Series Sniper: Ghost Warrior from Polish studio CI Games has been out since 2010 and all this time has been in a state of “neither here nor there” – and not a typical Polish shooter from the 2000s, but not an unconditional hit either. Although in any case, along with the Sniper Elite series, it remains the main sniper simulator today. And in Contracts 2 this simulator has become even more complex – for the first time in the series we shoot from such long distances.
Again an American against a dictator
In almost all Ghost Warrior the plot is cranberry – we often fight against evil Russians, and the main characters, naturally, are elite American snipers who, with the help of the most modern weapons, bring democracy, freedom, human rights and other American values to fictional third world countries (or even to real Georgia).
The first Contracts turned out to be especially wild, where the action took place in the Siberian Republic that separated from Russia. In the sequel, in this sense, the degree of tension is much lower – in the role of a professional sniper with the call sign Raven, we must destroy another Middle Eastern dictator and his minions from all over the world, part of a large criminal conglomerate.
The usual tasks are to eliminate the target, turn off the radio towers that are jamming the signal, load a super virus into a super computer, disable the cooling system, rescue and cover a captive journalist, arrange some other sabotage. There are purely sniper missions, and there are, let’s say, mixed ones, where we alternate shooter, stealth and targeted shooting from long distances. Against this background, the cranberry from the original looked brighter or something – there is clearly a lack of non-trivial tasks in the spirit of when you had to find out which of the girl scientists is a clone and which is the real one.
I’m sitting far away – I’ll put everyone down!
Although it’s still not boring. There are only five story missions in the game, but they all take place on large open maps, where there are also side contracts to eliminate particularly important (and unpleasant) targets. Plus, there is a testing system in place – kill two enemies with one shot, destroy five combat vehicles, send five to their forefathers by hitting the fragmentation grenades on their belts, and so on.
But the most important thing https://gasimocasino.co.uk/ is that there is non-linearity in how to destroy the main villains, and therefore replayability. The options, again reflected in the tests, are usually mutually exclusive – quietly hit the target or, conversely, blow it up; kill while riding in the elevator, or use a special ability.
Most often, it is necessary to eliminate from very large distances (from a kilometer or more), without being able to get closer. And the target is either in the building or constantly moving, so passing such tests resembles a puzzle – you need to figure out how to lure or force the person to stop. You can, for example, use targeted shots to destroy communication antennas or a flap that regulates the lift on which the infantry fighting vehicle stands.
Drone to help us
It is also important that changing equipment for a specific contract or test is now allowed directly at the location. And if you haven’t completed the task, then there is always the option to return with new equipment and abilities later.
Contracts, as in the first part, bring money for the purchase of new guns and attachments (silencers, optics, compensators, hybrid sights, etc.), as well as tokens for unlocking new skills.
Abilities are still divided into four branches – “Camouflage and reconnaissance”, “Stealth and stealth”, “Drone and turret”, “Equipment and gadgets”. Yes, we are still free to take a drone with us on a mission, which not only scouts the area, attracts enemies and hacks electronics, but also shoots poison darts.
Plus also proximity sensors, decoy traps, decoy mines, bullets that attract or mark enemies even through walls, and armor-piercing ammunition that pierces the same walls.
Bots for slaughter
All this is designed to make our sniper life easier, which Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, on the one hand, it has really become more complicated. To hit the target from such long distances, when you need to make adjustments for both the wind and the range, when any miss is almost guaranteed to mean that the target will start to run away, the alarm will be raised and dozens of opponents will start firing at us with unprecedented accuracy (and not even from sniper rifles, but from Kalash rifles)!), – this is really not easy.
You either have to practice in order to understand by what principle ballistics operates here (and this is not always clear!), or enable aiming assistance that is not available on the highest difficulty level.
On the other hand, when you get used to it and understand it, the game, on the contrary, may seem easy even on “Liquidator”. You will defeat it almost without the help of drones, turrets and other fancy gadgets. Because AI behavior remains the series’ Achilles’ heel. Yes, enemies can detect, surround, fire and stress. But at the same time, they are often still stupid, do not notice the danger under their noses and go out single file to the sniper, so that their heads burst one after another, like ripe watermelons.
Well, purely technical problems. Opponents (as well as the main character) get stuck in textures. With such AI, the game is still not very interesting as a shooter, despite the fact that they clearly tried to improve this segment of the gameplay.
Yes, the Poles failed to make a perfect sniper simulator in Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2. But work on mistakes is visible to the naked eye. And the appearance of shooting from very long distances and many ways (sometimes very non-trivial) of eliminating targets benefit the gameplay.
Pros: quite addictive sniper gameplay; the appearance of shooting from very long distances; the game looks and sounds great.