Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an online tactical shooter video game developed by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and on 18 December 2019 for Stadia. The game is the eleventh installment in the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon franchise and is a narrative sequel to the 2017 video game Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands.
The game is set in an open world environment called Auroa, a fictional island chain in the Pacific Ocean. The player takes on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman, a U.S. Special Operation Forces service member sent to the island to investigate a series of disturbances involving Skell Technology, a military contractor based on Auroa.
Upon release, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint received mixed reviews from critics, with criticism for its mechanics and mission design. The game failed to meet sales expectations and therefore was a commercial disappointment. Live service support for the game ended on 5 April 2022 shortly after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.
Gameplay
Like its predecessor Wildlands, Breakpoint is a tactical shooter game set in an open world environment. It is played from a third-person perspective and uses an optional first-person view for aiming weapons. Players take on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman, a member of the Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, also known as "Ghosts", a fictional elite special operations unit of the United States Army under the Joint Special Operations Command. The game world, Auroa, is an open world environment that features a variety of landscapes, and these can be used for tactical advantages. For instance, players can slide down rocky terrain and use mud to camouflage themselves. According to Ubisoft, Auroa is larger than the game world featured in Wildlands. Players have a variety of ways to traverse the open world, controlling various air, land and sea vehicles.
The game was planned to launch with four character classes. Ubisoft announced plans to make more classes available through post-launch updates. Each class has its own abilities; for example, the panther is a class oriented towards stealth and is able to throw smoke bombs. The player is able to switch between classes in-game. Players have to gather intelligence to progress through the game and can use a variety of methods to approach missions. As in previous titles in the franchise, they can utilize a variety of weapons in combat, with the player's repertoire expanded to include combat drones and rocket launchers to kill enemies. Alternatively, the player can use stealth to silently neutralize opponents. In Breakpoint, players can equip a variety of new weapons and gear such as a blowtorch to cut through fences, sulphur gas grenades to kill enemies, and electromagnetic pulse grenades to disable drones and vehicles. Players can carry corpses away and hide them so that enemies will not become alerted. Fallen enemies will leave loot for players to collect. Fallen teammates can be carried away so as to revive them safely. Many of the new features added to Breakpoint were developed based on player feedback in Wildlands.
The game places a larger emphasis on survival than Wildlands. Enemies are more numerous and the game features a wider range of enemy archetypes. These enemies have access to many of the same weapons, skills and equipment that are available to the player. Enemies will respond more realistically to player actions and patrols wander the game world searching for the player. Ubisoft introduced these changes to give the player the sense that they were "no longer the most dangerous thing in the game world". Players need to collect different resources in the game's world and use them to craft resources such as bandages or grenades. Regular loadout checks are necessary to progress the players Gear Level, and the player will need to manage their character's fatigue, injuries, and ration usage. Failing to do so may slow the player down, limit their ability to regenerate health, or cause them to make more noise while moving. The game uses a regenerative health system whereby the player character naturally recovers health, but serious injuries will impede the player character's performance, as they will start limping and can no longer aim their weapon accurately. Players can set up a bivouac shelter to heal themselves. The shelter is the site where players can manage their weapons and inventory, customize their character and change the character's classes. The game can be played with up to three other players cooperatively, or in single-player. The game was initially announced to have no artificial intelligence (AI) squadmates, but the addition of AI squadmates was later amended as post-release content based due to negative feedback from players. Unlike previous Ghost Recon titles, Breakpoint requires a constant internet connection to play, in-part due to the game's single-character progression system.
The game's story features dialogue choices. These will not affect the main narrative, but instead enable players to gain intelligence that may aid in their missions. The game features a mode called "Exploration" that was used in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Unlike most open-world games where the player is given an objective marker to guide their progress, Breakpoints Exploration mode gives the player a rough approximation of the area where an objective may be located. Their approximation can be refined by exploring the world or through investigating intelligence. A competitive multiplayer mode was released at launch, and end-of-game content such as raids was introduced after release.
Plot Setting and characters The game is set in the then-future year of 2025, six years after the events of Wildlands and one year after the events of Future Soldier. The story takes place on Auroa, a fictional island in the South Pacific owned by a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist named Jace Skell (Rodney Mullen). Skell is the founder of Skell Technology, a blue chip company producing drones for commercial applications, but the company has also found success as a military contractor developing cutting-edge equipment for the United States government. Skell purchased Auroa with a vision of turning it into a hub for the design, research, development, and production of artificial intelligence and drone technology, which he dubs "World 2.0". The island is made up of a series of individual biomes including marine estuaries and wetlands, fjords, arboreal forests, snow-capped mountains, and active volcanoes.
