Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint

So I started playing the game, and this way it is much better, but the helicopter is a joke, the physics is so simplistic compared to wildlands quasy realistic flight model, that I'd rather walk an hour than fly a minute in the game.
The other issue is the completely barren land, there is literally nothing on huge parts of the map, no civilians, no traffic, and thus no way to acquire a vehicle. If you loose your ride in an area like that you can walk for a long time before you find anything else.

For all intents and purposes the game is still two steps back from wildlands, but at least now it's not total looter shooter garbage.

For 20 it's not that bad, but it definitely isn't worth a cent more.
 
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I can't get into this game for the life of me right when I enter the Helicopter it ruins the game for me then I arrive at the base it's the same deal some kinda futuristic cars and drones swarming the area Wildlands was much better due to the setting. I don't think I'll play this game again it's just boring the way the menus and stuff are linked together it's just bad doesn't feel very intuitive. I miss the squad mates going on your lonesum is just boring and unrealistic.
 
How the hell do you equip the binoculars? I could find no way, and the online "tutorials" are vague and contradicting.
 
M76 said:
How the hell do you equip the binoculars? I could find no way, and the online "tutorials" are vague and contradicting.
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It's an item like grenades and so forth. Once you have them, if you're on keyboard it's 5-0. I need to use the item wheel but I'm not sure how to do it.

https://www.shacknews.com/article/114246/ghost-recon-breakpoint-pc-keybindings-xbox-one-ps4-controls

Scroll down a little bit. This might be helpful. The interface and menus definitely could stand to be more intuitive.
 
They extended the sale. I figure I will give a try with the free trial this weekend. TD2 is keeping me busy though so doubt I will pick it up.
 
Q-BZ said:
It's an item like grenades and so forth. Once you have them, if you're on keyboard it's 5-0. I need to use the item wheel but I'm not sure how to do it.

https://www.shacknews.com/article/114246/ghost-recon-breakpoint-pc-keybindings-xbox-one-ps4-controls

Scroll down a little bit. This might be helpful. The interface and menus definitely could stand to be more intuitive.
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I can't tag enemies either. The binoculars are in my inventory (strangely it shows up as a consumable) but not visible on the item wheel.
 
I ended up re-starting the game, the skills menu defeated me. I kept trying to scroll down on it, and couldn't figure out how to unlock new skills, so in my confusion I spent all my skill points unlocking classes. I only realized after spending 3 hours in the game that you have to scroll up instead of down to see the actual skills.

I also figured out how to equip the binoculars. It's ridiculous. You equip items on the quick access wheel by clicking on the items already on it, not by clicking on items you want to equip. Completely backwards if you ask me. But with the binoculars it's even worse, as you're only allowed to put it in the bottom left slot, nowhere else. If you click anywhere else it simply doesn't show up as selectable.

Even after figuring out how to equip it I still think it was a stupid idea to relegate the binoculars into a regular item instead of having a dedicated shortcut for them.
On more than one occasion I accidentally thrown a grenade, because that was the selected item instead of the binoculars.
 
M76 said:
I ended up re-starting the game, the skills menu defeated me. I kept trying to scroll down on it, and couldn't figure out how to unlock new skills, so in my confusion I spent all my skill points unlocking classes. I only realized after spending 3 hours in the game that you have to scroll up instead of down to see the actual skills.

I also figured out how to equip the binoculars. It's ridiculous. You equip items on the quick access wheel by clicking on the items already on it, not by clicking on items you want to equip. Completely backwards if you ask me. But with the binoculars it's even worse, as you're only allowed to put it in the bottom left slot, nowhere else. If you click anywhere else it simply doesn't show up as selectable.

Even after figuring out how to equip it I still think it was a stupid idea to relegate the binoculars into a regular item instead of having a dedicated shortcut for them.
On more than one occasion I accidentally thrown a grenade, because that was the selected item instead of the binoculars.
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Thank you for making me feel like less of an idiot. ;) I figured all that out after more trial and error then was necessary and that's the problem with this game. With Wildlands I think we all were able to jump in and play.

I've actually had some good moments in this that have recalled Wildlands because I'm trying to play it that way as much as I can.

Once you got to the cave base and got things off the ground it opened things up some more.

I agree with a lot of your criticisms but I do find if I'm headed towards a mission of any kind I run into things on the map and "things happen." I have some XP boosters and I hit some refinery last night and I'm already at level 9 with Echelon class so I'm getting something done.

For $20 or so it's not bad. I'm able to get what I want out of it but some of this lack of intuitiveness is just inexcusable. If it wasn't broke, don't fix it.
 
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Q-BZ said:
Thank you for making me feel like less of an idiot. ;) I figured all that out after more trial and error then was necessary and that's the problem with this game. With Wildlands I think we all were able to jump in and play.

I've actually had some good moments in this that have recalled Wildlands because I'm trying to play it that way as much as I can.

Once you got to the cave base and got things off the ground it opened things up some more.

I agree with a lot of your criticisms but I do find if I'm headed towards a mission of any kind I run into things on the map and "things happen." I have some XP boosters and I hit some refinery last night and I'm already at level 9 with Echelon class so I'm getting something done.

