Ghost Recon: Wildlands
PC, PS4, XO | $99.95 | GHOST-RECON.UBISOFT.COM Severe infiltration sim goes whimsical and explode-y
There are not enough good tactical shooters in 2017, which means a new instalment in the Ghost Recon series should come as a welcome course. In theory, Ghost Recon: Wildlands has everything: a sprawling open world, a gear loot grind to keep the player moving through it, and a staggeringly tone deaf approach to any culture that isn’t American. It’s a B-movie writ large, except with a surplus of low-key distractions (Defend radios! Gather intel!) and the ability to stuff up quiet stealth missions with three other friends. It’s a good game, yes, difficult to deny, but it’s also a bit like a soup that’s had virtually every half-rotten ingredient from the back of the fridge plopped into it. Yep, it’s a Ubisoft openworld game.
From what we gathered from the plot, you’re part of an American military enclave trying to stop Bolivian druglords from
“It’s a good game, yes, difficult to deny, but it’s also a bit like a soup that’s had virtually every half-rotten ingredient from the back of the fridge plopped into it.”
being druglords. This means, of course, blazing gruntlike through the beautiful mountainous landscape, sending drones into enemy encampments before raining hellfire from the sky or nearby hills (the game, surprisingly enough, punishes you for killing civilians). It’s possible to take the quiet and tactical approach in Wildlands, and there’s plenty of tools to let you do it — you can sync shots with your AI allies, you can use the aforementioned drones to mark enemies, you can call in reinforcements and all manner of other stuff — but the open world, Just Cause- esque nature of this instalment takes the edge off what really makes a tactical game tactical. That is, there’s plenty of leeway for making good when you stuff it all up. Just run for those hills, infallible American, until the harried Bolivian druglords forget, five minutes later, that they’ve just had four Americans try to assassinate their leader.
It’s easy to long for the more focused Ghost Recon games of yore, when one stupid error could lead to dismal failure, when a failed attempt at stealth couldn’t just be solved by running away. But it’s also important to take Wildlands for what it is, and what it is is a funny, goofy, lightly tactical buddy shooter. It wears the trademarked veneer of Tom Clancy severity, and if you want the stakes to feel high, then you need to suspend your disbelief (i.e. pretend you can’t just run away). In typical Ubisoft fashion, there’s tonnes to do, and as a shooter, it feels good enough, and missions can pan out in some hilarious and unexpected ways. It’s just... why can’t we have a true slow-and-steady-wins-therace shooter for once? Why does this need to be a Ghost Recon game? Why can’t we have a real Ghost Recon game? I don’t know. Blame gamers.
Shaun Prescott