The main antagonist is former Ghost Lieutenant Colonel Cole D. Walker (Jon Bernthal), who has gone rogue after leaving the army. After witnessing the slaughter of his fireteam on a mission in Bolivia, Walker has come to realize that the United States government does not value the lives of its soldiers. A private military contractor named Sentinel has occupied the island under Walker's command while Walker himself is leading a team of rogue soldiers calling themselves the "Wolves".
Returning characters from Ghost Recon Wildlands include the members of Nomad's fireteam Dominic "Holt" Moretta, Corey "Weaver" Ward and Rubio "Midas" Delgado.
Story Prior to the events of the game, Skell Technology comes under increasing public scrutiny when they are faced with mounting evidence that its products are being used by corrupt regimes. The situation escalates further when the USS Seay, an American cargo ship, sinks off the coast of the Auroa archipelago, and the island chain cuts all communication to the outside world. In response, CIA Deputy Director Peter Miles initiates Operation Greenstone, deploying a Ghost Recon platoon to re-establish contact with Auroa and determine the circumstances of the sinking. The insertion ends in disaster when the helicopters carrying the platoon to the island are taken down by a swarm of drones.
Nomad survives the crash but is separated from his squad. Midas is missing in action, Holt is crippled, and Weaver is executed by Cole Walker, a former Ghost-turned-leader of an elite paramilitary group called the "Wolves". After forming a new Ghost team consisting stealth specialist Fury, combat engineer Fixit, and the sharpshooter Vasily, Nomad gets in contact with Mads Schulz, an ex-United States Marine and de facto leader of the homesteaders who lived on Auroa before Skell Tech's arrival. Mads reveals that the homesteaders were forced into hiding by a private military company employed by Skell Tech called Sentinel, who had been hired for security following a terrorist bombing on the island, but has now overthrown Skell Tech and declared martial law over the archipelago. Nomad meets Josiah Hill, another Ghost survivor with whom he and Walker have history: the three were part of a mission in the Middle East, which ended in disaster when Walker executed their commanding officer for murdering a civilian. After the mission Walker resigned from the Army and disappeared. Nomad encounters Skell's chief mathematician Maurice Fox and his daughter, Harmony, and discovers that all of Auroa is surrounded by a massive network of drones that prevents anyone from entering or leaving.
After determining that Skell Tech CEO Jace Skell, who disappeared shortly after Sentinel's coup, is the only one who can lift the drone perimeter, Nomad seeks him out. Upon reaching Skell, Nomad discovers that Hill has been secretly working with Walker and the two offer Nomad a place by their side. Nomad refuses and takes Skell to the homesteaders, where he admits he ordered the sinking of the Seay to stop the ship from carrying dangerous technology off the island, and shows Nomad video footage in which Walker and Trey Stone, the founder and owner of Sentinel, discuss a project codenamed "Wonderland". Skell says that he will be able to hack one of the pylons that controls the drone perimeter, but needs the assistance of several Skell Tech colleagues who are scattered around the archipelago.
During the search for one of the employees, Nomad reaches out to the Outcasts, a group of former Skell Tech employees who quit Skell Tech and formed a resistance group in opposition to Skell's increasing interests in transhumanism, led by Haruhi Ito and her brother Daigoroh. While assisting one of Skell's colleagues, Nomad discovers Haruhi and Daigoroh were responsible for the Skell Tech bombing; they had intended only to damage the building as a protest against Skell's transhumanist projects, but they were not aware the building was occupied and had underestimated the explosive power of their bomb. Nomad berates them for their recklessness, but continues working with them after recovering Skell's colleague.
Maurice reveals the identity of a mole in Skell Tech who had been assisting him and attempts to meet her, but he is killed by the Wolves and the mole is kidnapped. Nomad rescues her, killing Hill in the process, and continues to investigate the Wolves' activities. Nomad discovers that Walker's "Wonderland" project is an operation to use a submarine outfitted with drone-equipped torpedoes to assassinate key national figures, in hopes of triggering a third world war as a way of "cleaning" the world and ridding it of corruption. After finding and killing Walker, Nomad assists Skell in hacking the drone pylon, using the drones to destroy Walker's submarine before it departs.
In the wake of Walker's death, Stone consolidates his power over Auroa, Skell Tech, and Sentinel. Nomad is congratulated by Mads and the homesteaders for thwarting the Wonderland scheme, but acknowledges that his work on Auroa is not finished. Skell observes the drone swarm above Auroa acting strangely, commenting that the hacked pylon appears to have developed emergent behavior.
Post-launch content Project Titan