Nemesis System

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Lore & Background

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 billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist Jace Skell, founder of Skell Technology. 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 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 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 leads 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.

In Their Own Story

Prior to the events of the game, Skell Technology comes under increasing public scrutiny when faced with mounting evidence that its products are being used by corrupt regimes. The situation escalates 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. The insertion ends in disaster when the helicopters carrying the platoon 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. After forming a new Ghost team consisting of stealth specialist Fury, combat engineer Fixit, and 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 Sentinel, who had been hired for security following a terrorist bombing on the island, but has now overthrown Skell Tech and declared martial law. 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 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".

Reader's Guide

Breakpoint 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—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. The game places a larger emphasis on survival than Wildlands. Enemies are more numerous and feature a wider range of archetypes, and they have access to many of the same weapons, skills, and equipment available to the player. Players need to collect different resources and use them to craft items such as 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—they will start limping and can no longer aim their weapon accurately. Players can set up a bivouac shelter to heal themselves, manage weapons and inventory, customize their character, and change classes. The game was planned to launch with four character classes, each with its own abilities—for example, the panther is a class oriented towards stealth and is able to throw smoke bombs. Players can switch between classes in-game. The game can be played with up to three other players cooperatively, or in single-player. AI squadmates were added as post-release content due to negative feedback from players. Unlike previous Ghost Recon titles, Breakpoint requires a constant internet connection to play. The game features a mode called "Exploration" that gives the player a rough approximation of the area where an objective may be located, which 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.

Did You Know?

• The game was released worldwide on 4 October 2019 for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One, and on 18 December 2019 for Stadia.
• Auroa is a fictional island chain in the Pacific Ocean owned by billionaire entrepreneur Jace Skell, founder of Skell Technology.
• The main antagonist, Cole D. Walker, is a former Ghost Lieutenant Colonel who went rogue after witnessing the slaughter of his fireteam on a mission in Bolivia.
• The game requires a constant internet connection to play, in-part due to its single-character progression system.
• Live service support ended on 5 April 2022 shortly after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.

Gameplay Mechanics and Tactical Depth

Like its predecessor Wildlands, Breakpoint is a tactical shooter 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". The game world, Auroa, is an open world environment that features a variety of landscapes that can be used for tactical advantages—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 places a larger emphasis on survival than Wildlands. Enemies are more numerous and feature 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 player's 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 AI squadmates, but the addition of AI squadmates was later amended as post-release content 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.

Narrative Setting and Antagonist

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. 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, 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.

Exploration Systems and Mission Design

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, Breakpoint's 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. 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.

Reception and Commercial Lifecycle

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.