Ground branch is the only game that scratches my Ghost Recon itch.
This is my first Steam review, and it is going to be a long one because I am going to start at the beginning. And don't worry, at the end I won't say that RON or Operator is better than Ground Branch.
Ground Branch is better than RON (especially when Ground Branch is finished)
I never played Operator, so I can not say which one is better.
The original Ghost Recon game that came out in 2001 was my first shooter. I read about it in a PC games magazine. For the kids that read this now, this was a magazine that came out once a month and was delivered to my house by a mailman. We had internet, but we were only allowed to use it for homework. So the magazine was my only way of knowing about games that came out. I read the preview and still had to wait one year for the release, and then I had to wait a couple of months for my birthday when I finally got the game.
I remember myself as a kid playing the campaign. It took me several tries to finish a mission because whenever I lost a squadmate, I restarted the mission. Only halfway through the campaign my dumb ass learned about quick save and quick load. I enjoyed sneaking through the missions and finding the best way to tackle the objectives. Since then, I have been hooked on tactical shooters.
In 2003, rainbow six 3: raven shield came out, and I enjoyed it a lot. Planning the missions, blowing up doors, and now I could see a first-person weapon!
Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six 3 are the games that I measure all tactical shooter games against. After 2003 no serious tactical shooter came out that could compete with them. Especially not whatever happened to the Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six franchise. (So you can say that I have been waiting for a game like Ground Branch since 2003.)
No games came close to my experience with GR and Rainbow Six, I still play and enjoy them. I play other tactical shooters like RON and GZW, but the gunplay, gun handling and customization options do not come close to Ground Branch. Both games feel a bit arcadey in comparison.
I started looking for a more modern game that came close to GR and Rainbow Six games, and in 2014 I learned about Ground Branch, and in 2015 I played the first tech demo and was impressed. I followed the development of the game ever since. Development is very slow, every time a new update came out, I played it for a couple of hours and then let it rest again. Since the start of development, I bought a house, got married and changed my career. (Yes, all of this took me a total of more than 10 years)
Now what the dev team calls 1.0 is out. It is not 1.0 because the game is not finished. It is more like a 0.75. There is still stuff to be done. The AI needs tweaking, more missions have to be added, and friendly AI is still not in the game. But this game scratches my Ghost Recon itch. A big leap was made in this update. We now have 2 campaign missions with voice-over briefing and the beginning of a storyline. The AI is improved and now run for cover as I try to shoot at them. I just played the first campaign mission, and it is the game that I want it to be. I got killed a couple of times and had to restart the mission. I felt like a little kid again playing Ghost Recon. I can not wait to play the missions with a team of friendly AI. Or just a team of friends :(
Ground Branch is not finished, so if you want to have a full game don’t buy it now. If you have a Ghost Recon itch like me, or you are looking for a serious tactical shooter, you can go for it now and have a great time. The devs are clear about what comes next, and the game will only get better with updates that are still to come.
The game runs great on my PC, for reference I add my specs to this review
