Ghost Recon Wildlands is exactly the game that Ubisoft needed to redeem itself with after the gutting disappointment known as Watch Dogs 2. I mean that entirely. I'm not gonna lie, when it came down to either this or Horizon Zero Dawn (which I might get at some point in the foreseeable future), I decided to pick this up first. Mostly because I wanted it to be Ubisoft's redemption from Watch Dogs 2. Needless to say, they succeeded.
To start, I'm gonna go over the basics. Ghost Recon Wildlands is a tactical team based third-person shooter set in an open world environment. Now I know what some of you might be saying to yourselves right now, "oh it's The Division all over again". I promise you, it's not. Sure, there are some apparent similarities, but given how they were presumably being developed/planned at the same time and were created by the same company, it's bound to happen. Ghost Recon Wildlands is now a contemporary shooter instead of the more sci-fi futuristic shooters that the Ghost Recon series has been going in. And I think going back in time a bit was a pretty good idea here as it serves for a breathe of fresh air and diversity in the current market that is kinda saturated with sci-fi shooters at the moment.
Before the game begins, you are taken to character creation. While I still yearn for the day a shooting game will allow me to give my character long hair (especially judging how long my hair has grown out lately), I love the customisation options Wildlands leaves me with here. My character actually does look very similar to me if I was a narc XD. You're allowed up to teams of four to embark on missions, but it is still possible to play alone (just expect lots of frustration). You're given different options for entering missions, such as driving there or parachuting from a whirlybird (which is my personal favourite). I would say you can also walk there, but I know you won't, hehe.
The missions revolve around stopping a Bolivian drug cartel called Santa Blanca. They're a bit generic if I could be honest, and are outfitted just as you'd expect them to be. They are however very fun to fight. Upon completing missions, you can spend points and cash earned on weapons and armour. Similar to The Division, the enemies will have armour ratings and damage counters when you attack them, and can be fought at complete random whilst traversing the overworld. Speaking of that, the overworld in this game is immense. If I were you, I'd seriously spend my first moments of free time during the game just admiring the atmosphere this game gives you. The graphics are phenomenal like you'd expect from Ubisoft (excluding Watch Dogs 2). Not only is the world beautiful, but it's actually designed like a wilderness, with salt flats, woodlands, and canyons. There's no limit to the things you can do. While the missions can get repetitive, they're a hell of a lot of fun and they never feel like a waste of time.
Now let's talk about the combat. Wildlands does not utilise a duck and cover technique (PRAISE FUCKING JESUS) and that makes sense since there's not many places to take cover behind whilst in the wilderness, ya know unless you just so happen to be stranded in the Forest of Bulletproof Materials. In that respect, Wildlands encourages you to be more risky and upfront with your playing style, a more fight or flight approach instead of just getting behind a dumpster and mashing R2 at an enemy you're barely fixated on. The controls are also very quick to get used to and easy to remember, so you won't have to worry about fidgeting when you start out like you would with any other game.
If I had to give some criticism to this game, it'd be the vehicle controls. Driving in this game isn't very fun, unfortunately. I don't mean just the terrain, I mean with maneuvering. You may find yourself nearly breaking your fingers just trying to do something as simple as shoot down a machine gun nest. It's kinda a problem when driving and spraying isn't even an option in a game where that'd be massive amounts of awesomeness. The helicopter controls? They've got sins to answer for too. Oh what's that? You want to land properly? Why, that's such a ridiculous request. Next you'll be telling me that you wanna be rushing behind road guard after road guard whilst popping in and out of combat to avoid dying in 3 hits. And we'd never do that at all (ok, I think that's enough shitting on Watch Dogs 2 for one blog post wouldn't you say?). The game, expectedly enough, had a plethora of glitches and bugs upon release day and the moments thereafter, but they were soon patched up for the most part and it runs fairly decently now.
I have to be honest, this was the first Ghost Recon game I played since Future Soldier, and I'm glad I jumped back to the series with this installment. I bought it thinking it'd be just The Division with Ghost Recon spray painted on it and ended up realising it's more an indirect sequel to The Division more than anything else. The graphics, the gameplay, and the story all come together to make a B+ game. Seriously, pick this up first chance you get. You'll enjoy it, I guarantee you.
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