Ghost Recon Wildlands Review

courtesy of ubisoft

Ubisoft's Ghost Recon games have traditionally been about precise military tactics. Previous entries have favored considered, cover-based approaches to enemy situations over run-and-gun bravado. Even when the series dabbled with borderline sci-fi scenarios – as in 2012's Future Soldier – the franchise has maintained a mostly serious tone.

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is not cut from that same cloth. Not only does it adopt an open world, it's bigger and brasher than its predecessors with a mood that, at times, borders on the farcical.

Forget Band of Brothers; this is more 'Soldiers Gone Wild South of the Border!' The game puts you in command of a four-member squad of elite US soldiers, on a shadowy mission to take down the Bolivian Santa Blanca drug cartel. The country has been turned into the heart of a new cocaine industrial complex, with the operation governed by a couple of dozen unlikely characters and led by the brutal El Sueño.

The problem is, what attempts to be a serious exploration of the drug trade – and even has the potential to be a realistic examination of the failed War on Drugs and the problems it brings – ends up feeling comedic. El Sueño's lieutenants are often hilariously over the top, particularly an early doctor and nurse duo. A twisted Romeo and Juliet, the characters gave up their medical careers and now take sadistic glee in being Santa Blanca's torturers-in-chief. They're meant to be chilling; instead they're more like a knock-off Joker and Harley Quinn.

Wildlands attempts to keep some semblance of the tactical combat of its precursors, but with mixed results. Your main character – designed by you, with an array of customizations – is joined by three AI-controlled squad mates. They're mostly forgettable, aside from one that constantly cracks bad jokes about the military while you're scrambling through the Bolivian overgrowth, but they can be assigned to perform specific tasks in the field.

in-game shot

Matters improve when it comes to the multiplayer. Having human players at your side livens the game up dramatically. Being able to coordinate your attacks on a cartel's deal or a hostage situation is much more natural than merely pointing artificial teammates in the right direction and hoping they don't ruin a raid. The benefit of team-focused stat boosts are highlighted in co-op. Skills that support regeneration or revival, or boost allies' attributes under certain conditions, feel more relevant and useful when you have real players to collaborate with. In single player, it's hard to tell when, or if, anyone is being aided.

Co-piloting vehicles works wonders, too, with one player driving and others targeting foes. This doesn't compensate for terrible flight controls, though, and it ended up being easier to parachute out of a helicopter than trying to land it.

There are still problems to be found in multiplayer, but they come more from enemy AI. Cartel guards tend to over-react to the slightest movement, or swarm specific hotpoints and refuse to engage with divide and conquer tactics. It's frustrating, and often leads to missions becoming slow, sniper-lead stakeouts rather than the rapid actions of an elite military response unit.

Ultimately, Wildlands feels like it's trying to fit between two worlds – military tactical shooter and open-world free-for-all – but doesn't quite manage to bridge the divide. Its multiplayer is its greatest strength, and with a little polish could fill the same niche as Rainbow Six: Siege, but its single-player feels like a frivolous distraction.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 7.