The first words that came to mind when I started playing Ghost Recon: Wild lands;
Watch Dogs.
For those of you who don't know, when the first Watch dogs came out in 2014; there was a major up-rise in how Ubisoft downgraded the graphics in the game. In E3 of the 2012, Watch Dogs was showcased to have the look of the most polished PC game in the market, but when it came out it looked like the primordial goop it is now. Terrible.
Ghost Recon: Wild lands is a sixty dollar game with the game-play of a free-to-play. Even though this game is still in beta, I already know that it will be a disgrace to the gaming community. Being that Ubisoft's track record has already been going down the drain with Watch Dogs 1 & 2, the Assassins Creed movie (flopped terribly), and Steep (does anyone know about this game?) I can predict that Ghost Recon: Sh*t-lands would sell immensely, if it was sold at $20.
(By the way, my character for some reason keeps saying Sh*t balls and it's highly irritating)
Here's some notes I took while playing the beta let's start with what I did not like:
Ubisoft has always had an Ai issue:
When playing, I noticed that if you are playing the single player option; the Ai (artificial intelligence) in your squad does not react at all. What I expected was if I were to attack a base, then my squad would roll up with me. Instead, the Ai stays in the Forrest while I'm out in the base constantly getting shot. They'll tell me "hey man, there's a guy in-front of you." Thanks Ai, I already know as I'm slowly fading away from the copious amounts of bullets currently in my body. In addition, the baddies in the game are not that bright either. At one point there were two baddies in front of me, and they appeared as though they were having a fake discussion. Usually, in any other game if I were to shoot one, then the other would be in alert and warn everyone else in the surrounding area. Not in this game, I shot one and the other kept "fake talking" as if his friend was still there.
(Don't worry I shot him too, they are forever together in code as two best friends)
The cover system is barely dynamic:
Yes, you can hide behind a car that you've just used, but be cautious. If you get too close to some of the objects you are trying to use as cover; your character will clip into the object. At some points I found my character glitching; when I would get close to an object, the game would show my camera angle as if I was crouching, but my character is still standing in the middle of the shooting ground. This is especially not Ok, when you're in the rounds of a shootout. Your Ai team is already useless and not doing anything, so on top of the struggle; Ubisoft wants you to struggle even harder by not letting you properly use a cover.
My Character is Black but he still sounds Homogenized:
The customization is a definite plus in the game. There are tons of clothing options, there are various tattoos as well as different ways to look as a character. The gun customization is great as well, there are various pieces of equipment you can find to place onto your gun (scopes, stabilizers, etc...) My biggest problem is that the voice acting is not set for all races. My character would look as though he would have a deep voice, but when he talks he sounds like he's trying to sell car insurance. Which, is not surprising because Ubisoft has been bland about their voice acting before (The Division). Plus, when I saved a civilian, the civilian called me a "gringo" a derogatory term for Caucasians in the Hispanic language. I'd like to say that Ubisoft tries, but they don't try hard enough, and it shows moving into my next point.
The environment is not culturally sound, At All:
The map itself is big, but it's not sized for the player. What does this mean? Well, when there's a mountain like in Just Cause, I would expect maybe 20-30 minutes worth of struggling my way to the top. When I climb a mountain in Ghost Recon: Wild Lands it takes two minutes, and on my way there I'll clip into the ground; or maybe I'll fly over with a helicopter.
Nope,
The Helicopter controls are janky at best. You fly up, but you can't fly forward so it's a constant process of flying up and then flying forward; if you keep flying forward then you'll end up flying towards the ground for some reason? Not only that, but the civilians and the town areas are completely bland. Usually in open world games such as Grand Theft Auto, the people in the area seem as though they are doing something of importance. Companies like Ubisoft always tend to make the civilians just walk around, aimlessly looking at either you or the sky. Which would be cool if this was Assassins Creed where there's crowd of people to get lost in, but it's not. It's open spaced towns with nothing in them except for a couple of loot crates for extra experience points. On top of that, I believe there were supposed to be "civilian events" such as the cultural holidays, but it's desolate. Not to forget about it's satirical appropriation of this Hispanic culture. Listen to the radio in the game and you'll understand.
Do I suggest buying the retail game?
Even IF Ubisoft said "Ok, we'll fix the bugs before retail" I would highly suggest against buying this game. I wouldn't even play this game if it was donated to me; because I'm sick and tired of Ubisoft's constant failures. I no longer want to support a company that's going to sell a dream and fall flat over, and over again. I'd rather get constantly killed in Call of Duty, getting ridiculed by twelve year olds with nothing to lose, then to have to waste my time maneuvering through the constant failure that will be Wild Lands. I really did want to give Ubisoft another chance. Being that I have Watch Dogs 1 & 2, some of the Assassins Creed games, and some of the Farcry games; I like to show my support. But after buying Watch Dogs 2 I felt as though my money was wasted. Never again Ubisoft, Never Again.
I feel as though the full game is going to be a rinse and repeat of the beta. Get this Intel, interrogate this bad guy, kill this leader. Blah. Blah. Blah.
