SNIPER GHOST WARRIOR CONTRACTS
They’ve gun and done it again
Although the title looks like somebody dropped a handful of nouns on the floor, the use of the word ‘contracts’ rather than the number ‘four’ is telling. All credit to CI Games, it’s taken criticisms of the previous title on board, and tried to use them to sharpen the latest entry in the series. Tried.
In an effort to give you more variety and choice, linear missions have been replaced by open maps. Each contains a series of objectives that you can complete in any order, as well as a bunch of optional challenges and bounty targets. This makes a welcome change, and having to make it back to an extraction point to officially complete a task adds an extra element of risk. However, your drone is inexplicably absent from this game, which makes marking enemies a chore (and dying within seconds when caught therefore more frustrating). You’ll either love or hate the scope overhaul, which makes targeting at a distance much easier, and the magic mask that highlights elements of the environment seems a bit out of place; as, arguably, does the upgrade system. 1
While making a tricky headshot is always satisfying, the environments, enemies, tasks, and plot simply don’t grab your attention in the way they need to. It doesn’t help that the dull enemy dialogue, where present, has a tendency to loop if you linger nearby. AI is greatly improved from the last game, but there are still line-of-sight issues. Ultimately, the experience doesn’t have the tension of Sniper Elite, nor the ingeniousness or replayability of Hitman. 2 Sadly, SGWC misses its mark.