For $20 or so it's not bad. I'm able to get what I want out of it but some of this lack of intuitiveness is just inexcusable. If it wasn't broke, don't fix it.
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What I still can't figure out is how to mark enemies. Is that even possible in immersive mode? I'm still enjoying the core gameplay, but the game is quite a bit more challenging without the ability to tag enemies.

Another thing I find weird is that you can't heal yourself with bandages, unless you're injured. Which is strange, because it actually means that if you set injury to always the game becomes easier as it allows you to refill your health with bandages.

There are lots of bases scattered around the map, but I see no point in clearing them as all you can find is useless items like a new boot to wear, or weapons that are worse than the one you're carrying.
I'm also worried that I might end up clearing bases that will have missions in them later, so I'll have to repeat the same base again, and that would be really annoying.

I did like 2 main story missions so far, and it already says the campaign is 10% complete. If you want you can probably rush trough the main campaign in a few hours.
The game world and the campaign feels much smaller than in wildlands. And much less pretty to look at, they didn't pay as much attention to detail when they built this map.

If Wildlands was the sequel to this it would make sense, because it is better and more complete in so many ways.
 
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Man, they clearly rushed this patch out without playtesting, I'm on a mission that I've tried at least a hundred times now and it is impossible to do. I'm supposed to capture a commander who randomly walks around inside a base with 30-40 soldiers. If I get detected or a dead body is discovered they immediately know where I am, and call reinforcements and the target starts to run away. But I'm not allowed to shoot him, but he's in a vehicle with a gatling gun, and will kill me. If I shoot him the mission fails. If the vehicle is destroyed the mission fails.If he goes farther than 500m away from me the mission fails. Thanks to the game world being a barren wasteland I don't even have a chance of finding a vehicle to give chase. As soon as he gets in the vehicle it's game over. I once managed to stop him by shooting at the tires but then all the fifty soldiers caught up with me from the base.

it is impossible to capture him within the base, because of the random patrols, I cannot clear out the entire base before someone discovers a body.

If I could at least tag enemies to see where the patrols are it might be possible, but tagging is completely broken for me, no items show up on the hud, I can't tag enemies with weapons, binoculars, or even the drone. It's an exercise in frustration. I find the soldier calling reinforcements with the drone then go to have a line of sight, but by then he moves on every freaking time.
 
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I found out that tagging enemies only works if you enable enemy markers in the menu. But that also enables their status markers, so if they are alerted there are immediately flashing exclamation marks shown over all enemies even the ones you didn't tag yet. So that makes the game almost too easy.
 
I think they spent alot more times with Wildlands the way the maps and NPCs this game just feels unrealistic
 
Gave the free play weekend a try and lost interest in this pretty quickly. Loved wildlands this really felt like the division 2 in the woods on easy. I was starting full scale battles with everything I could find in large groups and the only thing that gave me an issue was the swarm of drones.
 
And somehow even the enemy ai is also worse than in wildlands. It seems the AI only has two states in this game: Patrolling on a route, or rushing you. That's what all of them do, except for snipers, those are the only ones who don't try to rush you.
They can't even climb a ladder, If I'm on top of a tower, they swarm at the bottom and do nothing but shout. Plus they banter on a loop even when there is only one of them. LOL at first I would look around for the other guy until I realized that no, the game is this shoddy, that enemy soldiers do banter even when they are alone.

At least the main story missions and side missions seem interesting so far.
 
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M76 said:
And somehow even the enemy ai is also worse than in wildlands. It seems the AI only has two states in this game: Patrolling on a route, or rushing you. That's what all of them do, except for snipers, those are the only ones who don't try to rush you.
They can't even climb a ladder, If I'm on top of a tower, they swarm at the bottom and do nothing but shout. Plus they banter on a loop even when there is only one of them. LOL at first I would look around for the other guy until I realized that no, the game is this shoddy, that enemy soldiers do banter even when they are alone.

At least the main story missions and side missions seem interesting so far.
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I've been exploiting that AI when I can although when some of those soldiers with those "super drones" for lack of a better term show up I avoid them because that's crazy. Stealth "skill" kills rack up XP so I try to get as many stealth headshots in as I go along.

I'm just going along on side missions and main missions and any red on the map gets targeted on my way to a destination. I use binoculars although I have learned when I load the game up that it wants to default me on grenades so I always check it. I have my drone up and running and I upgraded it a bit so I'm getting into my Wildlands groove a bit now.

I'm sticking with Echelon class. So far I'm pretty happy with it. I guess the classes just upgrade themselves as we go along and there is nothing we do with it. At least I finally figured how the skills. Geez.
 
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I'm starting to enjoy the game more now than when I started out. Its saving grace is that I'm a sucker for abandoned bases and cold war relics. And the map is littered with those. Plus you can acquire pretty involved side missions from random NPCs around the map. So far I'm picking up more missions than I can complete. I haven't even progressed in the main campaign for hours.

