Post by JRavens on Apr 14, 2017 20:45:14 GMT
WARNING - SPOILERS AHEAD
DO NOT CONTINUE DOWN THIS THREAD IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING SPOILED (ALSO IMAGE HEAVY)
NOTE - a lot of this is complete supposition on my part based off the images and file names I have access to. NONE of it is backed up by hard data. My guess is as good as yours and may in some cases being wildly wrong. Only time will tell.
-- NARCO ROAD --
Hey fellow Ghosts. So the first official large DLC is about to drop - Narco Road.
I was able to look inside some of the files and get a glimpse at a few things about this DLC and some others. With the tools that are currently available mostly all I could glean are images and file names. No actual data or numbers were visible Still there is some very interesting stuff to be gleaned.
Sadly I think based on what I was able to see Narco Road IS very much not what most would expect from the tactical and stealth genres that Ghost Recon embodies. It seems pretty much what we've seen in the trailers and snippets - a colorful, over the top, fast n furious race themed DLC. I and many others have found that pretty odd given that GRW is a combat focused game and it's driving and flying controls and physics are largely panned. It baffles me that they've created a DLC focused around the one area the game is clearly weak in - vehicle use. :/
The first thing I found odd was Narco Road is listed internally as DLC20 while Fallen Ghosts is given the designation DLC10. There are no other DLC designations visible at this time in the files (which of course does NOT mean there won't be other DLC releases... we could definitely see more packs of weapons, skins, missions, etc.)
I do think Narco Road coming out first though is once again Ubi's attempt to hold the "better" DLC for final release so that they can stretch out the season pass. They did this with Far Cry 4 and other games where they with held what seemed like the most interesting part of the season pass to the very end. The flip side of this is it gives them more time to work on that DLC so maybe it's for the best and will result in us getting a stronger, longer and overall better experience from the last DLC. At least I hope so. Valley of the Yeti for Far Cry 4 was a very good DLC release I thought and certainly it was the best out of that season pass.
So first up here is a loading screen for DLC20. This *might* be temporary and not the final art... hell all of this in the post might be. It IS marked with the word PLACEHOLDER so seems likely it is not the final art:
UPDATE - Yeah they did change it. This was the updated image in the latest patch that just came out today:
This image shows off presumably 3 bosses of this DLC as well as highlighting that the DLC is focused around vehicles such as cars, motorcycles, monster trucks and planes.
-- CAST --
So before diving into vehicles lets talk about the bad guys here a moment. It looks like there are 3 main bosses and a big baddie by the awe inspiring name of "El Invisible" (yeah no, that's actually pretty terrible in my book. I guess kudos for making the end boss a mystery, but I think they could of come up with a better moniker. Anyway...)
So these boss enemies appear to be named:
Here are their "mug shots" along with a fellow labeled "Sonrisa"... perhaps he is an informant or a rebel that helps you in your quest to infiltrate these gangs and take them down.
Arturo Rey
Toney Mateos
Eddie Escovado
El Invisible (interestingly his portrait name is El Zamura)
"Sonrisa"
These pleasant fellows are all listed under "smuggling" so I'm guessing this is a sub branch of that particular area of the Santa Blanca Cartel.
-- ACTIVITIES --
Moving on to activities that are available in the DLC. I will list out what is shown in the files below. By and large these all seem to revolve around vehicle races and stunts of various kinds:
Aerobatics - Fly under and through things. Guaranteed to have hoops and rings in the air to fly through (what game with airplanes doesn't these days?)
Air Spray - Some kind of crop dusting / aerial smoke effects task.
Animal Traffic - This is intriguing if there are actual wild animals that can attack players and enemies (but I doubt it's that elaborate... probably just a race to a drop point)
Baking Bad - No doubt a play on "Breaking Bad". Busting up drug cooking operations?
Coca Field - No idea here. There is only an icon image for it. Hopefully it's something like burning down coca fields ala Far Cry 3's greatest mission Kick the Hornet's Nest. Dupstep music is optional.
Drift - Something GRW vehicles seem prone to doing anyways... at least when I drive them
Electro - Not sure what these are. They have lightning bolt icons. I'm going to say there are spots during races and events where you can refill your Nitro gauge. Yeah confirmed this DLC features a "nitro boost" mechanic ala just about every racing game ever.
