The joy of gaming is often in getting stuck in for yourself. But, returning to Ghost Recon Wildlands for its new, free Last Rites update (part of the series' 25th anniversary celebration), I'm reminded that there's also something special about not getting your hands dirty. I crawl on my elbows towards an enemy outpost, pop up my drone-cam to scout the area, and command my squad to cover marked enemies before I give the command to silently open fire on them all in sync, staying undetected.
Slow and steady can feel as good as going in guns blazing, and the joy of Ghost Recon is in making that tactical pace feel like a real thrill. Having an excuse to revisit Ghost Recon Wildlands makes for some of the most exciting open world stealth I've experienced since my last Metal Gear Solid 5 replay (or the more fantasy-tinged Styx: Blades of Greed). In a gaming landscape where even the best shooters grow more reliant on explosive set-pieces, I'm overjoyed to return to something a bit more cerebral with Ghost Recon Wildlands – Last Rites.
Ghost revisitation
For some reason the first new Ghost Recon content we've had in years has been added for free to Wildlands, first released in 2017, which isn't even the most recent game in the series. 2019's entry was, however, more divisive – we called it "ridiculously repetitive" in our Ghost Recon Breakpoint review. That might be because Wildlands' Bolivian setting – despite causing a diplomatic incident – still feels more ripe with possibility that Breakpoint's archipelago. Even in the base game, the scale and density of Bolivia always left you with the feeling that there was more to discover.
Ghost Recon Wildlands – Last Rites sees the four-person Ghost Squad (though you can play solo with no companions still, if you wish) called back to Bolivia after several years to tie up loose ends from their original mission, centering on the emergence of a new faction, a cult led by the mask-wearing La Llorona. At odds with UNIDAD (who have also returned – if only to provide a reason for their camps to be repopulated), this shadowy group worships their leader like a religious figure. Though her identity is secret, it seems she has history with the CIA, who are the ones that task Ghost Squad with quashing this uprising.
In practice, Last Rites forms six missions, essentially making La Llorna herself an extra one of the many boss nodes that scatter the base game's map, with her influence spanning just a few regions of Bolivia. Early missions push Ghost Squad out of their comfort zone as they secure evidence of La Llorna's existence from UNIDAD compounds are highlights, and there's a creepy sense that they've been thrust into a conflict beyond their understanding as they stumble upon some very grisly scenes a few steps behind the cult.
As usual, part of the joy of these Wildlands missions is how you're free to choose your own method of approach – whether that's going in guns blazing or sticking to the shadows, or literally adjusting your direction of entry. One has me trading a truck for a motorbike, going off-road over a mountain so me and the squad can snipe our way through a base from the high ground rather than try to drive through blockades towards the booby-trapped entrance to a cultist outpost. Another has me liberating an impressive arsenal from a cult armory that I can then take into the next mission to give myself an advantage (though I lose it all when I gleefully drift into a pile of explosives and we all immediately perish).
La Llorna is just as compelling an antagonist as the base game's El Sueño, if not more so.
Six missions can only sustain so much, however, and it leaves the ending of this storyline feeling a bit rushed. It feels rotten to grumble about free content, but it speaks to the strength of Last Rites' set-up that I wish there was more to this. La Llorna is just as compelling an antagonist as the base game's El Sueño, if not more so, so there's the sense that something is off when he has a massive network that fuels the whole base game, whereas La Llorna is taken out by Ghost Squad in just a handful of missions. Though, as part of the anniversary, Ubisoft has teased that development of a new game in the series is well underway. Leaving us wanting more is definitely part of the plan with Last Rites, and who knows – maybe La Llorna's influence could persist in a new entry?
As well as the Last Rites story expansion, Ghost Recon Wildlands has received a big update with a list of huge improvements – 4K/60fps support on PS5 and Xbox Series X, new customization options from gear to difficulty and other gameplay parameters, and the restoration of previously time-limited content including the Predator crossover (who killed me and my squad many times). Personally, I love it when late updates to games do away with FOMO and restore previously limited content. It feels like a real celebration.
But, Ghost Recon Wildlands still feels like a game from 2017. Even on a PC with the settings cranked up to ultra, it's pretty but you can see the cracks. Both enemy and squad AI can get more than a little wonky. There are plenty of animation bugs, ranging from me permanently getting stuck in a 'caught in a beartrap' pose that forced me to restart from a checkpoint, to having a squad member respawn within a truck as we made a fast exit out of an enemy base only to have them glued in a standing and firing position to the exterior of the door itself.
Yet, expecting perfection in any game – even a modern release – is exhausting. Video games are playful creations with so many moving parts that seeing the cracks just proves actual people made them. Even the most famous paintings in the world have some odd brushtrokes. Even James Cameron is willing to leave in a shot that includes the camera lens being wiped with a cloth.
In the grand scheme of things, these moments will feel unobtrusive, ideally any annoyance lost in a sea of much better points. Ghost Recon Wildlands has plenty of issues, but returning to it all these years later, the simple joy of tackling a massive open world full of baddies to track down and defeat makes for a great mission sandbox, like a soupy mix between Far Cry 3 and Metal Gear Solid 5, with a touch of Watch Dogs 2 with its drone-based enemy marking.
Back then, shooters felt over-stuffed with this sort of thing, with plenty of franchises chasing the open world bone, and it made Wildlands – despite its unique blend of mechanics – struggle to stand out. Revisiting it now, it's almost refreshing. It makes me wonder how many older games could be revitalized with an injection of new content.
In a struggling games industry with bloated game budgets and production schedules, where dropping the cash on a major new hit may still not return enough revenue to keep creatives employed, I'm not the only one thinking this could be the move. After all, even The Witcher 3 is getting new DLC with Songs of the Past. If this becomes a trend, I'm fine with it – my backlog may be heaving with more potential than I realized.
Check out our best open world games list for more big adventures, and our best Tom Clancy games ranking for more espionage.
