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After playing through nearly the entire game, picking up everything and storming every enemy base, I finally found a mission which (almost) was worthy of this huge game world. I won't spoil it for anyone who hasn't got there yet, but for those that have, it involves a certain boss who is being targetted by the cartel and you have to go to their home, rescue them, take them to a doctor and then get them out. Finally after so many missions and other boss battles (battles?) this one seemed to feel that it was using the open world: a few different locations and set pieces, not just go to one place, kill/capture and then leave. Compare that to a certain other, similar mission where I was expecting countless cartel to turn up to take out the boss only for two cars and a helicopter, and then nothing. I really don't know who at Ubi dropped the ball here when it came to the actual missions, but someone sure did.
Don't get me wrong, I love the game. Am addicted to just driving around, finding new places and having stealthy (or crazy) battles with the cartel and Unidad. I love it in single player and coop (especially coop). But the missions just don't stand up to the world that Ubi have created here. I reckon the development time was pretty much all about the game world and not so on the story or missions. Just looking at the mission structure and it's supposed to be 5 ot 6 missions per cartel Buchon in each area. However, these "missions" are barely a single objective in a single location each. Some of them are repeats of each other (destroy three submarines split into three separate missions - no, that's ONE mission), so instead the player should see each Buchon as a single mission, with 5/6 stages within it. That does mean there's actually only around 17 missions in the game, then 8 boss characters to hunt down.
In a game world this huge, this beautiful and open to have so much in it, that does feel very flat and empty. That mission I mention above clearly indicates that someone at Ubi was attempting to use the open world in the mission structure, but sadly it's too little. For a game this size, missions (and especially those boss battles) should be huge, multiple locations and checkpoints, car chases, plane/helicopter chases, armies of cartel to fight through or avoid when approaching a boss. You have countless weapons, unlimited ammo (with caches in every house), support from rebels, so everything is in place to make the missions as big and as bad as you want. Oh and it also would've been nice to have some proper animated cut scenes occasionally, rather than just at the end of each mission (same you get in other open world games). That's much better than a radio message or reading notes.
I know it's too late in the day for any changes in mission structure now but hopefully Ubi can improve on what they've created come the next game in the series. More bigger missions with checkpoints and covering larger areas. Cut scenes to keep the player in the story. Variety of side missions that differ from location to location and use the environment they're in. Hidden and secret random missions and collectables that don't appear on the main map and encourage the player/s to explore the world (rather than just fast travel from mission to mission). Oh and finally, pllease an option for New Game Plus mode.
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