Ubisoft (in this case the Bucharest studio) has just unveiled a trailer for their brand new Ghost Recon game, entitled Ghost Recon Frontline. However, fans aren’t happy about it, as the announcement video has (at the time of writing) almost twice the dislike than the likes. But why is that? There’s many reasons why, actually.
To start off with, Frontline isn’t a story-driven mission-based tactical shooter like previous Ghost Recon games have been. Instead, apparently cribbing from Call of Duty: Warzone, Frontline is a battle royale game that (stop me if you’ve heard this one before) drops around 100 players onto an island in order to accomplish various objectives and be the last team standing.
Considering that Ghost Recon has often been about stealth, planning, and precision, a run-and-gun battle royale definitely isn’t what many players were hoping for. Alongside the heavily lopsided like-dislike bar, the comments on the YouTube announcement video also showcase how much of a disappointment Ghost Recon Frontline was.
Many of the players express dismay that Ubisoft is following the current shooter trend of creating a Battle Royale game rather than breaking from the norm and doing something else. Many of the comments also express their desire for a more “normal” Ghost Recon game like Future Soldier or Advanced Warfighter where stealth and surprise were key.
This is also in contrast to the approaches taken to Ghost Recon: Wildlands and Breakpoint, both of which were open-world games that, while keeping with the stealth approach, didn’t seem to scratch the itch that players had. Many of the comments on the video even wish that rather than making an entirely new game, that the Frontline gameplay had just been added to Breakpoint.
Considering how many battle royale games there are out there right now, it’s no surprise that so many fans are angry over Ghost Recon deciding to follow the leader and do it themselves. The dislike bar may get even bigger in the coming days, but who knows? If Ghost Recon Frontline ends up failing horribly, maybe Ubisoft will realize that their new approach isn’t working. You can watch the trailer yourself by following this link.