Post by Tig on Apr 11, 2017 23:25:28 GMT -5
I had waited until nightfall for a full tactical advantage, shooting out every other light overhead and moving from shadow to shadow. The compound was larger than most of the others and just getting across it to the objective was going to be a push, much more with everyone there wanting to kill me. There were scanner jammers in the area so my drone was ineffective, and powerful lights and taller buildings were blocking my view to get a full enemy count. I had called rebel spotters in the area to report on what they could see, but they couldn't report on everything and I knew there were still several heavily armed and armored guards that could turn a corner at any time. These weren't the typical rabble drug runners; they were trained soldiers with weapons on par with mine, and a deadly aim when using them. One of their patrols split rounding a building, and some of the solders were alone on a street out of sight of the others. I tagged them to be killed by my platoon on my signal, then targeted a sniper in a far tower. He was a long way off. I'd made longer shots with weaker scopes but if I missed here, the whole base would come down on top of us in no time. I squatted low on my raised position to avoid detection, waited for a clean target, raising the crosshairs to account for bullet drop yet opting for center mass, and exhaled slowly. The marked targets were about to leave the area where their death would be concealed. It was squeeze the trigger now or find another way.
It's back. Ghost Recon truly is back. After the embarrassment of pretty much anything after the original Ghost Recon and its expansions, someone at Ubisoft stood up and said "hey, maybe they want more tactical and less action hero". Yes, the movie goers still get their taste of over-the-top action, but the true lovers of tactical combat will finally get their thrills again in a Ghost Recon title. Gone are the linear maps, the lack of options on approach, and the melodrama. For the first time since 2001 I could approach from the north, south, or even high above. Terrain and vegetation are a factor once again, and bullets are freakin' deadly. Adding to the experience are a wide array of customizable weapons, expanding your style of play even further, gadgets and gear for a tactical edge without turning the game into science fiction, and airplanes, choppers of all sizes, motorcycles, Jeeps with miniguns, and an APC with cannons on top. Wildlands isn't just a sandbox, it's a playground complete with deadly rollercoasters.
Bolivia is almost perfectly rendered on your screen, right down to swaying trees, flowing grass, streams cutting paths through expansive mountains and draining into rivers below, dynamic weather and light cycles, and all of it producing hiding spaces, dark spots, and perfect tactical vantage points. Dotting the landscape are small villages, decaying ruins, busy cities and bustling military outposts. Everywhere you turn is a feast for the eyes, whether you're in emerald jungles or the incredibly drawn salt flats. The graphics and scenery are on par with GTA V and Skyrim with constant moments of breathtaking views. Characters are beautifully detailed with textures in their clothing and skin and their motions are natural and fluid.
All of this is just icing, of course, under a massive delicious combat cake. Wildlands brings you to Bolivia because a Mexican cartel called Santa Blanca has set up shop here, and some of their extracurricular activities beyond running the top cocaine business on the planet caused the death of US personnel at an embassy. The CIA brought in the Ghosts, formerly from US Army 1st Bat Delta Ops, but now operating under USSOCOM JSOC. That detail alone told me the developers played the first game and payed close attention to the lore of the series, rather than just throwing the words "special forces" all through the opening cut scenes. The protagonist and three supporting members of the platoon are all well acted and each have their own personality with a back story that can be pieced together in their conversations, anecdotes, and jokes told on long transits between missions. The worst character of the group is Karen Bowman, the CIA operator that is directing the operation to take down the cartel. I'd say she's the most overdramatic and unnecessary element of the story, but fortunately she doesn't slow things down. The cartel itself is a hydra, with a central bad guy surrounded by four branches of power, each branch with a boss, underboss, and surrounding 4-5 buchons. Each buchon runs a territory on the beautiful Bolivia map where you have to research the area for clues to the main missions, then execute each mission to close in the buchon, leading to a climax to apprehend or execute them. Doing this works your way up and across the hydra to the center of the cartel. Altogether, including smaller research missions, there are about 200 tasks to perform. The game is set up where you only have to do half, but I'm going for the whole enchilada... or saltena rather. Scattered through the dense jungles and deserts are special skill buffs, extra weapons and parts, and story lore and trivia to flesh out a gorgeous game world.
