GHOST RECON WILDLANDS
Ubisoft’s impressive open-world adventure strikes from the shadows
Santa Blanca is the most feared drug cartel in South America, and has all but taken control of Bolivia. The collapsing government has turned a blind eye to the cartel’s vast cocaine empire, and it’s grown to the size of a small army – a situation the US is, understandably, a teeny tiny bit concerned about.
A DEA agent is sent to investigate, but his cover’s blown and the cold, merciless leader of Santa Blanca, El Sueño, orders his assassination. A crude bomb is detonated in the American embassy – the flashpoint that triggers the events of Wildlands. Cleaning up the mess? Special Forces team Ghost Recon, off to covertly reclaim country from cartel: a mission the US government will deny all knowledge of should any of its members be killed or captured.
Our demo begins as the Ghosts arrive in Bolivia by helicopter in the midst of a raging storm. It’s pitch black outside, but flashes of lightning occasionally illuminate the mountains, briefly revealing the immense scale of the game world (its biggest to date, Ubisoft says). Undercover CIA agent Karen Bowman briefs us on the situation, informing us that we’ll need to deal with the boss of each region before we can draw El Sueño out of hiding.
This gives Wildlands its structure. The map is divided into multiple territories, each with its own boss, and it’s your job to eliminate them and reclaim
“THE GOVERNMENT TURNS A BLIND EYE TO THE CARTEL’S COCAINE EMPIRE.”
the land they control. The first, and easiest, region is Itacu. Our chopper lands there and we meet with Pac Katari, a local rebel leader who’ll we need to make nice with for a helping hand. But he’s wary of the Americans, and to butter him up we must prove our loyalty by rescuing his uncle from a cartel compound.
UNCLE QUESTER
Night turns rapidly to day with a cool time-lapse effect, and our first mission begins. We’re high in the mountains, gazing across a sweeping valley that seems to go on forever. The Ghosts pile into an off-road truck and we follow the GPS to the cartel’s compound, which takes us along a series of twisting, narrow country roads with a sheer drop on one side. We arrive at the mission area and ditch the truck, concerned that if we keep on driving, the enemy might hear us approaching.
The Ghosts, true to their name, favour quiet stealth over a direct assault. To scout the area we fling a drone into the air, flying it over the compound and marking enemies on the HUD. As we tag a baddie, our character announces what he’s packing. (Er, weapon-wise, that is.) Satisfied we’ve revealed everyone, we equip a silenced pistol and creep into the base. But after quietly, efficiently dealing with the small group of goons, we realise Katari’s uncle Amaru isn’t here.
One of El Sueño’s lieutenants is, however. We grab and interrogate him to find out where Amaru is being held. He reluctantly marks the location on our map, and we climb back into the truck, heading to a nearby farmhouse. The drone reveals a much stronger enemy force here, so we’ll have to make use of our squad to deal with them and rescue the captive. Bringing up the command menu, we position each Ghost carefully around the house, then begin the attack.
GRIEVOUS BODILY FARM
Stealth, though preferred, isn’t always the answer, and it’s not in this case. The area erupts with gunfire and we use the distraction to flank the enemy and wipe them out. Wildlands plays like any other third-person shooter, but there’s no cover system, and it gives you fine control over the behaviour of your buddies. You can order them to move to specific locations, attack a single enemy, or regroup if you lose track of them. The AI does what it’s told, but is sometimes a little slow to respond.
We move carefully into the house and free a bloodied and battered Amaru from his cell, extracting him via a conveniently placed helicopter. Flying by day now, the sheer scale of the world is nigh-on unbelievable. Katari is delighted and pledges his rebel army to help us. Later in the game, this’ll allow us to call for armed backup and even order vehicle drops. So if you find yourself lost in the middle of nowhere, you can have a chopper delivered. Now that’s service.
The intel the lieutenant gifts us is yet another important part of the game’s structure. Finding the boss of each region requires gathering information, including squeezing it out of high-ranking cartel members and copying data from laptops. Katari blabs the names of Itacu’s bosses, Yuri and Polito. Just as we set off to find them, our demo ends, the screen fades to black, and the Ghosts slip into darkness once more. We’ll have their backs come March.
“TRUE TO THEIR SQUAD NAME, GHOST RECON FAVOUR QUIET STEALTH OVER A DIRECT ASSAULT.”