WARNING - SOME SPOILERS

For those who don't know. I'm Red - a long time fan of Tom Clancy and Ghost Recon especially.

This post is almost like a 'cry for help' to the developers to address anything being thrown out through various channels i.e. Ubi Forums, Xbox clubs, Discord channels.

It's nothing new that there's been a lot of growing animosity towards the developers' decisions while creating and supporting Breakpoint, and the persistent 'radio silence' that they've given the communities involved in the game. This post is to address those issues with the vain hope that someone can actually do something that would ease the fan's minds a little.

Core Elements

Now it's no secret that Breakpoint has had a slew of issues and bugs since it's launch back in 2019, but to the credit of the devs, many of these have been fixed. The only bugs I personally deal with are ones to use with skybox issues and poor renderings of environments. Most of my gripes are with the smaller details such as certain investigation clues being listed in the wrong places, treasure map interaction shaders being everywhere and the limitations of certain areas of gameplay. Occasionally there are issues with the 'always online' aspect of the game where I've randomly disconnected from servers during firefights and other random moments. No doubt these could be fixed with hotfixes and such.

As for the gameplay aspects, like in Wildlands I had noticed that there were many issues regarding stats of both the player and the weapons. It's more understandable in Breakpoint as they opted to release it as another looter shooter (which is a rant I won't get into). As a consequence of this decision, we've been left with weapons that don't function properly, impacting playstyles and in my opinion, compromising the whole purpose of the game. This move was no doubt a business choice, as it has brought over loads of new players that 'missed' the core of the game - Survival and Tactics. The approach now can be explained as "What's the best gun?".

Linking back to my previous rendering issue, I personally have tried with friends to get the longest kill. Even though it was a major pain in Wildlands to do, requiring us to grab hostiles and move them ridiculously far away we still managed to bank kills over 1500 - 2500ms. In Breakpoint, most targets - even if held - physically disappear from the shooter's view. I've tested this on both sides and registered the kills, but the bullets will fly right through the enemy. I'm quite surprised that stuff like this hasn't been address already, especially by youtuber's that are in your D Company.

Missions & Events

This section could be seen as my personal grudges, as I feel that we were left with a broken and lacklustre story - completely wasting Bernthal's time as well as the players. However, there are questions that are still left unanswered not only in the game itself, but also externally in the 'Ghost Recon Lore'. Since 2019, we've received 3 "Stories", 3 Live Events, and 1 Raid. The Stories IMO felt rushed, providing us with an underwhelming series of repeating missions with different character models.

Episode 1 seemed like it was only ever half-baked. We were told that Breakpoint would "Turn the Hunter into the Hunted" deploying to an island that is seen as "World 2.0" that has gone dark after destroying the USS Seay - a cargo ship leaving Auroa. We were now leading a large group of Ghosts to investigate a re-establish a connection to the rest of the world. In this, your former ally - Lt. Col. Walker, has created his own group of operators, the deadly 'Wolves'. As a fan, I was hyped. I was so excited to see this immersive, tactical shooter involving being on the back foot against your former allies. Instead we got a bunch of bots that thumped around like robots, a bunch of drones that can magically shoot sideways like a Warzone player entering a room, and our old team separated in the worst possible way. Personally, I couldn't enjoy the story. The character's felt so forced, yet so bland. Conflicts between people developed and resolved quicker than my Subway order arrived, Walker's potential was totally wasted, and I ended up identifying more with his side than the "Good guys, Skell, the Homesteaders & The Outcasts". Top that all off with this cliff hanger ending that just left me like, "Really? We've finished?". Not to mention all the information that was drip-fed through the story about the event between Wildlands and Breakpoint. More wasted potential.

Episode 2 wasn't much better, and felt more focused on cashing in on fan favourites than actually expanding the story. It completely dropped points in Episode 1, and was more about giving Sam Fisher a reach-around than actually making progress on the island. Granted, it linked in with Operation Greenstone and the Peter Miles connection - but it was unnecessary. Sam Fisher and Victor did nothing throughout the missions, instead just walking hunched over and taking off the headset. We could have done all that by ourselves. Add in the fact that it required the Year 1 Pass to play everything leaves me with a really bad taste in my mouth. My only thoughts on it were "Well at least we know what happened with Midas". Then they go and throw in most of the features into the store...

Episode 3 felt the same, and although I love Scott Mitchell, most new players wouldn't have had the first clue who he or Raven's Rock were. They somehow have some loose connection to Stone (which doesn't make sense in my eyes as Bodark / Raven's Rock would never have worked with a Ghost) and that they can magically enter and leave the island at will with chemical weapons. These felt even more cut and paste than the other episodes, and had even less character development than Episode 2. The impact of defeating different members should have felt important, it should have made us work up the chain, rather than just cutting the head off and watching the rest unaffected by it. It felt pointless and hollow outside of Stone's mission.

