| Author | Review |
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Cenrail
161,455
TA Score for this game: 2,379
Posted on 17 July 10 at 10:34, Edited on 05 May 11 at 09:28 |
This review has 45 positive votes and 5 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Release Date: June 29 2010
Developer: City Interactive S.A
Publisher: City Interactive S.A
Singleplayer: yes
Splitscreen: no
Multiplayer: 2-12
[Introduction]
I walk through a field with my M4A1 with red dot sight .There seem to be no enemies today on the tropical island i defend. The field looks peaceful and the sun is shining. On the horizon I see a beach with a couple of trees and bushes. I sit down and light a cigarette. Then…everything becomes black and I see myself going through a tunnel, one of the bushes has shot me between the eyes.
No this is not an incredibly rare form of flora that is armed with a Dragunov sniper rifle but a Ghillie sniper. This is the Sniper Ghost warrior.
[Story 2/5]
In Sniper ghost warrior you walk in the shoes of Marine sniper Tyler wells, a member of an Elite sniper squadron and in the shoes of a member of the Delta squadron. Both characters are infiltrating a country named Isla Truemo, located in Southern America where your mission is to take care of the corrupted dictatorship in this country. Both characters give you a different perspective on the storyline and embrace a different playing style and type of missions. Tyler will be the sneaky sniper that sneaks around and tries to make his kills undetected and from afar where the delta squad is actually a strike force and you will have to pick up assault rifles and go in guns blazing during the missions you play with this squadron. The story is rather cliché and been done before,you infiltrate a country to assasinate some high profile targets, retrieve some data that will prevent yet another group of bad guys from building their personal nuclear bomb and all in all theres not much to the story . The mission briefings never take more than 20 seconds. The missions connect with each other in some way but there is no clear red line. It’s the like the developers came up with a bunch of cool scenario’s and decided to make a story around it. The story is inferior to the scenario’s and because of that the scenario’s seem a bit random , detracting from their quality in a story sense. That is not a necessarily a bad thing but it doesn’t earn you many points on story.
[Graphics& Design 4/5]
The first thing that I notice when I start this game are the amazing graphics. The scenery is absolutely stunning and the nature behaves natural, with grass that is slowly going with the flow of the wind to the sand that will blow up when I land from a small jump from a rock or house. The texturing on my comrades and my enemies is well done and this game almost feels realistic if it wasn’t for the M4A1 that I am carrying during the first few minutes of the tutorial. The gun looks like it’s from a 2007 shooter and as soon as I want to switch it for a far better looking and also far more deadly sniper rifle I find the assault rifle floating in mid air. I am 2 minutes on my way with this experience and the first glitches start to occur. Fortunately this is not a very reoccurring thing. Aside from a few rocks that turn invisible or floating weapons is this game not incredibly glitchy. All in all the beautiful land around you remains impressive and does not get boring, you could play this game simply by walking around and enjoying the scenery. The only flaws in design are the ugly looking assault rifles and some minor things like the grapple hook rope.
[Gameplay 3/5]
Eventually this is what’s it is all about. In Sniper ghost warrior you will have to deal with a realistic ballistics system where gravity, weather and motion have influence on the bullet’s trajectory. This system can cause you to simply miss shots if you try to aim at the head of a target 2 miles away and don’t take these things in account. Your bullet may not even make it halfway. On the easier difficulties you will get the assistance from a red dot that displays where the bullet is actually going to hit. On hard you will get no assistance at all.
The sniping in this game works flawless and it is fun to do. I rarely encounter more rewarding moments than the ones where this game would follow my bullet in slow motion all the way to its final destination, that being the general area between the left and right ear of my enemy.
The assault missions are not really “bad” but they are not up to today’s FPS standards either. That would not be a major deal if it wasn’t for the fact that about 30-40% of the missions are assault missions. There are quite a few assault missions in a game that calls itself a sniper game. The assault missions are well balanced, they occur after a couple of sniping missions and it can be a relief to simply go in guns blazing instead of sneaking around. However because this is a sniping game the assault rifle missions should not put a major stamp on the game. They are on the edge of doing this because those missions take to long to just serve as a variety to the sniping missions.
Stealth is not done properly in this game. Enemies have 3 stages of awareness. Unaware, aware and engaging. Unaware means that they don’t know you are around, you can sneak around freely and play this game how it is meant to be played. When enemies are aware of your presence they will be on the look out, they are highly alert and this is where it goes down the drain with stealth because enemies will be able to see you if you are in their line of sight, no matter how far you are away, how well you are hidden. If you can see them, they can and WILL see you. This becomes worse when you have to mark targets for another sniper with your binoculars. When you mark a wrong target and your fellow sniper executes him while another enemy is being able to see that execution he will not engage that sniper that executed the hostile, instead he will direct his attention to the top of a tree, 2 miles away from the position where my buddy sniper is located and unleash his lead fury on me with pinpoint accuracy. This is a pity because there are plenty of stealth missions where you will find very enjoyable scripted stealth moments like co-op sniping and stealth insertions like we could see in call of duty 4 ( Ghillies in the mist). This makes up for the unnatural good AI in this game, at least to some extend.