The most annoying bit is the spy drones and random patrols. I was trying to acquire a mission and I kept being interrupted either by a patrol or a drone, because the mission only starts if you finish the conversation and this npc just wouldn't shut up.
 
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M76 said:
So I started playing the game, and this way it is much better, but the helicopter is a joke, the physics is so simplistic compared to wildlands quasy realistic flight model, that I'd rather walk an hour than fly a minute in the game.
The other issue is the completely barren land, there is literally nothing on huge parts of the map, no civilians, no traffic, and thus no way to acquire a vehicle. If you loose your ride in an area like that you can walk for a long time before you find anything else.

For all intents and purposes the game is still two steps back from wildlands, but at least now it's not total looter shooter garbage.

For 20 it's not that bad, but it definitely isn't worth a cent more.
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There is a quick travel system.
 
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VF31Tomcatters said:
YOu can spawn vehicles though, it is kind of a pain in the ass having to spawn a vehicle each time you travel between campsites though.
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I have not found that option. It's certainly not in the campsite menu.
 
M76 said:
I have not found that option. It's certainly not in the campsite menu.
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It absolutely is. "Garage" is the setting. All you have to do is select a vehicle and it will spawn every time you use the bivouac.

The patch and Ghost experience makes the game a lot more like Wildlands. Unfortunately, the menus are still beyond atrocious. They were clearly built around a looter shooter design. They just tacked the new stuff onto it and it's an even bigger mess than it was before the update. That said, it many ways its an improvement over Wildlands. In some ways, it's a step backwards. Willands had more guns and far better customization options for your loadout and individual weapons. The environment was more fun due to the massive civilian population and different factions. I like the environment of Breakpoint, but the lack of NPC's makes it feel as though everything was abandoned.

There are story reasons for this, but the net result is you feel even more alone. You also have a much harder time finding vehicles. Even in the settlements its a problem. It seems few people in those cities drive. In any case, the missions are generally a bit better and the story is presented better than it was in Wildlands. It's a shame the menus for everything are such a clusterfuck. To those speaking about the game being buggy, it's way ahead of Wildlands on that front. Wildlands was almost unplayable at launch. It was a full year or so after launch that the game got totally unfucked. This game has issues, but I've experienced far less of them than I did out of Wildlands.
 
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Actually if you play on realistic or whatever the setting is called in ghost experience, then there is no garage in the biouvacs.
 
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Dan_D said:
I'm not doing that.
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Hell no me either.

I used Immersive for now as a base and made some adjustments out of that. I'm on whatever the game considers normal difficulty. I forget what they call it off the top of my head.

I still prefer Wildlands but I am able to give myself enough of a similar experience here that I'm enjoying the game overall despite the criticism that I agree with from Dan, M76, etc. I am able to get what I want out of it.

I'm a little confused on how to rank up classes?
 
Hey, did they push an update to the game today? Something weird is going on.
Yesterday I didn't even have a minimap at all, today it appeared and shows every loot and location even ones didn't yet discover.
Until now the main map didn't show enemies, not even the tagged ones. Today every enemy patrol is a flashing red zone on it. How do I turn it off?
It kind of takes away what little challenge the game offers if I know every enemy troop movement.
The minimap I could turn off pretty easily. But I don't know what causes the game to reveal enemy patrols on the map.
 
Dan_D said:
I'm not doing that.
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It is better for immersion if I have to scavenge for vehicles rather than fast traveling to a camp and spawning one in the middle of a forest.
 
Q-BZ said:
I'm a little confused on how to rank up classes?
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It seems to me that class rank increases by doing specific challenges related to that class. For example I play as a sharpshooter and that required 15 headshots and using the armor piercing ability for the first rank upgrade, but haven't been paying any attention to it since and now I'm rank 7 or sg.
 
Q-BZ said:
https://guides.gamepressure.com/tom-clancys-ghost-recon-breakpoint/guide.asp?ID=52130

I'm going to take a chopper and start flying around towards the smoke pillars going up into the air because that will unlock bivouacs quickly if I fly low.
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I found the smoke pillars extremely misleading. Sometimes they seem like they are right next to you, then it turns out they are two regions away from you. I can't even decide which one is closer when I see multiple ones.
At this point I don't even bother to try and reach them, I unlock biouvacs almost exclusively trough intel. I always choose the biouvac option when available.
 
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M76 said:
I found the smoke pillars extremely misleading. Sometimes they seem like they are right next to you, then it turns out they are two regions away from you. I can't even decide which one is closer when I see multiple ones.
At this point I don't even bother to try and reach them, I unlock biouvacs almost exclusively trough intel. I always choose the biouvac option when available.
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I do both. They are picky, though. I spent 15 minutes with a chopper and I flew low enough and got a good number of them on my way to new missions but there were a few where I had to hover and get a little lower. It does help. It all adds up.
 
