According to Ubisoft, they did not build any open world for their latest blockbuster game and tactical shooter Ghost Recon Wildlands. This game includes the biggest world Ubisoft built ever. But means size really everything? In this game you travel to Bolivia and start a fight against a Drug Cartel. More about this in the test.

.

.

Ghost Recon Wildlands’ story is quickly told. You get your mission by the CIA-Agent. You have to save four bolivian Ghost-Elite-Soldiers which are captured by the unscrupulous El Sueño. Before you can attack him you have to kill more than two of his chiefs. It is only possible to get close to them if you destroy more than 20 percent of their criminal installations also kill the so called Buchons, which are splited in the areas of production, influence, smuggling and security. In addition to the Sicarios of the cartel you also have to fight against the state’s military Unidad. These are well equipped soldiers which are very dangerous. Your help are unfortunately only a few not well equipped rebels. We have to say, that this reminds us very much on the well known game series Just Cause.

.

Yes, it could be that this games includes Ubisofts biggest Open World. But the hundreds of kilometers are unfortunately not better than the world of Just Cause 3. This starts with the facial expressions, which seem very deadly compared to Ubisofts’ previous games like Watch Dogs 2 or Far Crys. The faces look like been doused by wax especially when it rains. Unfortunately, it does not stop with the overall impression of the world. Yes it is a huge world, but it is also very blank. Yes, there are not only some cartel members or Unidad-Soldiers, and you can see some cars on the streets driving from point A to B, but we are missing the special small things like in Watch Dogs 2. We miss “A behavior of the population”. The in the cities living or on the coca fields working people are more background actors. Unfortunately, we have to say that even Mafia 3 offers more.

.

We also have to say, that Mafia’s storyk, the fights against the bosses and the jobs in districts are also much better. Not only that Mafia 3 offers away from El Sueno much more interesting figures and much more mimic which is also more helpful to create a greater atmosphere. We also can confirm Mafias 3’s main protagonist Lincoln is much more complex and interesting than the mostly one-dimensional leader of the Ghosts. Even the great made editor, that helps you to individualize your character.

.

.

We wish that the characters would have more intrinsic values in addition to this. We know that gameplay is more important for Ubisoft than a game’s story, but we think that Ubisoft did not use many potentials.

.

Ubisoft also did not even use the landscapes to tell for example the story of Bolivia or the story of the Santa-Blanca-Cartel. There are some exceptions like the huge mausoleum, which was built to honor El Sueño or the slums. But everything feels like a huge Hollywood Set only because of the bad NPCs. And this is really, because Ubisoft shows in previous games like Assassin’s Creed, The Devision or even in Watch Dogs 2, that they can create such characters and world filled with live.

.

What we like is, that the gameplay with a team works very well. Yes, you have the whole world to fight against the cartel, but the real battles takes place in open zones which are small places. You have to pay attention if you get too close to the radius of a patrolling enemy. They are really stubbornly if they find you, but we miss tactical things like flanking. Teammates mostly attack the enemies directly which is very bad, because there are mostly too much enemies to fight against. That means a quick battle that ends with a dead of Team Ghost. It can also happen much quicker if you have not seen that the Cartel has a tower with a speaker on. With the help of this they can call weaponed helicopters. It is very important to explore the area before you go into a fight against the enemies. If you are by your own you get help by your three teammates. They help you to spot the enemies while you are observing the landscape through your binoculars or your drone to spot enemies, too. One of the game’s battle-features is to synchronous the firing. Because of this it is easy to kill enemies quickly. There are situation, that are really exciting. Sure, there are from time to time more enemies that staying together. If you spot them to realize a synchronous firing, it could happen that one of your team members says, that he lost his target. This keeps the excitement up, especially if this happens seconds before you want to shoot. You can decide if you want to kill all enemies quiet or if you rather like to attack them more aggressive by for example using some bombs. But we noticed very quickly, that we did not experiment with the opportunities we have.

.

Unfortunately, this also means that the missions are unnecessarily restricted and that most of the missions are built the same way. There are too few missions in which you have to look after something special or to extract someone special. Them are mostly replaced with ‘destroy the cartel’. We also think that the weapons we can find and their upgrades are also useless. Why should we get a new weapon if everything works fine with our standard sniper rifle, MP and pistols? If you open the map after 20 hour of playing, you will see that it is filled with symbols that show you the position of something you can collect. Unfortunately, it is completely submerged that this symbols also includes informations and Reports about the cartel. In addition to that, this things have no influence on the game progress.

.

Unfortunately, we noticed quickly that the game’s experience and level system are only included, to have one. We do not understand, why a special elite unit from the us military have to unlock the synchronised firing. Or that you can not use Flashbang-Grenades from the beginning on. It is OK to implement a level system for to motivate the player, but there should not be things inside that are standard for elite soldiers. In addition to that we have to keep in mind, that this game is a Arcade-Shooter for up to four players. By focusing on this you realize quickly, that some of the things you can unlock now make sense. On the other hand we can confirm that the equipment fits well together and is well included into the open world for people who love to collect things. You get the necessary Ability-Points by leveling up, by completing a mission and if you collect medals of the cartel.

.

.

What we like is that you can fight online with a team up to four players. It make a lot more fun to fight with real people against the cartel. Especially you will have more fun if you play with your friends and know how they play. Especially if you do not have a Rambo in your team who only wants to raise their Kill-Ratio. What we like is that there been no lags while we tested the game’s multiplayer mode. We also like that the game’s Matchmaking system and that it tries to connect you with other players that have close same statistics like you. But we can confirm that you can have a lot of fun, too, if you play this game solo.

.

Unfortunately, it is only possible to spot a place where you want to met the other Ghosts. You can not handle very tactically like for example in Rainbow Six or Mass Effect. In addition to that, you can also find the well known Ellie-Effect from The Last of Us here, too. This means, that as long you are not seen by the enemies, you team will be not find, too, even if the enemy see them directly. We wished we could decide the routes they take by our own.

.

Unfortunately, not only the shooting but especially the driving with the more than 60 different vehicles is very “arcadly”. But we think that you can get used to them very quickly like in other open-world-games. What we like is, that you can also configure a lot of visual things. For example, you can play the game in the ego or third person perspective, can configure a lot of things like what want to see on the hud and even if you want to see the crosshair. With this option you can additionally raise the difficulty level. We think that you can play the game on the normal difficulty level very good and without any disruption. The AI is not better if you raise the difficulty level, but the enemy’s resistance is much higher.

.

Yes, this games with its team aspects and the biggest open world, ubisoft created in the last five years, is very interesting. But size does not mean everything. Unfortunately, Ubisoft released much better games that includes the same aspects and nearly same gameplay features. This is the reason why we are so surprised, especially when the developed the other games at the same time. They included a lot of things in this game, but nothing very great. The world is not so explosive or packed with action like the world of Just Cause 3 and not so believable like the world of Watch Dogs 2 or The Division. The team-gameplay is because of the bad AI also not so great like in Rainbow Six Siege. The game’s story was also only interesting because of the main antagonist called El Sueno. But we have to say that we had a lot of fun to fight our way through Bolivia against the cartel. And you will have a lot of much more fun to play the game with real people via internet. Between all the arcady driving physics and the collecting you can find a lot of exciting battles. Unfortunately, this game only can entertain you well, not fantastic like we know it from other Ubisoft games.

.

.

.