Ghost Recon Breakpoint: Hands-On With Sprawling Campaign Mode

Ubisoft opened the doors to Ghost Recon Breakpoint's multiplayer mode to ComicBook.com and select media outlets ahead of thee game's early October release. The game offered up about six hours of hands on experience, showcasing its campaign mode and two of the player vs. player modes. In this article (and in the video above), we will take a look campaign mode which was shown in both single player and co-op formats.

The multiplayer mode will certainly benefit from a squad playing together. The social aspect of conquering the island of Auroa and its treacherous villains lead by former Punisher actor Jon Bernthal will be made more compelling when it is shared. Long story short, Bernthal plays a soldier who goes rogue and has bad intentions for the Auroa island and its technology. Somehow, his soldiers are planted everywhere, but they're only targeting some people some of the time -- but they're always after you. The massive, sprawling open world game offers near endless possibilities but requires a good bit of direction as a result. The game offers the option to have markers on the map to guide players to their objective or not but those markers prove to be quite handy in moving things along.

As a Ghost, players will be given the opportunity to level up as the game goes on. The game combines a class system with that of an RPG game, offering Skill Points to unlock certain skills or abilities as the game goes on. As seen in the video above, sparring with the Wolves will almost certainly end in a Killed in Action screen, sending the player back to the moments prior to picking such a fight. While wandering around the island, it is difficult to fight the temptation of roaming into one of the forts guarded with AI more equipped with weaponry for the fight, so players will probably see that KIA screen more than once.

As the player progresses with perks, weapons, and skills, those same unlockable traits are carried over to multiplayer with a unified progression system. The more you play, the more of an advantage you'll have over both the computer in the campaign mode and other gamers in PvP scenarios.

It was fun to jet around Auroa with a squad in a helicopter or a pick-up truck but the combat gets a little tricky. Surely, the game will offer a considerable update patching some glitches which were present on the early day of playing, but some of the movements will likely remain. The characters move in a bit of a clunky state, making it difficult and frustrating to try to get into cover in a hurry or sneak around a corner with precision. Moreover, the drones which players will face in early missions are so lethal and armored that taking them out proves to be a tedious task.

Fortunately, a squad of four will be able to concoct the right skills and strategy to infiltrate locations, defend the AI, and take down drones before finding themselves together in the next cut scene. The story might be a little bit big for a gamer to care about, seeming like some sort of Jurassic Park and Westworld combination without any dinosaurs (don't act like dinosaurs wouldn't have been cool).

The format for mission selections gets a little excessive. A massive board is available to pull from but never visible in its entirety. A cursor can navigate across the board to select an objective (and pin it for the rest of the team, if playing co-op) or a side mission. From there, the missions are quite spread out, so a vehicle is going to be all but required to make it to the starting point. Helicopters, trucks, and motorcycles come in handy here, handling delightfully across roads and accordingly on other terrains.

The game seems to have offered a ton of extras details and options into it, especially on the perks and abilities front. The overall excess of the game might end up being too much for its own good as movements and animations might dominate with frustration in some moments. Still, Ghost Recon Breakpoint appears to be offering up an immersive campaign mode targeting a co-op players for the best experience.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is available on October 4.