Structurally and substantially, Ghost Recon Wildlands and its sequel, Breakpoint, are very similar to the other Ubisoft open-world monoliths. Like Far Cry, Assassin’s Creed, and to a lesser extent The Division, you’re free to explore a gigantic map. It’s split into counties and biomes, and your job is to take them over one by one, eliminating a series of lieutenants and captains as you kill your way to the top of a criminal empire. But the Ghost Recon reboots have one unique, brilliant central idea. Years after they launched, they’re suddenly surging on Steam and available cheaper than ever – if you never tried Ghost Recon Wildlands or Breakpoint before, now is definitely the time.
Ghost Recon Wildlands is a squad shooter and open-world game that, for the most part, feels pretty familiar. You can customize your approach to each mission, hijack vehicles to navigate its fictionalized version of Bolivia, and order your squad to complete various tactics. At its best, it feels like a third-person version of the superlative Rainbow Six Vegas crossed with the earlier Far Cry games. The silliness of Far Cry 5 and 6 is absent here and the writing tries (‘tries,’ underlined) to be more serious and dramatic. There is one moment in Ghost Recon Wildlands however that makes it stand out above any of its rivals.
I maintain that a good gun, a good shooting mechanic, or some kind of distinctive combat gimmick can save an otherwise rote shooter. Doom 2 is bad – but it has the Super Shotgun, so, enough said. FEAR is a perfectly standard, mostly gray FPS, but the enemy AI and the extremely bloody bullet time elevate it into shooter history. Wildlands and Breakpoint are similarly redeemed by one distinctive movement, the visionary ‘sync shot.’
When scouting an enemy position, you can tag the oblivious bad guys in numerical order, assigning each of your special forces team a different head to pop. Once everyone has moved into position and confirmed they have a clear line of sight, you press a single button to execute the order, and watch as an entire outpost falls down dead to the always-gratifying thunk of suppressed rifles.
Wildlands and Breakpoint are worth playing for this moment alone – and now they’re on sale at their cheapest price ever. Both games are down to $4.99 / £4.19. As a result, they’re blowing up on Steam. The Wildlands concurrent player count has jumped from 1,000 to more than 10,000, and Breakpoint has reached a new record number of simultaneous users, at 12,613. If you want to check them out, just head here.
Otherwise, we’ve compiled the cheapest and best ten games to get during the Steam Summer Sale, or you can try some of the other best sandbox games available on PC.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.