CREDIT where it is due: The developers behind Ubisoft’s disappointing Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint have clearly been very busy working to fix some of the mis-steps in the game.
Widely panned on release, the developers have gone back to the drawing board and come up with something that appears closer to the preview version of the game I played at E3 in 2018.
The “Ghost Experience” mode, coming on March 24, makes several fundamental changes to the game – notably, removing the gear score and levelling system, enabling realistic weapon looting, and introducing a “private mode” which only has story characters and your co-op team-mates in it.
The highlights of the Ghost Experience mode, per the official Ghost Recon blog, are:
- No Gear Level: Customise and keep the same weapon throughout your whole adventure. Quality tiers and item levels are disabled.
- Realistic Looting: Loot your enemies’ weapon category and switch them realistically. Gear is found from missions, rewards, and crates.
- Primary Weapon Quantity: Choose to carry 1 or 2 primary weapons. This was pre-released with TU 1.1.0, but will be fully realized with the Ghost Experience.
- Ammo Loss on Reload: Remaining ammunition is lost when you change magazines.
- Stamina Level: Adjust how much stamina you consume.
- Bandage Quantity: Limit the number of bandages your Ghost can carry.
- Risk of Injury: Choose the frequency of the injured status when wounded by enemy bullets.
- Health Regen: Choose to limit, remove or increase your health regeneration.
- New HUD Settings: Fine-tune your preferred HUD with new settings:
- Mini-Map Minimal: Smaller map with less information on it.
- Loot Notification Minimal: Smaller loot notification.
- 3D Loot Minimal: Smaller 3D loot drop.
- Private Mode: Encounter only story characters and your direct co-op teammates in Erewhon.
- Access to Maria’s Shop: Keep access to Maria’s Shop in bivouacs or limit it to Erewhon only.
The Ghost Experience mode will be fully optional – players can keep playing the game in its current configuration if they want – and the developers have also confirmed players will not be forced into a permadeath game mode, as it is not a settings option included in the Ghost Experience.
Full details of the optional mode are available here: https://ghost-recon.ubisoft.com/game/en-au/news-updates/47glKHsGQnwesnGk832Wkp/the-ghost-experience-new-immersive-mode-coming-to-tom-clancys-ghost-recon-breakpoint
Personally, I’m really looking forward to this – the version of Breakpoint I played in pre-release previews was very different to the game we actually got, and a lot of the Ghost Experience changes appear to bring the game closer towards the gritty, “outnumbered and outgunnned behind enemy lines” game I was expecting based on my preview experiences.
The Ghost Experience becomes available on March 24.
