Ghost Recon: Wildlands was released back in March, spawning hundreds of YouTube videos of people crashing helicopters into their friends. Now it's ready for a major update: a new PvP mode called Ghost War. The beta goes live today, so we spoke to senior producer Nouredine Abboud about what we can expect from Ghost War, if big PvP success stories like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds contributed to the design of the mode, and yetis.
GamesRadar+: What were the most important elements of online play you wanted to include?
Nouredine Abboud: The teamplay aspect, without any hesitation. Today, Ghost War is a 4v4 team deathmatch mode. It's intense. If you don’t focus your efforts on teamwork, strategy, and tactics, then you will have a hard time. We also want players to find their own play style, which is why the mode features 12 different classes, each with unique characteristics, weapons, perks, and customization options, ensuring that each match offers different challenges and a different experience for players.
How has the success of PvP games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds changed the way you think about PvP?
We've been working on the development of Ghost War for two years, and our ambition has always been to stay true to the Ghost Recon mindset: to provide tactical combat in an open environment where your ability to communicate with your teammates is key. Effective communication helps you to do great things in life. Alone you are good, but with a team you can achieve great things. That's pretty specific and unique to Ghost War.
Now that Ghost Recon has been out there for a while, what are the playing habits of the typical player?
Ghost Recon Wildlands offers a variety of gameplay approaches. There is no typical player. Players can focus on long-range engagement, they can try to constantly maintain stealth, some of them are specialized in driving and piloting... You have freedom of choice, you go wherever you want, choose any mission you want, and play the way you want. In addition to the playstyles, co-op also has an important role in our players' habits. At least 75% of our players have played co-op, and our community members regularly look for groups to [band together].
Is there anything the community has reacted particularly well to?
For sure - the freedom of choice, the co-op experience, the Charactersmith, the Gunsmith, all are popular features among the players. But we've received some great feedback from players and community members about the beauty of the world.
Throughout our post-launch, we have seen also some great reactions and support from the community on numerous topics. The release of the Fallen Ghosts DLC, which offers a tense and hardcore spec ops experience; the launch of the Tier 1 Mode, which allows players to reach higher level of difficulties; and obviously all the gameplay improvements, such as the fully customizable HUD or the improved helicopter controls. And we're even happier to see that the highly [anticipated] arrival of Ghost War seems to be very positive too.
In addition to that, some of our players noticed some Easter Eggs in the world, such as the Yeti challenge or the 3 Witches. With the team, we called these challenges 'Legends'. Stay tuned - we're working on fresh ones.
