So I was very very skeptical about this game. For me, Ghost Recon died after the first game, which was a great game that got 3 expansion packs. The other games, while ok aren't very tactical or realistic. But at least somewhat the newer ghost recon games has a semblance of the original game, unlike the newer Rainbow Six games.
Wildlands takes the series to a giant open world at almost 600km2 version of Bolivia.
The story is cliche as all of these games, evil Narco cartel has "emigrated" to Bolivia and bought most of the country. You as the Ghosts are dropped in and will help the rebels by getting fuel, food, medicine, and equipment. As well as taking out baddies.
You got 21 zones, each zone has it's only little story arc. in the starter zone you will hunt down a perverse mass murdering torture couple.
The game was better than I thought, I thought this was even less tactical than the Advanced warfighter games. But given the limitations of the open world genre, it's about has realistic/none realistic as those games.
You have perfect gun control, I have no problem hitting people in the head at 120 meters with my 1911. Sadly increasing the difficulty doesn't increase any of these things only makes the enemy more auto aim super accurate.
My other biggest complaint is that because it's an open world and you have to unlock everything. You start off with silly weapons and gear.
You start with a 416 which is a good gun(and I'm still using it 12 hours into the game) But you have no optics, only iron sights, and worse a 20 round magazine(apparently it's 1968 and I'm in Vietnam) To unlock all these weapons and gear, you need to complete missions but more importantly finding random weapons boxes and gear boxes.
Oh look here at this cattle farm I find a laser sight for my MP5.
This really breaks the suspension of disbelief. I'm the best trained super special forces guy in the world but I can't start with an Aim point and 30 round mag for my 416.
As you level up(yes you level up) you can upgrade your gear and skills, you need 3 things to upgrade.
1 the right level or higher. 2 skill points and 3 resources. Some unlocks require a certain amount of fuel or a certain amount of equiment. These resources can be found at random places in the game(barrels of fuel etc) But you also get missions like stealing a chopper or fuel truck. You also unlock support from the rebels, like mortar strike, rebel fighters, etc.
But the game is still more fun than a lot of other games. The sound is fantastic, the graphics are out of this world and makes me want to buy a monster graphics card as I'm stuck on high and very high options and not ultra and even then the FPS is too low.
I do get flashbacks to both Act of Valor and Lone Survivor when you are moving across the terrain with a dozen cartel people after you, you get the feel of Lone Survivor,(helped by the sound which is very close to that movie) But the badassness is definitely Act of Valor style.
You have small drones and can get up to 4 synched shots with your team mates. So you do feel very powerful even tho it only takes a few hits and you are dead. The power comes from the amount of info you can gather, you will have an advantage not so much in firepower but in intel.
Which is often the real life situation.
So all in all it's a find game. I'd say 70% action and 30% tactical.
shows off M-113s painted by 
