Ubisoft Paris

Lore & Background

Ubisoft Paris developed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, an online tactical shooter set in an open world environment called Auroa, a fictional island chain in the Pacific Ocean. The game was released on 4 October 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and on 18 December 2019 for Stadia. It is the eleventh installment in the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon franchise and a narrative sequel to Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands (2017). The player takes on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony 'Nomad' Perryman, a U.S. Special Operation Forces service member sent to investigate disturbances involving Skell Technology, a military contractor based on Auroa.

Upon release, the game received mixed reviews from critics, with criticism for its mechanics and mission design. It failed to meet sales expectations and was a commercial disappointment. Live service support ended on 5 April 2022, shortly after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.

Reader's Guide

In Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint, players take on the role of Lieutenant Colonel Anthony 'Nomad' Perryman, a member of Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, also known as 'Ghosts'. The game is a tactical shooter set in an open world environment played from a third-person perspective with an optional first-person view for aiming. The game world, Auroa, features a variety of landscapes that can be used for tactical advantages, such as sliding down rocky terrain and using mud for camouflage.

Players control various air, land, and sea vehicles to traverse the world. The game launched with four character classes, each with its own abilities; for example, the panther class is oriented towards stealth and can throw smoke bombs. Players gather intelligence to progress and can use methods like combat drones, rocket launchers, blowtorches, sulphur gas grenades, and electromagnetic pulse grenades. The game emphasizes survival: enemies are more numerous and have access to similar weapons and skills.

Players must collect resources to craft bandages or grenades, manage fatigue, injuries, and ration usage, and set up bivouac shelters to heal. The game can be played with up to three other players cooperatively or in single-player. A competitive multiplayer mode was released at launch, and end-of-game content such as raids was introduced after release.

Franchise Evolution and Design Philosophy

Ubisoft Paris developed Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint as the eleventh installment in the franchise and a narrative sequel to Wildlands. The game places a larger emphasis on survival than Wildlands. Enemies are more numerous and feature a wider range of archetypes, with access to many of the same weapons, skills, and equipment available to 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 and use them to craft items like bandages or grenades. Regular loadout checks are necessary to progress the player's Gear Level, and the player must 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, but serious injuries will impede the player character's performance, causing limping and inaccurate aiming.

Players can set up a bivouac shelter to heal themselves, manage weapons and inventory, customize their character, and change classes.

Tactical Gameplay and AI Systems

The core gameplay of Breakpoint is a tactical shooter set in an open world environment, played from a third-person perspective with optional first-person aiming. Players can utilize a variety of weapons, including combat drones and rocket launchers, or use stealth to silently neutralize opponents. New equipment includes 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 to avoid alerting enemies, and fallen teammates can be carried away to revive them safely. Many new features were developed based on player feedback from Wildlands. Enemies respond more realistically to player actions, and patrols wander the game world searching for the player. The game features a mode called 'Exploration', which gives the player a rough approximation of an objective's location rather than a precise marker, refined by exploring the world or investigating intelligence. The game requires a constant internet connection to play, in part due to the single-character progression system.

Narrative Structure and Cartel Hierarchy

The story of Breakpoint is set in the then-future year of 2025, six years after Wildlands and one year after Future Soldier. The main antagonist is former Ghost Lieutenant Colonel Cole D. Walker, who has gone rogue after leaving the army. After witnessing the slaughter of his fireteam on a mission in Bolivia, Walker came to believe the U.S. government does not value the lives of its soldiers. He leads a team of rogue soldiers called the 'Wolves' and has occupied the island of Auroa with a private military contractor named Sentinel.

The player, as Nomad, survives a helicopter crash during Operation Greenstone and is separated from his squad: Midas is missing in action, Holt is crippled, and Weaver is executed by Walker. Nomad forms a new Ghost team consisting of Fury, Fixit, and Vasily. He meets Mads Schulz, who reveals that Sentinel has overthrown Skell Tech and declared martial law. Nomad encounters Josiah Hill, another Ghost survivor, and discovers that all of Auroa is surrounded by a massive network of drones.

Nomad seeks out Jace Skell, who admits he ordered the sinking of the USS Seay to stop dangerous technology from leaving the island, and shows Nomad video footage of Walker and Trey Stone discussing a project codenamed 'Wonderland'.

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