Thread: Sniper: Ghost Warrior

Sniper Ghost Warrior (GW) is a FPS developed and published by City Interactive for the Xbox 360 and PC.



In GW, the US supported Island of Isla Trueno is taken over by a military regime. As it's inhabitants are now under hostile control and even being murdered, a small, highly trained elite team is sent in to quietly help it's citizens to eliminate the dictatorship and restore peace to the region. This is the bread and butter of the story, it does turn into a little bit more.

In every FPS every gamer at one point or another became a bit of a sniper. In many multplayer games there's always the pain-in-the-ass guy fighting from way far up out of the way, taking out as many players as he can before he's grenaded out of his position and fleeing in the open, where the heavy fire will take him down quickly.

Remember the mission 'All Gullied Up' from Call of Duty- Moden Warfare? Apparently City Interactive based nearly an entire game out of that. It also combines some gameplay found in 2005's Sniper Elite, another fantastic sleeper of a game.

The one thing that will pop out immediately in GW is that overall the environs in the game looks pretty-damned spectacular. This may be one of the best looking budget games Ive ever seen. The jungles on the island are lush and at least seem full of life. The character models are pretty good, they couldve been better but not complaint worthy.

One of my biggest gripes with the graphics is that the shadows look awful, they're so choppy. It's not too big of a deal, but the jungles look so good and then you're snapped back into the reality of mediocrity with terrible shadow effects.



The Sniping missions make you take into account gravity, wind conditions and weather, so you wont be just lining up your shots as in typical FPSs. There's an aim assist on your scope when youre playing on easy difficulty to help you target, otherwise you have to figure out bulletdrop and other conditions for yourself via a gauge. I dont think it alters the overall difficuly of the game, which can be merciless at times.

There's an animation of your bullets in-flight for the distance headshots as they hit their targets. I thought these scenes would be glitchy and they're not. They're pretty good, but they get old fast.

You're also armed with some other items, like throwing knives and a grappling hook to reach areas. The grappling hook is only good on a select few surfaces, and I thought they coulve expanded on this, even a little.

One big problem is areas you think are accessible are not. I many times sought out the perfect sniping spot only to realize I couldnt even get there. I found this frustrating, seeking that ever-elusive perch and it wasnt there at all. Too many invisible walls and rock piles that obstruct your path is annoying.

You have a radar map in the corner of the screen, but most enemies only appear after you've spotted them. Another thing is the traditional health and lack of an overshield, which I like.

If you arent careful with your movement (such as moving silently while their backs arent turned), your targets will spot you from what seems like a mile away. Your sniper rifle and silenced pistol arent exactly equipped to take on waves of enemies, and getting back into cover isnt too easy.

The sniping missions take time and youll have to complete those missions in near perfection to advance through the game.

Besides the sniping missions and seek and destroy targets, there's also some standard FPS run and gun sequences that break up the slow, tense sniper missions. They arent terrible by any stretch, but these missions are extremely generic and seem tacked on. They work though.

There's also 12 person multiplayer over 6 maps.

If you lack the patience after a steady diet of CoD or Halo, GW may not be for you. The enemy AI can be tough and the diffculty sometimes merciless and some sniping missions may seem nearly impossible. But with the low $40 price tag, GW may be worth a look if youre a FPS fan. It's far from perfect but it does do a lot right and each kill feels like a small accomplishment. Definitely worth the price when budget games are usually trash.

6.5

Rated M for Mature - Blood, violence, strong language, use of drugs

I am really enjoying the hell out of this game.

I think I was very fair with my overall summary and review, and besides a few flaws as I noted the game is great fun. The few issues it had prevented me from rating it higher, but I am enjoying the game more and more as I get further and further.

I cant understand why it was hammered so badly by sites like IGN, Gamespot and many others. Sure it has a couple of issues, but it doesnt detract from the overall game at all, which throws even a few big plot twists your way.

I have played many awful, dreadful, far worse FPSs that were FULL PRICED GAMES.

Turning Point
Blacksite
Hour of Victory
Haze
Secret Service was a budget FPS and it sucked majorly.

To name a few... and these were right off the top.

I think these sites have had far too much CoD and Halo and expect every game to play like that and show that high level of polish and fluidity.

Definitely worth the low $40 price tag and can be a steal when it enters bargain bins in 3 months. Just dont expect CoD MW2 and youll have a lot of fun here.

EDIT- Worst ending EVER. I though Soldier of Fortune II had a bad ending but this one sucked. Sure there is a sub-ending the mission before the final mission, but what a disgrace. Still, plenty of action for a $40 shooter. I can still recommend it.