Summary
- Ghost Recon Wildlands: Last Rites is out now.
- The free update includes a new mission, several community-requested features, and the return of the Predator mission.
- Game Director Benjamin Rousseau Lemaire and Live Strategy & Analytics Director Yossef Benzeghadi share their insights on the new gameplay features and how community feedback helped the Last Rites update.
Ghost Recon Wildlands: Last Rites is out now for XBOX Series X|S. As a major free update, Last Rites refreshes the gameplay experience of Ghost Recon Wildlands, delivering a new story-driven mission in which the Ghosts must face off against a new antagonist, La Llorona, and Los Penitentes, her fanatic cult following. They have nothing to lose, and they’re wreaking havoc in Bolivia as La Llorona enacts revenge on those who have wronged her. It also marks the return of the challenging hunt for the iconic Predator. Finally, Last Rites brings a host of new community-driven gameplay updates designed to give players more in-game freedom than ever before.
We spoke with Ubisoft Bordeaux’s Game Director Benjamin Rousseau Lemaire and Live Strategy & Analytics Director Yossef Benzeghadi to learn more about the new gameplay features and how community feedback and player insights were considered throughout development.
Ghost Recon Wildlands: Last Rites brings a diverse array of customization options for players. Can you walk us through those?
Benjamin Rousseau Lemaire: The original game allowed for a lot of UI tweaks. Players were already able to hide a lot of stuff. We added two more here. Players will now be able to hide impact & trajectory previews of throwable items such as grenades, as well as the shader on interactable objects like ammo crates, or even objectives. By popular demand, we also made sure that when you hide UI elements, the associated sound feedback, if any, is deactivated too.
In addition, there’s what we call the “Ghost Parameters”, inspired by features that were already present in the Ghost Mode and can now be used in other PvE modes. First, we have the tactical reloading, making you lose any remaining ammunition in your magazine when you reload. Then, the number of primary weapons you can carry, either one or two. And lastly, the number of allowed revives before a Game Over, from none to limitless.
We also have the World and Session settings that are located in the lobby page. You could already change the time of day, but now you can make it fixed. So, if you want to play at night and only at night for your entire session, you can. You can also play with the weather, which was not possible in the past, and you can make it fixed as well. If you want it raining all the time, you can do that. And if you want to play at night in the rain all the time, you can. Systems like enemy patrol rates, alarms or SAM launchers can be tweaked as well, by completely deactivating them or making their destruction permanent in a session. It’s all up to you!
Team Composition has also been improved. Previously, you could toggle your AI Teammates on or off, but it was all or nothing. Now, you can choose if you want to play with one, two, or three teammates.
The final part is about difficulty. We had four difficulty levels originally; now, you can precisely deep dive in the difficulty settings and play with specific parameters yourself to build a customized difficulty level. For example, you can tweak the damage that vehicles can take before being destroyed, play with the perception of enemies, or adjust the amount of time to wait before triggering HP regeneration.
Yossef Benzeghadi: We also have a new soundtrack theme for La Llorona, our new antagonist. I think it’s super cool and hope players will love it. We also created new audio and characters with Last Rites, and I’m happy to confirm the original GRW actors for Nomad and the other main characters are reprising their role for the English voice over.
One other cool thing we fought hard to bring back – which is my personal favorite as well as a major fan favorite – is the return of the Predator mission. This showdown with the iconic hunter was loved as one of the most challenging boss fights in the game, and rest assured we preserved all of that intact exactly as it used to be!
How do these features expand the freedom players will have when playing Ghost Recon Wildlands?
YB: Everything we decided to do on Last Rites was very well informed by a lot of insightful sources, and many are elements the team wanted to explore based on player feedback. We had quite a luxury to have almost a decade worth of information and insights about how players have been playing Wildlands over the years. When the game first launched, we noticed some players really taking their time completing missions or seemingly doing “nothing” and were mostly free roaming in the open world: we tentatively called them “Sandbox Players”. Over time, this group got bigger and bigger and we made a point to clearly understand what it was all about. By speaking with them, thanks to community discussions and playtests interviews notably, we realized they were all roleplaying. They were taking a lot of time on purpose, not necessarily for the sake of pure exploration, because they were setting up their own challenges, like doing a mission at night, with just one gun, without using a drone, or without being detected. To this day, there’s a strong roleplaying community in Wildlands, and as shared by Benjamin, we’re adding several customization features in Last Rites to further support this kind of playstyle. At the same time, these options are giving even more freedom of choice to fine tune your gameplay experience, role play or not, so there’s something here for everyone regardless of how you play.
