We're intrigued by Ghost Recon: Breakpoint. Ubisoft's upcoming third-person tactical shooter is more The Division 2 than its predecessor Ghost Recon: Wildlands, and it creates an experience that feels a lot like a Game as a Service would but in a setting that is more than happy to accommodate just the single player. This fact took us off-guard earlier this month when we checked out the game's closed beta, but we're back a handful of weeks later ready to dive into the open beta and understand what really makes this sequel tick.
Content-wise, this offering is very, very similar to what was on offer during the title's closed beta. You can progress the story a little bit further with a couple of extra missions and there are two further regions to explore, but with the game's early access launch just a few days away now, we're saving those quests for the final version. The main reason we chose to download the open beta was to see how the game runs after a bit more polish and tweaking, and the results were obvious the moment we touched down on the island of Auroa.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is running a lot better on PlayStation 4. You'll notice it immediately - movement and traversal feel smoother by a considerable amount while lining up headshots is a breeze as aiming down sights becomes second nature. In contrast to what felt like a slightly clunky set of controls a few weeks back, it just goes to show how much of a difference a quick bit of polish, or a newer build can have.
Complementing that is a smooth framerate throughout which makes for an enjoyable playing experience. The laggy nature of the game's open world seems to have all but disappeared and in its place, a reliable 30 frames per second that allow you to perform tactical intrusions of buildings and enemy strongholds with style and flair. However, it's not perfect.
Ghost Recon: Breakpoint ships with a PvP mode named Ghost War. Squads of four take on each other across various maps in an Elimination mode that feels about as tactical as a console-based shooter is ever going to get. It's an intense, gritty, tactical offering that we were genuinely enjoying until we encountered a handful of technical issues.
It felt like a player would randomly disconnect at the end of every round without fail, the game crashed at one point and forced us back to the PS4 dashboard, and enemy character models would become fixed into position upon death which led teammates to think they were still alive and promptly give away their position after shooting at them. We reckon it's going to be a captivating, excellent mode when the game rolls around in just a few days, but these problems need to be ironed out prior to launch.
Ubisoft's latest behemoth of a release is most definitely getting there. If its multiplayer package can be stripped of flaws, then Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is shaping up to be one of the most interesting titles of 2019. That is, if the Game as a Service model and all of its potential trappings appeals to you. We know we're on board at the very least.
Do you plan on checking out Ghost Recon: Breakpoint's open beta this weekend? Plan your attack in the comments below.
Comments 8
Agreed, it does feel better to control than the closed beta and even the vehicle sounds have improved slightly. Unfortunately, I still can't play this for more than an hour without the tedium setting in.
i tried it, performance wise it was ok, and it looks pretty good. but three hours in and I'm already bored off my a*se. it's ubisoft's tedious formula that just sucks the fun out of practically everything they publish these days.
To me it's just GR:Wildlands re-skinned, with a new "roll in the mud" ability. Very repetitive, too much going on at once. I'll grab it on sale.
I'm looking forward to it and I really enjoyed Wildlands but it will no doubt be similar to Ubi's other releases, where I can't play it for more than several days before the tedium sets in and I have to turn to another game for a few weeks. I mean Wildlands took me 11 months to complete and even a year after release I'm still slowly working my way through AC Odyssey. It doesn't generally take away from how much I enjoy the games though, it just helps them last longer.
@LemonHaze - i haven't played odyssey. on this, i chose the graphical fidelity option rather than the resolution option. it looks pretty good, but not the best thing i've seen on PS4.
the UI/menus are horrific. i spent about 20 minutes in the customise controls section trying to change aim/shoot to R1/L1 before giving up because it kept complaining about something or other. in the end i had to re-map the buttons in the console settings.
I played a bit more and managed to get deep into one the side missions. I was quite engage stealthily taking down an old anti-aircraft base, that is until the crosshairs on all my weapons mysteriously disappeared.
i had a smooth sailing from the start and no problems. but i am not gonna buy this game, reason for this is simple, it require and always online connection. when they shutdown the servers you can not play this game anymore. gr:wildlands was working fine as it was and they should have made gr:breakpoint work the same too. because gr:wildlands can be played offline and online, players have a choice, and that is how you do it. not force always online down players throat, then ask 60 dollars for it and have in tiny text on the tos that they can shutdown the servers when ever they want. no thanks, you can keep your game ubisoft, thanks for the beta and bye!
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