Willands vs. Breakpoint

Introduction and Concept

The truth is, Breakpoint is in many ways a step backwards from Willands. Many of us have noticed this. It does take some steps forward, but it's hard to praise the game for them when they seem like small things compared to the steps backwards, which are much bigger and more impactful. With the patch, it's a good game, but not as good as Wildlands was/is. There is no doubt the game launched in a poor state. That's not really the issue though. The real problem stems from the design choices which were perceived as being greed based more than anything. The looter shooter mechanics designed to make the game more like the Division 2 or Destiny 2, were not well received by the Ghost Recon fanbase. This includes me. I play Destiny 2 enough as it is. I don't need a second looter shooter on my hands.

As a looter shooter, the game is an utter failure. There isn't enough content to keep the game alive as that type of game. You need a release schedule similar to what Destiny 2 or an MMO has in order to keep people playing the game that way. We've seen no gear score increases, no additional raids or anything like that. There is no end game content beyond one raid and PvP. That's just not enough to keep people interested even if they do like looter shooters. People played the crap out of Wildlands and used their cash shop plenty. So it's no wonder why this was seen as being greedy. I won't rehash the cash shop controversies either. That's played out. I will say that Breakpoint's near 180 on that has been nice. The cash shop still exists, but it isn't in your face and there is very little in the cash shop that isn't available in game for earned "Skell" currency. You acquire this by completing missions.

Design

The first major problem with Breakpoint as it stands now are the menus. You'd think content matters more, but the thing is you use menus allot. It's how you manage missions, customize your characters appearance, craft, select vehicles, navigate the world and so on. Even changing your loadout is daunting in the Ghost Experience mode as "sort by type of weapon" doesn't work at all. You have a single selection column of some 60+ weapons all mixed in. Sorting by name works to an extent, but it's still a chore to navigate. Customization of weapons is nice, but not nearly as good as it was in Wildlands. Above all the menu issues, the weapon customization menu behing absolutely fucking awful is the one that impacts you the most. Much of the time you can use the excuse of "They were designed around the looter shooter version of the game" but that doesn't track here. Even in their original form they were a mess. However, props to including very PC centric menu options and a great deal of customization.

The class system I think works well, but the menus for it are awful if this thread is any indicator of that. People have a hard time figuring out the basics of allocating skill points. This was easy in Wildlands. I like the class challenges as well because it forces you to perhaps alter your play style a bit to complete them. I don't do that much stealth killing via melee kills. However, I had to change that in order to complete some of the challenges. I found it entertaining. This can be fun and rewarding, even though there will be occasional instances of frustration. Aside from that, I think the class system is arbitrary and is there primarily because of the RPG / Looter shooter design the game shipped with originally. You can switch between these classes at will, but you end up being locked into the specific perk set of each class. It's a design that I don't really think needs to be in the game. I know why its there but it's another difference between Wildlands and Breakpoint. It's another example of Breakpoint's legacy as a looter shooter originally.

The game gives you the feeling that they did a rough import of a pre-alpha version of Wildlands and then re-engineered the game into a looter shooter, than did a hack job of turning it back into the same kind of game Wildlands was. Some of the same problems Wildlands has are present in this game, further supporting that conclusion. Some of the same sound bugs and other problems are present. The gameplay itself largely backs this idea up as well. I'm not sure it really was based off an alpha of Wildlands so much, but its clearly built off of Wildlands rather than being a new game built from scratch. In many ways its both too similar to Wildlands and too sloppy in design and technical areas to be anything else.

The best example of how the menus are messed up is with character customization. The feature itself is rather comprehensive, but in the Ghost Experience mode, you no longer have appearance and gear for the character as separate things. The appearance customization stuff is split up in an odd way. For example: You change your hat, vest, pants, gloves and boots in one menu and NVG's, glasses, earpiece and shirt in another. There is no reason for this and there never was. You can at least preview stuff you don't have so you can choose to pursue it in the game world.

Gameplay / Combat

The general combat and gameplay is pretty much like Wildlands. Movement, cover and shooting mechanics seem a bit more fine tuned. However, the difference isn't massive. Breakpoint feels slightly faster and more precise. Bullet drop physics were modified to be less intrusive and less unrealistic. However, you can no longer shoot through cover with sniper rifles for the most part. Some structures can be shot through but most can't. For example: In Wildlands I would shoot snipers in towers through cover all the time. In Breakpoint you simply cannot do this. As a result of cover penetration and vehicle damage working differently in this game, sniper rifles have almost no advantage over a DMR. In fact, it's almost worth sticking with a DMR rather than a sniper rifle. a MK14 EBR allows you to double tap targets or to take out two or three in rapid succession before they alert the base. A traditional sniper rifle fires too slowly in this game for that. Even a semi-auto like the Barrett M82 has been slowed down to make them fire about the same rate as a bolt action.

You still can't shoot through leaves or shrubberies, which is retarded. I do like the fence breaching mechanic, but the item wheel is stupid. You no longer have a dedicated hot key for throwing a grenade which is a huge step backward. It feels like a case of consolitis. There are also crafting and consumables, etc. I don't want to get too deep into it, but most of this feels tacked on and even optional. The preparations menu is for buffing yourself. It's an RPG mechanic that I don't really want in the game. I do like the injury system though. It can be both fun and entertaining. Thanks to the Ghost Experience mode, you can decide how intrusive you want this to be. Various perks and skills modify this system as well, so you have to keep that in mind. You can also trade consumables with your party if you have one, which is a nice touch even though you don't really get to use it. At the bivouac you get to see various animations of Nomad doing these things which are sometimes entertaining. Healing yourself there by pulling a bullet out of a wound with a dirty multi-tool is always a good time. It's not a perfect system animation wise and the incurred injuries from falls are all RNG based. Animation wise, you might be limping, but bandage your arm instead.

