Skip to the bottom for a TLDR of how I feel.
I'm going to break this down into sections to avoid wall-of-text syndrome. I realize this is a beta, and I'm perfectly ok with them fixing these issues in full release, but they didn't fix most of the issues going from Wildlands' beta to full release, both from a gameplay design standpoint and a bug fixing standpoint. This is how the game currently stands, and for the most part how I believe it will release. Just take it all with grain of salt.
Presentation
-
Interface: Instantly better than Wildlands. The menus feel a bit more responsive to inputs, and I like the layout of everything. The icons in the settings menus could use a bit more clarity but other than that its pretty easy to navigate through everything. I did feel like opening menus in the world still felt a little stilted sometimes, but its definitely an improvement. The constant reminders of levelled loot and levels in general feels like an annoyance but that may be because I'm hard biased against the whole concept (more on that later). Interacting with buttons (mission interactions, opening chests, entering
-
Graphical fidelity: Honestly for the most part this just felt like Wildlands again. I like the art style for its balance between clarity and photo-realism but there doesn't seem to be any kind of notable improvement for the two and a half year wait between the two. Rain effects (particularly notable during the opening sequence) felt really lazy, with there being a radius around you for splash effects, sounds, and thats about it. Foliage reacting with wind seemed like it was well done but thats about the only improvement I can see. Antialiasing seems to have taken a massive step backwards for some reason. Global lighting is as pretty as ever.
-
Animation: Gun reloads still have the same "decent" quality level they had in Wildlands - while I can see my character moving a magazine out and then back into the gun with precision, and I can see the action working, the lack of any form of visible mag storage/dump pouch on the character to connect these animations to is disappointing for a game that bills itself as a tactical shooter. The revised soft cover system feels a lot snappier to play around and more intuitive to deal with, as opposed to Wildlands' cover which always felt a bit clunky to me. Transitioning from sprinting to stop/standard jog is well-done, feeling responsive but not instantaneous, something a lot of games (looking at you, GTA: V) struggle with. Small movements can be a little finicky sometimes. There were a handful of times where the takedowns didn't quite line up my character with theirs so you'd have the classic "air stab" scenario but they were minor occurrences and fairly rare.
-
Audio: Disclaimer: I have background in audio so this section is probably going to be super critical. The opening splash screens seem to have massive audio artifacts going on, really need to work on that. The gunshots and weapon handling sounds are still the "clickety clackety every gun is made of lego" noises we had in Wildlands, which while great for impact is terrible for immersion/realism. Suppressed small caliber weapons sound quite snappy, although anything bigger than intermediate could use some work. Environmental reverbs are notably fantastic, with reports bouncing off buildings and through valleys in a way I don't often see in AAA shooters the way I'd like to. Vehicles sound a bit better. Enemy voicelines are still have the "bad guy's goons in movie" aspect to them but I kind of like it, it feels appropriate at this point. Again, reverbs are nice with how these voice lines bounce around the environment, and really help inform the player of where enemies are when you're getting flanked. If I have one gripe with gunshots, its that everything sounds just slightly too low pitched. Bullets whizzing past should be a crack or a snap, and instead we're still getting the whoosh we were getting back in Far Cry 2.
Performance
Note that I'm playing this on a mid-range PC with a 2070 being the only recent addition to the rig. Running on ultra, borderless, 1080p.
-
Load times: I admittedly have a slow hard drive. I didn't test installing this to my SSD as its my system drive and I can't really be bothered moving stuff around to accomodate a beta for a couple of days. Opening the game took a lot longer than I would have liked, in the region of 30 seconds to a minute just to get the game window up and on screen. In game loading was a little better but still certainly not ideal. I realize that shiny graphics always have trade offs, and that usually brevity of loading is one of these, but the balance doesn't feel justified at this stage. Cutscenes in particular took a long time to start, which is odd as they seem to be rendered in game so its not like you're justifying it with loading a pre-rendered file.
-
Framerates: I was pulling anywhere from low 50s up to 80s, which was surprising considering my set up. The optimization feels pretty much the same as Wildlands, which isn't surprising considering that they're visually extremely similar as far as fidelity is concerned. I don't think a massively powerful computer will be necessary if you're really keen on this title, and seeing as I was running this on ultra and Wildlands scaled down to lower spec PCs quite well, I think you can probably pretty reliably chalk this one up as a point in Ubisoft's favor.