Impossible Climb - Monster Trucks offroading may be the most compelling part of this DLC's theme (and the least likely vehicles to handle like complete crap)
Informer - Again not sure what these will be. I can only assume that you'll have to link up with informers (Sonrisa?) to further the missions. Being a vehicle heavy DLC I wouldn't be surprised if you have to drive them around - either to compel them to talk ala Mafia III, to keep them safe from or outrun pursuers or just to be a damn Ubi err Uber Driver / taxi service for them.
Jump - What racing game doesn't have jumps?
Retrieve the Map - This DLC seems to contain several "treasure map" images with locations circled on them. I think you may need to retrieve the map and then proceed to a general location where you will need to study the image carefully to deduce specifically where the treasure is hidden (see the example image below). Being an Ubi game though they may just mark the exact location for you which would be a big disappointment.
Treasure Map - Once you get the map, you have to find the treasure.
Trials - No doubt there will time trials to complete via racing courses. Something I'm not very excited about as I'm not big on racing games and... well... the existing ground vehicle mechanics are so bad I'm very worried that it will be very hard for some people (like me!) to even attempt to beat things like precision flying or fast driving through courses with tight curves and cornering. My big hope is that they are going to introduce new controls, physics or both, but I think it just may be wishful thinking...
Vehicle Spy - Another activity without a tutorial image. I'm guessing you need to follow enemy vehicles and maintain a certain distance to listen in on them or otherwise track or tag them somehow.
-- NEW WEAPONS AND VEHICLES --
OK so new weapons? Well to be perfectly frank - I don't see any. That doesn't mean that there aren't any. In fact I believe it's been stated that the DLC includes 9 new weapons. I just don't see them. I DO see new weapons labeled for DLC10 which is Fallen Ghosts and I will post those in another post. I also do see several (about 10) new "EPIC WEAPONS". Now Epic Weapons are those weapons in the base game by defeating various bosses. Note that "Legendary weapons" are the designation for weapons which can only be purchased in the shop and not earned in the game so those are distinctly labeled differently. Since none of these seemingly new Epic Weapons are labeled with any DLC I do not know if they will appear in Narco Raod, Fallen Ghosts or anywhere else... or hell even if they will ever be unlocked. I assume of course they will. Since i'm not sure if/when/how we will get these and other than some icons and names I don't have much to go on I will place them in a separate post. It's probable that these will be rewards for Narco Road bosses and events, but I can't say conclusively.
New vehicles - there's no specific data about certain vehicles but all of the images seen so far suggest we can expect a lot of skins and customizations for cars, trucks, motorcycles and planes. Possibly helicopters as well. Obviously the biggest (sic) addition is jacked up monster trucks. Sadly I just don't know what you can and can't do with customizing or storing vehicles, etc. I would assume there is a garage or something you use to work with the custom vehicles, but have no idea. You could easily just be assigned premade vehicles for each event which would definately fit within the current game system of specific vehicles being parked at key locations around the map.
-- NEW MECHANICS --
Well besides there definately being some kind of Nitrous boost mechanic on at least some of the vehicles there also a lot of HUD and related images that correspond to various gauges relating to (surely fake) social media and your position compared to the racing gangs of the DLC.
There are apparently "followers" you need to collect to move up the spectrum of races/events.
See the following example image:
There are also a series of images labeled "instagram" that you either receive, take or are otherwise used to move the plot along.
Some examples below:
-- END OF LINE --
So that's it. All I have to share.
It is what it is.
I PERSONALLY (for me) am not terribly thrilled about this DLC. I know a lot of people feel the same way. It feels very strange for a Ghost Recon game... I do understand Ubi wants to think outside the box and bring us themed content which fits the world space. And since GRW's Bolovia is ripe with "gangs" I guess there is some argument to be made about the validity of adding content like this. It's just not really the direction I wish they would have taken for a larger DLC. I think a DLC like this could have been crafted on a much smaller scale with missions, new skins, etc right within the existing game and not required the large amount of resources they clearly used to make this a bigger more crafted mini-campaign. Racing is just not my thing and overall it just feels an odd fit. That's my take on it anyways. Haven't played it so who knows. I do think ANY DLC that extends the life of the game is good even if it's not something I have any real interest in.