Despite the intricate structure of the cartel, it all boils down to scouting out an area, then executing bad guys. There is a consistent criticism that, for as large as the game is, it's all the same. This, I find, is more a matter of opinion rather than fact. True to every other game I play with combat, my style of play includes lots of crawling and long-range sniping. So yes, the entire map can play the same if I stick to that formula. Wildlands changes the structure of every single town, gas station, quarry, prison and mansion, then beds them into cliff sides, sticks them on islands or, the worst, drops them on an open plain or desert where everyone can see you coming unless you crawl. Long-range sniping with a silencer is certainly the best way to navigate each challenge without having it disintegrate into a massive firefight, but executing the objective as such requires tremendous amounts of patience, skill, and time. If you're bored with that or it's just not your style, you can go in guns blazing and chunking grenades and make the situation work all the same (unless you get turned into a stain on the grass). The entire game pattern, therefore, is investigate, scout, execute, but, to me, the variety is found in the angle of approach, how many targets I take out silently, and whether I'm concerned over a clean getaway. Case in point: one buchon's end mission was set at his three story mansion flanked by a steep cliff on one side and a mass of heavy armored troops in his courtyard. After sniping what troops I could without getting caught, I boarded my chopper, went high above the objective, and jumped out with a parachute. I landed on top of the mansion and entered through the roof while my platoon distracted the troops below.
Combat, whether stealthy or wide open, is wild and pulse pounding. Long shots are truly satisfying as you compensate for gravity and annoying things like rails and trees that block the shot to get that wonderful thud and watch the target drop. Eventually, however, bodies get spotted, a shot is heard, or, in my case, I miss. Then a cry goes out and, unless it is silenced immediately, everyone is alerted and bullets fill the air. It becomes an almost suffocating event as, even at regular difficulty, the AI is a dead shot. To keep the action flowing over previous games, one-shot kills on your character are almost non-existant, but the one shot is followed by five more, and those are the ones that finish you off. If you do go down due to injury, a team member has a short period of time to revive you and get you on your feet, but if you go down again or they just don't reach you, the mission ends and you respawn elsewhere. The AI will move and shoot, opting for flanking and high ground, and will barricade behind solid objects when pinned. Bullets and grenades fly and, if you take too long to get the situation under control, everyone's brother and cousin show up to the party, and they usually bring a helicopter with them. The lesson, then, is if open combat breaks out or it's what you prefer, you have to shoot fast, shoot straight, and you can't Rambo your way down the middle of the street. Cover, cover, and cover are your only way to success. Even better, plan, plot, and deploy to avoid open combat and move your way up the chain.
Bolivia is not perfect, however, as is to be expected with any game of this size. The bugs themselves are few but consistent, with sound flaws and enemies spawning right in front of you. What bugs me more are the physical elements of things that were introduced in the name of balance and graphics economy. Dead bodies disappear almost instantly if you are not near them, and the next enemies to cross their path don't always see the blood splatter and abandoned rifle, much less the fact that their friend is no longer there. I sniped three soldiers off a corner of a platform, one after another, because there was no body when the next one crossed. This is not always the case, however, as other times a successful long shot was foiled by a tailing companion alerting his friends of the deceased. I don't know why Ubi did this. With all the rendered grass and tree animations and moving NPC's, I don't see how removing a carcass was essential to managing memory space. Speaking of NPC's, the illusion of the living, breathing game world is quickly crushed on observing them for long periods of time. The wide variety of character models all react to a man with a gun walking past them and will run when shots ring out, but people will stand and party on a sidewalk in pouring rain, and continue to do so as an AI vehicle drives by and runs over one of their party. Many of them all say the same three things and the enemy AI sing the same annoying tune over and over. This isn't GTA V, much less Skyrim, where there is are an array of responses from people on the street, and, like the gorgeous rainforest, they're there strictly as a tactical element (killing more than 2 on a mission ends it in failure). Overall, there is very little sense of impact on this world or its people. Blowing up missile emplacements will only cause them to respawn later, and an enemy airbase will refill with fresh troops every time you clean it out. I realize you're here for the cartel, not to save Bolivia, but if you're going to make a sandbox with so much detail, you need to let the player see their progress in the sand.
