Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an online tactical shooter video game created by Ubisoft Paris and published by Ubisoft. It was released worldwide on October 4, 2019, for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. It also became available on December 18, 2019, for Stadia. The game is the eleventh in the Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon series and continues the story from the 2017 game, Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands.
The game takes place in an open world called Auroa, an imaginary group of islands in the Pacific Ocean. Players control Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman, a U.S. Special Operations Forces member sent to Auroa to investigate problems linked to Skell Technology, a military contractor based on the island.
When the game was first released, it received some good and some bad reviews from critics, with complaints about its gameplay and mission design. It did not sell as well as expected and was considered a commercial failure. Live service support for the game ended on April 5, 2022, after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.
Gameplay
Breakpoint is a tactical shooter game that takes place in a large open world. It is played from a third-person perspective, and players can use a first-person view to aim weapons. The player controls Lieutenant Colonel Anthony "Nomad" Perryman, a member of Delta Company, First Battalion, 5th Special Forces Group, also known as "Ghosts," a fictional elite special operations unit of the United States Army. The game world, Auroa, has many different types of landscapes that players can use for strategy. For example, players can slide down rocky areas or use mud to hide. Ubisoft says Auroa is larger than the game world in Wildlands. Players can move through the world using air, land, and sea vehicles.
The game originally included four character classes, with more classes planned for later updates. Each class has unique abilities, such as the Panther class, which is good for sneaking and can throw smoke bombs. Players can switch between classes during the game. To progress, players must gather intelligence and use different methods to complete missions. As in earlier games, players can use a variety of weapons, including combat drones and rocket launchers. Players can also use stealth to silently defeat enemies. New weapons and gear, such as a blowtorch, sulfur gas grenades, and electromagnetic pulse grenades, are available. Players can carry enemy bodies to hide them and collect loot from fallen enemies. Fallen teammates can be carried to revive them. Many of these features were added based on player feedback from Wildlands.
Breakpoint focuses more on survival than Wildlands. Enemies are more numerous and come in more types. Enemies can use the same weapons, skills, and equipment as the player. Enemies react more realistically to player actions, and patrols search for the player. Ubisoft made these changes to make players feel "not the most dangerous in the game world." Players must collect resources to craft items like bandages or grenades. Players must regularly check their gear to improve their character's level and manage fatigue, injuries, and ration use. Failing to manage these can slow the player, reduce health recovery, or increase noise. The game uses a regenerative health system, where the player's health naturally heals, but serious injuries can impair movement and aiming. Players can set up a bivouac shelter to heal, manage weapons, customize their character, and change classes. The game can be played alone or with up to three others. Initially, the game had no AI squadmates, but this was added later after player feedback. Unlike previous Ghost Recon games, Breakpoint requires an internet connection to play due to its single-character progression system.
The game includes dialogue choices that do not change the main story but can help players gain intelligence for missions. A mode called "Exploration" is included, similar to one in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Unlike most open-world games that show exact objectives, Breakpoint's Exploration mode gives players a general idea of where an objective might be. This can be improved by exploring or using intelligence. A competitive multiplayer mode was released with the game, and additional content like raids was added later.
Plot
The game takes place in the year 2025, six years after the events of Wildlands and one year after the events of Future Soldier. The story happens on Auroa, a fictional island in the South Pacific owned by Jace Skell, a billionaire entrepreneur and philanthropist. Skell created Skell Technology, a well-known company that makes drones for commercial use. The company also works with the United States government to develop advanced equipment. Skell bought Auroa to turn it into a center for designing, researching, and producing artificial intelligence and drone technology, which he calls "World 2.0." The island has different environments, including marine estuaries, wetlands, fjords, forests, mountains, and volcanoes.
The main enemy is Cole D. Walker, a former military officer who left the army after his team was killed during a mission in Bolivia. Walker believes the United States government does not care about soldiers’ lives. A private military group named Sentinel, under Walker’s control, now occupies Auroa. Walker leads a group of rogue soldiers called the "Wolves."
Characters from Ghost Recon Wildlands return, including Dominic "Holt" Moretta, Corey "Weaver" Ward, and Rubio "Midas" Delgado.
