Recently, I was able to take the Ghost Recon: Breakpoint beta for a spin. Right away I was surprised by what seemed to be the inclusion of a loot system. I had to go back and check Wildlands to make sure that I wasn’t remembering incorrectly and sure enough, Breakpoints tiered loot system was something altogether new.
Though it was familiar.
I’ve played tonnes of Destiny and The Division 2 and I’m used to collecting dozens of weapons and pieces of armour. But, in Ghost Recon: Breakpoint it was a new experience.
One that makes sense though given the narrative. Stranded and struggling to survive on Auroa, the Breakpoint loot system perfectly slots into the story. Nomad, your character, is constantly scavenging and hunting for better gear to survive. As too are you, the player.
The more loot you get, the better loot you’ll find.
Breakpoint Loot System
Gear comes in multiple tiers, with higher tier gear having better stats and contributing more to your power level.
That’s right.
Breakpoint also has a power level. Like in Destiny and The Division, Breakpoint gives you an overall power level as an aggregation/average of your weapons and armour.
The more high-level pieces of gear you equip, the higher your power level. And you’re going to need to increase it too. As I explored Auroa in the beta I came across many areas that were just too dangerous for me to explore.
The game would flash a warning onscreen about entering a dangerous area and then tell me the recommended gear level. As my level was hovering around 16 and the area’s recommendation was 60, I beat a hasty retreat.
In Wildlands, you simply found different weapons, equipped them and went on your way. You could change and upgrade your weapons and tweak stats but there wasn’t the sense of progression and weapon improvement that you’ll find in Breakpoint.
With a loot system comes the truckload of items that you’ll be carrying that are either not useful or only useful for a short time. The solution to this is that players are able to deconstruct the gear they no longer need.
In this way, they get parts which they can use to upgrade the gear they want to keep. The Gunsmith menu is where players upgrade their gear and through this players have a huge amount of customisation at their fingertips.
During the beta, I barely scratched the surface of what the loot system and power level in Breakpoint have to offer. They certainly got their hooks into me though, cause I can’t wait for Breakpoint.
It will be available on PC, PS4 and Xbox One on October 4, 2019.