As I'll get into shortly, for some enemy types DPS ends up being all that matters which renders some guns and even whole classes largely redundant or useless. So the weapons variety doesn't feel genuine. There is a lot less variety than in Wildlands as well.

Gameplay / General

There isn't much to talk about here, but there are some changes. There are now base jumping platforms which mostly get you killed. Falling in water hurts, but you can survive pretty high drops into it. Health regenerates, but only to a point. If you are injured, those bars don't regenerate. You have to give yourself medical attention. You can't bail out of a moving gun ship reliably as the wing will hit you and kill you. The canteen mechanic only works if your stamina regeneration is set to take a really long time. The limited slots on the item wheel are stupid. I don't like the redundancy in it either. You can end up with MK1, 2 and 3 versions of an item. It would make more sense to simply replace them with the newer one. When you level a gun to its max, all versions of that gun are at max level. For some reason, with items it isn't like that.

Weapon choice really falters here. I'd have been fine with a more limited selection of weapons as Wildlands almost has too damn many. I believe Ubisoft did this for balancing reasons. Balance is a mess, but I'll get to that later as it pairs down your viable options even more making most guns worthless. For actual customization, in Wildlands we could customize stocks, barrel length, various attachments, we had far more color customizations and locations for them. We also had three or four different underbarrel grenade launchers. For example, gun people like myself could put the matching HK grenade launcher on the G36 or the correct Combloc launcher on an AK. If you want to do that in Breakpoint you are out of luck. All under barrel launchers are M203's. So instead of four or more, we have one. We have the same amount of optics to choose from I believe. There are also plenty of muzzle devices. However, we can no longer suppress shotguns for the most part, with rare exceptions. You also can't suppress any LMG even though you could in Wildlands. In Wildlands you could use extended magazines in the handguns. You cannot do so in Breakpoint.
 
Gameplay / Weapons

Sniper Rifles

Recoil on sniper rifles is more significant than it was in Wildlands but that's the only weapon type for the most part that is. Recoil is easier to manage I think to make the game more accessible. Either that, or its a design element of Ghost Experience. I don't remember it working that way back before the patch. Sniper rifles in Wildlands also vastly outranged their DMR counterparts but that's not really the case here. Ranges on firearms are reduced from Wildlands so you can't take shots out to 600+ meters the way you used to. Basically, your shooting within about 400m most of the time and you don't really have to content with bullet drop. Frankly, bullet drop in Wildlands was excessive and annoying. I think a middle ground between the two would have worked better. Again, the end result is that sniper rifles as a class of weapon are not as useful as they were in Wildlands. There are few reasons to opt for one. They are all slow, barely out range a DMR and their only real benefit is that they can synergize with some perks making them the option to use over a DMR. The only other real benefit I can think of is that they do hit harder on an alerted enemy.

Both Breakpoint and Wildlands have a dynamic damage system for lack of knowing its proper terminology. Basically, if you shoot an enemy that doesn't see you or isn't fully alerted to your presence, you hit them for more damage. At that point, a DMR and a sniper rifle or even a pistol are pretty much equal. However, when alerted their damage resistance increases and a sniper rifle is still capable of one shot kills where as the DMR will require multiple hits to drop the same enemy. A head shot is still generally a head shot, so head hits are usually one shot kills. Some enemies have bullet resistant helmets, so those are two taps from a sniper rifle and more from a DMR.

On the subject of balance, we run into a huge problem that extends to all classes in which case only one or two choices are viable options. The rest, end up being in the way of your loadout selection in the awful menus. For the sniper class, the Barrett hits the hardest, but the TAC-50 has the most range. Against human targets, raw damage doesn't matter much. However, where DPS comes into play wtih all weapon classes is when fighting drone units or auto-turrets. When fighting these, damage and fire rate are your primary considerations. That basically makes the TAC-50 and the Barrett the go to guns. The HTI is probably viable as well, but its likely you'll acquire the other two first anyway unless you use the cash shop to unlock something different early.

ASR (Assault Rifles)

Assault rifles are the general workhorse of the game and a fantastic option when you get into trouble and have to go loud. Due to my lack of patience for stealth mechanics I do this regularly. There are a lot of options in this class, however, you can pretty much ignore most of them. This is the class with the most customization options and the only one that allows for the under barrel grenade launcher to be used. Unfortunately, the launcher is slightly underwhelming against anything but vehicles. There is lots of splash damage, but little direct damage against a turret or a wheeled drone like the Behemoth and its smaller variant. They do have a stun effect on the Behemoth though. So, they have their place in the arsenal.

