Gamesplanet Review Round Up: Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands

Taking back Bolivia from the Santa Blanca Cartel

When it comes to delivering a great Tom Clancy game no one does it better than Ubisoft and this will be their 14th Ghost Recon game. While it's been a few years since the last entry in the series the developers are hoping to take an open world approach, which marks a first in the franchise and has similar mechanics to last year's The Division (which was also a Tom Clancy game). The game takes place in Bolivia, set in the year 2019 where the Ghosts (led by you) are tasked with taking down the Santa Blanca Cartel which is being run by the infamous El Sueno and his lieutenants.

So how has the latest entry in the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series turned out? Let's find out from the critics to see what the new kid on the block can do!

It begins.

GameSpot is kicking off things with their review, one of the best things about the game is the ability to travel to various locales with their own set of missions and objectives. As an open world game you're tasked with doing things in any order, but the game will start you out small and open up the wider region of Bolivia as you progress. By being an open world title it offers new ways to tackle missions, sometimes Stealth will be your best option but other times may require you to try a more hands on approach. Equally thrilling are the moments where you have little time to adapt to changing circumstances. When the best laid plans go wrong, when you've been spotted and a base is on high alert, you're treated to one of the few instances where your squadmates' moment-to-moment updates are actually useful. They gave the game a reasonable 7 out of 10, giving props to both the open world and stealth aspects of the game.

Meanwhile at Game Informer they enjoyed it a little more by giving it 8.25 out of 10, as you'd expect in a Tom Clancy game, a big thing the game relies on is upgrading weapons and customising gear to suit your every needs and thankfully Wildlands continues this trend by offering a juicy amount of weapons and gear to pick from, though compared to games like The Division it isn't as important to do this. One of the first things you'll access to right off the bat is the Drone, which can be used to plan your missions and sync up shots for your team mates to take out enemies with. Upgrading your squad capabilities is one of the five skill trees in Wildlands. Though it’s much lighter on gadgetry than previous Ghost Recon games, you still have several worthwhile acquisitions like diversionary lures, mines, flashbangs, and giving your drone the ability to act as an EMP or explosive device.

I didn't bring an Umbrella :(

IGN is next to taste the Bolivian fruits, one of the biggest selling points for the game will be in it's multiplayer and Ghost Recon Wildlands offers up to 4 player co-op. While you can also do the entire game solo, you'd be missing out as the game's best played with others. As the game features seamless drop-in, drop-out it allows you to join the action right away and you're able to fast travel to friends (which is a good thing considering the size of the map). Playing with friends also allows you to use multiple vehicles effectively. When taking out a convoy, for example, it’s great to have a chopper as air support while a few friends pursue in a jeep. The chopper gunner can cover the ground forces while they try to ram the other vehicle off the road. It was given 7.9 out of 10, with praise towards it's co-op missions.

Last on the firing range is the review from GamingTrend who awarded it an impressive 80 out of 100. The world of Bolivia is a massive place and you'll be exploring one of the largest maps in a video game, as it has 21 regions for you to travel around and is apparently 3 times larger than even Grand Theft Auto V. You will travel to Jungles, Snow Capped Mountains, Rivers and more as you put an end to Santa Blanca Cartel and stop El Sueno from wreaking havoc on the region. As you progress in the story you'll piece together more intel and you may discover new weapons by interrogating NPC's that can be useful to upgrading your weapons for more firepower. As you pick up weapon addons you’ll be able to snap them into whatever loadout you’d like any time you encounter a frequently-placed ammo crate. Rails, undermounts, barrels, scopes, muzzle mods, suppressors, shoulder stocks, and much more are available for tinkering, adjusting roughly a dozen stats from bullet penetration to weapon handling. The mods made every weapon feel different — something few games manage to pull off.

Let's hope he doesn't turn around or the plan will be ruined.

Ghost Recon Wildlands is getting quite a bit of high praise among the critics, though certain aspects of the game lose their charm after a little and missions may become repetitive and dull, playing with a group of friends can be seriously rewarding as you tackle missions together and should please any open world fan. Ubisoft have crated a gorgeous Bolivia to explore and filled it with a huge amount of content that will keep players busy for a while, plus they've promised to bring us more content throughtout the year including a lovely 4v4 Player vs Player mode for free that's on the horizon.

I have only managed to scratch the surface of this open world action game, but one of my biggest fears was that it wouldn't live up to the Ghost Recon franchise standards that have been in previous titles and thankfully I was wrong. While I still have a place in my heart for Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter the game has not aged well and Wildlands is the breath of fresh air the series needed, I would have liked to have seen more gadgets to play with though but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do here as you definitely get your money's worth and then some.

With so many open world games out this month, there aren't many you that allow you to travel with friends to explore a world and Ghost Recon Wildlands offers that. Sure it's likely a destintation you'll eventually grow tired of but why not take a little trip to take down the Santa Blanca Cartel with friends? Yet another open world game that *Ubisoft has delivered on in my opinion, I am excited to see what the future holds for this game.

You can take on the Wildlands yourself, if you can handle the heat that is!

• Standard Edition £37.49 (6% off)
• Deluxe Edition £42.99 (14% off)
• Gold Edition £59.99 (14% off) also includes the Season Pass!
• Season Pass £25.49 (15% off)

– Craig Bishop