There’s something a bit unnerving about this new trailer for Ghost Recon Wildlands. I think it’s the jarring juxtaposition between the coffee shop acoustic guitar soundtrack, the vox pops of developers who sound like they’re evangelising a pulled pork pop-up Kickstarter, and the footage of men hurting other with guns in stunning high fidelity.
Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon Wildlands takes Tom Clancy’s balaclava-adorned tactical combat into – you won’t believe this when I tell you – a massive open world. As such, it could be seen as a spiritual successor to Ubisoft Red Storm’s Rainbow Six: Ghost Recon, the first of the series to break free of tight museum corridors and airport departure lounges into open landscapes.
Red Storm are totally fine with that comparison, as the trailer’s many vox pops will attest. So it’s authentic in the sense that it pays its dues to previous Clancy titles, and that’s encouraging.
Here’s some next-level stuff, though. Ubisoft Paris consulted not just with military advisors (pfff, even Medal Of Honor: Warfighter went that far) to nail Wildlands’ in-game authenticity, but also the CIA, drug enforcement officers, and drug smugglers. Fair’s fair. That sounds pretty authentic.
The game doesn’t have a firm release date yet – Ubisoft’s keeping a rather broad ‘2016’ release window open.