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SGGAMINGINFO » First Impression – Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands closed beta SGGAMINGINFO » First Impression – Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands closed beta

First Impression – Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands closed beta

On February 8, 2017 by Ash Meehan

The recently completed closed beta for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands offered players a glimpse into Ubisoft’s latest open world shooter, with players exploring the Itacua region of the near-future Bolivia as members of the Ghost Special Forces who are on a mission to eliminate two key members of the Santa Blanca drug cartel. The beta also offered up to four player co-op and access to a large number of vehicles, equipment and character customisation.

I have to say that during my time playing the beta there wasn’t a lot that stood out to me, as Ghost Recon Wildlands felt very much similar to previous Ubisoft open world shooters as you could just run around finding side-missions, gathering weapons and skill points.

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However, while there was pretty much everything you expect to find from a Ubisoft open world games the Ghost Recon Wildlands closed beta puts an emphasis on co-op with you working in a four-man squad consisting of other players or AI teammates. While having teammates watch your back is fun, there is of course one major downside, which is if you can’t find others to play the game with, you are stuck with three AI teammates who aren’t the best in the world. While they can be reliable to help you in battle, they can be as equally reliable to do nothing and in some cases get stuck on terrain when you use the regroup squad command. Speaking of squad commands, these are up to four orders you can give to your AI teammates, the four orders are fire, hold, go to and regroup, all of which are important, especially when you’re about to attack a compound and your teammates are standing around back at the car. You can also perform rebel support commands, which consist of vehicle drop-off, guns for hire, mortar strike, diversion and spotting.

Now, while I was just critical of the AI teammates I will say that once you get them into a car or helicopter they are the best support you could hope for because once in a vehicle you can order an assault, which has your three teammates shoot at every enemy they see. The order is at its best when in a helicopter as you can just hover above an enemy base and watch your teammates shoot down enemies with almost pinpoint accuracy.

Moving away from the AI teammates, we have the skill points system. This system allows you to focus your play style with the game allowing you to put points in six different skill trees: weapons, drones, items, physical, squad and support. The weapon tree allows for more weapon customization with the likes of the grenade launcher attachment, and the drone tree allows you to be more proficient with your drone as the tree allows you to extend its battery life etc.

While the skill tree helps give you choice, your weapon and equipment loadout helps you enhance your combat style as you can alter your loadout to fit an upcoming mission or your preferred play style. While you can alter your loadout to help suit your play style the game doesn’t offer any premade loadout options, which means you have to use your own judgement when it comes to deciding what weapons and equipment are best for your play style.

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There is a lot more I could say about the Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands Closed Beta, but I think I’ll leave my more in-depth analysis to my full review when the game launches on March 7th.

In the end, my final thoughts on the Closed Beta are rather mixed. The open world side of the game feels rather generic and the AI teammates are hit and miss, but the game does offer choice when it comes to how you approach an enemy location.

For more information on Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, visit http://ghost-recon.ubisoft.com/wildlands/en-GB/home/index.aspx.

Author: Ash Meehan

Hi, I’m the creator of SG Gaming Info. When I’m not working on my writing or creating content for this site’s YouTube channel, I like to relax and enjoy character driven story games.


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