As someone who enjoyed the long-dormant Ghost Recon series, particularly during the Advanced Warfighter days in the mid-2000s, I remember being extremely skeptical when publisher Ubisoft revealed the next big step for the series in 2016. The modern-day malaise of open-world game design had not yet set in eight years ago. But it still seemed wildly inappropriate for a series all about silently executing morally gray military operations to suddenly feature operatives Tokyo-drifting and invading foreign lands.
When Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands was finally released a year later, I refrained from picking this one up. What was shown before its launch didn’t seem to capture what I loved about the series a decade prior, and I was okay saving my $60. But in 2021, a fateful Friday night with no plans, a few beers in the fridge, and a Game Pass subscription convinced me to finally give this game a few hours to change my mind. And to my surprise, I was having a great time in mere minutes.
This week, PlayStation Plus subscribers can also discover one of the more underrated military shooters of the last decade, as Ghost Recon Wildlands joins the online service’s game catalog this month. It’s a very different game from the certified kings of the genre in Call Of Duty or Battlefield. But what it misses in strong competitive multiplayer modes it makes up for with sheer variety and fun factor. Whether playing solo or with friends, Wildlands is worth a download.
Wildlands takes place in Bolivia amid nationwide unrest spurred on by a Mexico-based illegal syndicate known as the Santa Blanca Cartel. As expected, the U.S. descends upon the country to intervene and assist local resistance fighters in their efforts to fight off the violent gang. To rid the country of the cartel for good, players must take out the gang’s lieutenants (each located in a particular region of the map), and then finally the gang’s leader known simply as “El Sueño.”
If this premise sounds familiar, it’s because Wildlands followed the exact blueprint of other Ubisoft games of its era like Far Cry 5. Wildlands’ story is as clumsy as expected. It’s negligent of the seriousness of its subject matter (as evidenced by Bolivia filing a formal complaint against France for this insensitivity of the game’s plot). And the narrative’s open-ended structure means it has little to say about what the Ghosts are doing, the devastating realities of American intervention, or how this game reflects the real-world conflicts impacting South and Central America.
Players who can get past Wildlands’ woefully toothless and paper-thin setup, however, will find a dizzyingly large open-world playground with hundreds of tactical scenarios to run through at their leisure.
Wildlands’ open world is irresponsibly large and includes a variety of large urban cities, rural streets, mountains, forests, factories, and more. The environments work as fun, varied backdrops for taking back enemy camps. Players also commandeer every vehicle they see, from armored trucks and sports cars to helicopters and boats. Weapons are plentiful and customizable with scopes, grips, and silencers. And equipment like night vision goggles, parachutes, and airstrikes can help your squad even the odds when outnumbered or in a bind.
These options allow players to decide their preferred way to approach the enemy. Need to collect intel from a lakeside enemy base? Players can roll up in a speedboat at nighttime (when patrols are more relaxed) and sneak in and out before anyone notices. Alternatively, you can fly a helicopter armed with machine guns over an enemy base and rain down hell from above. It’s a winning gameplay loop that rewards both playing it safe and experimentation.
These emergent moments are multiplied when joined by friends in four-player co-op. The game features a useful countdown timer for synchronizing shots with fellow Ghosts. Players can also be as close or as far apart from one another in the open world as they like, making it a great casual hangout game. The chaos that ensues when friends inevitably decide to ditch the original plan for a mission is the kind of dumb fun that makes for magical multiplayer moments.
Wildlands got a sequel in Ghost Recon Breakpoint in 2019. But Breakpoint complicates things by layering in a The Division-style loot and leveling system. Wildlands’ simple but fun co-op modes and more realistic combat make it hold up a lot better than its follow-up.
Wildlands barely retains the DNA of its predecessors. It doesn’t feature the plausible future tech of 2012’s Ghost Recon: Future Solider. Nor does it have the cutting-edge AI enemies of either Advanced Warfighter game.
But if Ghost Recon had to go open-world to keep the franchise alive, Wildlands is the best-case scenario. It’s a fun open-world shooter that executes its main gimmick exceptionally well in both co-op and solo play. Wildlands is also easy to drop and come back to when you inevitably take a break to play something else. As a free download on PlayStation Plus, Wildlands is an easy recommendation for the tactically-minded and fans of over-the-top open-world hijinks alike.
