Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 Scope Locations
Maximilian Lozano
Morning sniper fans. Remember when there were no sniper related games around? The army's stealthiest strategist has never commanded an audience, preferring camo and a nice bush to kicking down doors and shouting bad things about your various female relatives. But soon there will be two sniper game vying for your beady eyes. I've already spoken a bit about Sniper Elite V2, so the newest kill-cam from that will be relegated to second place. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, however, has managed to elude my scopes thusfar. What I need is a short, explanatory video, I'd say about a minute or so in length that shows off the sort of distances bullets will be traveling, and maybe the locations as well. If that could somehow happen, maybe dropping in below, then I'd be the happiest sniper.
Pow! A video! Yay. And it exactly conforms to my previous specifications: it's actually more of a tech show-off for the Cryengine 3 rather than a game breakdown, but you do get to see those ludicrous bullet trips, and the lengthy levels give me some hope that it has plenty of scope. It's very pretty, and there's a range of environments to ponder the bullet's trajectory in. I'm not forgetting Sniper: Ghost Warrior was a bit rubbish, but I have a weakness for games where the camera follows the bullet, and I'm interested in the co-op and multiplayer. Sniper duels are promised.
It's listed as coming soon. I fear that means he can already see us. Eep. Next up is the latest from the bone-crunching series of Sniper Elite V2's weekly kill-cams. This one isn't so great: I quite like the parsing of details when you hover over the prospective targets, but the position the sniper takes is, frankly, bizarre. He's so out in the open, and sat framed on either side by open fires. That's a problem I had with the original game: it wasn't very stealthy. He might as well wear a one-man-band suit and dress in a suit of mirrors.
The last in this series I played was Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, back in 2017. Even though I only gave it a 6.5 in my review the core loop and sniping mechanics were spot on. What the game lacked was narrative focus, a better use for the open world, and polish needed to iron out the bugs that carried right through into release. The first iteration of Contracts debuted in 2019, ditching the open world and presenting a much more set-piece-inspired game loop. That continues here in Super Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, and on the whole that core loop is as solid as ever, but all the stuff around it is a slightly different matter.
Again, Contracts 2 rests it laurels on excellent gun play behind the scope of a sniper rifle. The boast for this game is extreme distances in excess of a kilometer for the take down, a first in the series. Contracts made a wise decision to leave the open world behind, because the way the maps are laid out forces you into these sniping set pieces which are the creme de la creme of the game mechanics and interactions.
Essentially the game breaks down into five missions where there are smaller, open world-style navigation sections in each one. You drop into these maps and traverse them to reach various sniping perches. Once there, the game settles down with the character as you lay prone and dive into your binoculars and sniper scope, picking out targets are various distances and either taking them down, or simply working out the puzzle how to get off a clean shot.
There are really two types of missions: the long shot contracts force you to the sniper's perch, but the other maps do give you the classic option to sit back and snipe or ghost in close and personal. Sniping is always the better choice, both with respects to how successful you are likely to be with accomplishing mission objectives and how fun the experience will be on the road to get there. This is a sniping game with sniping done right. Stealth is a component and you can choose to go stealthy and try and change the core loop if you want, but it's just not as fun as it is not the focus of the game.
Another big addition and focus this time is the remote sniping turret that places a rifle on the end of an automated kill box. Problem was I never really found a single spot where the gadget seemed appropriate or useful, except in retrospect. After the mission was over and a set piece completed I thought, "A cleverly placed turret would have mowed down that entire encounter." But the only way to really realize that would be to replay the entire mission from the start with what is essentially a know-the-cheat level of prescient knowledge. So many of these gadget and variety options just end up being both ineffective and feeling narratively wrong. I just can't stomach dropping trip mines and leaving a wake of noise pollution behind in my "stealth" game.
The game executes well in the sniping, is ok in the rest, and has a wide arsenal that is largely underutilized. But its biggest issue really is just the limited scope and linear progression of how it all unfolds. There are challenges associate with each of the five missions, but they only reward more in-game currency that is already abundant enough to unlock everything in the game with a playthrough only tackling the moderate hurdles. Except for trophy or achievement hunting, I really can't find a reason to dip back in once all of the game is complete. And that's the biggest problem: there is no multiplayer, no random component to the mission layout, no challenge builder. It's the same five missions, plus preludes and prologues, and once finished, well...you're done.
