PREVIEW – We are witnessing something rare here, which we will get our hands on in 2016, and that is a new Ghost Recon game. Ubisoft decided to take the franchise into new territories with one swift move. The tactical shooting is still a feature, but from here on out we do not move on a linear path, instead there is an entire open world, where all of our decisions have consequences.

Ubisoft has been moving on a fast track in terms of game development. Now the Paris section will show off their skills, and with a new Ghost Recon. Ubisoft Paris is the main company, that started its career with such games as Rayman, Red Steel, Just Dance, and the great community divider Watchdogs, which led them to the AAA game development. Ghost Recon was one of their creations also, so a sequel was inevitable.

A look back

The series started in 2001, its main focus was tactics, and stealthy shooting. Six sequels were made, but the foundations were never really changed. Before a mission we got a briefing, survey the battlefield, pick up gear, and people, and then complete the tasks that were given to us. Usually a hostage had to be saved, or an important target killed. Pretty simple in terms of objectives.

New Changes

The foundation however changes a bit in Ghost Recon Wildlands. The missions are still given to us, but we’ll have to complete them in an entirely open world, and the way we wish to accomplish them.As Ubisoft Paris’ Dominic Butler leading game designer commented_” this is not about us anymore, to tell the players to go stealthy, or to if there will be a huge battle, or if someone nees to be saved.

Instead this will be about a situation, a location, and the player will have multiple options to complete the mission. They write their own story in the end”. It is a great idea to be honest. Our decisions will shape the lives of the civilians, and our squad members. Based on this there will be multiple endings.

Welcome to Bolivia

The unit is now operating in the heart of South-America, to finally end corruption, and the reign of the Santa Blanca. We’ll have plenty of locations to do this, as according to Ubisoft this will be the biggest open world game ever made by them. If we base this on how big Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was, then we really should expect a huge map, even if we moved slower with a ship in AC.

In Wildlands there will be multiple vehicles at our disposal including motorboats, chops, and armored vehicles. Another fun fact is that Bolivia is a varied country in terms of climate, so it has deserts, snowy mountains, jungles. This will make the level variety really great.

My enemy of the enemy is my friend

As I mentioned before, the main plotline is the corrupt state, and the elimination of the Santa Blanca cartel, however this will not be easy. The two faction rules the county, as the cartel pays off the government, who in return turn a blind eye with regards to the drug trade. The other faction is the Unidad army that also is against our unit. However the two factions are not buddies, so if they are in one location we can easily get them to go at each other’s throat.

In summary

Ghost Recon: Wildlands could become another gem of Ubisoft, even with the lack of information that is currently available to us. The gameplay, and controls look tight, but there is one thing we have to worry about.

After the big E3 conference Ubisoft’s CEO, Yves Guillermot told that due to the backlash of the pre-rendered cutscenes, they will try to show games from now on how they will look in the final build. Meaning that Wildlands was probably one of these trailers, and we’ll have to see on how it will actually turn out. We hope we get some new info soon.

– Dazo911 –

Publisher: Ubisoft

Developer: Ubisoft Paris

Genres:  FPS, tactical,

Publication: TBA