Assault rifles are way easier to control than they were in Wildlands. Perhaps, too easy. Range is good with these and they suffer from no real bullet drop at the normal ranges you would use these. Unfortunately, damage and fire rate from one end of the spectrum to the other backs you into a corner on which to use. Again, against humans, the damage and fire rate matter very little. You can almost choose what you like and go with that. Except for when fighting drones. When dealing with drones and auto-turrets, DPS is what matters. For that you need high damage per shot and a high fire rate. Again, this paints you into a corner. You end up getting stuck with the M4A1 or the M4A1 Tactical. These have the highest fire rate of all ASR's and the most damage per shot relative to their high fire rate. Against drones, the M4A1 is a beast. It allows you to shred those targets like nothing else in the game short of an LMG. In fact, the M4A1 out DPS'es basically everything in the game. The trade off is that it can get away from you recoil wise. It takes a little time to master the weapon, but when you do it's basically deadly for all situations. There is also few reasons to opt for anything else. This is unfortunate, as I would like to use something else for fun.

There is another way to go and that's for guns that have lower damage, lower fire rates, but better handling, recoil, accuracy and range characteristics. Basically, this leaves you with the Bren 805 and the HK G36C. Those two basically out class everything on those fronts. Their damage is low per shot but their fire rates are higher than most. This makes them fun and viable against soft targets. They are very controllable under sustained fire, but have enough fire rate to offset their shit damage. Guns like the AK-47, AK-74, Tavor, and others have a low damage per shot and a piss poor fire rate that makes them poor choices over all. You can still use them somewhat effectively against human targets, but when fighting Wolves (elite soldiers) or drones, they are utterly worthless. I could go gun by gun here, but it would make this post longer than it already is. Suffice it to say, the M4A1 for DPS and the G36 or Bren 805 for general play, but understand you will suffer when fighting against some enemy types.

SMG (Submachine Guns)

I hate SMG's in most games because they tend to suffer all the weaknesses of real SMG's without offering any of their strengths as the value in an SMG in the real world doesn't translate well to game mechanics. Ghost Recon is no different in this regard. The class isn't by itself useless, but similar to the real world, ASR's as a class can do everything SMG's can really do and generally do it better. These weapons are for the most part highly controllable, but do less damage. They tend to have low damage per shot and high fire rates. Unfortunately their range suffers. However, because the balance is way off, there are some standouts in the class. The MP5 is right behind the M4A1 in everything but range. It's fire rate and relatively high damage per shot make it viable for everything. Even drone shredding. However, as I said range suffers and you can't put a grenade launcher on it making it second to the M4A1. That said, I do use it just to change things up a bit from time to time.

Another stand out is the Vector. The Vector has a ridiculous fire rate and relatively high damage per shot. It's possibly even better DPS than the M4A1, but pistol ammo pickups are less common and therefore keeping it fed is harder to do. The CZ-Scorpion EVO is similar in this regard, but its a bit easier to feed, though its worse than the Vector in every way. Everything else but these three options I mentioned are pretty much non-starters. Too weak, too short range, etc.

STG (Shotguns)

The shotgun class is an area where the game differs not only from Wildlands, but every game I've ever played where shotguns are featured. For some reason game developers don't ever shoot shotguns and seem to think shotguns have a maximum range of about 10 feet and that they have a 20" spread at that distance. (That's right Bungie, I'm thinking of YOU.) For those of you who have used shotguns in real life for any purpose, you know this isn't how they work. Shotguns in Breakpoint actually work at distances comparable to what they do in real life. Unfortunately, you don't have the option for slug ammunition to take them even further, but they do work refreshingly well. Oddly, the devs really got this class right despite not knowing shit about guns (I'll get to that). The shotgun is highly effective at close quarters and even some distance. As a weapon class compared to others it suffers from lower ammunition counts, longer reload times and more recoil. Just as they do in real life. The only place that Wildlands was better was matching their actual fire rates to the guns in real life. Sadly, in Breakpoint, they all fire much slower than they should. This seems like an obvious balancing strategy more than anything. There are far fewer to choose from in this game than in Wildlands which is disappointing. At least they are fun to use and useful. They can shred drones too, but sadly, you need the right combination of perks to make this happen.

DMR (Designated Marksman Rifles)

In both real life and in Ghost Recon, a DMR falls in between an assault rifle and a sniper rifle. It gives you the ability to do either job, just not as well as the dedicated tool. While that sounds bad, the in between realm makes them very nice for multi-target engagement at longer distances than an ASR, but shorter ranges than a dedicated sniper. If you need to clear a base, you'd be surprised how well these work at a decent range. Where as with a sniper, engaging more than two targets rapidly is a bad idea, it's totally doable with a DMR if you can shoot. If you get cornered, the right setup can allow you to fight up close without being hugely disadvantaged or swapping weapons. The G28 and MK14 EBR work very well here and are the two standouts. As far as I am concerned, the MK14 EBR rules this class. When equipped with a sniper scope, it works like a sniper rifle but deploys and fires far more quickly. It simply doesn't synergize with sniper perks or do as much raw damage, but its fire rate more than makes up for it. This is largely my go to sniper rifle. It also works well as a primary weapon if you don't want or feel like you need a grenade launcher. The dual range sight makes it an ideal primary, allowing for target engagement at close and medium ranges very easily. Like its real life counterpart, it will get away from you in full auto. That's largely only useful at close range against specific targets like drones and turrets. It shreds those.

