Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Sniping games are difficult to get right, the past has shown this, and this is no exception. Lots of flaws, AI can be buggy, the graphics are by no means state of the art, but as a working man coming home, and wanting to vent, this is great. You can easily spend an hour just sniping and having fun progressing. Having said that the game is without doubt violent (especially the slow motion head shot camera) and will surely be the source of the old debate when the game is found in the possession of some serial killer.
Anyway - back to the game... It starts with the lamest practice missions, but they only last 5 minutes, and you are off. The scenery, while basic, looks and feels solid enough, and although you can sink into the odd rock it plays well. Sniping means controlling breathing, and how visible you are. Difficulty is controlled reasonably well and when you are getting into the levels you start to get drawn into the story. Soon you find friend isn't necessarily a friend, and targets are not certainties either. As a sniping game therefore it has what it takes. It is a game I come back to, it is the best sniping game currently available, and that deserves credit. It is not for everyone, but I love playing it. So full marks, even with the odd bug.

I'm not a software guy just someone who likes to boot-up and blaze away with ease. I grew up with Wolfenstein, the Doom trilogy, up to CoD:MW2 etc. but there are so many frustrating / irritating aspects to this game.

AI that is unresponsive (shoot one of two guys talking to each other and the other guy just carries on talking); walking through the environment you get stuck overcoming small rocks / boulders so you end up jumping over them (not very tactical); whilst the atmosphere is generally good there are some "duff" graphics moments; not a huge choice of direction (you have to follow the path set by the game); very limited add-ons for weapons, the list goes on and on.

As others have said it feels as though the developers had a great concept at the beginning (which they did as there are not many sniping-only games) but then rushed to complete the game's development as costs mounted.

To surmise, either (a) save your money, (b) buy the CoD:MW2 update, or (c) let me know and you can have my copy for free.

Generally I enjoy military games and the thought of simulating a military special forces sniper did appeal to me, hence why I bought the game. The simulation of long-range shooting isn't all that bad - the trajectory of the bullet is affected by the user's heart rate, the wind and bullet drop due to gravity. Holding your breath highlights enemies that are visible however your heart rate increases gradually until your breath is released. Not a bad mechanic, but the issue I had with this is that even running a short distance causes our super-solider to be severely out of breath. Not exactly realistic for a highly trained special ops solider.

The graphics of the game are very nice indeed. On maximum settings the engine looks every bit as nice as games based on the latest version of the Unreal and Crysis engines. However, the Chrome 4 engine is very nice but is quite resource hungry and you'll need a fairly up to date PC with a powerful discreet GPU to get the most out of it.

The missions are fairly varied in terms of objectives from covert infiltration, assassination, marking targets for air strikes and stealing information from bases to clearing enemy encampments. There are also occasional portions where you play as a Delta-force assault operative rather than the sniper. This introduces a bit of variety in to the game play, however the problem here is that the delta-force assaulter is equipped only with a bog-standard assault rifle and open sights. Certainly none of the top-quality equipment that can be seen in use in any photos from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Recoil on the standard assault weapon is also massively over-modelled. Automatic fire results in the reticle jerking all over the place in a way that simply isn't realistic. Unfortunately this merely serves to introduce frustration.

It's also very obvious that Sniper - Ghost Warrior is a console port. The engine obviously supports very wide open vistas, yet the game restricts the player's movement in an almost entirely linear manner. You aren't able to explore at all and are restricted to taking the path layed out for you by the level designers. Obviously this was done to conform to the performance available from 5-year old console hardware. This is a great shame because the additional processing power available from most modern PCs just isn't being used in a way that it could have been. Definitely a missed opportunity and a sad illustration of the fact that the PC is definitely the poor relation to consoles when it comes to game design.

All in all this game is fairly good fun with occasional moments of very frustrating game play due to artificial limitations imposes solely due to the game being a console port. I can't comment on multiplater because for some reason the game just won't connect to any servers. Perhaps the publishers or developers have ceased supporting multiplayer servers. Though Sniper Ghost Warrior provides a reasonably lengthy experience that includes an entertaining core mechanic, occasionally poor design, linear nature and lack of proper design for the PC does limit what's available for the PC gamer. Certainly there's very little replay value. All in all this game isn't bad but is a sad illustration of why such games ought to be designed primarily for the PC rather than consoles.

DLC UPDATE:
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The recent addition of the "Unfinished Business" short campaign DLC has improved the game considerably. I'm not completely sure if I'm imagining it but the engine seems to have undergone a welcome tune-up which has significantly improved it's performance on lower-end systems. The add-on campaign focuses solely on sniping (and counter-sniping which was largely absent from the original game). Though Unfinished Business is largely more of the same the AI has improved somewhat, making enemies more believable in their range of reactions and also adds a few new weapons. Nothing ground breaking, but it was a pleasant distraction for a few hours and includes a few tense moments.

In addition to a new campaign there's a new "challenge mode" which seems to comprise of a fairly lengthy guided tour that follows a random route through a very large mission that culminates in a long-range sniper shot. The difficulty level is significantly enhanced due to "challenge mode" operating like the hard difficulty in the normal game - you get very little HUD information and perhaps more significantly no assistance with bullet strike - you have to judge bullet drop and windage on your own. I found this mode difficult but rather rewarding and felt a real sense of achievement when I took out the target at the end of the mission.

A prequisite of the new short campaign are a few new multiplayer maps. Unfortunately I still can't get the game to connect to any servers which is a shame because sniping is an activity that's conspicuously absent from most military games, at least it is when modelled with at least some degree of accuracy as it is here.

All in all I'll add a star to my review score, largely due to the enhanced game engine performance and better AI. The DLC is definitely worth checking out on Steam.