Ghost Recon goes free-to-play, fails to make case for itself

At a pre-E3 event in Los Angeles, Ubisoft had a big surprise for the press: a free-to-play version of Ghost Recon, exclusive to the PC, that will offer competitive levels and play without an upfront cost. The game will be aimed at mid-level PCs, allowing a large audience to jump in and start shooting.

“Ghost Recon Online takes the best attributes of the Ghost Recon game franchise and brings them online, making the experience of being a Ghost accessible to millions of new players and fans,” said Hugues Ricour, senior producer at Ubisoft. “This game was designed from the start to be a free-to-play experience. Our development teams are dedicated to making Ghost Recon Online a truly unique, top-quality online title.”

That’s marketing talk, and the truth is that the game has yet to make a case for itself.

Before we move forward, take a look at the trailer to get a sense of how the game is going to look. See if you can spot anything as being unique to the series.

Ghost Recon Online

I didn’t either, and the features are likewise slightly boring. “The game offers players the ability to choose between three different classes of Ghost, customize their weapons, deploy cutting-edge military technology, and share intel with their team,” the marketing materials state. “Ghost Recon Online also features a rich lobby platform for hosting social and persistent progression features.”

I had the chance to play a few rounds, customize a weapon, and get a feel for the game. It’s clear that Ubisoft doesn’t know how to show off a PC game very well: the mice were stock, with ridiculously low DPI, making the controls feel sludgy. The same goes for the slushy keyboards that were less than reactive. I played the tank character, which has the special ability to bring up a shield and try to bowl over the enemies as it takes over the waypoints. It was hard to control, and again, it looked like a low-end shooter without many features to get me excited.

Ubisoft will sell premium items, and I was told that they will include guns and items that will make you a more powerful player… although you can also earn all these things by playing the game. Still, it’s in the developer’s best interest to skew things towards the paying customers.

With so many high-quality shooters selling for such low prices on Steam, is a free-to-play option that much more compelling when you start hitting the paywall in terms of items and features? Why not just pay $20 and get something full-featured, such as the now-excellent Bad Company 2?

You can sign up for a beta invite now, and the game will see wider release later in 2011. I’m looking forward to playing it on my own hardware, and seeing if there are any hidden nooks or crannies I missed during my first hands-on. I mean, why not? We have nothing to lose but our time.