So there you go Ghosts. Get out there and... burn rubber baby? Yeeesh
DO NOT CONTINUE DOWN THIS THREAD IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO HAVE ANYTHING SPOILED (ALSO IMAGE HEAVY)
NOTE - a lot of this is complete supposition on my part based off the images and file names I have access to. NONE of it is backed up by hard data. My guess is as good as yours and may in some cases being wildly wrong. Only time will tell.
-- NARCO ROAD --
Hey fellow Ghosts. So the first official large DLC is about to drop - Narco Road.
I was able to look inside some of the files and get a glimpse at a few things about this DLC and some others. With the tools that are currently available mostly all I could glean are images and file names. No actual data or numbers were visible Still there is some very interesting stuff to be gleaned.
Sadly I think based on what I was able to see Narco Road IS very much not what most would expect from the tactical and stealth genres that Ghost Recon embodies. It seems pretty much what we've seen in the trailers and snippets - a colorful, over the top, fast n furious race themed DLC. I and many others have found that pretty odd given that GRW is a combat focused game and it's driving and flying controls and physics are largely panned. It baffles me that they've created a DLC focused around the one area the game is clearly weak in - vehicle use. :/
The first thing I found odd was Narco Road is listed internally as DLC20 while Fallen Ghosts is given the designation DLC10. There are no other DLC designations visible at this time in the files (which of course does NOT mean there won't be other DLC releases... we could definitely see more packs of weapons, skins, missions, etc.)
I do think Narco Road coming out first though is once again Ubi's attempt to hold the "better" DLC for final release so that they can stretch out the season pass. They did this with Far Cry 4 and other games where they with held what seemed like the most interesting part of the season pass to the very end. The flip side of this is it gives them more time to work on that DLC so maybe it's for the best and will result in us getting a stronger, longer and overall better experience from the last DLC. At least I hope so. Valley of the Yeti for Far Cry 4 was a very good DLC release I thought and certainly it was the best out of that season pass.
So first up here is a loading screen for DLC20. This *might* be temporary and not the final art... hell all of this in the post might be. It IS marked with the word PLACEHOLDER so seems likely it is not the final art:
UPDATE - Yeah they did change it. This was the updated image in the latest patch that just came out today:
This image shows off presumably 3 bosses of this DLC as well as highlighting that the DLC is focused around vehicles such as cars, motorcycles, monster trucks and planes.
-- CAST --
So before diving into vehicles lets talk about the bad guys here a moment. It looks like there are 3 main bosses and a big baddie by the awe inspiring name of "El Invisible" (yeah no, that's actually pretty terrible in my book. I guess kudos for making the end boss a mystery, but I think they could of come up with a better moniker. Anyway...)
So these boss enemies appear to be named:
- Tonio Mateos
- Arturo Rey
- Eddie Escovado
Here are their "mug shots" along with a fellow labeled "Sonrisa"... perhaps he is an informant or a rebel that helps you in your quest to infiltrate these gangs and take them down.
Arturo Rey
Toney Mateos
Eddie Escovado
El Invisible (interestingly his portrait name is El Zamura)
"Sonrisa"
These pleasant fellows are all listed under "smuggling" so I'm guessing this is a sub branch of that particular area of the Santa Blanca Cartel.
-- ACTIVITIES --
Moving on to activities that are available in the DLC. I will list out what is shown in the files below. By and large these all seem to revolve around vehicle races and stunts of various kinds:
Aerobatics - Fly under and through things. Guaranteed to have hoops and rings in the air to fly through (what game with airplanes doesn't these days?)
Air Spray - Some kind of crop dusting / aerial smoke effects task.
Animal Traffic - This is intriguing if there are actual wild animals that can attack players and enemies (but I doubt it's that elaborate... probably just a race to a drop point)
Baking Bad - No doubt a play on "Breaking Bad". Busting up drug cooking operations?
Coca Field - No idea here. There is only an icon image for it. Hopefully it's something like burning down coca fields ala Far Cry 3's greatest mission Kick the Hornet's Nest. Dupstep music is optional.
Drift - Something GRW vehicles seem prone to doing anyways... at least when I drive them
Electro - Not sure what these are. They have lightning bolt icons. I'm going to say there are spots during races and events where you can refill your Nitro gauge. Yeah confirmed this DLC features a "nitro boost" mechanic ala just about every racing game ever.