There is DLC incoming that should help with this, and that DLC is slated to be free. So perhaps this game is one that will grow into its lack of initial content and really build itself out. But at launch, what we have is limited. It's important to understand just what the game is then: A good core experience, but one that plays through rather quickly, with a promise of more on the horizon.
Despite these detractions, don't lose focus of the core game: laying prone and picking off targets. At its best it feels like eviscerating an opponent in chess, wiping out their entire defense a piece at a time. Take the wrong piece, or the right piece at the wrong time, and the entire base goes on alert with your King bolting for the exit off-screen. Done right the map is left empty with only the departed souls observing the final scenes of the bullet time kill cams.
Even taking a more "pacifist" approach and opting to only eliminate the primary objective is met with a lock to pick from over a kilometer away. You have to coax this target out from behind the shutters that obstruct your view, or separate the another one from their partner when both must be taken out and you can't risk alerting the second with the bullet that pierces the first. Or if you're feeling bold, herd the targets together and time that perfect trigger pull: One shot, two kills. This loop plays out over and again in every mission. This loop is satisfying and fun. This loop is the core experience and can be tackled with the ease of a little red reticle to show you exactly where that bullet is going to drop given distance, wind speed, and the adjustment to your scope, or can be challenge of going it alone and measuring all of these factors by your own skill and experience. Good times.
First picked up a game controller when my mother bought an Atari 2600 for my brother and I one fateful Christmas.
Now I'm a Software Developer in my day job who is happy to be a part of the Gaming Nexus team so I can have at least a flimsy excuse for my wife as to why I need to get those 15 more minutes of game time in...
Snipers are some of the deadliest and most frustrating soldiers to deal with in shooters, so it's very appealing to be the one behind the scope in Sniper: Ghost Warrior. The trouble is that a lot of design miscues by developer City Interactive make it almost as aggravating to play a sniper here as it is to try to avoid the insta-kill headshots that snipers deal out as bad guys in other first-person shooters. Maddening difficulty, irritating enemy AI that hides its stupidity by being prescient, and terrible stealth mechanics make the game as annoying as a mosquito in your bedroom. Only good shooting mechanics, sharp jungle visuals, cool slow-mo camera effects that let you get up close and personal with bloody headshots, and somewhat promising multiplayer save the game from being a total disaster.
The story behind the Sniper: Ghost Warrior campaign deals with some kind of revolt in a banana republic. Details are sparse, with you being filled in on a need-to-know basis through brief orders from HQ during missions, but it seems like the bad guys have taken over this tropical paradise and the Yanks are on the way to restore order. Faster than you can say "Hey, that's just like what Reagan did with Grenada!" you've got your boots on the ground as a Ghost Warrior, an elite covert operative with a sniper rifle and a plan. Well, you've got to assume there's a plan behind all of it. You're never given the whole picture aside from random tidbits about drugs and a nuclear program, although you are handed out clear orders in the levels and sent off to kill various baddies, rescue captives, mark targets, secure data, and clear out bases. Objectives are also marked out with onscreen dots and a gauge that tracks distance from goals, so you can never get lost even in the densest jungle foliage.
Individual mission objectives are quite varied. While the majority of the game focuses on traditional sniper duties, like shooting sentries in the head via your telescopic sights, some levels mix in stealth and others deal with straight-out shooter carnage that is all about going to town with the budda-budda-budda stuff. At times, you bounce around to different parts of battlefields, seeing how fights play out from different angles. One moment, you're on a tower taking out enemy snipers to protect an incoming assault team. The next, you're part of that assault team, shooting up all and sundry. Levels feature lush jungles, ancient ruins, sandy beaches, and tin shacks, making your sniping exploits look a bit like clips from somebody's slides during an off-the-beaten-path vacation in Cuba. That's not to say that Sniper: Ghost Warrior is bleeding edge or anything, as there are some real rough edges, like extremely blocky shadows. Still, the game looks more than respectable, even featuring a slow-mo bullet cam whenever you make a headshot or kill two enemies with one pull of the trigger. An array of jungle noises and Spanish enemy chatter further build a Caribbean atmosphere, and really come to life in the living room if you've got a good 5.1 surround system, although the audio is marred by chintzy weapon sounds.
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