As I said in the sniper rifle section, the DMR largely makes sniper rifles redundant at most ranges. The game simply doesn't allow you to engage targets far enough away for the sniper rifle to do better. In Wildlands, the two had more differentiation and early on, you could use a DMR for sniper work, but with Tier One mode enabled, the damage fell off too quickly and made the sniper rifle essential for killing targets at longer ranges. The bullet drop off was primarily responsible for this, but so was damage. In Breakpoint, that's not so.

Grenade Launchers

Beyond the M203 I've already discussed, there is one dedicated grenade launcher. It's the one from the Terminator mission and it's great for killing large drones, turrets or vehicles. It's also fantastic at wearing down Terminators. So there is that. You get it from completing the Terminator mission and the weapon is as far as I know, the only one in the game. It's got the same general failings as the M203. The only reason it works better is due to its rapid fire nature and six round drum magazine. Wildlands didn't have a dedicated grenade launcher that I can recall, so I can't make any comparison to that game. It's useful and worth getting. I typically use it for killing Behemoth drones and occasionally anti-vehicle work when I can anticipate it.

Vehicle Based Mini-Guns

In Wildlands, the vehicle based mini-gun was almost useless. It's damage was pathetic and its accuracy past the shortest ranges made them even more worthless. This is not the case with Breakpoint. The vehicle mounted mini-guns are beastly. They allow you to shred human and vehicle targets alike. They also tear apart drones or anything else. They even strip a Terminator's health leaving their power core exposed. Only the MK14 Termination gun can kill one, but the mini-gun knocks them down and can hold them off indefinitely.

Gameplay / Vehicles

When it comes to vehicles, the game is vastly improved compared to Wildlands. All classes of vehicle handle better and are far easier to use except for the helicopters. While I think some people in this thread (and you know who you are) are drama queens about it making claims that they are hard to fly, useless or whatever there are valid complaints. They are too sensitive and way too touchy. They are more resilient to propeller damage which is nice, but setting the smaller ones down too hard breaks the glass, sets off alarms and makes them smoke. It's stupid.

The biggest problem with vehicles is an incidental one. That is that they just aren't around due to the way the game is designed. Due to the way the environment is built you need them to get around, but you can't spawn them the way you did in Wildlands. Even in the city vehicles are a rarity. In Bolivia you waited seconds for a civilian to pass by that you could car jack. Here, it's always a military vehicle or a civilian vehicle with a soldier in it. Even these are few and far between unless you don't need one, then you get four at your position no matter what. Damage to tires actually matters now. You can feel it when it happens. Shooting tires also now forces the NPC drivers to stop where it didn't in Wildlands. As I said, for ground vehicles everything was improved. For air vehicles, it was the opposite. Planes also really don't exist. I've found two on the island, but that's it. I'm mostly done with the game at the time of this writing.

Gameplay / AI

The game's AI is a bit of a step backwards. I have to agree with most of the comments on that. It really is sad sometimes. What I will disagree with are the comments about rushing as they did that in Wildlands. Most units do this aside from snipers. They do use cover, but not as effectively as in Wildlands. Eventually, they always rush you and they do always try and flank you or get behind you. I won't get into all the unit types and their behavior as that's daunting and unnecessary, but it's true they don't climb ladders and they talk to themselves. They could be talking over the radio and that's even implied at times. It is weird to hear one guy just talking to himself though.

What is annoying are the civilian NPC's. Though they are relatively rare compared to Wildlands, they are annoying as hell. They whine about you being in their personal space and tell you to "slow your roll" after you've killed an entire platoon of mercs. Some cower and cry about not wanting to die, but there are just as many Karens that want to speak to your manager when you walk in the door. They are uptight annoying, and somewhat unrealistic.
 
Gameplay / Missions

I will say that there are a variety of missions and mission types. The story missions are highly varied and are well presented with cut scenes and dialog. It's surprising given the fact that Nomad is largley always alone. That said, many side missions are annoying as they are little more than fetch quests. This is even true of the orange plot missions, which are story missions that don't relate to the plot. Faction missions are the green ones and these are even more mundane but tend to go much faster. In any case, there are some really good ones and the devs do often disguise some of them in such a way as you don't realize they are fetch quests at the time. Some are of course, obvious as hell but many are done well enough and don't seem out of place. Of course, this varies as there is one such mission where this guy asks you to bring him supplies to make a fishing lure as if your his goddamn personal Amazon.com and you have nothing better to do but bring him shiny crap for catching fish. It's an early mission and most aren't like that.