Co-op is not forgotten either. I recall players told us they were roleplaying with friends, where one player in the group was acting as the sniper, so only that player could use a sniper rifle, while another was the engineer of the group and was the only one allowed to use a drone, and so on. That’s also why we’re introducing the World and Setting options that Benjamin mentioned earlier, which can be established by the host of your co-op session. And if you want to enable friendly fire in your co-op group to have more realistic behavior, or even allow PvP situations within the campaign, it is now possible.
At the same time, Last Rites introduces an all-new mission, fully story-driven, and that’s there for all players who love and enjoy narrative content without necessarily focusing on roleplay. The mission also features a darker creative vision and artistic direction, with a slightly different tone than the main game campaign, to give the community a fresh experience.
Tell us more about how the community was directly involved in shaping the content of the Last Rites update.
BRL: We started by making a wish list of things we might want to include, but we added way more items to it than we could possibly cover. Then we turned to the players. We worked with our community developers, who are super active with the community for the game, and they gathered a short list of the top 10 things players would want to see in Ghost Recon Wildlands. On top of that, we organized a workshop with super active players from the community, asking them what they thought the most frustrating thing in the game was; what we could alleviate, remove, or work on; what the best thing in the game was that we could add onto; what was missing from the game; et cetera. They obviously gave us thousands of things so we picked a few we wanted to cover and knew we could deliver on, like the UI elements and their sounds we talked about before, or even the destruction persistency of the SAM launchers which came from those discussions. In addition to working with that player committee, we read comments on different internet forums, and we watched videos of people roleplaying in the game to see what they were doing and how we could add to their experiences.
YB: We also leveraged the reports from our community developers to assess the highest priorities that the community was expecting. Number one was, of course, a better framerate with the expectation of a 4K and 60 FPS update for XBOX Series X|S we are delivering today for free with Last Rites. Then there were some of the customizable options Benjamin just mentioned and also some small requests we were able to translate into quick wins; for example, some items were no longer obtainable in the game because they were tied to challenges that have expired. It was easy for us to find those items and unlock them for free for everyone to enjoy, alongside quite a lot of weapons and equipment now unlocked by default.
Another thing we discussed with players is the darker mood of our Last Rites update. We showed them an early concept art for La Llorona – who is the new antagonist introduced in Last Rites – as well as some of the thematic elements we developed around her. The positive reaction we got from players helped us confirm we were heading in the right direction. I think players will be pleased with the end result when they get a chance to play the new mission.
What are you hoping the community takes away from Last Rites?
YB: For me, I hope they enjoy all of the customization options we’re adding. The story with La Llorona is super cool, and I think players will love it. But having worked on Wildlands when it first launched, we couldn’t fully support the roleplaying playstyles as well as we wanted to, besides maybe our Matchmaking Mood System and Ghost Mode back in the day. We did it more elegantly later on in Ghost Recon Breakpoint with what we called the Ghost Experience, which in turn was kind of an inspiration for what we’re doing now in Wildlands within Last Rites. I’m convinced mil-sim and roleplay are some of the key elements that kept so many players active in the game even today and we cannot wait to see how they will enhance their experience and push the military simulation they know and love in Wildlands beyond what they could do until now.
And icing on the cake, of course, the Predator mission! I think no one expected it to be back; we worked hard to make sure our players can face the most lethal hunter once again and we are sure the community will be pleasantly surprised by this comeback. It’s true we could have stopped at just a simple 60 FPS update, but Ghost Recon Wildlands and its fantastic community deserved much more, and we really went all-in as much as we could with Last Rites to go above and beyond expectations to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Ghost Recon! A special thanks to the talented team at Ubisoft Bordeaux who made all of this possible!
BRL: I can’t be more original because it’s the same thing for me. I’m excited to see how the community, especially the roleplaying community, will use the tools we’re giving them to do crazy stuff. From watching videos on the internet, as I mentioned earlier, we know what they can do, and I hope that what we’re giving them in Last Rites will encourage them to come back to the game and enjoy Bolivia in a different way by playing with the weather, time of day, friendly fire, all of it! Roleplay was a pillar of the update that we really wanted to do, and when you factor in the new story mission, Last Rites is the full package.
