands was a blast of a game. I picked this one up as soon as it came out, and played it quite often. Just tonight I finished off the main story and wanted to put down some thoughts on the game. I am doing this while listing to the ending credits.
To finish up this review, this game was a blast. Whether I was playing with my buddies or just my good old AI friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the exploring, casing, methodically taking out enemies from the shadows, and taking down drug lords. I am looking forward to more story content in the future, and will definitely buy it if more comes out.
Happy Game Nights!
What I loved about Wildlands was the ease of playing; either by myself with my AI squad, or with my Xbox Live buddies. It was essentially drop-in/drop-out gameplay. Most of my friends finished the story a while ago, but as you may know, I take my time with games and try to get the most out of it; searching for every hidden item, skill up, and accessory.
In Wildlands you take the role of one of four special forces soldiers sent to Bolivia to take down the drug circle one mob boss at a time. When you zoom out on the map, you can see them all.
The other three soldiers are played by AI, or you can have 1-3 of your buddies instead. Those spots can also be filled in via matchmaking.
I found the team play to be super smooth. As I said, it has drop-in and drop-out co-operative play. If your buddy wants to come help you out, poof, he's in your game instead of your AI. If a little later he has to log off for a while, poof, your AI teammates come back in and you can continue your current mission. There is no need to load a special online session or realm to make any of this possible.
The co-operative play is awesome. Investigating a base, determining the best paths to infiltrate, and then working together to execute the plan. Watching each other's back can be a blast. Having one team member cover the rest from an elevated point is helpful as well.
This all takes place in a huge world, bigger than any game I have ever played before. This is Bolivia in all its HD glory. I am playing this game on the Xbox One X with a 4k TV, and I can say that it's 4k and HDR content truly are a delight. When I travel and play with my Xbox One S instead, I really miss the fidelity.
Whether you are on a mission or just exploring, almost every task has multiple options on how to proceed. Want to sneak into that small base you just rolled up on? You can come in the front with an APC with a machine gun on top, you can create a diversion pulling the guards out of place and take them out one by one, or you can sneak in through a side fence that has a weakness at the bottom. Honestly, there are so many choices I won't even try to exhaust them all.
Onto the collections; if you are one of those gamers that love collecting items all throughout the map (like me), then this game is for YOU! There are guns, accessories, Intel, skill points, files, bonus medals, and legends. As you get close to any of these items, they will show up on the map. If you want to make sure you find all the items in the game, you want to do the following two things:
The leveling mechanic is interesting in this game. As you accomplish actions such as exploring, locating enemies, and killing them you gain experience. When you get enough experience you increase in level and acquire some skill points. You can also find skill points around the map that can just be picked up.
There are also four types of resources in the game; Fuel, Food, Medical, and Communications. You gain some of these on certain missions, but you also will find them in boxes, helicopters, and planes throughout the game.
In order to unlock a new skill in the game, you have to spend your skill points and resources. The better skills require more skill points and resources and also have a level requirement. What is so fun about these skills is how you can specialize to make yourself stand out from your buddies. I usually went for more drone and stealth skills, while another teammate would go after more ammo and survivability. Someone else may go after mines and C4. This really makes it fun to cooperate and get a bit of all the skills that can make a good party. Eventually, when you have finished the entire game and picked up all the hidden skill points, you can unlock every skill on the tree.
Talking about the tactical play again for a bit, although I did enjoy it a lot, I found that for me the enemies became predictable. In addition, some missions started out as tactical stealth, but then after a mistake it turned into an all-out gunfight. This was fine for a while, but I enjoy the stealth and tactical play more. I found that the proper incentive to force the play into the tactical was to turn up difficulty all the way. Run and gun is literally impossible in Tier One mode with the difficulty maxed. You have to stay hidden. If you are spotted you had best get out of dodge quickly, and then make your next infiltration attempt from another angle.
Now for some fun: as with most games, there were several bugs I ran into like the occasional "fall through the world". One of the funniest glitches I encountered left me laughing so hard I was almost crying. While riding a motorcycle, I hit several large jumps in a row. On the third, I flew off the motorcycle like Superman and continued flying for half a mile... dying upon impact.
