I think this game only holds up on the merit that you've played Wildlands and really wanted more a bit like that, even if it's worse. Here's my autopsy. [b](REVIEW CONTAINS SOME SPOILERS)[/b]
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[h3] The good: [/h3]
Great graphics, better gunplay than Wildlands, better character and weapon appearance customisation.
The prone camo mechanic is neat, and there are certain welcome improvements to the enemy AI as well, mainly when it comes to how they search for the player when alerted, such as fanning out and searching your last-known or approximate position after firing unsuppressed shots, or after escaping combat.
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[h3] The bad: [/h3]
The world feels far less varied, alive, and interesting compared to Wildlands' Bolivia. There are a few different biomes but they don't really make any differences to the gameplay. The weather has some variance, but this too has no apparent impact on the gameplay, such as wet ground affecting mobility, rain/snow/fog reducing enemy visibility, or rain masking your footsteps. Many of the bases & locations also feel very samey, and enemies don't sleep at night like they did in Wildlands. There's also no civilian traffic, so the roads are pretty empty and the world feels a bit dead.
Tangentially, and this might be more of a pet peeve but I want to mention it, there are many small landmarks with run-down, abandoned log huts with thatched roofs that the game describes as "ancient ruins". [i]These are structures made entirely out of biodegradable material on a small island with a pretty humid climate.[/i] An actually ancient wooden log hut wouldn't be recognisable as one.
There's a chronic issue of encounters and AI behaviours feeling forced, unnatural, and un-immersive. There are intermittent helicopter & drone patrols that you often have to lay low from to avoid detection - I like this idea, but they always pass directly over the player's exact position, and are literally never seen otherwise. They are clearly summoned directly to the player on a timer, rather than roaming the map in a more dynamic way or following set patrol paths that the player can learn and plan around. Similarly, when travelling on-foot, you will constantly stumble across placed, stationary enemy groups (often repairing motorcycles) that just so happen to be directly in your path.
Many animations are slow and frustrating. The animations themselves all look good, but it's clear this was the priority rather than making them [i]feel[/i] good. Far too many actions lock the player into a slow animation that prevents them from being able to shoot or act defensively in combat. The most egregious examples I can think of are: using a healing syringe, landing with a parachute, picking an item up [i](which is automatic and unprompted)[/i], and various objective interactions like hacking. Not only do the vast majority of animations have no apparent sense of urgency, but the syringe and parachute actions in particular each have several possible animations that are chosen at random, and some of them are longer than the others. So if you just get unlucky and RNG rolls a longer animation, you might be locked out of being able to defend yourself for longer than expected.
Tonnes of random enemy voicelines are blurted in bases & outposts purely to tell the player about certain base features or enemies to look out for, and it's done so loudly and unconvincingly that you can practically hear them giving a camera a side-eye and a wink with every line. I literally mean stuff like [i]"Man, I sure am glad we have this big generator that powers all of our turrets, it really would suck if something happened to it! *wink*".[/i] If the idea was to give hints to reward players for paying attention, you failed - this is insufferable and patronisingly spelling out the obvious, and treating the player like they're stupid.
Most of the vehicles all handle so badly and uncontrollably that most of the time they're simply not worth the frustration of using. Driving on the roads will invariably get you detected by the first patrol, checkpoint, or vehicle you pass because the enemies detect you near instantly, even if you're in one of their vehicles, and even through tinted windows. They even react with suspicion to the [i]engine noise[/i] alone. Going off-road may then sound like a logical solution but the terrain is so densely cluttered and uneven (the Lands are Wild, you could say), and the physics so janky, that it's only worth it if you desperately crave the feeling of being a pinball in a pachinko machine.
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[h3] The ugly: [/h3]
[b]The game is just boring and unengaging.[/b] The story is short, weak, and often lacks a clear sense of pace, direction, urgency, or stakes. Many missions - main and side - include dialogue options that are completely arbitrary and meaningless, as they make no difference to the outcome of the [i]conversation[/i], let alone the mission. Nomad himself often comes across as a macho tough guy meat-head to the extent that it feels like parody (special shoutout to his [i]comically[/i] grumpy resting b***h face when resting at a bivouac), and there's so much USA-glazing underlying every beat that it's frankly alienating as a non-American player.
[b]Many of the major characters are lacking meaningful characterising and thematic moments, and the game constantly fails to "show, don't tell".[/b] It's frankly heinous just how poorly Breakpoint handles and presents its story and characters. One glaring example would be Ilsa Herzog, who can be directly compared to Wildlands' Yuri & Polito. Ilsa, much like Y&P, is a notorious interrogator with a long track record for cruel and brutal acts of torture. This is hinted at in one cutscene, a couple of collectables, and some random enemy dialogue. When you track down and fight Y&P in Wildlands, it's in their dirty, bloody underground torture den, and they're mid-interrogation when you get to them. Ilsa, contrarily, is fought (and killed) very arbitrarily and anti-climactically in a brief [i]attack helicopter[/i] boss fight for some reason. [b]There is no universe where this was the logical, sensible, and/or most interesting or fitting conclusion.[/b] Her signature torture room can also be found earlier in the same mission: it's completely clean and sterile, and it only has a big chair, a big adjustable lamp, and a couple of cameras on tripods. It looks more like a porn set trying to emulate a dentists clinic.
Another significant example of this lack of meaningful characterisation is the death of Maurice Fox near the end of the story. Nomad has a very sad and choked-up reaction (across two separate cutscenes, no less), but I as the player didn't share this at all, because up until this point, Fox has only been present in one mission near the beginning, and maybe two cutscenes [i]including[/i] the one he dies in. [b]Nomad's reactions to Fox's death literally had more screentime than he did![/b] Past the intro, Breakpoint seems deathly afraid of committing to anything that might have an actual impact on the player to elicit an actual emotional response and get them invested, and in the rare event that it does try, it's half-assed and it falls flat.
This all alludes to the main overarching issue that really plagues Breakpoint - [b]considering it's the sequel for a game called Wildlands, it's ironically very tame.[/b] Besides the pretty vicious (and admittedly kind of awesome) melee kill animations, there's very little in Breakpoint's world or story that can be described as particularly dark or gritty, and there's very barely any iconic, impactful, or emotional (and by extension, memorable) moments. Maybe it's just more glaring after Wildlands' far more engaging world, story, events, and more prominent line-up of villains, but Breakpoint really does not feel like it's trying. It lacks sense, lacks heart, lacks balls, and it's afraid of getting its hands dirty.