Gameplay
-
Gear/levelled loot: I like looter shooters. I've got a lot of hours in Destiny 2, more in the Division, and have always been a big fan of the Borderlands franchise. With all of that said, this game shouldn't have these "features". It takes the idea of being a customizable, deadly spec ops soldier and heavily gamifies it, taking you right out of the character. In Wildlands, you just found gear or got it after doing a particular activity. But here, you're not only going "does this make sense on this character as I'm designing him/her", it also makes you think "will these numbers be high enough". I've seen people have varying experiences with sponginess from the enemies, as have I, and it can make things feel weirdly inconsistent - in games that fully commit to levelled loot and enemies/encounters, they're always very upfront with "you can't fuck with this guy, he'll just kill you really hard, get better gear". Not so here, as sometimes you can easily take out people you're underlevelled against, and other times (versus the harder enemies) you'll throw comical amounts of ammunition into them to no avail. If its a system thats going to feel this inconsistent (or unnoticeable as some defenders of it have said), why have it at all? Ghost Recon has always been a very particular type of game - tactical shooter with heavy stealth elements. They may end up playing like action movies, but there was always a consistent vision for how encounters, and the rewards from those encounters should play out. With all of that said, I don't feel it here. It just ends up coming across as something that tested well with a focus group or market research team and the team leads ended up saying "yep, the kids like loot, throw it in". I'm not a big fan. This close to release I know it isn't getting taken out, which is a shame, as it really puts me personally off the game. Destiny 2, the Division and very soon Borderlands 3 have this subgenre covered, and do it better - I think Ubisoft made a big mistake here. I also think the "endgame raid content" they've been touting will be a really bad way to build a tactical shooter endgame, as historically raids are gated by gear scores for their difficulty, which means they won't necessarily need to build well thought out encounters from a tactical stand point, just robots that have numbers bigger than yours, and thats the barrier to entry. Interested to see how they do it, just not holding my breath.
-
Gameplay mechanics: I thoroughly dislike being able to change my loadout on the go - I hated it in Wildlands, and I dislike it here. That coupled with the ability to carry two primaries plus your sidearm means that specialization aside, anyone can do anything at any one time. Games that lock you into your classes and gear selections (ie tactical shooters) really force you to play around situations that you get yourself into, and here I just go "oh, that shot's a bit hairy with an SMG? All good, I'll just equip a long gun of some kind". Lack of specialization other than your skills really just makes your character feel like a blank slate as opposed to something you're attaining mastery with. Loadouts aside, melee takedowns are improved, even if they don't quite line up sometimes. I like that you actually see your character kill them rather than just assume a smack on the noggin will put someone out indefinitely. Stealth is also great in this new iteration. Driving feels better than in Wildlands if still a little floaty. Actually shooting and using the guns feels good when the levelled system isn't rearing its head. If I have one gripe here, its that bullet velocities still feel a touch slow, and this problem is really highlighted by the "every round a tracer" mentality Ubisoft seems to have. Every bullet you fire is a gigantic yellow laser. Subtle tracers every few rounds still work very well in tactical shooters - Insurgency and its sequel Sandstorm are great examples of this. But here every time you fire a suppressed weapon, there's a big yellow dot in the middle of your reticle for a second, and it feels off. Miniguns and vehicle mounted weapons still feel like shit, with enemies being instantly cut down if they're within 50 meters and taking a solid second of firing at if they're further distant.
-
AI: I really like how the enemies play here. The way they move is great. Early in the game, I needed to cross an open field, but there was a patrol of about 6 goons in it, with an officer. I equipped my suppressed marksman rifle, went prone, and lined up the shot. Rather than all standing there dumbfounded that their leader's head was missing, these guys actually ran for proper cover, and used defilade to try and stay out of my line of sight as they approached me. 3 went left, 2 went right. They really know how to put the pressure on the player, which is something I really like to see. I played solo so your mileage may vary in multiplayer, but I definitely see a big improvement here.
-
Story: Based on the trailers, I was excited to see Jon Bernthal playing a Ghost gone rogue - a Wolf. But the implementation in game falls flat for me. The opening sequence sees you eventually find a team of friendly Ghosts, and then makes you watch them all get gunned down. I could write an entire paragraph on why Wolves crossing open ground in a clump makes them an excellent target for 4 highly trained Ghosts in cover, but I'm choosing to treat this as the B-grade action movie I generally treat game stories like. My main issue here is that Walker's entire character is based around the idea of brothers in arms splitting off from the command structure and running their own unit, remaking the world as they see fit. Walker's first interaction with a Ghost who is no threat to him and has been shot down investigating an island connected to a missing USN ship is to poorly deliver the line "Sorry" and execute him. It feels like a real short change from what the cutscenes/ads gave us, ESPECIALLY The Pledge trailer released recently. Story has never been the main reason I played recent GR games, but its honestly seeming like the full game is going to struggle with what Walker's identity actually is, which may be a huge problem as Bernthal has proven he can deliver fantastic performances when he's got a good script to work with (see Punisher, Fury etc.) and all of the marketing so far has been focused on him.
TLDR
I personally won't be buying this game. It still feels like the same fusion of GTA and a tactical shooter in terms of tone, but the loot elements completely disconnect if from the Ghost Recon franchise for me. You can feel how you want about them and their implementation, but if I want to play a modern styled looter, the Division handles like this but better. I'd also highly recommend Destiny 2 (coming to Steam very soon) and Remnant: From The Ashes, which is a newer title which absolutely nails third person shooting in terms of how smooth it is. If I want my tactical shooter fix, I have both Arma and Ready Or Not coming next year some time. Breakpoint doesn't really do either as well as the competitors for me, and while I appreciate that casualizing the tactical aspects of the experience can help bring new players in, I don't think its good for existing players. The improvements where you can find them are nice, but the new systems feel like a step away from Ghost Recon, and I honestly think its completely disconnected from the styling that "Tom Clancy" games have established in the past.
Submitted September 06, 2019 at 09:33AM by sgtfuzzle17 https://ift.tt/2ZHZRIu
No comments:
Post a Comment