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After a bit over 90 hours of gameplay I have finally finished this game and so I’m gonna put up some thoughts on it.
First of all I’d like to say that I’ve quite enjoyed the game for what it is and, in the end, don’t regret the money spent on it. That being said, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows for GRW and this part – the negatives – I’d like to discuss some more.
My two main gripes are that full potential of this game wasn’t utilized and the general lack of polish I’d personally come to expect from a AAA release backed by a strong publisher holding a powerful IP.
When I’m talking about the lack of polish, I don’t actually mean the omnipresent bugs (those are, to and extent, to be expected from a big release like this one), but more like the fact that immersion clearly wasn’t very high on the list of priorities.
Let’s kick it off straight away with player customization. The basics are all there and there’s a decent enough list of accessories to choose from to satisfy most of us. Being able to actually modify the faces, instead of choosing from the premade ones would be nice though and there are some strange things like having half a zillion colors for some pieces of equipment and only one color for the scarf, for example, or not being able to equip individual parts of a set and combine them with other items.
But the first real kick in the figurative nuts of immersion, for me at least, comes with the AI allies that cannot have their equipment adjusted so they’ll be running around in dresses completely differently while you might have went for a full military kit or the other way around (civilian clothing in a futile attempt to blend in with the people of Bolivia, while having a bunch of weapons strapped to your back).
Speaking of allies, their immersion breaking abilities only blossom once they start teleporting all over the place and shooting behind corners. It’s fairly obvious this game was primarily created as a coop game (which is cool, there’s really not too many games like this) and it’s actually nice there’s still an option for solo play, but, as so many other features, it’s simply been implemented half-arsed. Rather than tweaking the AI to behave naturally, the Ghosts have been turned to… literal ghosts that the enemy ignores even when standing next to them most of the time (unless you get “engaged” and even then you’re more likely to get targeted than any of your folks). In fact, once you’ve maxed the Diversion skill, the rebels have proven to be much better fighters than the elite of the elite of the US Army.
But Holt, Weaver and… whoever the 3rd absolutely forgettable dude was are not the only ones with supernatural abilities. Santa Blanca sicarios and Unidad soldiers have oftentimes appeared out of the blue right behind my back after I’ve cleared out a location. Even Bowman has appeared in a place she had no means to get to on such a short notice once, so basically you’re the only one without this special ability… it’s like reverse-FEAR, where you’re the only mundane person around (sans the healing factor, of course).
Even the vehicles get spawned out of the blue, you just need to ask the rebels nicely (bonus points when they get “dropped” behind a fence, on top (or bottom) of a nearby mountain, or directly above you and kill you). Ubi has already confirmed they are looking into this, so this issue might get resolved in a future patch.
While on the topic of vehicle drops, there are 9 levels to this skill (and a whole bunch of missions that would actually allow you to up the skill even further), but only 3 rides to choose from. Another missed opportunity, in my opinion, since the game has a ton of earth, water and ground vehicles in it.
Granted, half of these behave like a donkey on a monocycle, but that’s beside the point (and another complaint). I’d expect better from a game where chasing after convoys is an important part of the gameplay (and story). How hard is it to implement a semi-decent driving model into a game, when you have games like the Far Cry series under your belt?
Moving on, we have the story and general gameplay, that are somewhat connected in many places. Like why is this elite group of soldiers sent into a country with pitiful weapons (and state of the art surveillance drones) and lo-cap mags? Obviously, this makes sense from a gameplay point of view (unlocking the better gear as you progress through the game), but no effort was put into explaining it story-wise. I’ve already put up a suggestion on how this could have been easily explained, had a bit of effort been put into it, but, yet again, it seems the dev’s just couldn’t be arsed. Sometimes it’s the little things like this that count.
The story as a whole does its job of progressing the game towards the inevitable end, but just barely. The 3 interchangeable Ghosts with next to zero personality (the only thing that stood out for me is that Holt, or… that other guy is a would-be junkie), their uncharismatic and obviously vengeance-driven handler with questionable ethics and moral compass (though, to be fair, that is to be expected from n intelligence officer) and the laughable rebel leader all seemed so shallow to me.
And the super-scary cartel leader… wasn’t really shown doing too many scary things. It was just other people saying how afraid they are of him and how anything is better than being punished by him, but other than Ricky’s torture glossed over at the beginning and near the end of the game, we don’t see him do much. Although he does seem to share Bowman’s hobby of putting together weird videos with voiceover.
*minor SPOILER* Also, the Ricky Sandoval missions should have come *before* the final El Sueno one, to keep the continuity intact, instead of the weird time reversal. *SPOILER END*
And my final gripe comes with the gadgets, especially the top tier ones. Maybe it’s just me and my playstyle, but how often did you actually use the flashbang and the flare? I’ve used the flashbang exactly once and the flare twice (once accidentally). There’s very few situations where a flashbang seemed like the right tool to use – you can kick some door, but the rooms are empty; you can breach radio stations, but the C4s have a huge radius, so you can’t stand close enough to throw the flashbang and usually don’t have the time to do so once the enemies have been alerted by the explosion(s).
On the other hand, I would have loved to have a bunch of smoke grenades. And wire cutters. And real night vision/heat vision goggles, so the alternate vision modes make sense and don’t break the immersion yet again (the Future Soldier goggles available for all operatives instead of any other eyewear). And EMP grenades, instead of the OP EMP drone.
Speaking of the drone, the soldiers curse when it gets destroyed. Makes sense, it’s an expensive piece of equipment that’s probably near impossible to replace in the field… except not, because you magically get a new one in a manner of seconds. Oh you poor immersion, why do the devs hate you so much?
Also, why do they curse when the drone gets destroyed after dropping its payload? It was them who did it, did they not know it would happen? Didn’t they know the first, nor the hundredth time?
Instead of destroying the drone, or changing the payload in the inventory, which is nothing more than a busywork, having it literally “drop” it’s payload and fly back to the operator, needing to be recharged, would have made a lot more sense. You’d have all the charges available on the drone once you power it and would be able to use the proper one on the fly, but would have to recharge the drone afterwards, so from the gameplay perspective the change would be marginal.
Well that’s all that comes to mind right now and I realize most of the complaints are somewhat minor and by no means game breaking, it’s as I’ve said before - sometimes it’s the little things like this that count.
I’ve ranted long enough, so I’d just like to reiterate that I don’t regret buying this game – 90+ hours is more than many other SP/coop story-driven games provide to gamers for the same cost.
And even though I might have been somewhat harsh on the game, given I’ve enjoyed myself more often than not, especially when playing with real people, it’s because I believe the game, while certainly not bad, could have been so much better.
When you have Rainbow Six Siege’s destructible terrain, Splinter Cell Blacklist’s coop and stealth mechanics , Ghost Recon Future Soldier’s solid base and Far Cry’s open world gameplay at your disposal, together with Clancy’s own Clear and Present Danger to draw inspiration from, the potential is immense.
And I realize it’s sometimes hard, almost impossible to live up to the hype and expectations of your player base, I really do. Then again, if you don’t reach for the stars… Anyways, thanks for the hours upon hours of entertainment devs and good luck on your next endeavors.
And for those who prefer numeric ratings I give this game a 7/10.
Tldr: Not a bad game, but could have been much better.
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