GHOST RECON BREAKPOINT — Ubisoft’s Edition Matrix & DRM Incident Log
Status: Great Tactical Sandbox Trapped Under Corporate Garbage | Score: 6/10 (Only Buy on 80%+ Discount)


THE EDITION MATRIX CONFUSION (READ BEFORE YOU BUY):
Ubisoft turned buying a single video game into a calculus exam. Here is what these scumbags are actually selling you:

Standard Edition: The base game. (The ONLY version you should buy, and ONLY when it's on a massive 80% sale).
Deluxe Edition: Base game + 1 useless cosmetic pack. Absolute cash-grab scam.
Gold Edition: Base game + Year 1 Pass (Includes Deep State & Red Patriot story DLCs + early class unlocks). The only upgrade worth touching if you want full story content.
Ultimate Edition: Gold Edition + 3 extra cosmetic bundles that nobody gives a ♥♥♥♥ about. Total waste of money.


THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE CORPORATE UGLY:

1. The "Immersive Mode" Miracle
At launch, this game was an insulting Division knock-off with gear scores, RPG health bars, and bullet-sponge enemies. Thankfully, Ubisoft listened to the backlash and added "Immersive Mode." Turn off gear score, disable the HUD, pump up the difficulty, and Breakpoint instantly transforms into an incredible, gritty tactical stealth sandbox on the island of Auroa.

2. Always-Online DRM In a Single-Player Game
Why the ♥♥♥♥ does a solo military game require a constant, flawless internet connection? If Ubisoft’s servers sneeze, or your Wi-Fi hiccups for 2 seconds while you’re 45 minutes deep into a stealthy base-wipe, you get kicked straight to the main menu. Unforgivable anti-consumer design.

3. The Ubisoft Connect Launcher Virus
You buy the game on Steam. You launch it. It opens Ubisoft Connect. It forces you to log in, updates itself for 10 minutes, syncs cloud saves for 5 minutes, and then MAYBE lets you play. We are sick and tired of launchers inside launchers.

4. Microtransaction Mall
Even after paying for the game, you are greeted with a massive real-money store selling guns, camos, attachments, and cosmetics. They literally built the game world to feel empty so they could sell you cosmetics in the store.


FINAL INCIDENT VERDICT:
Underneath all the Ubisoft corporate bloat, always-online ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and greedy monetization, there is actually a phenomenal 4-player co-op / solo tactical stealth game here.

BUYING ADVICE: Never buy this at full price. Wait for a deep Steam sale, grab the Standard or Gold Edition for dirt cheap, turn on Immersive Mode, mute the microtransaction pop-ups, and enjoy sniping mercenaries with your squad. 6.5/10.

cant play offline

Its genuinely baffling how Ubisoft managed to make a game that is entirely worse in every single way when compared to its predecessor that was released 6yrs prior to this.

The biggest departure from Wildlands is just how dead and lonely the world feels. A large part of this is that the only people on the road are military patrols. There are no civilians on the road at all. The story reason is that b/c of the rogue military takeover everything is in lockdown? Even so, there is still plenty of civilians in the offices and towns you often fight in, it just doesn't make sense. Like you couldn't have had npc's driving around but have them stop at security checkpoints? The island's economy still needs to function.

There also is not a single radio station in the entire game which helps make every car drive feel so quiet and lonely. Ntm that there is rarely anyone talking to you or briefing/debriefing while you're going from A to B.

Additionally, one thing that Wildlands did pr well was making each province feel pr different and unique but here it all feels very samey w/ no characterization. And its even crazier that you don't even go to every province before completing the story.

First off, you don't even get the full story unless you buy the season pass which is entirely ridiculous and unacceptable.

The story though is so, so much worse than Wildlands. A stand out being that there are a lot fewer major and minor characters and the few characters that are in Breakpoint are entirely uninteresting and boring (1 exception). For all the times I thought Bowman (leader of your operation) was crazy and unhinged in Wildlands, she breathed so much life into that game and her presence is sorely missed here. The only character who is even a bit interesting/entertaining is the punisher guy who despite being the big bad, only has about 4 cutscenes in the entire game.

Another issue w/ the story presentation is that it just doesn't have any buildup to its sub-bosses at all. Not only do they have zero speaking lines, but I often never realized I was actually fighting/killing them (partially due to how inconsistent the mission pinning is).
Wildlands' story was just so much more entertaining and actually felt alive with its characters and world. Here, the few people that get speaking lines feel half asleep, have wonky facial expressions, and are all the same mild-mannered tech desk jokey.

The game feels like it was fully built with the expectation that you were gonna fully immerse yourself in the world and larp as your character and figure out where to go based on addresses, landmarks, and imagery in the documents. Though if you choose to have mission markers it never stops shoving these documents in your face that don't tell you anything important.

I also played w/ the weapon rarities and levels turned off, and it felt like the only viable guns were DMRs and Snipers. As anything else was too low caliber to deal damage and/or too much recoil.

The injury system is extremely annoying.
The gear wheel genuinely feels awful to use and it felt way worse than however Wildlands handled their extra gear.

I just can't overstate how much worse this game feels to play than Wildlands. I don't think Wildlands was a perfect game or anything, but it still felt entertaining and engaging. In comparison, Breakpoint is dead and feels like a chore to play w/ nothing redeeming.

If you are deciding between Wildlands and Breakpoint, please play Wildlands instead. If you've played Wildlands and are thinking about this, you will be disappointed. If all it takes for you to be happy is just killing some random enemies in a dead map, then go crazy I guess.