Completed the main story in about 60 hours. I did not locate all weapons and attachments but I did complete all missions. (Bonus missions included). I've now restarted the game on Extreme difficulty with a brand new character and intend to replay all the missions as it now feels very different and refreshing thanks to the changes in Extreme (explained in the Gameplay section of this review). Bought the Ultimate Edition of this game during an insane sale. If I remember right, ultimate edition was only like $15 or something crazy like that.

The story is pretty simple. The government is turning a blind eye to allow the drug cartel, Santa Blanca, to do what they like, resulting in the largest cocaine production in the world. Your objective is to take out the leader, El Sueño.

Character creation is decent enough in this game. Very limited options for hairstyles and colors for hair and eyes. But thanks to all the clothing and accessories and the colors for them all you can still make a very distinct character. Clothing consists of various Tops, Vests, Pants, Footwear, and Ghillie Suits. Accessories include Eyewear, Facewear, Headwear, Headsets, Handwear, Backpacks, and Patches. You can also save outfits to preset slots if you wish to try out different outfits and cycle through them at various times. Fun for immersion if you want jackets and beanies in the snowy areas and t-shirts and sunglasses in the sun.

Customization is also available for the other 3 AI members of your team. I personally made everyone wear the same clothes/accessories to make us look like a uniform team, and just gave different colors to each person's clothing to differentiate who is who. There are also 121 different paint presets for weapons.

Enormous open world with seamless transitions (never experienced loading screens aside from fast travel and respawning). Vehicles include motorbikes, cars, jeeps, trucks, buses, helicopters, and planes. Yes, you can jump out of planes and helicopters to skydive and open a parachute (once you've unlocked it which is one of the first options you have.) All missions take place at locations in the open world and are approachable from any direction (even parachute in if you want to drop right into the middle of the bases).

General gameplay is in third-person view and aiming down sights can be alternated between third person or first person. Stealth-oriented. Scout out the area for soldiers, turrets, drone jammers, alarm systems, and power generators. Mark everything with binoculars, drone, or even just aiming your weapon at it. Everything marked will stay marked until it's been taken care of. Take care of soldiers by shooting or sneaking up and grabbing them to knock out (some can be interrogated to reveal locations for resources and upgrade points.) AI teammates can be used for Sync Shots, if you need to take out multiple soldiers at once. For most difficulties, enemy soldiers will appear on the mini-map as a large blurry circle to indicate there's a soldier in that vicinity. The blurry circle will then change into a dot once that soldier is marked. When playing on Extreme difficulty, that blurry circle will not exist, leaving you unsure if you've spotted every enemy. This one small change makes the game much more difficult in my experience and also more enjoyable as I'm now being caught off guard more often and things are less predictable.
For those who like a challenge, feel free to disable AI teammates in the Gameplay tab under Options and play completely solo.
In terms of gameplay to progress the story... In order to lure El Sueño out of hiding, you need to work your way up the hierarchy throughout the various branches (Security, Smuggling, Influence, and Production) of the business. Search the open world for clues in order to track down Buchons. Take them out to track down an Underboss. Take out an Underboss to track down the Head. Take out the Heads to track down El Sueño. (You're only required to eliminate 2 out of the 4 Heads to get to El Sueño). You can complete these in any order you wish, but they do have an established Difficulty associated with them as a sort of "intended route".

You get a loadout of three weapons, a drone, your parachute, and some items.
Your weapons consist of two primary weapons and one secondary.
Primary weapons include Assault Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Submachine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, and Crossbow (only one crossbow available from what I can see).
Secondary weapons include Compact Machine Guns (one-handed SMGs, basically) and Handguns (pistols).
Weapons and their attachments can be obtained by finding weapon cases spread throughout the world.
Choose one of four types of drones: Explosive, EMP, Noisemaker, or Medic. They can all be used for scouting out an area and they each do what you'd think. Explosive blows things up, EMP disables electronics, Noisemaker makes noise (to lure enemies around for stealth) and Medic revives a fallen teammate.
Parachute can be customized with preset designs. Some can be obtained from ost are unlocked through Spec Ops Crates or Prestige Crates (as far as I can tell these are microtransaction lootboxes).

Got a few friends? Definitely play it together. I didn't play co-op because I have no friends patient enough to deal with stealth and planning tactics but I'm sure it could be way more fun trying to coordinate everything with a team of real players rather than dealing with the AI that can be pretty dumb sometimes. You can co-op any mission in the game! You can also join open lobbies. Most people seem to just go off and do their own thing in the lobby but occasionally somebody will join another player's party to help with their mission. Any progress made in co-op will transfer to your solo world and you can even do missions not available to you yet.

There's also PvP modes but I haven't gotten into those yet (even though I usually prefer PvP over anything else in games) so I can't say what the playerbase is like over there in terms of population, toxicity, and all that.

Overall a great game and I'm looking forward to completing it all again on Extreme difficulty. I don't have the skill or patience to play Extreme mode without Drones or AI teammates for sync shots. Feel free to take on that challenge if you're crazy enough! And if you want more of a challenge than that... Don't get any of the upgrades. Good luck on that.
Anyways...
Awesome game. Could be better but could certainly be way WAY worse.

