Heading deep into the civil war that’s raging in Georgia, US Marine Captain Jon North isn’t really concerned with bringing the conflict to a close, he’s not really doing this on the orders of the US military, he’s searching for his brother. Admittedly, it seems as though his brother’s branched off from following the straight and narrow, but it brings a more personal slant to the story of this sniping game.
Of course, one of the big talking points with this game is how it’s taking the series into an open world setting, doing away with the linear mission structure, in favour of letting you choose when to tackle main and side missions, then having you set off to get to that location yourself, scout the area and choose your plan of attack.
If there’s one thing I do wonder about, it’s the amount of content outside of the core missions you choose to go on. With only a few hours to try and explore the game, I naturally focussed on the story as opposed to wandering off the beaten path too much, especially with the GPS leading me to where I needed to go, however the world map is littered with red flags for enemy outposts and little question marks, which indicate that there’s something there to explore. These can be little scenarios, such as rescuing a hostage civilian – I bungled my first rescue attempt so very, very badly – or little secrets and collectibles to discover.
The meat of the content lies with the towns, villages, industrial complexes, warehouses and more that dot the landscape, and each of these little hubs of enemy activity have multiple ways to take them on. At its simplest, you can find a nice spot that overlooks it all and snipe away – you’ll probably want to use a silencer and pick them off quietly to start – or you can head into the area and get up close and personal with a silenced pistol. Do you head in through the front door? Do you try and find the sewers and find your way into the middle of the village or camp?
That open world, more freeform design necessitates that two key new features come to the fore. The lesser of these is the Scout Mode, which lets you spot climbable ledges on rock faces, spot footprints and vehicle tracks in the dirt, and so on. More prominent is the little drone that can be thrown up into the sky to spot and mark enemies.
It’s a wobbly little thing and rather tricky to control with any degree of finesse, but it gets the job done. Early on, without many upgrades applied, it’s actually surprising how easily it’s spotted by the enemy, sending them on full alert and making them wary of your presence once they’ve shot your little drone out of the sky. Thankfully, it’s one of many things that can be upgraded as you play through the story and earn cash to do so. Equip it with more camo and sound dampening, upgrade it so it can hack generators and knock the power out or cause a little audio distraction to draw enemy guards away.
While it’s useful to have spotted every enemy when trying to snipe from afar, it’s all the more important if you make use of the game’s improved stealth action aspects. You can much better head right into the heart of an enemy occupied village, train yard, or whatever and sneak your way through the patrols, taking them out one at a time with a silenced pistol and melee. Similarly, if you kit yourself out with enough body armour, you can wade in with a shotgun, perhaps hunkering down in a building and drawing the enemy towards you.
I actually found the game surprisingly challenging at times, with my stealthier approach falling apart quite quickly, whether it was the drone getting spotted or my attempts to get through without taking out all of the enemies in a methodical fashion. Being able to fight your way out of a bad situation works well, but you’re not an action film hero, and I died numerous times.
Though Jon can’t wade into a fight with a mini-gun, what little story moments I saw do hark back to the good old days of 80s and 90s action films. One of the characters you fight alongside, Sian, is a buxom redhead decked out in a black corset top and leather, which is a little jarringly out of step with contemporary character design. It’s also no surprise that the corrupt government official you end up capturing and interrogating ends up being a snivelling weasel of a character. To be fair, Sian does stab him through the hand with a knife.
Since last we saw it, the game has come on leaps and bounds in terms of optimisation. We previously saw the game running on PC and struggling to hold a steady frame rate, as recently as two months ago with the closed beta test. The delay to the game that pushed it back to release on 25th April was definitely worth it, and it now runs very nicely on PlayStation 4. CryEngine does a great job of bringing this open world to life, and while the frame rate isn’t quite perfect yet, it’s pretty smooth and looks fantastic. The lighting in particular is a highlight of this game.
With so many blockbuster open world games on the market right now, it could be difficult for Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 to stand out from the crowd. Then again, that might be looking at it from the wrong perspective, since I really can’t think of another fully open world sniper game such as this. There’s nothing else that really drops you in as a lone sniper behind enemy lines and tells you to get on with it.
bennibop
‘Ghost Warrior 3 to stand out from the crowd. Then again, that might be looking at it from the wrong perspective, since I really can’t think of another fully open world sniper game such as this. ‘
Does Sniper Elite 3/4 not do this?
Stefan L
Sniper Elite isn’t open world. The levels are large and freeform, but they’re distinct and separate levels.
To be honest, both series are doing a better job of tickling this broader style of sniper play.