Before the game begins, Skell Technology faces growing public criticism because evidence shows its products are used by corrupt governments. The situation worsens when the USS Seay, an American cargo ship, sinks near Auroa, and the island stops all communication with the outside world. In response, the CIA starts Operation Greenstone, sending a Ghost Recon team to Auroa to investigate the sinking. The mission fails when the helicopters carrying the team are destroyed by a group of drones.
Nomad, the leader of the Ghost Recon team, survives the crash but is separated from his squad. Midas is missing, Holt is injured, and Weaver is killed by Walker. Nomad forms a new team with Fury, Fixit, and Vasily. He meets Mads Schulz, a former Marine and leader of the homesteaders who lived on Auroa before Skell Technology arrived. Mads explains that Sentinel, a private military group hired by Skell Tech, overthrew Skell Technology and declared martial law. Nomad also meets Josiah Hill, another Ghost survivor who has a history with Walker. Hill, Walker, and Nomad were part of a mission in the Middle East that ended in disaster when Walker killed their commanding officer. After that, Walker left the army. Nomad meets Skell’s mathematician, Maurice Fox, and his daughter, Harmony, and learns that Auroa is surrounded by a network of drones that blocks entry and exit.
Nomad discovers that Skell, who disappeared after Sentinel’s takeover, is the only person who can disable the drone barrier. When Nomad finds Skell, Hill offers him a place with Walker and the Wolves, but Nomad refuses. He takes Skell to the homesteaders, where Skell admits he sank the Seay to stop dangerous technology from leaving the island. Skell shows Nomad video footage of Walker and Trey Stone, the founder of Sentinel, discussing a project called "Wonderland." Skell says he can hack a pylon that controls the drone barrier but needs help from Skell Tech employees scattered across the island.
During the search for one of Skell’s employees, Nomad meets the Outcasts, a group of former Skell Tech workers who oppose Skell’s transhumanist projects. They were responsible for a bombing at Skell Tech, which accidentally harmed people. Nomad criticizes their actions but continues working with them after helping recover one of Skell’s colleagues.
Maurice reveals the identity of a spy in Skell Tech and tries to meet her, but he is killed by the Wolves, and the spy is captured. Nomad rescues the spy and kills Hill. He continues investigating the Wolves’ plans. Nomad learns that Walker’s "Wonderland" project involves using a submarine with drone-equipped torpedoes to assassinate world leaders, aiming to start a global war to "cleanse" the world of corruption. After killing Walker, Nomad helps Skell hack the pylon, using the drones to destroy Walker’s submarine before it leaves.
After Walker’s death, Trey Stone takes control of Auroa, Skell Tech, and Sentinel. Nomad is praised by Mads and the homesteaders for stopping the "Wonderland" plan but says his work on Auroa is not finished. Skell notices the drones above Auroa acting strangely, suggesting the hacked pylon has developed unexpected behavior.
Released in November 2019, Breakpoint’s first raid event, Project Titan, takes place on Golem Island, where Nomad must destroy Skell Tech’s "Titan" drones and stop Sentinel from making more.
In January 2020, two missions involving the Terminator were added. In the first mission, Nomad helps Maria Schulz find a woman named Rasa Aldwin, a time traveler from the future who claims she is searching for Nomad. A T-800 Terminator tracks them, forcing them to escape. Rasa explains that in her future, an artificial intelligence called Skynet will create machines to attack humans. She gives Nomad a special rifle to destroy the machines and asks him to investigate why Terminators are on Auroa. Nomad discovers that a Skell Tech facility has been converted into a factory to mass-produce Terminators. He fights and destroys the T-800, then seals the facility to trap the remaining Terminators
Development
After the success of Wildlands, the development team grew to more than 1,000 people. For the first time in the series, the game’s setting is fictional because the team wanted more creative freedom to design the world. The team created a backstory for the Auroa archipelago that dates back 80 million years to make the setting feel more realistic. The game world was created using procedural generation, with some areas built from the beginning. An archipelago was chosen as the setting because it allowed developers to add new islands for post-game content and open new areas for exploration. The team made changes based on player feedback from Wildlands, including improving realism and vehicle control.
