Sniper Ghost Game

[Prince Aboubakar]

Onone of the very first side missions in the awkwardly-titled Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, you're tasked with stealing a fuel truck from the bad guy Georgian separatists and returning it to the good guy Georgian freedom fighters. (Georgia the country, not Georgia the U.S. state.)

So I go to the point on my map and I scout out the small outpost nestled in the crook of a high cliff side. It's not the best place to be a sniper, actually. The cliff is high and the building is cramped below, creating lots of bad, obstructed angles. I only get one clean shot off from up high before searching for a better perch.

I end up going in for a closer approach, mangling the stealth after the first couple kills and mopping up the rest of the enemies at close range. The truck is locked so I have to turn on my Witcher Senses and follow a trail from the truck to a nearby bunk where the driver must have slept. Keys in hand I hop in the truck and drive off to the next map marker where the guy I'm doing all this for is. I'm rewarded with typical quest reward stuff---resources, XP---and then my radio crackles and another character is talking to me about the mission. I stand and listen just in case there's something else to do around here before I fast travel back to the safe house.

That's when I hear the rumble of the truck's engine. The NPC I just brought it has hopped in the driver's seat and is roaring right at me. Before I have a chance to move out of the way I'm run down like a dog. The death screen comes up and I have to load the last check point.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is that kind of first-person shooter. The kind of game where you finish a side quest and then the NPC you just helped blindly drives right over you. The kind of game where you can pick off a dozen armed enemies and then get killed simply standing in an empty road, mowed down by a guy ostensibly on your side.

There's lots of these small details that make the game feel a little bit like a B-movie. And that's OK, to a degree. I'm all for more mid-tier games that are a little bit bigger and more robust than indie offerings, but not quite as big budget as your typical AAA fare. The problem is a matter of priorities. Where are limited resources best devoted? Perhaps this type of game should focus its time and budget on creating a limited, but high-quality experience rather than trying to ape sprawling open-world games like Far Cry or big-budget AAA military shooters like Call of Duty. So here we have the military mumbo-jumbo of a Call of Duty but without the star power; we have the open-world sprawl of a Far Cry but without the interesting story and good writing.

Forgettable dialogue and mediocre acting make the game's story feel almost superfluous. It's often funny to see how foreign devs handle American soldiers and culture (and I'm sure the reverse is also very true). For instance, the game's protagonist, Jon North, is described as basically a video game version of American Sniper's Chris Kyle. The in-game description describes him as someone with traditional American values who believes firmly in the United States's role as world police.

Speaking of in-game descriptions, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 abounds with shoddy translation when you read through the various menu descriptions of characters and missions. Reading these you really notice that the game was made in Poland rather than the U.S., and not in a good way like when you play The Witcher 3.

Jon North is a loyal soldier. He believes in classical American way of life, and strongly identifies with the notion of America being the "World Police." As a marine and a sniper he learned to trust his own instincts in distinguishing good and evil and never hesitates to state his mind to others. Natural leader with craving for control.

There are other issues: Graphical tearing, frame-rate drops, enemies' arms sticking through barriers as they magically shoot through walls, and so forth. The stuff you'd expect, basically, from a lot of video games these days.

I'm really happy I opted to play Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 on PC. On PS4, the game's load times are out of control. Upwards of five minutes can pass between loads on console, making the early days of Bloodborne somehow look good. Thank goodness it's a little bit faster on a beefy gaming PC. But even there the load times can be a bit painful. I realize it's important to have patience as a sniper, but there are limits.

The entire production feels very much like Far Cry: Sniper Edition. The open-world filled with points on the map, the skill tree, the foreigner in a strange land come to save the day. I'm not far in yet, but overall I wish they'd left the story more bare-bones and focused entirely on missions. This is where things get good, after all.

The sniping in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 is quite good. Many missions play out as infiltrations of one sort or another. Find an enemy outpost, tag the enemies with your scope or drone, then proceed to take them out as quietly as possible. If you fail, either go in guns blazing or hide and make another go of it when they decide that you're gone.

On a side note, I long for the day when games no longer rely on this sort of alarm mechanic. If I was a murderous villain guarding an outpost and someone started sniping my fellow thugs, I wouldn't just go back to business as usual moments later when we couldn't track down our assailant. I'd be on high alert. I'd call in backup and stay put until they arrived.

