*Spoiler Free*

Ghost Recon: Wildlands is the next third person, tactical, cover based shooter, which involves marking enemies with drones and synchronised shots, from Ubitsoft and Tom Clancy (who has been dead since 2013, so I am not 100% how he is still making games).
As you can tell from that opening sentence, this game is nothing you haven’t seen before. All of the mechanics that you have come to expect from a Ghost Recon game (or most Tom Clancy games; The Division, Rainbow Six, etc) and does not do anything overly new to push the boat out in that aspect. The thing that make Wildlands stand out against the rest are the co-op campaign and the fact that you can approach this game however you want. That isn’t just in the sense that you can either go in stealthily or guns-blazing, or a mixture of the two – which this game has, what I mean is that you can choose whatever area of the game you want to go to and complete missions there before moving onto the next one. Let me explain…

So, ditching the futuristic battle grounds of the previous entry; which was a linear co-op third person shooter, Wildlands follows a group of a four man covert squad of elite soldiers who are sent into Bolivia to join forces with the local Resistance militia and deal with a large Mexican cartel who have taken over the country (or at least this section of the country) with an enormous and beautifully looking open-world.
The idea is that you create your own character (using the basic customising features you have come to expect from these types of games, with more you can unlock at a later date), and up to three friends or three bots, must bring the cartel down one man (or woman) at a time. Starting at the smallish fish in the criminal network, you must take down each of the four main organisations within the cart; Security, Influence, Smuggling, and Protection, each containing their own boss, under-boss, and then five or six other people involved (Let’s call them ‘Small-Fries’ for the purpose of this review). All of this leads you to having a crack at the big kahuna himself and destroying the cartel once and for all.

That is not a spoiler. The game is very clear of this from the get-go, and other than one little twist near the end if you have brought down all 100% of the other small-fries, then the plot of the game never changes.
This is an issue that these types of games have when one of their mechanics allows you to go wherever you want and complete the small-fry missions in any order (to an extent). The story never really has enough to grip you. You are there to stop the bad guys. That is it.

You see how you would approach the game is that you would choose one of 22 or so regions of the map (that range from salt plains, forests, hills, snowy mountains) and as soon as you arrive there, you will receive a radio call from your boss relating to one of the small-fries who operate in that area. Only one operates in an area, so that small-fry is the boss of that region, if you will. You will then need to go to various intel locations (shown on the map) and read documents, take photos, hack a computer, or interrogate someone, to reveal the story missions for that region. Of course you do not do this yourself, you simply just walk up to the objective and press the action button on it for the in-game character to do the cool hacking or photographing stuff while you sit there and watch.

As you go through the motions, you will then unlock the story missions for this area. You can either stop doing this once you have a mission, or continue on and unlock them all. It is interesting as some story missions require a previous one to unlock before you can complete it, and sometimes these involve taking down the small-fry of that region, leaving a couple of story missions for that area still to be done, even though the target has been taken out (either killed or captured, but this is the game’s choice, not yours unfortunately).
These small-fry characters are probably the best aspect of the game. They each have their own little intro movie to watch and have their own completely different personality. For example; one small-fry target are actually two lovers who are the main boss’ interrogators and their love of torture is expressed through their sexual desires. Another is in charge of disposing of the bodies of the cartel’s victims in barrels, but he is not quite all there, so he comes across almost childish. Another is a playboy who hosts fabulous parties on lakeside complexes and mansions. They are all really different from one another. Each one brings a little something different to the story and I was eager to see who the next one would be.
The only issue I have with this is that the under-bosses and the bosses, for each of the four sections of the organisation, only have one mission themselves. It would have been good if these too had four or five missions as well to work your way to their doorstep, but you can pretty much take them out as soon as you have unlocked them in a single mission. To unlock these guys you need to have completely at least half of the small-fry areas for that section of the criminal organisation. So technically you can bring down the cartel’s security section, without actually defeating all of the people in the security section.

