After spending a few hours with the Ghost Recon: Wildlands beta, the game doesn’t feel all that special.
With games like Ghost Recon: Wildlands, it’s always great that a free beta is released to the public. Not only does it give potential consumers a good idea of what to expect, it also helps the developers make some tweaks for the final product based on the feedback from the community.
Needless to say, we were eager to try it out. The concept is extremely cool: you play as a special forces soldier, part of a fictional elite team known as the Ghosts. Your main task is to wipe out a Mexican drug cartel group, the Santa Blanca. The setting is in Bolivia in July of 2019.
All of that sounds like a ton of fun, at least for the first few hours. We won’t say that the game is bad, nor is it boring. However, it can become very repetitive. We’ll explain why.
All of the missions in the beta feel the same. You travel to a certain location, take out a wave of enemies and complete the objective. The objective usually consists of gathering intel, but sometimes you’re also on rescue missions to save certain allies or friends.
Initially, it all seemed very cool and you get this feeling that it will only get better. Sadly, it doesn’t. Obviously, this is only the open beta and the full build will definitely have more content and much more to do. So far, it just feels way too simple and bland.
There are some aspects we did enjoy, though. For example, the customization. There weren’t many options, but there were enough to keep you content. You can create your own solider to your liking and that was really cool. That’s always a great addition to a game even though it’s a familiar one.
The gameplay also isn’t bad. Although repetitive, we can say that the combat and traveling are very smooth. You have complete freedom to choose where you go next. One you arrive at a certain objective, you also have the freedom to decide how you want to approach it.
Whether you’re the type of person to go all out and gun everybody down or play stealthy, it’s up to you. We can say that the game lets the players choose and experiment with their surroundings which are big plusses in an open-world game like this one.
By far, the most fun we had was playing with a group of people. You have the option of playing the entire game by yourself, or you can party up with four other players via cooperative online multiplayer. Playing with friends or other people online is where the game truly shines.
There’s nothing like gathering up a bunch of friends and tackling some missions together. Surprisingly, we got into it and actually felt like we were soldiers trying to make the whole place better. There were also many fails and funny moments, which make for some good memories.
Our Ghost Recon: Wildlands first impressions are mostly positive, but it’s hard to shake the feeling that you’ve seen it all before. There’s nothing that really stands out from the game judging from our time, and we don’t think the full game will change our minds.
The open world is vast and visually stunning, the mechanics are fun and smooth and playing with friends is very enjoyable. Eventually, and unfortunately, that’ll run out of steam because of the lack of content and variety.
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Playing the same, similar missions over and over again will become redundant and boring. We may play a bit more of the beta while it’s still going on. Maybe we’ll change our minds, but so far it feels like a pass, especially when other powerhouses like Horizon: Zero Dawn and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild are releasing soon.