There is nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, and no one to call for air support or extraction on the archipelago land of Aurora for the Ghosts squad. Our review of Ghost Recon Breakpoint will look into the story-line and game-play in the game.
Fighting Your Own Brothers-In Arms…
In unknown territory among an unknown enemy in the year 2025, Ghost Recon Breakpoint starts with the Ghost squad being reactivated into Operation Greenstone as a part of investigating the circumstances behind the sinking of the USS Seay and uncovering why the archipelago of Aurora has “gone dark.”
Considering the circumstances of the operation, it is not considered a typical social call…Instead the operation is more than what is being let on as the Ghosts are ambushed by “a pack of Wolves” who were once the same brothers-in-arms that once fought alongside you as a member of the Ghost squad in fighting for what was right to defending against all enemies foreign and domestic on the battlefield.
The Wolves, working under the PMC banner with Sentinel, strictly impose martial law and a dominant authority in striking fear of the innocent civilians of Aurora to forcing everybody in engineering technology to be used against the people who built it and preventing anybody from entering or leaving the islands.
Speaking of dominance, the Wolves use the numbers in futuristic technology developed by Skell Technology in drones to any automation ground-to-air defense systems to bring on a whole new line of terrorism to advance the warfare that can one-up another terrorist organization while potentially challenging a major country and army like the United States into going to war.
Besides dealing with the hurtful facts of seeing your own brothers going “rogue,” every Ghost is tasked with restoring peace to all of the Homesteaders and the Outcasts stationed all around Aurora while keeping your word in protecting all from any and all harm from being done further.
Watch Your Own Back – Ghost Recon Breakpoint Gameplay
Unlike the game-play found in Ghost Recon: Wildlands, Ghost Recon Breakpoint gives you as a member of the Ghost squad to take down the Wolves and Sentinel alone or the typical way of having an online partner to play with rather than before where you would have an AI squad to assist and support you…just remember if playing Breakpoint solo there will be nobody to call to if needing to be revived when downed.
On a general note of the game-play in Breakpoint, there is more than just watching out for all Wolve’s patrols around Aurora and avoiding them. There is also the worry of all automated defense systems not just SAM sites…these include any Murmur aerial drone swarms and Behemoth sites that are armed drones that patrol around certain wild spots.
Pictured is an Azrael Drone that performs aerial recon and search-and-destroy operations around the whole archipelago of Aurora
Another automated threat to watch out and “listen” for around Aurora is the Azrael recon drones that patrol throughout the whole islands to help perform “search-and-destroy” operations for the Wolves by tracking the Ghosts movements and reporting the locations back to the Stola and Andras drones as well as any Wolves forces to track you down and kill you in your tracks before you have time to escape elsewhere…so it would be smart to take cover when realizing the Azrael drones are incoming on your position.
Exploring around Aurora from every Sentinel outpost to every sector site of the Skell corporation, there is always the opportunity to finding weapon blueprints and claiming skill points from cases found within these sites…some are easier to get to while some you would have to blast or stealth your way through some enemies just to claim these “prizes.”
On exploring Aurora, a majority of the side missions and faction missions can only be uncovered by just exploring through each providence to finding these missions while some of these missions can be found while working on a campaign mission or talking to any of the homesteaders/outcasts at any of the major hideout bases.
Sync Shot Drones
In addition to the differences from Wildlands previously, the “sync shot” feature in Breakpoint is much different where each player would have the opportunity to equip sync shot drones to mark and execute 3 enemies at a time…funny thing is the enemy AI is too dumb to hear these sync drones following close above their heads.
Updated Cover System
In addition, the cover system in the game has the option for Nomad to go into “adaptive camo” mode where you would use the environment to take cover whether it’s crouched down in the brush or prone down in the mud…you’ll know you’re hidden when the screen fades to center.
Weapons, Gear, & Vehicles
As far as gear customization, you can customize your gear from your armor to clothes (handwear, holsters, footwear, etc) that Nomad wears while out in the field…one note to mention is there will be plenty of times to swapping between different gear as you level up in the game as it is important to become eligible to play harder campaign missions and access higher level areas (hint, hint…the “dangerous area” notification will pop up on screen if you’re gear and character level is too low to be roaming around a certain area).
Traveling across Aurora is very important and running 5 or 6 clicks across the wild is very dangerous, the Homesteaders have a garage stash of vehicles from helicopters, attack copters, dune buggies, and even armored vehicles that can be used to get you to your mission locations easier…only worry about buying a helicopter as you will be traveling by air more than driving since you can avoid any Wolves’ patrols on the ground (remember to watch out for those SAM sites from blowing you out of the sky!)
