I actually wasn't even aware of this game, and ended up buying it for around $25, about a year after it came out.
Here is my opinion of the game.
Easily my favorite Tom Clancy game I’ve played since Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, one of my favorite games on the PS4, and possibly one of my top favorite games of all-time.
With a few comparisons to FarCry:
While I love the FarCry games, I’ve found issues with each one that have kind of brought them down a little. One is the fact that once I unlock some of the weapons I really wanted, the game is almost over, and I don’t get much chance to use them (like the Bushman in FC3). It was particularly annoying in FC5 when I ended up (unintentionally) rushing the game. I was rushing to gain ‘Resistance Points’, to unlock weapons, which has the unfortunate side effect of also rushing you to the confrontations with the bosses. It made a somewhat short game feel even shorter.
The gun issue was somewhat addressed by the ability to reset the outposts in FC4 and FC5, now you have more enemies to shoot with your new weapons.
In a recent FC5 update this was fixed when they FINALLY added a “New Game +” mode.
In Ghost Recon: Wildlands, the only thing stopping you from getting the exact weapons you want, when you want them, is finding the location of the case containing the weapon, and any specific attachments you want for it. To locate weapon and accessory cases it’s a matter of interrogating enemies, talking to locals, and finding intel to gain knowledge of these locations. I found this to be more entertaining than the FC5 methods of gaining Resistance Points, and a nice touch to adding some realism and interaction with the people of the country, aside from just shooting them. I also greatly appreciated that this had no effect on the main story, like it does in FC5.
Being a bit impatient, I wanted certain weapons immediately to use while playing the game. With the online community, I was able to find maps that had all of the locations marked. I got the exact weapons and attachments I wanted, almost immediately, and then proceeded to play through the rest, happy as a clam with my weapon choices.
Speaking of weapon choices, the are many weapons to choose from. MANY.
You’ve got all of your standard M4 style rifles, MP5, and AK-47 variants, sniper rifles, shotguns, etc. But also a very nice selection of less common weapons too.
There are also a million ways to customize the weapons, to suit your tastes / needs.
From barrel length, to magazine size, to paint jobs, different configurations for your stocks, grenade launchers, muzzle brakes and suppressors, to foregrips and of course sights.
I’ve always found that being able to make your weapon personalized and tailor it to your own liking / needs, really adds to the experience of these type of games. You aren’t just stuck with whatever weapon the game tells you to use.
I feel the same way about the ability to customize your character as well, and Wildlands has that covered too.
Not since R6:V2 have I seen this level of customization for your character. FC5 tried, but there are only so many tank tops, mullets, and goofy masks I can look at before I get bored.
Wildlands gives you the ability to choose your style of pants, knee pads or not, boots or shoes, shirt, vest, hats and helmets, scarves and hoods, beards and sunglasses, scars and tattoos, backpacks and patches, gloves and hair styles, gender and race, and on and on.
You will find very little about your character that you can’t customize. I personally would like the option to have my pants ‘bloused’ at the boot line, but really that’s an extremely minor gripe.
It’s also neat to see how your vest’s pouch set-up changes, depending on what your primary weapon is.
With a customized character, and a custom weapon set, it feels like you are able to make an actual character to play as, not just some random avatar that the game provides you.
Once you have your character created, the game gives you a wonderful place to use it.
First let’s start with the map size.
It. Is. HUGE.
The FarCry maps have always felt large, as well as some of the GTA maps, but the Wildlands map blows them all away.
Not only is it huge, but it is a gorgeous, and diverse place. Deserts and snowy mountains. Jungles and farmland. Rural and urban.
It has the day and night cycle common to most sandbox games these days, and also has weather systems (rain) that arrive randomly. Sometimes ending as quickly as it came. Sometimes lingering for quite a while. It surprised me the first time I was driving around, and came upon wet ground, from a rain storm that happened before I was even in the area.
These environmental changes have some wonderfully delightful effects too.
At night, enemies will actually go to bed, or go to dinner in the mess hall.
While it’s raining, you can watch the ground get wet and actually create puddles the longer it rains. Rain turns dirt in to mud and makes paved roads slick. Not just in appearance either, but in function. When roads get wet, they are more slick to drive on. When your character in on the ground, in dirt, they get dirty. When they are on the ground, in mud, they get muddy. You can also watch your character get wet, whether from a rain storm or swimming in water. You can watch the rain wash the dirt and mud off of your clothes. You can watch your character dry out in the sun, or watch puddles dry up on the ground. Sometimes the trees are blowing in the wind. Sometimes they aren’t.
There are really an exceptional amount of little details that really help to make the environment feel like a real world.
It’s amazing.
So now you’ve got a great character, in a great world. Time to get to business.
One thing FarCry has exceeded in, is story and character. Particularly with the enemies.
Vas was spectacularly psychotic, Pagan Min was delightfully charismatic while being egotistical and sadistic. Joseph Seed and his brood (while weaker than the previous two) are still a solid representation of religious zealots.
I found El Sueno and his people to be somewhere in between.
Not as strong of a performance as Vas, not as likeable as Pagan Min (though not supposed to be either), but felt more ‘real’ than the Seeds.