I really did enjoy this aspect of the game as I did feel as if I was actually making a dent in the cartel, if only from the story side of things. A really missed opportunity would have been if each of them hindered the cartel in a game play aspect. For example; if you are not hounded by the cartel themselves, then you are fighting against the Unidad (the Bolivian military who are in the pockets of the cartel). These guys are relentless and act similar to the police in Grand Theft Auto. You receive a little icon in the top corner to tell you your wanted level, and the higher up it goes, the more they come after you. Your only bet is to the run away and live to fight another day.
Anyway, one small-fry is their head huncho. I would have loved it if when you finally took him out, there would be less Unidad hanging around, but this was never the case. When taking out other small-fries, then the cartel could have been carrying weaker weapons, or have less vehicles, or wear less body armour, maybe the harder enemies are less frequent. Of course this would have made the game easier. It works aesthetically as you can imagine that bringing down a criminal organisation piece by piece would actually cause them to become less equipped and not as well trained. The game could have brought in another group to fight against to counter this.

The missions themselves can be a little repetitive. There are probably around six different types, but the locations and how you approach them can make them feel unique. Effectively you will be either stealthily going into a location to gather intel, or free a prisoner, or going in guns blazing and shooting everyone. Of course a good combo of this is the best way to play it.
Nothing beat my friend dropping me onto a hill and then dropping another at one entrance, before landing else where. They then moved in to the enemy compound quietly as I provided over-watch from above. It was something that was truly satisfying. The enemy had no idea we were even there until it was too late.
An alarm can be tripped and so you would need to go in heavy, but that was always the risks you were willing to take by trying to do it ‘properly’.

As I said it is co-op game, meaning that players can jump in and out of your story, and you can jump into theirs. Any progress you have earned in someone else’s story carries over to yours. Rather than the MMO/Destiny style approach that The Division had, this co-op mode feels more like a campaign, rather than a skirmish mission that is repeated to earn XP.
This was probably the greatest part of this game. If it was not for the co-op aspect of this game, then I would never have bought it. I got the beta and played it with a couple of friends, and from that moment on, we were hooked. When the game finally did come out, we played it every night from 10pm until half 12 / 1 o’clock. We must have clocked around sixty hours altogether, maybe more, so we definitely did get our money’s worth from it. Part of that was the fact that I did not want to miss out. The other two people I was going through the campaign with are on more than I, but thankfully they would spend the time exploring the maps and unlocking skills and equipment while they waited for me, not doing any of the story missions.

Each of the regions contain skill points (used to level up your character’s abilities), weapon parts, new weapons, and side-missions. The side-missions range from stealing a plane, holding a position, turning on radio stations, and tagging a convoy to name a few (tagging is just throwing or attaching a strange small tracker on a barrel or vehicle for the Resistance fighters. This cannot be done at any point, only during specific missions/side-missions and on particular objects, fuel barrels, ammo crates, etc, found dotted around the map), which all gives you XP (we will cover in a minute).
All of the above are found by exploring the region and finding intel. From that you can unlock the weapon parts or the side-missions in that area, and these are populated on the map. You simply go to that location and begin the quest or pick up the skill point. It is as simple as there. So thankfully there was enough to keep my group happy and preoccupied when I was not able to attend.

Skills are upgrades for your character. You unlock them through missions, gaining enough XP and advancing your character’s level, or by finding them on the map. They unlock things from having your drone able to detect more people over a larger area, to unlocking new equipment such as C4 and flash-bangs (which strangely unlock really late in the game and never got used once).
The good thing is that even if you have unlocked everything, you can still jump into a friend’s game, who has only just acquired a copy, and join in with them. The enemies do not get any harder, nor does it make the game easier by unlocking everything (to an extent), it simply means that you are better equipped than most to handle the situations that are presented to you. This is similar to the style of Dying Light, whereby the person with the most skills is pretty much just as weak and easy to take down as the person who has only just first jumped into the game. It is just that they have a few more colours to their pallet.
One last thing, while we are on the subject, was that some side-missions unlocked new Resistance abilities. These allowed you to call in vehicles to drive, or Resistance fighters to come and join in with you, as well as recon an area or call in an artillery strike. These become better the more of these side-missions you do, such as being able to call in a helicopter instead of a Jeep. Once you have this ability, you will never drive anywhere again unless it’s absolutely necessary.

The thing I did like about the skills was that if you put a single point in each of the sub-categories of the skill  trees, then you would unlock an epic skill, such as the ability to use your drone to heal allies. Which really do change the way you play the game, as previously you would need to figure out how to get over to your downed friend, and then avoid taking damage whilst reviving them (a classic situation to find yourself in while playing cooperative games).
Of course this could be a double sided sword, as you never really feel it changes that game too much, so your character never feels overpowered for all of your hard work and hours of game play.