Homesteader & Outcast Faction Missions
Just as the Homesteaders and Outcast rebels have helped Nomad fight the battles against Sentinel and the Wolves, they deserve some help in return by performing faction side ops or faction missions that would not only build more support from the each faction; but, also claim rewards in return.
Formatted unlike standard side missions, most of the faction missions can be played over and over again as these mission types would reset after 24 hours.
Completing faction missions would reward battle points that would go towards rare and unique tier rewards such as emblems, vehicles, blueprints, and mystery care packages that would unlock a random item to use out on the field.
Guided to Unguided – Choosing Your Path
One of my most favorite features while playing Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is the fact that you can choose whether to allow the game to pinpoint the campaign and side mission locations on the map or you can uncheck the “Guide Mode” to find the locations on your own.
By unchecking the Guide Mode feature, the game will display a list of clues that will give hints on where to find a certain mission location on the map and mark it.
So if you can read a map and able to follow directions like what is found in a “Treasure Hunt” then using no guidance can be a desirable challenge besides playing the whole game on Extreme to spice up your experience while playing.
Bivouacking in Ghost Recon Breakpoint
From the cover system to finding shelter, there is always a way to “bivouac” or camp at the main Erewhon cave with the rebels; but, there are other bivouac locations around Aurora that can be used to rest and restore all strength since fatigue is for real in a military setting and as well in Breakpoint.
The bivouac locations can be uncovered by zooming in through the binoculars and through your aerial drone if close enough to location or by flying low enough over the bivouac to unlock its location that way…just look for the campfire smoke off in the distance to give you a clue on the location.
Bivouacking in Breakpoint can be beneficial in other ways than one where you can stop to craft more items like more C4, frag grenades, and rocket launcher ammo to rations that can give additional temporary buffs like dexterity, injury resistance, fatigue resistance, handling and stamina…don’t forget to equip that Resources preparation to give you that 10% XP bonus so you can level up a little quicker.
Other than crafting supplies, the bivouac system allows weapon classes to be customized to your own liking whether you would like more of an assault rifle over an SMG or vice-versa with a sniper rifle over a marksman rifle…it’s up to you on what muzzle, scope, and camo to use.
Upgrading Skills in Ghost Recon Breakpoint
As playing further into Breakpoint, there will be plenty of times to upgrade your character and class how you want to whether you prefer full-on Assault (a class that uses a gas grenade to damage enemies overtime and relies on more assault rifles/shotguns to get up close and personal in close quarter combat) or more of a stalker in this case as a “Panther” (a class that would use cloak and run tactics, uses a cloaking spray to avoid detection from all drones and uses more of suppressed weapons out in the field) that prefers the stealthy approach of walking through of each campaign mission or side op
The other classes that are available for your character is both the Sharpshooter (an over-watch class that would rely on more recon tactics, uses a sensor launcher to mark nearby enemies) and Field Medic (a medical class that prefers to play a role in reviving and healing injuries, uses a healing drone to remotely heal/revive teammates when playing co-op)
Besides picking a main class for your Nomad character, there are a number of individual skills (some skills would be required to be equipped in order to be used) from upgrading weapons to higher mark level, upgrading drone and recon mastery, and more skills vital to surviving in Aurora.
Treasure Hunts & Collectibles
Considering the past history that the Archipelago of Aurora was considered a war site during the Cold War and potentially a compatible mining site, there is an opportunity to finding treasure and collectibles that go along with what happened during these times for Aurora.
In other cases, Aurora holds other mysteries in form of collectibles that dig into the backstory behind what put Skell Tech on the map to how it got started before the Wolves and Sentinel took over.
Some collectibles fall into the backstory of the campaign that can be used to solve individual investigations.
Among the collectibles are a number of treasure maps that would pinpoint where to find the next treasure…even-though some of the maps are harder than some to decrypt where to find the treasure based on geological patterns versus clues.
Finally, there are some collectibles that would go into the backstory of each character Nomad meets that would add to their bio records that would understand each individual or group of individuals stories before Operation: Greenstone and the whole game takes place.
Personal Views about Ghost Recon Breakpoint
Ghost Recon Breakpoint continues down the same path in a supposed futuristic plot as another open world game and RPG environment as it progresses off into left field away from the core Ghost Recon game-play.
This addition of Ghost Recon does continue to provide a way of playing both stealthy and full on assault. The gear level requirement in the game was a headache much like what was seen in The Division 2 just to get to meet eligibility to play a campaign mission or confidently fight the enemies for the particular area.
On the other side of the downsides to Ghost Recon, this game just copy cats Wildlands where the missions are almost the same each time up to the boss battles, does not 100% follow the solo game-play mantra, and there are still plenty of optimization issues within the game that Ubisoft still did not fix before and after the public beta that affects the reliability of the game-play.
