Okay.. so where to begin?
How about "Is Narco Road any good?" Well, maybe.
Some details..
#1. It's a totally (mostly) stand alone expansion. This means you create a new character to play in Narco Road, you do not have access to your previously unlocked weapons or skills, and you need to load into Narco Road, or the base game.
#2. It uses the base game map, but not all of it. There are 4 territories/provinces/etc in Narco Road, each with a leader or buchon like the main game. These 4 territories cover the main game map from Media Luna, down to Mojocoyo, and east into Flor De Oro/Libertad. There are some weird exclusions where you can't go, but it looks like maybe it'll open up later? Next DLC? The north east/east is generally closed off (Caimanes, Monte Puncu, etc) and the Salt Flats are inaccessible in Koani. All in all it's a pretty decent map size to play with for pure DLC. The basic layout you know and love carries over, but some things have been repurposed/adjusted/etc.
This ALSO means, any guns/outfits/vehicles you unlock in Narco Road are NOT usable in the main game, which kind of sucks, but on the other hand, it means the base game isn't getting tampered with and doesn't create a "have DLC/have not DLC" divide between groups.
#3. This, thematically, takes place after the ending of the base game [I think]. I'm only a few hours in, so nothing has really been spelled out, but from the in game text and hints, it sounds like this operation (Operation Narco Road) takes place after the end of Operation Kingslayer. I'm assuming the 'good' ending. You don't need any knowledge of the ending for Narco Road to make sense though, but it at least explains why you're seeing the same areas again, with sometimes different inhabitants.
#4. Being friends with Santa Blanca is.. weird. I want to shoot their faces off by instinct.. but now they're the ally faction! Rebels are still around, but diminished and generally leave you alone unless you attack them (They're neutral). UNIDAD is still there, and still generally annoying. There is a new 'bad' faction, who I can't remember the name, but they're black and yellow and red, and represent a rival cartel.
#5. Game play is mostly the same. There are monster trucks (with nitro boosts), hot rods (with nitro boosts), suped up lambos (with nitro boost), and even new enemy jeeps (with nitro boost). Nitro boosts for everything! It's silly, and kind of dumb, but not terrible. The planes I've played around with control SUPER WEIRD. They're like.. super sensitive and acrobatic. Beow and I dodged like, 17 SAM's last night, just dancing around in the air. The new helo's are cool looking.. but I didn't notice anything different about them. The "rebel" support is now Santa Blanca support.. and they drop off a helicopter with guns!
#6. Your new character starts @ level 20, with a bunch of skills filled in already. You still collect supplies from stuff in the world (no convoys) to level up the rest of the way I guess. Some skills are removed/not accessible in Narco Road, mostly in the Squad section, and you play solo, there are no AI companions in single player. Your character still talks to himself though, which is kind of amusing. Shit balls!
#7. Missions/Challenges/Story/etc. They are mostly the same, kill this, rescue that, go here, take this there. I've only worked on one province though, so there could be more. So far though there was a couple of variations, one where you had to physically tail a helicopter to listen to them (Drone didn't work) and one where you had to steal a damaged helicopter, and it controlled like shit, so it was a challenge keeping it in the air. If there are more of these variation missions, it will be fun. The dudebro challenges are kind of just there.. you need to do them to gain 'followers', which makes you cooler in the eyes of the gangs, but most of them you can complete just by flying around or driving down a street, they're not super involved or intrusive. In the world of Ghost Recon they're kind of ludicrous, but, to be honest, when playing the main game we did a bunch of that ludicrous stuff on our own, so I'm not going to judge it too harshly.
#8. Difficulty. 3 areas are 4-skull, and one is 5-skull. It's decently difficult, though the enemy density is a lot less than the main game. Since Santa Blanca is your friend, a lot of outposts/bases that used to be hostile are now your buddies! The new rival cartel packs a punch though, and UNIDAD is as hostile as ever.
So there you go.. is it worth $14.99? I don't know. I'd say probably not? It's basically GHOST and the Furious, for all it's pluseseses and minueseses. I will wait to reserve judgement on the story until I beat it, but so far it's perfectly serviceable. "El Invisible" is kind of a dumb name, but oh well.
Curious how the next DLC will be done, it sounds like it'll be more tactical, so here's hoping. As it stands, Narco Road gives me more content to play through, so I'll give it a go. The same basic sandbox and game play loop exists in Narco Road, so I anticipate I'll enjoy it as well, even if it is kind of ridiculous.