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[Polygon] Ghost Recon: Going to war against a devout drug cartel

dex3108

Member
When it’s released in early March, Ubisoft says Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be the single largest open world game it has ever made. Set in a miniature Bolivia, it promises to feature one of the most authentic and exotic settings yet.

But what, exactly, is Clancy’s fictional U.S. Army special forces team doing in the backwoods of Latin American in the first place? And what does its mission have to do with Santa Muerte, an up and coming religious sect favored by Mexico’s most violent drug cartels and the men and women who fight against them?

The backstory for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is complicated. During a recent presentation to the press, it took two of the game’s writers nearly 45 minutes to work their way through it all.

“Everything related to the Clancy universe is asking a single question: What if?” said Sam Strachman, the game’s narrative director. “What if, in the near future, the relatively peaceful country of Bolivia were invaded by a Mexican drug cartel?”

There is huge article on Polygon if you want to read it

http://www.polygon.com/features/2017/1/18/14309524/ghost-recon-wildlands-santa-muerte-cartel-bolivia

Also Video from article

https://youtu.be/VrDqtbeemes
 
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Disxo

Member
Ah, I am fine if they chose that place for the environments, but I hope they dont perpetuate the stigma people have with south america.
Who am I kidding?, Its Ubisoft.
 

watchdog

Member
I wish Ubisoft wasn't so focused on the open-world formula. The premise interests me but I can't help but think that any narrative or storyline is going get muddled by repetitive side quests and other inconsequential tasks. Raiding a hideout, town, or village and climbing radio towers over and over again gets dull really quick. Give me well-acted and well-written characters with a decent narrative and I'd be happy.
 
I wish Ubisoft wasn't so focused on the open-world formula. The premise interests me but I can't help but think that any narrative or storyline is going get muddled by repetitive side quests and other inconsequential tasks. Raiding a hideout, town, or village and climbing radio towers over and over again gets dull really quick. Give me well-acted and well-written characters with a decent narrative and I'd be happy.

Last I heard, Ubisoft isn't too interested in an overarching narrative anymore, they're focusing more on game play and missions that are more like episodes of a TV show.

Basically how they did Watch Dogs 2.
 
I wish Ubisoft wasn't so focused on the open-world formula. The premise interests me but I can't help but think that any narrative or storyline is going get muddled by repetitive side quests and other inconsequential tasks. Raiding a hideout, town, or village and climbing radio towers over and over again gets dull really quick. Give me well-acted and well-written characters with a decent narrative and I'd be happy.
Is this open world set up like Crackdown? As in, as you take down certain targets the whole organization is affected somehow?

Or is it more like the classic Ubi open world formula of tons of small self-contained islands of gameplay that don't have anything to do with each other?

For some reason I keep thinking its more of a Crackdown model, but can't remember why.
 
Ah, I am fine if they chose that place for the environments, but I hope they dont perpetuate the stigma people have with south america.
Who am I kidding?, Its Ubisoft.
I'm sure they consider that, too, and at least consider how many possible consumers could be put off by the choice of any given country. E.g. Setting it in Mexico would make less environmental and artistic sense, too, but it could also put off some consumers in both the US and Mexico. Bolivia however maybe because of existing [not necessarily accurate] believes or stigmas, but also a greater distance (geographically but also ethnically) from target consumers could be a candidate of least offense to said likely consumers.
 
Didn't the last ghost recon thread turn into an argument about the location?
....

Anyway my go to for online co op. Ready to stealth it up with some gaffers than I blow our cover Nd we tear shit up
 
This a single player game with some co-op elements but no real other multiplayer elements right?

I'm torn on playing at launch or just waiting a few months and playing when gold is cheap and patches are all done. If there really isn't any multiplayer component (other than co-op) I'm heavily leaning towards the former.
 
Im a huge fan of the series going back to OGR and am cautiously optimistic. From the story bits covered in the article it seems like they have put some thought into the overarching story which is nice.

Im interested to see how dynamically you impact the game world by focusing your operations in one of the key areas they mentioned. If your choices on which missions to complete first impact others down the line it could lead to some really interesting tactics and add a lot of replayability.

Apparently there was a leaked video today thats been taken down already from a website (usgamernet) that has a build that showed off the squad command system and it sounds like they included more tactical options than most thought would be available.

Someone mentioned The Division as a comparison and I honestly think Wildlands could deliver in a lot of the areas where that game fell short.
 
Why bolivia? I am still baffled by such choice. They were doing fine with the drug problem.

Two answers to that.

One, the environments:

"We had to study what could be the best opportunity for the game, but in the end, Bolivia was a very good choice because of all the diversity we found there. All the opportunity in terms of gameplay and environment," says Martinez.

"Bolivia was a very, very interesting place," begins Martinez. "When we started the game, we had to decide, 'Where do we want to go?' When we started to talk about Bolivia, it was immediately, 'Yeah, sounds cool. I don't really know what it looks like.' To me, it was interesting to discover and learn everything I can. If I can recreate that, people will enjoy discovering it again through the game we're making."

Two, Tom Clancy What If story stuff:

"Every single book, movie, or anything related to Clancy is asking this question of 'What If?' What if in the near-future, this were to happen? As we started doing research into what's going on in the world, one interesting fact that we found is Bolivia is one of the largest producers of coca leaf in the world," explains Strachman.

"Our thought on this is, 'What would happen if in this relatively peaceful country, a cartel moved in, took over a huge area, and turned it into a narco state?' What happens is they're able to produce more cocaine than any other cartel in history," says Strachman. "By our estimates in-game, that's 250 tons of cocaine a year, which is bringing in around $2 billion per week."
 

Dabanton

Member
There aren't many devs doing games like this on console (I don't there is a game like this thats been released this gen ) so this will probably be a day one.

I've liked the videos they've released so far especially the stealth one, but I highly doubt many gamers will have the patience to play like that haha.
 
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