Side missions can be explained in one word - pointless. It's more grinding and radiant encounters, I hardly give it the time of day. As for the 'Main' side missions, I actually forgot the point of them and their importance, and it feels like the developers did too.

I'm far more conflicted with the Events, as they felt like they had a little more care taken. Terminator[ was confusing, and while I get the whole "Threat of Future Technology" but outside the 2 main missions, I wasn't that bothered and only cared to complete it once. Resistance was actually important, showing the Outcasts are beginning to take the island back and turn the tide against Sentinel, and the Target Designator was a nice touch, but the missions were easy and forgettable. Amber Ruin upsets me the most, as it was so blatantly just advertisement for the latest invitational, throwing in characters that didn't make sense, into an area they shouldn't have been able to access, with features from Wildlands that they removed at launch. The Weapons were nice, the sights were nice, but the story just angers me when I look back at it. To me, Amber Ruin only solidified my thoughts that Ubi don't actually care.

Player Customisation and Dialogue

This is a grudge of mine that really gets to me at times, as it feels like Ubisoft continually fixes rather than innovates. At launch, most of our items were locked behind a paywall, meaning we'd have to pay £17+ on top of the retail price of £60 just to buy a damn shirt and pants. It felt cheap, it felt rude and really rubbed people the wrong way at launch. Luckily Ubisoft Finance felt the burn of making such choices as the game tanked at release. In Wildlands we had options at launch to be how we wanted. We could be a casual player, an undercover agent, a full military fireteam, a local. In breakpoint we got some expansion in the range of items as time goes on, but we're still left with the same issues at launch. Stuff that looks right IRL looks tight and tacky in Breakpoint. Masks can no longer be worn with helmets, and those damn Balaclavas are shameful. Top that off by adding in more stuff to the store that should be available in game, and could be unlocked via new Episode missions or events, rather than forcing us to empty the wallet more just for a kilt.

The Hair styles and faces just don't look right. and most of the people I have met all end up using the same few heads and hair styles. Not because they look good, but because they don't look as bad as the others.

Community Interaction, Support & Feedback

Now for the dreaded part, the interaction. My main question is Where are you getting your feedback from?. Even stemming back as far as Wildlands, I have never been able to figure out how you get your information and feedback. Repeatedly throughout the past 4/5 years, I have seen no correlation between the Ubi Forums feedback and what the developers implemented into their games. After 3 years, we were still denied bipods and other immersive aspects. In their favour, Ubisoft did add 1 more CQC animation, the prone camo CQC, and bipods. The Gunsmith is now fleshed out better than in Wildlands, but despite suggestions on how to use the bipod, how to solidify the gunsmith, how to encourage community growth, it's all getting ignored for another cash in on R6.

In terms of communities, the creation of Delta Company was an amazing addition, giving the community a better chance to feel included in development and promotion of the game. That opened up options for a budding clan space, as many fans enjoy MilSim-style gameplay. It let us interact with you (the developers) to give a more clear-cut view of what we had in store. Unfortunately, it seems to me that the only people who managed to get through the Delta Company applications were influencer - money makers. The Ghost Recon Network was abandoned as soon as Breakpoint released, instead of updating it and fleshing it out more. Being able to create your own Ghost profile to upload your own clips and images would have been amazing to get people interacting, and embedding the Ubi Forums could have worked tremendously with issues specific to Ghost Recon. Instead we have a Discord server made by fans that does that for you, which is sad.

Developer notes are great... when we receive them. We hear barely anything from actual developers. No twitter updates, no forums updated, no youtube videos. At least in Wildlands we got a 3-day notice period before an update dropped. Our last update was February 20th (roughly), and that just said "We're working on something". Personally, I'd much rather see a 60 second SITREP from the developers about how they're progressing and that they have in mind. A bi-weekly or even a monthly Q&A session would have been a great opportunity to get everything out that you can. Speak to the fans, or you'll end up losing them.

To end this awfully long post (I do apologise), the landscape of gaming is changing, and the time of draining unsuspecting customers for portions of the product is fading. I'd hate to see Ghost Recon fade away in a whisper, and being remembered as a disgrace. I truly believe that if the developers got involved with their community - their supporters, they could make leaps and strides. Maybe not in Breakpoint itself, but potentially in a sequel. I want to keep being a fan, I want to be excited to see new storytelling, and so do many others.