🚀 go-pugleaf

On Sun, 26 Feb 2017 10:07:01 +0000, Mr Rob
<noemail...@jsjsaiiowppw.com> wrote:

>
>It won't take me long to post my thoughts.
>
>Bleh
>
>That's it.
>
>It's Far Cry 2 with bits of Far Cry 4 thrown in and a (very) small
>amount of Ghost Recon added to the mix.
>
>It doesn't even come close to being as immersive and enjoyable as "The
>Division". 
>
>I suppose I can see it being fun in short spells with friends. But for
>an online game I would be looking for long gaming sessions and an
>experience that held me for months/years.
>
>I have just over two hours in the game and I am bored senseless with
>it. I don't even want to play it anymore.
>
>I uninstalled the beta and won't be buying the released product, which
>disappoints me. I expected to really like it a lot.

Disappointing, but not entirely surprising.

Ubisoft has "mastered" the open-world formula, and seems unwilling -
or unable - to break away from that formula. 

It creates giant, beautifully rendered open worlds. It then drops in a
bunch of "bases", scatters innumberable collectibles, and then mixes
in some smaller "random" encounters. If the game is supposed to have a
strong single-player component, it then tries to connect all these
points with a (badly written) narrative. Add a spice of variety
(hacking, parkour, driving, or  Ghost Recon) and, viola, you have a
FarCry, or an  Assassin's Creed, or a WatchDog, or even The Crew.

What the worlds lack is immersiveness, interactivity and spectacle.
They are, as you mentioned, fun for short bursts - wander the world,
run into a random encounter or two, or perhaps take out a "base" - but
fail to differentiate themselves enough to keep people playing in the
long term, especially if they've encountered a Ubisoft game before. 

Combat has also never been a strong point of Ubisoft games (with the
possible exception of FarCry 2) and nothing I've seen in the
GR-Wildlands previews indicates that they have significantly improved
in this area. The very fact that the game is intended primarily as a
multiplayer experience - which means "fairness and "balance" are
pre-eminent over fun and spectacle - only makes it less likely the
combat will stand out. 

Vehicle controls are apparently another area of concern, with early
reviews indicating the cars handle very poorly (The Crew, Ubisoft's
open-world racing game, didn't have great car handling either). 

All in all, the Ghost Recon: Wildlands seems another cookie-cutter
Ubisoft title, based on earlier previews and your own report.
Unfortunate, but sadly expected.