Ghost Recon Breakpoint is about to enter its next beta, this one open. It will run from about September 26, 2019 to September 29, 2019, give or take depending on platform and region. It’s not just another chance for Ubisoft to test their servers, though, as they developers have announced improvements to the game, and the list isn’t small.
The Ghost Recon Breakpoint open beta will feature better animations for a running stop, weapon switch, stance change, and rush animation. This is all to make the main character feel more responsive, so the controls feel a bit smoother. In my two runs with previous betas of Ghost Recon Breakpoint, I felt the movement wasn’t as tight as I’d been expecting, so trying this out to test the differences is on the top of my list.
Besides new animations for several actions, the improvements from the closed beta to open beta are still extensive, so most are listed below. For full details, visit the Ghost Recon Breakpoint blog post.
Ghost Recon Breakpoint Beta Improvements
Better controls
- Enhanced responsiveness for the main character so that the controls feel smoother
- Faster acceleration and stops of the main character, resulting in a decreased feeling of inertia
- Faster weapon swaps for increased responsiveness when changing weapons
- Faster stance changes to adapt more quickly to the situation
- Faster interaction with chests to loot them
- Less paralysis time after injury trigger (faster recovery of the controls)
- Faster entry into vehicles
Cancelation of action
- Ability to cancel opening the chest
- Ability to cancel car entries by moving the stick away from the interaction
- Faster cancelation of intel-gathering interactions
Better rush animation
- Rush Animation of the main character has been modified to be more natural
- Better terrain analysis when running to more accurately display correct animation
Better camera for shooting from vehicles
- Camera framing from passenger seats has been improved for better shooting opportunities.
Vehicle handbrakes
- Improved handbrake behavior on vehicles, which allow the players to better handle/control the vehicle while drifting
Slopes
- The ground vehicles are less affected by the angle of the slopes to provide a less frustrating and more coherent driving experience.
Helicopters more accessible
- More helicopters distributed to grant greater ease of access to the open world
- Sparrow helicopter is now accessible by default at the bivouac right away
- More helipad locations available
- All helicopters are now shown in the Erewhon shop menu without having to unlock them in the Skill Tree
Better AI
- Improvements made to help prevent NPCs from becoming stuck in walls
- AI camp states are more reliable, resulting in consistent and logical behavior
- NPCs related to specific missions improved to better move and follow more accurately
- Improvements made to provide more logical enemy sniper behavior so they remain at or near their vantage points
- NPCs will now take cover in a more realistic and logical way
Gameplay
- Increased the window of opportunity to avoid the call for reinforcement
- The time before the reinforcements arrive has been increased, meaning players will have more time to react and kill the archetype Radio Operator
- Mortar is now far less precise, to give players more opportunities to move and avoid the hits
Difficulty adjustments
- Regular difficulty level has been turned down a little bit to prevent difficulty peaks
- Arcade difficulty level is has been adjusted to be easier
- Enemiy AI are less powerful, meaning they do less damage than before
- Life regeneration of the main character is faster
- Aim assistance has been increased to make a wide area of tolerance in which the players don’t have to aim precisely to target an enemy
- Aim assist has increased precision
- The red lights on the mini-map that indicate enemy presence have been removed to provide increased immersion and challenge (Extreme difficulty)
Exploration icons
- Improved the locations icons display on the tacmap
- Behemoth areas are now discovered by default on the tacmap
- Each Behemoth displays the unique reward it gives when their challenge is complete
- Location discovery using drone recon has been improved to reward players with more intel
- Unique item chests now have specific icons that promote the type of reward it contains (e.g. unique customization gear, weapon blueprints, skill points). Chests containing Skell Credits are marked with the basic chest icon
- Exposition of mission intel is improved in the Objective Board
- Sidequest mission-givers in the open world are now easier to discover
Guided mode
- Guided mode is now the default mode when beginning the game. Players can still switch between Exploration and Guided mode at any time using the in-game menu
- Non-equipped missions and objectives are now displayed on the tacmap in Guided mode
- All undiscovered locations on the tacmap are displayed in Guided mode with question marks
- Increased UI display options: you can now choose if the map shows questions marks for undiscovered locations in the Gameplay menu if you do not wish to see points of interest already marked
PC
- The options for textures on PC now has better resolution
- Better options offered to let players choose between visual quality vs. frame rate
That’s a laundry list of things, which only figures to grow larger after an open beta and then a couple patches once the game is in the wild. I’m not sure how keen I am on some, like making the game easier in some modes. The animation changes are welcome, though.
Read more about Ghost Recon Breakpoint on Guide Stash and get ready for one of the year’s biggest releases.