The game’s story, in which the Ghosts are hunted and alone on the island, led Ubisoft to remove AI companions, which were later added in 2020. Executive producer Nouredine Abboud explained that Jon Bernthal was hired to voice and provide motion capture for the antagonist because the team believed he could be a strong and charismatic villain. The game’s name, Breakpoint, reflects the story’s theme of a mission on the verge of failure. Emil Daubon, the game’s writer, said the story would explore themes such as pain, trauma, brotherhood, and mental exhaustion.
After the game’s release and in response to poor reviews, Ubisoft announced plans to rework Breakpoint with a feature called "the Ghost Experience." This option lets players disable certain mechanics, like the gear score, and adjust others. Live service support for the game ended on April 5, 2022, shortly after Ubisoft added non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to the game.
Release
Ubisoft released a downloadable content (DLC) chapter for the game Wildlands called Operation Oracle. This DLC introduced a new character named Cole D. Walker and centered around a company called Skell Technology. The game Breakpoint was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on October 4, 2019. After the game’s release, two DLC chapters, Deep State and Transcendence, were planned. Deep State was released on March 24, 2020. However, Transcendence was changed to a different DLC called Red Patriot, which was released on September 15, 2020. At E3 2019, Ubisoft announced that Breakpoint would include a special DLC featuring a collaboration with the Terminator movie series.
Reception
Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint received "mixed or average" reviews from critics, according to Metacritic, a website that collects and summarizes game reviews. Critics described the game as "underwhelming" and "miserable," with complaints about its gameplay and mission design.
Richard Wakeling of GameSpot wrote that Breakpoint is a "messy mix of different ideas," combining elements from other Ubisoft games in a way that feels "half-baked" and "out of place." He said the game feels "generic and stale," meaning it lacks originality and freshness.
Gina Lees of PCGamesN noted that the game often fails to fully develop new features. For example, the exhaustion system does not significantly limit players, and the game allows players to heal easily with unlimited bandages, making the injury system unnecessary. Similarly, Peter Glagowski of Destructoid pointed out that players can ignore survival elements because the consequences for not doing so are minimal.
Lees also said the main story involves finding locations, collecting clues, and solving puzzles, but this process becomes repetitive and dull over time. She praised the shooting mechanics, noting that enemies can be killed with a headshot. However, she concluded that while co-op play helps reduce boredom, the game struggles to balance survival and role-playing elements.
According to GamesRadar, most missions follow the same pattern, and VG247 said "almost every mission plays out the same." Multiple reviews also mentioned bugs in the game. While GamesRadar called the story "surprisingly interesting," a PCGamer reviewer said the storytelling was "generally poor."
An Edge reviewer wrote that the game is "surprisingly immersive" but ruined the experience with phrases like "raids" or "gear levels," which felt out of place. A Hardcore Gamer reviewer criticized the game for mixing elements from Ghost Recon Wildlands and The Division 2, calling it unnecessary.
Peter Glagowski of Destructoid noted that unlike earlier Ghost Recon games, which focused on realism, Breakpoint emphasizes finding better equipment. Ubisoft promised to fix major issues through patches and later added an "immersive mode" that reduced the importance of loot. Ian Boudreau of PCGamesN said this change made the game less stressful, as players no longer needed to worry about gear upgrades.
The game's microtransactions, which allow players to buy in-game items with real money, faced criticism. A Reddit user shared screenshots showing items available for purchase, raising concerns that players could skip grinding by buying content early. Ubisoft responded by stating the game would not include "pay-to-win" elements and assured players that those who avoided purchases would not be disadvantaged. They later removed the "Time Savers" microtransactions, which affected leveling, and said they would return later. Kotaku and Polygon noted that while microtransactions were available, they could be avoided through gameplay.
In December 2021, Ubisoft added support for Ubisoft Quartz, a system using non-fungible tokens (NFTs) to buy in-game items like weapons and cosmetics. The announcement video received strong negative feedback, with 96% of viewers disliking it. Critics argued that NFTs are harmful and unnecessary for gaming. Ubisoft later removed the feature, and the NFTs were no longer available in the game.
The PlayStation 4 version of Ghost Recon Breakpoint sold 54,733 copies in its first week in Japan, making it the second-best-selling retail game of the week. However, Ubisoft's CEO later said the game's sales were disappointing.