These are all minor flaws in an experience that is more fluid and certainly more entertaining than any previous tactical shooter, including the clunky Arma series. Go where you want, work any mission in any order, and approach it from any angle. Run, drive, fly, or swim, getting there is half the fun. The rest is blowing it all up, or sneaking away quietly. I've logged in over 50 hours in this game, faster than I did in Skyrim, and I've had long bouts of pulse-lowering sniping followed by harrowing, blazing gun battles that involved a chopper, three Jeeps, and a mountain of ammo. This game is a blast, literally.
It's back. Ghost Recon truly is back. After the embarrassment of pretty much anything after the original Ghost Recon and its expansions, someone at Ubisoft stood up and said "hey, maybe they want more tactical and less action hero". Yes, the movie goers still get their taste of over-the-top action, but the true lovers of tactical combat will finally get their thrills again in a Ghost Recon title. Gone are the linear maps, the lack of options on approach, and the melodrama. For the first time since 2001 I could approach from the north, south, or even high above. Terrain and vegetation are a factor once again, and bullets are freakin' deadly. Adding to the experience are a wide array of customizable weapons, expanding your style of play even further, gadgets and gear for a tactical edge without turning the game into science fiction, and airplanes, choppers of all sizes, motorcycles, Jeeps with miniguns, and an APC with cannons on top. Wildlands isn't just a sandbox, it's a playground complete with deadly rollercoasters.
Bolivia is almost perfectly rendered on your screen, right down to swaying trees, flowing grass, streams cutting paths through expansive mountains and draining into rivers below, dynamic weather and light cycles, and all of it producing hiding spaces, dark spots, and perfect tactical vantage points. Dotting the landscape are small villages, decaying ruins, busy cities and bustling military outposts. Everywhere you turn is a feast for the eyes, whether you're in emerald jungles or the incredibly drawn salt flats. The graphics and scenery are on par with GTA V and Skyrim with constant moments of breathtaking views. Characters are beautifully detailed with textures in their clothing and skin and their motions are natural and fluid.
All of this is just icing, of course, under a massive delicious combat cake. Wildlands brings you to Bolivia because a Mexican cartel called Santa Blanca has set up shop here, and some of their extracurricular activities beyond running the top cocaine business on the planet caused the death of US personnel at an embassy. The CIA brought in the Ghosts, formerly from US Army 1st Bat Delta Ops, but now operating under USSOCOM JSOC. That detail alone told me the developers played the first game and payed close attention to the lore of the series, rather than just throwing the words "special forces" all through the opening cut scenes. The protagonist and three supporting members of the platoon are all well acted and each have their own personality with a back story that can be pieced together in their conversations, anecdotes, and jokes told on long transits between missions. The worst character of the group is Karen Bowman, the CIA operator that is directing the operation to take down the cartel. I'd say she's the most overdramatic and unnecessary element of the story, but fortunately she doesn't slow things down. The cartel itself is a hydra, with a central bad guy surrounded by four branches of power, each branch with a boss, underboss, and surrounding 4-5 buchons. Each buchon runs a territory on the beautiful Bolivia map where you have to research the area for clues to the main missions, then execute each mission to close in the buchon, leading to a climax to apprehend or execute them. Doing this works your way up and across the hydra to the center of the cartel. Altogether, including smaller research missions, there are about 200 tasks to perform. The game is set up where you only have to do half, but I'm going for the whole enchilada... or saltena rather. Scattered through the dense jungles and deserts are special skill buffs, extra weapons and parts, and story lore and trivia to flesh out a gorgeous game world.
