aves828-blog1

[aves828-blog1]

I’m going to be writing a review/summary on a newly-released video game, called Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands. This was an immediate hit for the Ghost Recon series. It is a tactical based, free world, third-person shooter game.

 Story: In the beginning of the game you learn about an American DEA agent, Ricky Sandoval, who is on an undercover assignment in Bolivia. His objective is to infiltrate the Santa Blanca drug cartel with the ultimate goal of dismantling the cartel. The cartel boss, El Sueno, somehow figures out that his right hand man is an undercover DEA agent, and kills him. This sparks a huge reaction from the United States, and a top CIA officer is sent in to Bolivia with a small team of four soldiers, known as the Ghosts. They are called this simply because they do not officially exist. They are some of the most elite and highly-trained people the United States has. The game objective is to dismantle the entire drug cartel’s operation. You have to dismantle production, smuggling, influence, and their security forces. Along the way, you interrogate multiple people trying to find the location of El Sueno, their leader. The game has two alternate endings, both suspenseful. In the first ending, your team locates El Sueno and converges on his location. You find him and approach him, ready to arrest him and bring him to the United States to face charges there. As he is about to be arrested by the Ghosts, El Sueno tells the CIA officer that she will want to answer her phone. It begins to ring, and she answers. Her boss, the director of the CIA, instructs her that El Sueno has made a deal with the US government in which he received immunity for his crimes, in exchange for intel on a few other cartel bosses, and terrorist organizations. There is, however, an alternate or ‘bad’ ending. In this one, the CIA officer, Bowman, has so much rage at what El Sueno has done that she ignores her boss’ order to bring him back to the US and she kills him. The game ends with her being charged by the US government and thrown in prison for life, for disobeying orders and killing him.

 Setting: The setting takes place in Bolivia. It has a huge map. The landscape is like that of the country. There are mountains everywhere, farms and farming equipment, and animals scattered over the entirety of the map. These animals include cows, llamas, and birds. The game has around 20 different cities/towns, and you are free to roam them however you please. The landscape ranges from desert, to mountains, rivers, and even a snowy region.

 Missions: There are many missions in this game. I’m not sure how many there are, but it would take about 40 hours of non-stop play to complete the game, and that’s if you’re really good at it. You can choose if you want to play the mission tactically, or go in loud and start a huge fight, however, some missions you must not be detected by the enemy in order to successfully complete it. For some missions, you must located a weapons or drug cache in order to put a dent in the cartel’s operations. For other, you have to interrogate a target, and others you have to execute the target. There are also side missions, such as supply drops, where you have to kill enemies guarding a helicopter and steal the helicopter or plane. Upon completion of these side missions, you get skill points. You can purchase additional skills with these, such as bullet resistance. You have to gain intel on each aspect of the cartel’s operation; influence, security, production, and smuggling. You have to take out each boss and underboss of these four categories, working closer to your overall objective; dismantle the Santa Blanca drug cartel. Once you have successfully taken out two of these categories you have the option of taking out El Sueno, the boss, or you can work on dismantling the other two before you go after him.

 Appearance: There are many different things you can do to make your character look unique. There are about 10 different faces you can choose from, and you can be male or female. You can make your skin tone anything from really light to really dark. You can choose from hairstyles from bald, to corn rows. You can also choose from about 10 different facial hairstyles, and you can choose what color all of your hair is. There are different face scars you can choose from, as well as tattoos on your left and right arms. The clothing choice is pretty vast as well. If you want to look like a regular civilian you can, or if you want to look like a highly trained soldier you can as well. There’s many different possibilities.

Vehicles: There are plenty of vehicles you can choose from to conduct your missions, or to just explore the map. There are your basic 4 door sedans, two and four door trucks, armored SUV’s with gatling guns mounted to the top, helicopters, planes, motorcycles, and dirtbikes. My two favorites are the dirt bikes and the helicopters. The dirt bikes make exploring the mountain regions much easier. The helicopters and planes are obviously ideal for getting to your destination faster. My favorite thing to do, is get in a helicopter and fly towards my mission. I will ascend as high as I can and skydive down to my mission. It just seems to fit in with tactical aspect of the game.

 Weapons: In this you game you have sniper rifles, assault rifles, pistols, submachine guns, compact machine guns, shotguns, and grenade launchers. You also have a drone which can deliver and explosive or emp pulse, which disables all nearby electronics. This comes in handy, allowing you take out the enemies defenses that rely on electricity. The drone can also be used to spot enemies and permanently mark them on your mini map. You have land mines, c4, grenades, flashbangs, diversion lures and flares. The flares and diversion lures are used to attract enemies to the location that you place them.

 Other factions: There is a group of rebels who assist you throughout the game. These are Bolivian natives who are trying to make a stand and stop the cartel. However, they are outnumbered, so they need assistance from you and your team. The other faction is called Unidad, these are the Bolivian special forces. They went to war with the drug cartel at first, but decided to tolerate them because of all the killing in their country. They will not attack you unless you are shooting or if you stop right in front of them. Once they do begin attacking you, however, they do not stop. They keep coming in waves until they take you out.

 Conclusion: I’ve played video games my whole life, and this one is in my top 3. There are so many things you can do in the game, aside from the numerous missions and objectives. This is one of those games, that keeps you up very late at night, and even though you know you have class or work in the morning, you just keep playing.