Another hilarious part of the game is the random conversations between your AI teammates. They tell jokes, banter about the mission, or just talk about random stuff. I can't even count the number of times I heard a marine or seal joke that left me rolling on the floor. They sure did a great job on this character writing.
There was also the time I requested a vehicle to be dropped off. It spawned on the side of a hill and then tumbled till it landed upside down at the base.
The other three soldiers are played by AI, or you can have 1-3 of your buddies instead. Those spots can also be filled in via matchmaking.
The co-operative play is awesome. Investigating a base, determining the best paths to infiltrate, and then working together to execute the plan. Watching each other's back can be a blast. Having one team member cover the rest from an elevated point is helpful as well.
This all takes place in a huge world, bigger than any game I have ever played before. This is Bolivia in all its HD glory. I am playing this game on the Xbox One X with a 4k TV, and I can say that it's 4k and HDR content truly are a delight. When I travel and play with my Xbox One S instead, I really miss the fidelity.
Whether you are on a mission or just exploring, almost every task has multiple options on how to proceed. Want to sneak into that small base you just rolled up on? You can come in the front with an APC with a machine gun on top, you can create a diversion pulling the guards out of place and take them out one by one, or you can sneak in through a side fence that has a weakness at the bottom. Honestly, there are so many choices I won't even try to exhaust them all.
Onto the collections; if you are one of those gamers that love collecting items all throughout the map (like me), then this game is for YOU! There are guns, accessories, Intel, skill points, files, bonus medals, and legends. As you get close to any of these items, they will show up on the map. If you want to make sure you find all the items in the game, you want to do the following two things:
- Explore every question mark (?) on the map. Exploring these areas will show any hidden items nearby.
- Locate and explore every intel indicator on the map (denoted by an exclamation mark "!"). These will provide all the collectible locations besides those that are found via exploring the question marks.
The leveling mechanic is interesting in this game. As you accomplish actions such as exploring, locating enemies, and killing them you gain experience. When you get enough experience you increase in level and acquire some skill points. You can also find skill points around the map that can just be picked up.
There are also four types of resources in the game; Fuel, Food, Medical, and Communications. You gain some of these on certain missions, but you also will find them in boxes, helicopters, and planes throughout the game.
In order to unlock a new skill in the game, you have to spend your skill points and resources. The better skills require more skill points and resources and also have a level requirement. What is so fun about these skills is how you can specialize to make yourself stand out from your buddies. I usually went for more drone and stealth skills, while another teammate would go after more ammo and survivability. Someone else may go after mines and C4. This really makes it fun to cooperate and get a bit of all the skills that can make a good party. Eventually, when you have finished the entire game and picked up all the hidden skill points, you can unlock every skill on the tree.
Talking about the tactical play again for a bit, although I did enjoy it a lot, I found that for me the enemies became predictable. In addition, some missions started out as tactical stealth, but then after a mistake it turned into an all-out gunfight. This was fine for a while, but I enjoy the stealth and tactical play more. I found that the proper incentive to force the play into the tactical was to turn up difficulty all the way. Run and gun is literally impossible in Tier One mode with the difficulty maxed. You have to stay hidden. If you are spotted you had best get out of dodge quickly, and then make your next infiltration attempt from another angle.
Now for some fun: as with most games, there were several bugs I ran into like the occasional "fall through the world". One of the funniest glitches I encountered left me laughing so hard I was almost crying. While riding a motorcycle, I hit several large jumps in a row. On the third, I flew off the motorcycle like Superman and continued flying for half a mile... dying upon impact.
Another hilarious part of the game is the random conversations between your AI teammates. They tell jokes, banter about the mission, or just talk about random stuff. I can't even count the number of times I heard a marine or seal joke that left me rolling on the floor. They sure did a great job on this character writing.There was also the time I requested a vehicle to be dropped off. It spawned on the side of a hill and then tumbled till it landed upside down at the base.
To finish up this review, this game was a blast. Whether I was playing with my buddies or just my good old AI friends, I thoroughly enjoyed the exploring, casing, methodically taking out enemies from the shadows, and taking down drug lords. I am looking forward to more story content in the future, and will definitely buy it if more comes out.
Happy Game Nights!
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