Sniper Ghost Warrior 2
Gameplay - 8
Presentation - 7
Story/Creativity - 6
Lifespan - 6
6.8
Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is a disappointment considering it had a lot of potential to improve much of the original. Most of the issues that were in the first are present here alongside many visual issues. It’s a still a really fun game though if you can forgive a short campaign and barely there multiplayer. The game play stands out by a long way and the budget price eases the pressure on whether to purchase but it’s still a hard sell, but defiantly give it a go.
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There are plenty of hits and misses here in Sniper Ghost Warrior 2. While the central core of the game is fun playing the elite sniper marking enemies with long range shots with extravagant poise, the uninteresting characters, lopsided visuals and cliched but forgivable campaign is sub-par or average at its best.
When the first Sniper Ghost Warrior game made the scenes in 2010, it was a welcome surprise to the world with very few first person tactical games assigning a pure sniper and stealth type role – the noticeable other being Sniper Elite. While the game had mixed opinions across critics, it held a charm and grew a nice player fan base.
Developer City Interactive now have a sequel after many delays, originally scheduled to release in August 2012. Also made with CryEngine 3, so how does it stand? Unfortunately even with all delays Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 looks unfinished, and it’s a shame – because it plays quite well.
Once again you take the role of Private Security Consultant Captain Cole Anderson, an elite sniper with skills like nobody else. Much of the same game style is the same as the first; the focus is entirely on using your best friend to take down enemies from a distance for the most part, with plenty of stealth moments required if Cole wishes to survive the long day.
The idea is to snipe your target without attracting attention, because if you get seen – you can pretty much guarantee your death. The enemy AI is pretty persistent with their ability to notice you if you’re not concealed well, and they will end your life quickly once they do.
When aiming your sniper rifle, they are many fundamentals to follow if you want to hit your mark. Depending on the distance the bullet trajectory will differ off the center; you can’t simply point and shoot your target, unless they are within a close distance.
An assistance tool is present when aiming, which you can calculate by a red dot showing where the bullet will land. However this red mark will only appear on easy difficulty with less assistance on normal and none on hard.
Anderson also has a heart rate monitor throughout each mission, which affects the effectiveness of your aiming if your heart rate is quite high. It rises by moving around and sprinting and lowers when you’re standing or sitting still. To get best results its best to go prone when aiming if possible.
When enemies are alerted to your presence, a red mark will start to circulate around the mini map in the lower left corner. You have a small amount of time you hide yourself, but once it fully encircles around – they’ve noticed you.
At some cases when enemies are too close to comfort, you got a silenced sidearm to help you out. They will be plenty of moments when their backs will be turned where you can perform deadly stealth kills with your trusty knife. Other times you will have no choice but to crawl by relying on your stealthily skills, hoping not to grab any attention.
The plot is very simplistic without much deep involved. A typical evil doer has biological weapons where you along with other companions travel in multiple locations hunting him down. There are a few plot twists along the way, but it’s so basic that it doesn’t have much of an impact.
There are three acts with a few missions in each lasting around a six hour campaign. There is good variety throughout the campaign, whether you’re clearing the path ahead, assisting your comrades down below the cliff or sneaking around due to being outnumbered.
As I mentioned earlier, the CryEngine 3 engine was used for Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 – hoping to emulate visuals similar to the Crysis series. The visuals here though are very inconsistent ranging from atrocious to very good, ultimately it looks unfinished.
The goods are what you can see from a distance. You begin in a lush jungle full of life, with plants, trees surrounding you in every direction, it’s detailed exquisitely. But, once you get up nice and close to some bushes, it turns blurry and the textures look bad. It could be the limitation of the Xbox 360 version that I played, although I recently played Crysis 3 on the same console and these issues weren’t here.
It looks great here but its got visual & glitch issues.
The same applies to much of the environment unfortunately, and while it doesn’t affect the more open areas of the game, the narrow linear ones do. Your sniper buddies face the same fate as well, with some bland looking characters up close.
Your buddies don’t do a lot to help you much either. I remember points during the campaign where they said they would cover me while I did an objective but when I got found they did nothing but watch me die.
The best part is when you occasionally get to see your bullet fly from your rifle towards your chosen target. It looks really cool and defiantly the highlight visual appeal for Sniper Ghost Warrior 2.
There is multiplayer available but its short lasted, with just team deathmatch being the only mode. While it can be fun to play snipe or be sniped it grows old pretty quickly, and while it’s a nice feature to have, it doesn’t have enough to appeal very long.
