If Ghost Games can find a way to properly refine and execute their ideas, they're on track to something great. Need for Speed: Payback, however, finishes in the middle of the pack, and that's a damn shame.
Other than laughter and the occasional satisfaction of seeing a crazy plan come together, Just Cause 4 doesn’t illicit much of an emotional response. It’s ugly, monotone, and almost feels incomplete. Even some of the character animations look lazy, as though the characters themselves are saving their energy for something. The game isn’t without its charm, certainly, but that charm doesn’t amount to much when it is marred by a plethora of other issues. Just Cause 4 approaches its potential, but doesn’t quite seize it. Considering how well the game performs at its peak, that is a real shame.
Hitman 3, the final game in IO Interactive’s “World of Assassination” trilogy doesn’t deviate from its two immediate predecessors in any major ways. Its gameplay isn’t liable to surprise anybody who has experienced what the semi-rebooted approach to the Hitman franchise has to offer. Instead, its adjustments to the overall formula are more subtle in nature, but the effects are substantial. That said, anybody who decides to jump into the trilogy via its third entry will discover a game that is, arguably, the best title in a series that has differentiated itself from both shooters and stealth games since the 2016 episodic release of Hitman.
In the end, Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint never finds its groove.