NPC dialog from quest givers is sort of a mixed bag but airs on the positive side of things. That is, the game establishes personalities for these people fairly quickly and many of them are quite memorable. As are their missions. You get a couple middle aged cougars that flirt with you, to a teenage brat who hates her mother to a psycho path that has a dead body in his basement that he tortured with a hammer and a cordless drill. You get real impressions of the character's personalities. You can tell when someone is a total whacko who doesn't know what planet he's on to a guy who clearly only drinks craft beer and makes his own soap to another guy who makes his own tooth paste so the government can't track him.

Most of the missions are decently entertaining with a few duds here and there. You can also go straight for the main story and say screw the rest, or do side missions until there are none left. If you do that, be prepared because there are a ton of them.

Gameplay / Environment

Here is where I will both praise and slam the game at the same time. Many of the game's problems stem from the environmental design. The good thing is that the game's environment is about as diverse as Bolivia's despite comments from some people to the contrary. All the terrain types are represented here. You also have sprawling urban settings to suburbs and of course, creepy abandoned shacks in the woods. It's a place for the rich, so there isn't as much poverty stricken areas as in Bolivia, so there is that. The environment is enormous and far bigger than you'd think by looking at the map or from the game's early missions.

The biggest problem is the lack of population. Story wise, the island is under martial law and people aren't out in the streets. This would be fine, but the game's design doesn't really sell you on that either. Homesteads are almost always shacks which look abandoned for years. There are no cars, people aren't shut in their homes where you can see them, but not reach them. The cities are vacant and there are almost no cars. People either seem to walk or use mass transit. The low population means that finding vehicles to traverse the island is a bigger pain than it should be. The design almost forces you to fast travel every where and in the beginning of the game, you really need to get a helicopter right away and fly over everything to unlock the fast travel points. Its tedious and annoying, but its really beneficial. Even so, you'll find yourself running around in a desolate place trying to find a car or a helicopter more than you should. You can't car jack without killing, waiting by the road could see you there standing 10 or 20 minutes without encountering a vehicle. It's crazy. Animal life is more prevalent, but not humans so the island feels abandoned despite dialog to the contrary. It's the biggest problem with the game's environment compared to Wildlands.

Interacting with the world is pretty much like Wildlands. You can climb or cross most things, albeit not as well. Wildlands was better in this regard. Walking vertically either down or up is more realistic and generally done better, but if you want to climb a rock, it might not work as well as it did in the previous game. I don't understand that, but that's how it is. I do like the prone camo mechanic though. I think it adds to the immersion of the game and it allows you to avoid enemies allot of the time. You can also move dead bodies now and help avoid detection. You can shove them into car trunks or back seats if you want to. This mechanic extends to other players as well.

Technical Execution

Graphically, Breakpoint is a slight improvement on Wildlands. Some people suggested early on that this wasn't the case and Wildlands was better looking. There are videos debunking that so I won't get too much into it but I will say there are a few instances where one or two things here or there do look better in Wildlands. Overall, it's a slight improvement that's hardly worth talking about. Unless you play them back to back, I doubt you'd see the difference. Even then, you might not. I will say that the amount of graphical options we get is nice. The game used to run badly, but this has been improved over time via the patches. The additional of Vulkan API support was huge. Now the game is playable at 4K on a GeForce RTX 2080 Super at "Very High" settings. To go to "Ultimate" you probably need a GeForce RTX 2080 Ti at 4K. At 3440x1440, I get pretty good frame rates on Ultimate. I don't think I've seen it drop below 70FPS on Ultimate but usually I'm north of 100FPS on the rare times I've pulled up the display for that. I like the benchmarking tools and the information you can bring up in the HUD for this stuff.

The game has been stable for me. Post launch, I haven't had any issues with crashing to desktop or the game locking up. I have seen other people have those issues from time to time, but its certainly no worse than Wildlands and way better than that game at launch. Probably by this time in its life cycle as well. There are still some various game play and graphical glitches I thought I should mention. Weapon swap cases sometimes quit telling you whats in them. This was confirmed by multiple people. Occasionally, you'll try to cross a gap and end up in the gap. Sometimes you have to fast travel out of it. Sometimes a vehicle will appear on someone else's screen during a co-op game and not yours. If it doesn't show for you, you can't access it. This leads to some funny glitches where someone drives around or flys in an invisible vehicle or they look like they are ice skating everywhere. Co-Op works well, but occasionally there are disconnects and drop offs. Not Destiny 2 bad, but it happens.
 
That's multiple walls of text, and I didn't read all of it, but I did notice your snide remark, and I have to counter it. I never said helicopters were hard to fly in the game, I said they were so terriblle that I didn't even want to fly.
It's so unrealistic that it yanks me out of immersion and makes me cry about how much better it was in wildlands. So I'd rather avoid helicopters and since planes are nonexistent I'd rather not fly in the game except for parachuting off cliffs.

I have to disagree about cars as well. They are also steps back from widlands. It was already pretty bad in that, but breakpoint is even more unrealistic.
And no I don't mean they are hard to control, they are easier to control. But EASIER doesn't equal BETTER.
From a quasi realistic tactical shooter I expect realism in terms of driving as well. And accessibility is not an excuse, if Mafia could get away with realistic car physics anything can.
 
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