Impossible Climb - Monster Trucks offroading may be the most compelling part of this DLC's theme (and the least likely vehicles to handle like complete crap)
Informer - Again not sure what these will be. I can only assume that you'll have to link up with informers (Sonrisa?) to further the missions. Being a vehicle heavy DLC I wouldn't be surprised if you have to drive them around - either to compel them to talk ala Mafia III, to keep them safe from or outrun pursuers or just to be a damn Ubi err Uber Driver / taxi service for them.
Jump - What racing game doesn't have jumps?
Retrieve the Map - This DLC seems to contain several "treasure map" images with locations circled on them. I think you may need to retrieve the map and then proceed to a general location where you will need to study the image carefully to deduce specifically where the treasure is hidden (see the example image below). Being an Ubi game though they may just mark the exact location for you which would be a big disappointment.
Treasure Map - Once you get the map, you have to find the treasure.
Trials - No doubt there will time trials to complete via racing courses. Something I'm not very excited about as I'm not big on racing games and... well... the existing ground vehicle mechanics are so bad I'm very worried that it will be very hard for some people (like me!) to even attempt to beat things like precision flying or fast driving through courses with tight curves and cornering. My big hope is that they are going to introduce new controls, physics or both, but I think it just may be wishful thinking...
Vehicle Spy - Another activity without a tutorial image. I'm guessing you need to follow enemy vehicles and maintain a certain distance to listen in on them or otherwise track or tag them somehow.
-- NEW WEAPONS AND VEHICLES --
OK so new weapons? Well to be perfectly frank - I don't see any. That doesn't mean that there aren't any. In fact I believe it's been stated that the DLC includes 9 new weapons. I just don't see them. I DO see new weapons labeled for DLC10 which is Fallen Ghosts and I will post those in another post. I also do see several (about 10) new "EPIC WEAPONS". Now Epic Weapons are those weapons in the base game by defeating various bosses. Note that "Legendary weapons" are the designation for weapons which can only be purchased in the shop and not earned in the game so those are distinctly labeled differently. Since none of these seemingly new Epic Weapons are labeled with any DLC I do not know if they will appear in Narco Raod, Fallen Ghosts or anywhere else... or hell even if they will ever be unlocked. I assume of course they will. Since i'm not sure if/when/how we will get these and other than some icons and names I don't have much to go on I will place them in a separate post. It's probable that these will be rewards for Narco Road bosses and events, but I can't say conclusively.
New vehicles - there's no specific data about certain vehicles but all of the images seen so far suggest we can expect a lot of skins and customizations for cars, trucks, motorcycles and planes. Possibly helicopters as well. Obviously the biggest (sic) addition is jacked up monster trucks. Sadly I just don't know what you can and can't do with customizing or storing vehicles, etc. I would assume there is a garage or something you use to work with the custom vehicles, but have no idea. You could easily just be assigned premade vehicles for each event which would definately fit within the current game system of specific vehicles being parked at key locations around the map.
-- NEW MECHANICS --
Well besides there definately being some kind of Nitrous boost mechanic on at least some of the vehicles there also a lot of HUD and related images that correspond to various gauges relating to (surely fake) social media and your position compared to the racing gangs of the DLC.
There are apparently "followers" you need to collect to move up the spectrum of races/events.
See the following example image:
There are also a series of images labeled "instagram" that you either receive, take or are otherwise used to move the plot along.
Some examples below:
-- END OF LINE --
So that's it. All I have to share.
It is what it is.
I PERSONALLY (for me) am not terribly thrilled about this DLC. I know a lot of people feel the same way. It feels very strange for a Ghost Recon game... I do understand Ubi wants to think outside the box and bring us themed content which fits the world space. And since GRW's Bolovia is ripe with "gangs" I guess there is some argument to be made about the validity of adding content like this. It's just not really the direction I wish they would have taken for a larger DLC. I think a DLC like this could have been crafted on a much smaller scale with missions, new skins, etc right within the existing game and not required the large amount of resources they clearly used to make this a bigger more crafted mini-campaign. Racing is just not my thing and overall it just feels an odd fit. That's my take on it anyways. Haven't played it so who knows. I do think ANY DLC that extends the life of the game is good even if it's not something I have any real interest in.
So there you go Ghosts. Get out there and... burn rubber baby? Yeeesh