Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3
One shot, two kills
Developer CI Games publisher CI Games price $ 49.99 AvAilAble At steam sniperghostwarrior3.com
There is something alluring about sniping in games if you have the patience for it. Lining up the perfect shot, making incremental adjustments to account for distance and weather and then finally pulling the trigger for a clean kill is a great feeling, and one that many games have done well over the years. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 handles sniping very well. Taking aim, slowing down time (or holding your breath if you want to use the in-game terminology), making any adjustments demanded by difficulty (as the difficulty gets higher so do the requirements for lining up a shot) and then making your kill is extremely satisfying and well handled. Unfortunately, pretty much everything else in the game is either average or lacklustre.
The previous two games in the series were criticised for being crushingly linear, so this time around Polish developer CI Games has instead brought the game into an open world - a separatist held Georgia. Looking at the travel, the map and the way mission objectives, secondary objectives and collectibles are distributed around the area you could be forgiven for thinking that the game was an expansion for Ghost Recon: Wildlands, with the Ghosts heading to Georgia after cleaning up Bolivia. Happily, Ghost Warrior 3 actually handles the scale of the levels better than Wildlands did, mostly thanks to the nature of the action. Sniping is about finding a good vantage point, taking a few shots and then strategically redeploying to somewhere else before the enemy can pinpoint your location. In this manner the scale of Georgia works extremely well. On a technical level
as good as the sniping can be, CI Games seems determined to sideline the game’s main appeal
it’s something of a mess though, with unstable framerates, texture pop in and extremely long load times when starting a game or moving to a new area.
As good as the sniping can be, CI Games seems determined to sideline the main appeal of the game in a number of missions, either taking away the sniper rifle entirely, or placing the action in confines too close for sniping to be used. The stealth and shooting mechanics of the game are simple and usable but uninspired, and, although these missions and other forms of gameplay do change up the action, they highlight that other games do stealth action or straight up shooting much better. Killing enemies through sniping, stealth melee kills and through regular gun battles affords experience to spend on skill upgrades, but none of the upgrades feel particularly necessary or impactful. Likewise, although new weapons are available throughout the game, the starting sniper rifle is capable of carrying you to the end.
Ghost Warrior 3 isn’t terrible. When sniping works well it’s some of the best long distance gunplay available on PC, but unfortunately there are too many flaws, glitches and just outright questionable design decisions to make it a good game overall. Add to that the entirely missing but advertised/ promised multiplayer and you have a game that manages to both outstay its welcome and deny any possibility of longevity. TAVISH FORREST