I'd like to see games go much further with this, with enemies trying to save their wounded allies, or falling back to really secure defensive positions that required extra ingenuity from players. The alarm level wouldn't just subside in a few minutes, it would remain high until back up arrived or you took everyone out. Imagine playing a sniper game where you could intentionally wound an enemy just to draw out his compatriots. Pretty sadistic, but also pretty cool.

In any case, while sniping is fun and fairly deep, involving various zoom levels and adjustments for factors like distance, you can also play up close and personal with a variety of secondary weapons and melee take-downs. This is all great fun. I really enjoy taking over enemy bases in Far Cry and it's great here, too, only with lots more sniper gameplay. I also enjoy the bullet-time when you land a perfect headshot. Your bullet swoops and zooms toward the bad guy and you see it plunge through their skull in gory detail, blood spraying as they crumple and fall. You can turn it off if you want.

That's a nice, gory touch, but overall I think the graphics are pretty good. Nothing special, by any means, but not bad either. There's some very pretty moments, but these days good graphics offer diminishing returns. The game runs pretty well on my machine for the most part, bugs aside, with settings cranked to the max. (I run a GTX 1080 GPU alongside an Intel i7-6700k CPU.)

All told, I would have preferred CI Games to focus more on creating great missions and a more polished experience rather than an open-world with expensive cinematics. Then again, I still have a lot of game left. Early impressions can be deceiving. It's entirely possible that the open-world and story will surprise me down the road. I'm just not holding my breath.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 launches today on PC, PS4 and Xbox One. I'd wait for a sale. If you like sniping games, there's plenty to like here. But it's still something I'd hold off buying until the price falls.

I tuck the butt of my rifle into the crook of my shoulder. Pressing my cheek against the stock, I get a good weld to ensure my shot is stable. Remembering my rangefinding, I see that the target it 300 meters away, so I use the silhouette in my scope to compensate for bullet drop, clicking the BDC dial to adjust for the distance. My rifle sports advanced tech, helping me predict where my round will impact, and how the cross breeze will affect the bullet in flight. I take a deep breath, exhale evenly, and dry lung in preparation. Just two pounds of pressure on the trigger, being careful not to jerk, I send my round downrange. Unaware of the danger, my foe never saw the shot.

Ron Burke is the Editor in Chief for Gaming Trend. Currently living in Fort Worth, Texas, Ron is an old-school gamer who enjoys CRPGs, action/adventure, platformers, music games, and has recently gotten into tabletop gaming.

Ron is also a fourth degree black belt, with a Master's rank in Matsumura Seito Shōrin-ryū, Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do, Universal Tang Soo Do Alliance, and International Tang Soo Do Federation. He also holds ranks in several other styles in his search to be a well-rounded fighter.

With only a few hiccups, Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts finds the fine line between action arcade and sniper simulation. While the story might be forgettable, landing the perfect shot from 500 meters away never stops being awesome.

Copyright 2002-2024 GamingTrend. Content appearing on GamingTrend.com is copyrighted by GamingTrend for the express use of our our audience. It may not be reproduced in any form without express written consent.

Seeker is the code name of the playable main character in Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts. He is a mercenary sniper being actively overwatched by Handler during his contracts in Siberia.

Seeker is sent to Siberian Republic by an unknown organization represented by his overseer, Handler, to eliminate the country's Prime Minister Nergui Kurchatov and his closest allies within and outside of his family.

Seeker should not be confused with Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts 2's main character Raven. They are two separate entities and have no connection except being male hireling snipers with American accent.

Seeker is a slim and tall, white male, possibly American due to his accent, of age within the range of a typical active duty soldier. He wears a tactical hooded jacket with the sleeves rolled up, underneath which is a bulletproof vest with MOLLE harness, and a tight garment resembling thermal clothing, which is most visible on his arms - it is made of a special intelligent microfibre which hardens upon damage and allows Seeker's wounds to regenerate easily. He has two epaulets attached to his shoulders with a brown MOLLE harness, and on the left one he has two pockets attached for weapon magazines. The Seeker's face is obscured by a high-tech mask in the shape of a human face, which has no openings for eyes, mouth or nose; the sniper can see everything around him through the built-in cameras and interface. He is also wearing cargo pants.

3a8082e126