Coincidentally, XBOX’s Free Play Days starts today, so players can download and play Ghost Recon Wildlands for free through August 9. What would you say to a new player who’s thinking about trying the game for the first time?
YB: There has never been a better time to jump in, because everything will be updated to be incredibly smooth, especially on XBOX Series X|S. Last Rites can be played right away from the main menu; you don’t have to finish Wildlands to play the new mission. At the same time, should you start with it, Last Rites doesn’t spoil any of the main campaign, so even if you play it first, it won’t impact your experience and enjoyment of the main game afterwards. And by the way, if you choose to play the main campaign first, we made sure you can fast travel at a rally point in the Caimanes province near the Predator mission if you want, even though I don’t suggest you go there unprepared! The Predator Bio-Mask and other rewards you get from completing the Predator mission can afterwards be used in Last Rites, and similarly, the two new Operator Skins rewards you get from finishing Last Rites can then be used in the main campaign too.
BRL: If you start the game for the first time and play the main campaign, you can control the difficulty levels with more granularity. The difficulty levels are there as presets, but if at some point you’d like tougher combat, or to remain undetected, you can now play with those parameters to customize your experience. You’re playing the best version of the game with as many options as possible to build your own experience, so it’s a very good moment to join and discover the game for the first time.
YB: One last reminder: if you play during the XBOX Free Play Days and choose to get the game afterwards, you can continue your progression from where you left. Have fun Ghosts, and see you in Wildlands!
Play Ghost Recon Wildlands: Last Rites on XBOX Series X|S. The game is also available with an XBOX Game Pass Premium or Ultimate membership, as well as a Ubisoft+ Premium for XBOX subscription.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands Definitive Edition
Ubisoft
$99.99
$24.99
*The Nightfall Protocol and Cold Eye Packs will be available in game in August 2026.
Season Pass:
– DLCs: Narco Road and Fallen Ghost
– Gameplay content: The Unidad Conspiracy missions, Peruvian Connection Pack
– Cosmetic packs: Peruvian Connection Pack, Ghost Pack: Unidad, Ghost Pack: Santa Blanca, Ghost Pack: Rebellion
– Vehicle: Bolivian Minibus
Year 2 Pass:
– Splinter Cell Pack: Weapon, weapon skin, 2 NVG goggles, pair of gloves, 3 camos
– Soldier Equipment Pack: U100 weapon, JPC vest, military shirt
– Infantry Forces Pack: ACU shirt, Mayflower APC, covered advanced combat helmet
– Active Duty Pack: UMP 45, PenCott LN, Blast Face Shield
Quick Start Pack:
– Gear: x2 Weapons, x3 weapon attachments
– Digital content: 1 Skill point, long XP booster, resource pack
Deluxe Pack:
– Gear: Wilderness weapon, The Huntsman vehicle, 5 accessories, 3 weapon paints, new clothes, x1 short XP booster
Nightfall Protocol Pack:
– Gameplay content: 4 characters, 7 accessories, 2 parachutes, Mk 17 Nerd, SR25 Machinery, AC-AR, M60E4
Cold Eye Pack:
– Gameplay content: 4 characters, 3 accessories, 1 parachute, Golden Vector, MSR Eagle Shot, M4A1 Explorer, Z93 AMR”
Internet connection, Ubisoft account, Microsoft Account and Game Pass Ultimate or Core (subscriptions sold separately) required to access online multiplayer/features.
Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands
Ubisoft
$49.99
$4.99
TAKE DOWN THE CARTEL
In a near future, Bolivia has fallen into the hands of a merciless drug cartel. Lead your team of elite soldiers and coordinate raids. Pilot drones and helicopters and drive the wildest vehicles on and off-road as you scour the breathtaking landscapes of Bolivia.
CUSTOMIZE YOUR GHOST AND VEHICLES
Create your Ghost from scratch and customize your weapons and gear from a vast library ranging from tactical paint jobs to provocative sleeve tattoos. Travel in the air and at sea with over 60 different vehicles.
TEAM UP WITH FRIENDS
Create a team of up to 3 friends. You can also play PvP in 4v4 class-based, tactical fights: Ghost War.
Internet connection, Ubisoft account, Microsoft Account and Game Pass Ultimate or Core (subscriptions sold separately) required to access online multiplayer/features.
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