I haven’t actually talked much about the game play itself, as I am sure that you know it all by now. If you move close to a bit of wall with your gun pointed out, then you will take cover behind it. You can place C4 and then detonate it, you can use your drone to mark enemies so that you and your team can see where they are exactly, you can carry two main weapons. It is all stuff we have seen before. You hold down LT to aim and press or hold RT to shoot. It’s simple. One analogue stick press is run and the other is melee. As soon as you pick Ghost Recon: Wildlands, you will instantly know how to play it, if you are a fan of first or third person action games.
We as gamers have come to expect this. I played ‘Homefront: The Revolution’ the other week, and the controls were all over the place. I instantly took a dislike to it for that reason (not to mention the game was not anywhere near as good as it should/could have been), but it seems that some developers still want to try and change a tested layout that everyone has come to know. For the last ten years controls of third and first person games have been more or less the same. This is all down to the mechanics themselves and if they play a factor in the game and it’s controls. When that doesn’t matter, then we have to adopt the standard control set-up that everyone knows and loves, otherwise it will simply put people off.

I may have gotten a little side-tracked there. So, the negatives of Wildlands. Other than a few, most of these will be nit-picky. While I really did enjoy this game, I think it was mainly down to the fact that I played it co-op. If it had been a single player game, then there is no way I would have enjoyed it anywhere near as much. In fact I doubt that I would have even bothered playing it. The simple storyline and repetitive missions would have turned me away after a few hours of game play. It can be played solo, but I can not imagine that many people have done so. Not if they had the chance to play online with some friends.
Playing with random people online is another big no-no. I am a little bias to this game as I was in the perfect scenario; I had a group of friends who I knew and wanted to play it tactically and professionally as possible with me. If I did not have that and instead had to play with a bunch of complete randoms that I did not know, including people who did not speak my language or didn’t even have a headset, let alone if I even had the bottle to talk to them tactically over my headset, then I would have just done it solo… but only to the point where I realised that the game was incredibly repetitive and given up.
The vehicles do not handle as good as Grand Theft Auto, which has basically set the bar for this type of game play mechanic. The driving never feels as smooth, nor does the flying as it has done in other similar open world games. Flying a helicopter is a lot more confusing and difficult to get your head around at first as oppose to GTA, and the lack of the RB and LB buttons, which are used to angle the front of the helicopter easier, is greatly noticeable.
There are only about four enemy types in the game. After you have done one mission, you pretty much know what you are going to face for the entirety of the game.
A lot of skills and abilities are useless and unless you are playing a very specific way, which half the time the game does not want you to, then you really won’t get to use them, nor would you want to. Unlocking the Flash-bang so late in the skill tree means that you have unlocked it incredibly late in the game. By then you have already created a work-around for the lack of the Flash-bang (which is usually a common item in these types of games).

You cannot get on the back of a friend’s motorbike, which again is something that you can do in GTA and have done in that for many years. The fact that you cannot do that in a co-op based game seems strange to me. Imagine storming a base or chasing after an escaping target on a motorcycle, as your friend sits on the back and shoots. You most likely will instantly think of a time in GTA online when you did just that!
That is not to say that Wildlands is another GTA clone, but when you have vehicles that look and feel almost identical to that game, it is then that you do start to compare.
Skill points and collectables that your friends pick up need to be picked up by yourself or it doesn’t count in your game.

Leaving that negative until the end would leave you with a bad taste in your mouth for Ghost Recon: Wildlands. It is really not a bad game at all and I personally had loads of fun on it. I was really eager to annoy my partner and get online with my friends with my Turtle Beaches headphones and play every single night for a month.
The only thing is that, as I’ve said before, the stars were aligned and I had the perfect situation going with my group of friends that I was playing with. If I did not have them then I would not have enjoyed this game anywhere near as much as I did. It is unfortunate as I can only really give my own accounts for my time spent playing Wildlands, and playing it tactically with friends, not being afraid of saying “hostile neutralised” or “ready to engage” was what this game was made for.
If you don’t have that then I would suggest getting back on that chopper and evac-ing out ASAP. You simply cannot say “two tangos on the left” to someone you don’t know without feeling like a colossal douche, and it would be just said saying it to yourself as you sit there and play the game solo (even though I have been known to do this).