They do a great job of portraying exactly what they are supposed to. While not as pleasantly surprising as some other videogame characters, they are not larger than life, because they aren’t supposed to be, and it works.
First thing I’ll say about the actual gameplay, is that I love it.
I’ve always liked third person games, but tend to prefer first person aiming.
Third person is great for running around, and being able to see where you are in relation to obstacles and hazards. It can be difficult sometimes to determine this in first person games.
First person aiming is better because it’s more like lining up a real sight picture, right down the sights.
Wildlands does exactly this.
I really would’ve preferred to have the ability to jump, rather than climb only, but once you get used to that limitation, it’s not as noticeable.
I found driving vehicles to be very fun, and each different vehicle feels, different. Different acceleration, different speeds, different handling… different. Driving also changes if you’ve got a blown tire, or two, or three, or four.
With updates, the helicopters have become fun to fly now too. The original set up was odd and quirky to figure out. The updated handling is exactly what I’ve come to expect from years of playing games with helicopters in them. Much more intuitive and manageable. And once you figure out how to avoid the SAM sites, it’s no problem. Mostly. You WILL get shot down from time to time.
Motorcycles are great fun, but be aware that if you are going full speed and hit something, you will get thrown off the bike and you will die.
While the vehicles overall feel very real, you can drive a car off of a hundred foot cliff and land with no damage to yourself, and very little to the car. A minor gripe, really.
There are fast travel points, but with as much fun as it is to navigate the landscape, I found myself rarely using them. I may be in the minority with this, but for me, sometimes the journey is as fun as the destination.
The missions have a variety of different goals. From stealth infiltration and kidnapping to outright assault and mayhem.
There are some missions that are repeated (interrogating enemies for intel, as an example) but I don’t feel like it’s any worse than any other typical game.
I found all of the activities to be fun, fitting to the story and setting, and never once felt bored while doing them, even if it was repeatedly.
Part of the reason I think I never got bored, is that you can do missions in a ‘do what you want, when you want, how you want’ kind of way.
Just because you are kidnapping an enemy Lieutenant for the second or third time, doesn’t mean you can’t do it in a different way. Take a truck, stuff him in the trunk of a car, or evac in a helicopter. It’s up to you.
That kind of flexibility is absolutely a blast. Planning the mission is just as big of a part as execution of the mission.
Recon the area and make your own plan on how you think you can best accomplish your goal. Or how you think you’ll enjoy it more.
Snipe people from a distance, distract the enemies with a flare while you sneak in, find a back way in to the compound taking out lights and sticking to the shadows, or charge right in guns-a-blazing.
Disable the alarms and fire as few shots as necessary or let them call in back up to get a proper firefight going. If you aren’t having fun playing this, it’s your own fault, and you just aren’t trying.
The game is not short, but I definitely found myself wanting more, when it was over.
Really more of a sign of how much I enjoyed the game rather than feeling like I wasn’t getting a full experience.
While there isn’t a “New Game +” mode (starting over will reset your accomplishments, skills, and gear) you can replay any completed missions, at any time.
When I wanted to replay the game, I just replayed the missions one after the other, and since there is no ‘correct’ order to completing the different regions the first time through, you can do them in whatever order you please the second or third time as well.
The main reasons FarCry games are fun for me, are the large maps and sandbox type ‘go anywhere, do anything’ style of gameplay, along with the ability to approach missions in a manner of your choosing.
There is a goal, but how you get there, which direction you approach from, etc. are up to you.
The main reasons that Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 was one of my all-time favorite shooters were character and weapon customizing ability, fun gameplay, and the ability to play through the game with one of my boys in co-op.
I really don’t care much at all about online PvP gameplay. The Division and Rainbow Six: Siege did very little for me, plus story means more to me than online gaming does. I’ve only played the FC5 Arcade mode a handful of times (‘Shovel Dodgers’ is a blast though). The only online gaming I really care about is online co-op campaign. In lieu of couch co-op, it’s the next best option, and while you aren’t right there next to each other, you each get a full screen and can still communicate using a head set.
With Wildlands not only do I get full online co-op campaign, but you can have multiple people join the game. So I can squad-up with both of my boys and take on the Cartel and Unidad forces as “father and sons”!
Unlike the FarCry online gameplay, there isn’t a limit to the distance between players. You can be on completely different sides of the map, fast travel independently of one another, and even complete different goals at the same time. Just another way that you can assess the situation and attack the game how you please.
Wildlands took everything I love about R6:V2 and FC games and combined them.
If someone had asked me what I would want from a Ghost Recon game, this is it.
Aside from a few minor gripes, this game is about as perfect of a game as I could’ve expected it to be.
With weekly challenges you get a little more content here and there, and extra rewards just for playing the game.
Even aside from rewards for weekly challenges, I foresee myself playing this game for a very long time to come.
I hope that any future installments emulate and add to the gameplay and style of this spectacular title, and don’t take steps backward. If they maintain this level of gameplay and customization, the next one will be a definite pre-order, for me and my boys.
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Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2018
Platform For Display: PlayStation 4Edition: StandardVerified Purchase
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ELIAS
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