Ghost Recon Breakpoint players want to see the game become more tactical, less grindy, and be less online, according to the results of a player survey Ubisoft shared on Friday.
Thousands of players participated in the survey. The requested changes and additions, many of which are already in the works, aren’t that surprising to anyone who’s been playing the game regularly or following its community since its October 4 launch.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Over 50 percent of players who responded asked for AI teammates.
- 35 percent requested improvements to enemy AI, the option to sell all their weapons and gear at once, and for Ubisoft to get rid of tiered loot and gear scores.
- Roughly another third want to see an end to the game’s online requirements.
- Around 15 percent don’t want to see other online players in the game’s hub area of Erewhon.
- 20 percent of players want to see base jumping improved.
- Approximately a quarter of players care most about vehicle handling and the in-game economy being fixed.
- Unsurprisingly, most players want to see the game get more story content, weapons, and better customization features in the future.
The two-week survey is part of Ubisoft’s ongoing attempts to make Ghost Recon Breakpoint a game people want keep playing. On October 24, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot explained to investors that the game’s launch had been disappointing, and a week later the development team put out a letter to fans addressing the need for things like more bug fixes as well as structural changes to the game’s underlying progression system.
AI teammates is something players have been waiting for since before the game even launched when, back at E3 2019, Ubisoft announced it had changed course and would be adding them to the game after all. Prior to that, the company had intended for Breakpoint’s main campaign to be a more lonely, survivalist experience. While this sounds fine in theory, in practice, it made Breakpoint feel very similar to Ubisoft’s other single-player open world games and much less like Ghost Recon.
But while AI teammates are in development, they, along with other big changes like overhauling the game’s loot system, won’t see the light of day until some time early next year. The team didn’t give a timeline for the other top request: getting rid of Breakpoint’s always online requirement. “Due to its scope, the remaining top result will require more investigation,” the team said in its survey notes. “Please look forward for more information on this topic by early next year.”
More immediately, the development team is trying to soften the game’s grind by giving players more stuff. An update released late last week unlocked 40 of the game’s items from the start so players no longer need to loot or buy them before being able to customize their characters more. The game also received its Project Titan raid last week, a four-player affair that the developer called its “toughest end-game challenge.”
Whether that’s a good thing or not remains to be seen. I haven’t been in a position to attempt it, but lots of players on the game’s subreddit have complained that its extreme difficulty isn’t all that fun. Two new difficulty settings for the raid are due out early next year.
Project Titan is reminiscent of The Division 2's first raid which, when it launched earlier this year, was so challenging that players on console weren’t even able to complete it during the first day. That game was in a very different place after it launched, however. Already frustrated in many ways with Breakpoint, Ghost Recon players might not be as willing to stick around and slog through it.