Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint is an exciting game. It knows what it wants to do. It wants to give players options, it wants them to feel unshackled by design decisions that offer to gently nudge them in a direction or possibility. It wants to give a platform to four friends to cause chaos in a variety of scenarios. Breakpoint is a freeing game and it has its flaws. But, above anything, it is fun.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint tries to renew the Wildlands formula by introducing a few new elements, but it fails to deliver.

At its best, Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a taut and tactical shooter that works brilliantly in co-op and is genuinely enjoyable to play but at its heart this is just another sandbox shooter and one that doesn't meet the technical standards we're used to from Ubisoft.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is an enormously ambitious game that is more varied and engaging than its predecessor, with a story that had us invested and a despicable villain to hate. Unfortunately, the excellent third-person shooting is often overshadowed by finicky cover mechanics and bugs. It’s still worth playing, but it will probably be a more enjoyable experience after Ubisoft has time to smooth out some of the more broken parts.

Breakpoint attempts to push the series forward but often feels stuck in the mud from its own systems.

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is a game crying out to be more straightforward, more-focused, but instead it’s added one more wafer thin gameplay mechanic after another, flying in the face of common sense, and now its bloated frame has exploded because it simply can not hold all that mess in and still function. A dull, frustrating misfire.

I really wanted to like Breakpoint. Ubisoft has a habit of making mediocre games – Assassin’s Creed, Watch Dogs – really shine with a sequel, but this is a significant step back. I would rather play Anthem – at least traversal doesn’t make me want to put my head through a window in that game.