If I had to give a rating...
8/10

Completed the main story in about 60 hours. I did not locate all weapons and attachments but I did complete all missions. (Bonus missions included). I've now restarted the game on Extreme difficulty with a brand new character and intend to replay all the missions as it now feels very different and refreshing thanks to the changes in Extreme (explained in the Gameplay section of this review). Bought the Ultimate Edition of this game during an insane sale. If I remember right, ultimate edition was only like $15 or something crazy like that. [h1]Plot[/h1] The story is pretty simple. The government is turning a blind eye to allow the drug cartel, Santa Blanca, to do what they like, resulting in the largest cocaine production in the world. Your objective is to take out the leader, El Sueño. [h1]Customization[/h1] Character creation is decent enough in this game. Very limited options for hairstyles and colors for hair and eyes. But thanks to all the clothing and accessories and the colors for them all you can still make a very distinct character. Clothing consists of various Tops, Vests, Pants, Footwear, and Ghillie Suits. Accessories include Eyewear, Facewear, Headwear, Headsets, Handwear, Backpacks, and Patches. You can also save outfits to preset slots if you wish to try out different outfits and cycle through them at various times. Fun for immersion if you want jackets and beanies in the snowy areas and t-shirts and sunglasses in the sun. Customization is also available for the other 3 AI members of your team. I personally made everyone wear the same clothes/accessories to make us look like a uniform team, and just gave different colors to each person's clothing to differentiate who is who. There are also 121 different paint presets for weapons. [h1]Open World[/h1] Enormous open world with seamless transitions (never experienced loading screens aside from fast travel and respawning). Vehicles include motorbikes, cars, jeeps, trucks, buses, helicopters, and planes. Yes, you can jump out of planes and helicopters to skydive and open a parachute (once you've unlocked it which is one of the first options you have.) All missions take place at locations in the open world and are approachable from any direction (even parachute in if you want to drop right into the middle of the bases). [h1]Gameplay[/h1] General gameplay is in third-person view and aiming down sights can be alternated between third person or first person. Stealth-oriented. Scout out the area for soldiers, turrets, drone jammers, alarm systems, and power generators. Mark everything with binoculars, drone, or even just aiming your weapon at it. Everything marked will stay marked until it's been taken care of. Take care of soldiers by shooting or sneaking up and grabbing them to knock out (some can be interrogated to reveal locations for resources and upgrade points.) AI teammates can be used for Sync Shots, if you need to take out multiple soldiers at once. For most difficulties, enemy soldiers will appear on the mini-map as a large blurry circle to indicate there's a soldier in that vicinity. The blurry circle will then change into a dot once that soldier is marked. When playing on Extreme difficulty, that blurry circle will not exist, leaving you unsure if you've spotted every enemy. This one small change makes the game much more difficult in my experience and also more enjoyable as I'm now being caught off guard more often and things are less predictable. For those who like a challenge, feel free to disable AI teammates in the Gameplay tab under Options and play completely solo. In terms of gameplay to progress the story... In order to lure El Sueño out of hiding, you need to work your way up the hierarchy throughout the various branches (Security, Smuggling, Influence, and Production) of the business. Search the open world for clues in order to track down Buchons. Take them out to track down an Underboss. Take out an Underboss to track down the Head. Take out the Heads to track down El Sueño. (You're only required to eliminate 2 out of the 4 Heads to get to El Sueño). You can complete these in any order you wish, but they do have an established Difficulty associated with them as a sort of "intended route". [h1]Loadout (Weapons/Items)[/h1] You get a loadout of three weapons, a drone, your parachute, and some items. Your weapons consist of two primary weapons and one secondary. Primary weapons include Assault Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Submachine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Shotguns, and Crossbow (only one crossbow available from what I can see). Secondary weapons include Compact Machine Guns (one-handed SMGs, basically) and Handguns (pistols). Weapons and their attachments can be obtained by finding weapon cases spread throughout the world. Choose one of four types of drones: Explosive, EMP, Noisemaker, or Medic. They can all be used for scouting out an area and they each do what you'd think. Explosive blows things up, EMP disables electronics, Noisemaker makes noise (to lure enemies around for stealth) and Medic revives a fallen teammate. Parachute can be customized with preset designs. Some can be obtained from ost are unlocked through Spec Ops Crates or Prestige Crates (as far as I can tell these are microtransaction lootboxes). [h1]Multiplayer[/h1] Got a few friends? Definitely play it together. I didn't play co-op because I have no friends patient enough to deal with stealth and planning tactics but I'm sure it could be way more fun trying to coordinate everything with a team of real players rather than dealing with the AI that can be pretty dumb sometimes. You can co-op any mission in the game! You can also join open lobbies. Most people seem to just go off and do their own thing in the lobby but occasionally somebody will join another player's party to help with their mission. Any progress made in co-op will transfer to your solo world and you can even do missions not available to you yet. There's also PvP modes but I haven't gotten into those yet (even though I usually prefer PvP over anything else in games) so I can't say what the playerbase is like over there in terms of population, toxicity, and all that. [h1]Conclusion[/h1] Overall a great game and I'm looking forward to completing it all again on Extreme difficulty. I don't have the skill or patience to play Extreme mode without Drones or AI teammates for sync shots. Feel free to take on that challenge if you're crazy enough! And if you want more of a challenge than that... Don't get any of the upgrades. Good luck on that. Anyways... Awesome game. Could be better but could certainly be way WAY worse. If I had to give a rating... 8/10