Despite the intricate structure of the cartel, it all boils down to scouting out an area, then executing bad guys. There is a consistent criticism that, for as large as the game is, it's all the same. This, I find, is more a matter of opinion rather than fact. True to every other game I play with combat, my style of play includes lots of crawling and long-range sniping. So yes, the entire map can play the same if I stick to that formula. Wildlands changes the structure of every single town, gas station, quarry, prison and mansion, then beds them into cliff sides, sticks them on islands or, the worst, drops them on an open plain or desert where everyone can see you coming unless you crawl. Long-range sniping with a silencer is certainly the best way to navigate each challenge without having it disintegrate into a massive firefight, but executing the objective as such requires tremendous amounts of patience, skill, and time. If you're bored with that or it's just not your style, you can go in guns blazing and chunking grenades and make the situation work all the same (unless you get turned into a stain on the grass). The entire game pattern, therefore, is investigate, scout, execute, but, to me, the variety is found in the angle of approach, how many targets I take out silently, and whether I'm concerned over a clean getaway. Case in point: one buchon's end mission was set at his three story mansion flanked by a steep cliff on one side and a mass of heavy armored troops in his courtyard. After sniping what troops I could without getting caught, I boarded my chopper, went high above the objective, and jumped out with a parachute. I landed on top of the mansion and entered through the roof while my platoon distracted the troops below.
Combat, whether stealthy or wide open, is wild and pulse pounding. Long shots are truly satisfying as you compensate for gravity and annoying things like rails and trees that block the shot to get that wonderful thud and watch the target drop. Eventually, however, bodies get spotted, a shot is heard, or, in my case, I miss. Then a cry goes out and, unless it is silenced immediately, everyone is alerted and bullets fill the air. It becomes an almost suffocating event as, even at regular difficulty, the AI is a dead shot. To keep the action flowing over previous games, one-shot kills on your character are almost non-existant, but the one shot is followed by five more, and those are the ones that finish you off. If you do go down due to injury, a team member has a short period of time to revive you and get you on your feet, but if you go down again or they just don't reach you, the mission ends and you respawn elsewhere. The AI will move and shoot, opting for flanking and high ground, and will barricade behind solid objects when pinned. Bullets and grenades fly and, if you take too long to get the situation under control, everyone's brother and cousin show up to the party, and they usually bring a helicopter with them. The lesson, then, is if open combat breaks out or it's what you prefer, you have to shoot fast, shoot straight, and you can't Rambo your way down the middle of the street. Cover, cover, and cover are your only way to success. Even better, plan, plot, and deploy to avoid open combat and move your way up the chain.
Bolivia is not perfect, however, as is to be expected with any game of this size. The bugs themselves are few but consistent, with sound flaws and enemies spawning right in front of you. What bugs me more are the physical elements of things that were introduced in the name of balance and graphics economy. Dead bodies disappear almost instantly if you are not near them, and the next enemies to cross their path don't always see the blood splatter and abandoned rifle, much less the fact that their friend is no longer there. I sniped three soldiers off a corner of a platform, one after another, because there was no body when the next one crossed. This is not always the case, however, as other times a successful long shot was foiled by a tailing companion alerting his friends of the deceased. I don't know why Ubi did this. With all the rendered grass and tree animations and moving NPC's, I don't see how removing a carcass was essential to managing memory space. Speaking of NPC's, the illusion of the living, breathing game world is quickly crushed on observing them for long periods of time. The wide variety of character models all react to a man with a gun walking past them and will run when shots ring out, but people will stand and party on a sidewalk in pouring rain, and continue to do so as an AI vehicle drives by and runs over one of their party. Many of them all say the same three things and the enemy AI sing the same annoying tune over and over. This isn't GTA V, much less Skyrim, where there is are an array of responses from people on the street, and, like the gorgeous rainforest, they're there strictly as a tactical element (killing more than 2 on a mission ends it in failure). Overall, there is very little sense of impact on this world or its people. Blowing up missile emplacements will only cause them to respawn later, and an enemy airbase will refill with fresh troops every time you clean it out. I realize you're here for the cartel, not to save Bolivia, but if you're going to make a sandbox with so much detail, you need to let the player see their progress in the sand.
These are all minor flaws in an experience that is more fluid and certainly more entertaining than any previous tactical shooter, including the clunky Arma series. Go where you want, work any mission in any order, and approach it from any angle. Run, drive, fly, or swim, getting there is half the fun. The rest is blowing it all up, or sneaking away quietly. I've logged in over 50 hours in this game, faster than I did in Skyrim, and I've had long bouts of pulse-lowering sniping followed by harrowing, blazing gun battles that involved a chopper, three Jeeps, and a mountain of ammo. This game is a blast, literally.
