I would not say Motherland was a success, but an Improvement. Routines were very similar, and Bodarks just placed over old Enemies. I had little problem with the Camo Enemies, also Thermal did not work, but was not over difficult to spot them. The ending was pretty dismal, but at least not like the stupid Walker crap. Among one spinning car and several floating objects, still sliding like a snowboarder, and a few times being shot through objects 1 invisible Drone?, it has improved quite a bit. Still wanted the option to Drag, and have a Crossbow.
One of the other annoyances is the slowness doing things, maybe better programming needed there. Carrying an enemy or friendly takes way too long.
I do think it's time for a Mission Editor, so the Masters can keep game playability on track.
Also if you happen to die the re-spawning could be a joke.
Only thing left is to get to 99 but that's just a drag and gain nothing.
I’m enjoying motherland but I do notice things every time I play that annoy me.
Last night it was the way the enemy who calls in multiple helos. Where do they come from and why arnt more ground troops called instead?
Then to break all immersion, the helos move against the laws of physics every time I point my weapon at them even when they can’t see me. Very lazy programming there.
I try to ignore all that stuff but this game will always be rubbish at its core. They have managed to salvage something in OM, but with the drones, heavies, taking 20 minutes to start climbing a ladder etc it’s just not a good game and never will be.
Hoping they don’t start on a new game unless they really understand what a ‘good’ game is and I’m worried they will miss the point.
I've played it through twice now, and so far I like the improvements and "Wildlands" style of mission structure this time around, although still not much variety. I did notice small tweaks here and there, and the weapon mastery is a nice implementation. We're still missing some long requested features, fixes, and story+intel pieces, but it's definently a better step in the right direction. The enemies and AI in general are still the biggest issue with the game, though. I also agree with them using Breakpoint as a forum before we do get another GR installment. Ideally the community feedback, and the better changes to Breakpoint will be implemented into the next title.
I'm honestly a bit surprised by how disenchanted I've become with Breakpoint even after Motherland. Truth be told I haven't even done the whole thing yet. But for me the problems aren't with the content, either. It's the fundamental and systemic flaws with the game underneath and how it does things. Enemies are still dumb as a brick, Auroa is still a lifeless, uninspiring place, etc. Maybe it's just time to move on.
Wildlands still makes me keep coming back, though. There is so much life and vibrance to Bolivia that you can't help but smile at. It makes you want to stop and just take it all in, every little detail. It feels authentic. Auroa feels fake in comparison. Maybe because it is. It's a movie set, a facade built fundamentally on poor decisions and bad systems that feel forced. Every encounter is enemies being spawned in on top of you to give the illusion of danger. Every enemy behaves in highly predictable and robotic ways and everything is tailored to feel easy for those who want action at every turn.
I keep coming back to Wildlands even now because it's a world I want to explore, and that's ironic because the devs made Breakpoint with the intent of leading players off the beaten path with their blooming trees and "treasure" chests. Wildlands feels like a place that goes on without you, a place where you can just do your thing whatever it migtt be, while Breakpoint constantly tries to funnel you into forced, action-packed situations.
I could go on, but unless the devs start messing with the fundamental systems of Breakpoint and give more power and agency to players with more demanding enemy AI, difficulty settings and general refinement and quality of life changes, I don't think Breakpoint will have much life after Motherland.
I've always thought this game's strength was in its ability to be a casual military sandbox so Motherland struck gold for me. The dorky cutscenes and cheesy enemies(Wolves, in particular) were always something that seriously challenged my suspension of disbelief and would drive me back to wildlands. Even though its mostly a reskin, replacing the bulk of enemies with bodark makes this game feel a lot more grounded in reality than before(not to mention the premise of supporting a rebel group to remove a Russian occupation). I'm halfway through motherland and already feel like I'm planning additional playthroughs with different self-imposed limits or gear setups.
I'd really like Moa island, but if this is the last update with mission content I'd say I got value out of this product. Here is to hoping for a year 3 because some updates to enemy AI or new features in immersive mode would really help round out this experience.
The update was an improvement, but the destabilization missions are just reskinned faction missions that start to get boring after a while. I'm now on my 2nd playthrough but I got bored already. Not to mention it doesn't matter if you kill or capture the HVTs and it feels like there is no ending. I also noticed that there are some invisible objects that Nomad can take cover behind. I first noticed this in Auroa survival shelter and I encountered it in another base as well. Unfortunately there are still many bugs and you still can't listen to some audio logs because they don't play.
Now the question is, what will the next update be about? As we all know Nomad accomplished his mission so there's no reason for him to remain in Auroa, unless the US decides to board Auroa and have army and naval presence to make sure that there won't be another case like Sentinel or Bodarks. And seriously, I hope they won't make Nomad return to Auroa yet again because of another Russian extremist invasion. My guess is that the next updates will only be QOL updates and there will be an announcement of a new Ghost Recon in 3-4 months.
I think we have enough content honestly. I'd almost hate to see more stuff being cramped onto that tiny moshpit of an island.
Even after all the effort poured into Motherland by the devs, I think the update gets boring fairly quickly simply because the enemy AI is just plain dull to deal with. So naturally the only thing keeping the update interesting is the missions and objectives themselves. Once you've done them they lose their allure. You know what to expect. There are no systems in place to make things unpredictable.
More weapons, more gear, hairstyles and camo patterns, etc. is always welcome, of course. But the next update should in my world be enemy AI improvements first and foremost. It should be about improved customizability of your own gameplay experience, about control, about replayability, about creating an Auroa that can provide more unpredictability. This alone would breathe new life into every bit of content we already have and I would happily do everything all over again if it was a much more engaging experience with the enemy AI that actually challenges your strategic sense. I think dramatically increasing the detection range would do a lot. If you see an enemy patrol you should think twice about whether to engage or not. It should be punishing to make haphard decisions or not paying attention. Nothing feels more demotivating than knowing you can just stroll about in the open because a contrived system has decided enemies magically can't see you beyond 70 yards. Or when you haven't seen a patrol, but they don't engage you because the rigid detection system doesn't allow them to, even though they might be in place for the perfect ambush to take you out without you even knowing. It makes me wonder why I even bother. It's painfully easy even on the hardest difficulty settings.
I definitely think they should let you adjust enemy detection time/range, decoupled from their deadliness. Bonus points if you have different Day/Night configurations.
Sadly, much beyond that I doubt they could add to this game - as it's basically maxing the PS4/XBOne as is. Though maybe if they just gave up on the drones - I bet those suckers use a decent amount or processing power that could be repurposed for "Hunt Squads".
Here is to hoping we get Moa, which has a smaller instance, free of Drones so they can improve the enemy AI or configurations to make them more challenging.
And then I really hope Ubi Paris and their next Engine are up to the task for their Next Gen Title, really focusing on improving enemy AI.