Unfortunately, there’s no denying that Ghost Recon: Breakpoint has had a pretty rough launch. With many high impact bugs and glitches, not to mention the micro transaction system and even the design of the overall map and gameplay, it has received a lot of criticism from both players and game critics. Never a good thing to happen on a game’s launch, but at least Ubisoft has revealed that they do have plans to improve the game both in the short run and the long haul, as revealed in a comprehensive blog post in which they addressed all of the problems they openly admit to. Supposedly, their plan includes post-launch content, a change to the in-game economy, more customization options, and the addition of AI teammates.
Ubisoft’s top priority, as stated themselves, is fixing the many bugs and glitches that the game currently sports, including server stability. Some of the major bugs in question are the ones with drone deployment, the night vision goggles blocking gun crosshairs, issues changing the rate of fire on weapons, and the notorious mission complete notification bug. The update that provides all of those fixes hasn’t come yet, and yet Ubisoft has already determined that another update will come at the end of November in order to add more bug and glitch fixes to the game.
AI teammates are barely mentioned, but they were addressed briefly. Ubisoft mentioned that they were committed to the idea of adding AI teammates to the game. Naturally a lot of players wanted this addition to be made, considering that the previous game, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, had AI teammates if you decided to play the game solo. Why Breakpoint didn’t have the same feature right out the gate, despite being a literal sequel, is a bit of a mystery, and was certainly cause for criticism upon launch. That makes it even stranger that Ubisoft didn’t give a hard plan or time as to when that feature would be introduced into the game.
Freedom of choice was also something that many players complained about when the game launched. Unlike Wildlands, where you could run off and do what you wanted right off the bat (even if it was a bad idea), Breakpoint pretty much controls how you progress through the game, which was a major letdown considering that such freedom of choice was one of the major selling points of Wildlands. Unfortunately, Ubisoft’s statement on this was pretty vague, simply stating that they are working on a “more radical and immersive version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint” and says the development team is working on a way to allow players to “tailor your experience to the way you want to enjoy the game.” It’s not quite clear what that all means, but hopefully it will make the Breakpoint experience more akin to the Wildlands one.
Ubisoft has also revealed that they are looking into a community survey that will allow gamers to directly share their feedback with the game developers. Frankly this does seem to be the right call considering that the majority of the community is dissatisfied with the game, though it only pays off it the company follows through.
That said, even though it was pretty disappointing for a majorly expected game to be such a mess at launch, Ubisoft is actually responding quite well. For one, they have readily admitted that the state of the game is problematic, and they are taking responsibility for it, so that’s major points for them. The fact that they are even willing to admit their faults and acknowledge how bad they are means they are likely willing to take the necessary steps to rectify them. Granted, that doesn’t absolve their failure to deliver a good game on launch, but it is a good first step into fixing the problem, and quickly. It’s something other game companies could have definitely taken notes on, perhaps salvaging their own reputations when they made similar mistakes.
On the other hand, Ubisoft sure is being a bit vague about when all of these important fixes will actually be available for everyone to enjoy. This probably isn’t an attempt to avoid transparency on their part; they probably just don’t know when exactly they’ll be able to implement all of those fixes outside of a vague window of time. After all, some features, such as the AI, will likely take some time to implement into the game properly, since it is a major feature. The most they can do is provide a window of time in which these updates will probably be ready to go.
In the meantime, the game is not in an unplayable state, but it certainly isn’t as enjoyable as it could be. That said, we’re hoping the bugs and glitches get tackled soon, since those are the ones that have the biggest impact on your ability to play a game. Ubisoft is also aware of that, so we’re fairly certain they’ll get on it ASAP.
