• The game obviously is still in early access, so it has quite a few bugs, like enemies spinning 360° while being inside a stairwell, directional audio not working, as well as audio being bugged, items not being pulled out the first time you try to pull them out etc.
But overall the concept of the game is great, and might be a better sequel to "Ghost Recon: Wildlands" than Ghost Recon: Breakpoint (since the game developers were also partly the Ghost Recon developers) . The customization for guns, equipment and the operator is top notch. If you are gonna play the game alone, it can get quite boring pretty quickly. If the developers continue the good work, the game has potential.

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• As you probably know, Ground Branch is a tactical military simulator in which you are being put into the role of a special forces operator and tasked with resolving situations, that you yourself can choose.
There are only three available modes:

- Bomb Defuse | You have to find a certain self-set amount of bombs, defuse them and take out any tangos.
- Intel Hunt | Find intel, while taking out any tangos.
- Terrorist Hunt | Take out all the tangos.

There currently is no campaign, which can make the game quite easily get boring if you are playing alone.
I myself have played Ground Branch with a group of fellow soldiers, which if you are playing tactically is 100% far more fun and I really suggest, playing this game with friends who can play tactically and don't just go in blasting.

Unlike with Ghost Recon Wildlands, you are not bound to do certain missions on stealth or loud, but you can choose everything yourself. Equipment, Camo, Outfit, Operator, Callsign, Mission, your Spawn, amount of enemies and bombs, Enemy-AI settings, time of incursion, date etc.

When it comes to the AI-Enemy I have mixed feelings. The AI can be as balanced as in Ghost Recon, but can also sometimes be an issue like in Ready or Not. Overall the AI isn't great, but also not bad. So pretty good for an early-access game.

When it comes to the graphics I would assume that they are gonna improve over time, they are not the worst, but also not as good as in Ghost Recon or any other currently available military game (Army 3 etc.)

I haven't been much inside the Ground Branch community, and as well what I read from all the other reviews is that, the developers aren't bad but just slow - which I have no idea how big the studio is so I think it's fine.

Now when we come to the flaws. You have a rangefinder inside the game, though it is pretty much useless. There are only 2-3 maps where you have actually distances of over 200mikes, and even on those maps your usual engagements will be under 200m - which brings me to my next point - bulletdrop.
I've tried testing it out, but it wasn't really working, but what I can say from using different guns and scopes and ranges, there currently is 0 bulletdrop in the game. It can be a good touch for playing if you play tactically to actually care about the distance, but it honestly doesn't matter.

As said before there is no campaign.

Small bugs occur from time to time. Parts of the map not being rendered correctly, might also interfere with you trying to rangefind as it will measure the for example tree instead of the 747 or the buildings behind the 747.

The gameplay does certainly feel smooth, though has some issues like the AI being one-shot regardless of where you shoot, the AI being massed in a single place?.. but could have some improvement. Though the sound design is very very good, with full-auto fired guns actually impacting your ingame hearing.


Overall I would say that if you want a new tactical game and have people to play it with, then you can 100% buy this game and have lots of fun. Though if you are a singleplayer person I would currently wait to see how the game develops. I don't think the game is gonna turn bad, but as we've seen with developers, they can go crazy (speaking of you Rare - Sea of Thieves). With new updates coming and the game developing further, I expect this to be a very good game in 1-2 years.

I hope this review helped!
If you have any further questions, you can leave a comment under the YouTube video or add me as a friend on steam.
Have a great day UwU! <3
~ Isabelle


Further Information:
• Review Written on the 8th of September 2024
• Game Version at that time: V. 1-0-3-4