If you can work around these flaws the real sniper fan can enjoy mapping an area, observing his enemies and making a strategy that will get him through the fight undetected. All in all, this game requires patience and even tho running through a mission with an assault rifle may turn out succesfully , it will surely cut you on the gameplay experience that the stealth approach gives you. In short, it's not a perfect system and when you don't do it right it will be irritating but what is considered a flaw in the game by me could be considered as a challenge by someone else.
[Multiplayer 3.5/5]
The multiplayer is perfect and exactly what you can expect from a sniper game. Sniper ghost warrior is a slow paced game and it’s not a run and gun and neither is the multiplayer. In the multiplayer you will find yourself in an empty town or general area. Only a fool will think that this town is actually empty, snipers in ghillie suits are sneaking around and it requires the eye of an eagle to spot your enemies. The thrill of having to camp in a certain position because moving is going to be the equivalent of signing your own death sentence is exactly what you expect and want from a sniper game. It’s a matter of spotting before being spotted and where the AI has an unnatural perception and power of sight, human players do not and this flourishes in the game everyone wants Sniper Ghost warrior to be, a field full of Dragunov wielding bushes. Human players do have one ability that AI players don't have in this game A "memory". The multiplayer maps look nice and provide the perfect battleground for cat and mouse games but the spawn locations are limited and in some maps all visible from the more populair sniping positions.
The major disappointment with the multiplayer is that it is small. The multiplayer is a plug&play multiplayer. You log on and you are good to go but that is all there is to it. As it stands there are only a handfull of different maps, there are only 4 different classes. Those 4 classes all happen to be a recon class with a sniper rifle and the difference between those sniper rifles is minimal to non existant. You can gain points but those are only for your leaderboards, there is no ranking system, you can't unlock any weapons camo's or toys for your weapons and this is a pity because even tho the multiplayer is fun , it does not have an appealing structure around it like call of duty. So no pink ghilliesuit camo's when you score 100.000 headshots. Another thing i'd like to point out is that there is there is a radar in the online modes, This radar gives the general direction of your enemies and does cut a bit on camping gameplay because enemies will have a vague understanding of where you are holding up. You will have to remain hidden and don't expose yourself to openly in order to avoid getting spotted. This could be considered as a flaw in the game and at first i felt it was one but you make approximatly between 5 and 15 kills in a match and this is not a lot for matches that can take about 20 minutes. The radar makes sure that those 20 minutes won't pass without anyone scoring any kills since the Camouflage players have on them is actually a decent set.
[Conclusion]
Sniper Ghost warrior is a game that has its flaws . The singleplayer campaign is good for about 7 or 8 hours of gameplay and has some truely enjoyable moments to offer to every sniper fan on the planet once you learn how this game works.The AI of your enemy will remain to be the most irritating factor in this game and grind your gears a bit. The multiplayer is a true gem even tho it may prove to be difficult for newer players.
Sniper Ghost warrior is a game that is being sold for $40 or €40 and it's worth that money. Why not the usual $60? It is up for debate but this game would easily get away with being $60 dollars as a release price and my guess is that this is because the developer is quite unkown and the game is not exactly something you should compare to the large A-titles. A goldfish among treyarch sharks. This game shows that even a goldfish can show some teeth.
[Achievements]
I will split this category in 2 sub sections. The singleplayer and the multiplayer achievements.
The Singleplayer achievements are pretty much the standard set of achievements that you will find in any game. 19 of the 24 achievements are singleplayer achievements and most of them are obtained by playing through the story once. There are the level achievements and the achievements you get for finishing the game on certain difficulties ( these achievements are stackable). There are some additional achievements that require you to do certain other things like shooting powercable lines and birds. These achievements can be earned easily if you put your mind to it. There is also a collectible achievement and this is pretty much the more annoying singleplayer achievement because the numbers of the collectibles in the "collectible menu" does not correspond with the order you find them ( collectible 30 might appear in the 2nd level while number 2 appears in the last mission for example <--fictional example). You get a notification how many collectibles you picked up after every mission. It's best to write them down or use a guide from the very first minute.
There are 5 multiplayer Achievements. 4 of them require you to have a specific amount of kills with particular weapons, the other 1 requires you to win 50 online ranked matches. These achievements are not hard but time consuming. You'le suffer from low online population and the nature of this game doesn't let you rack up games as fast in run&gun shooters. Getting the online achievements legitimate will require you to play the multiplayer rather intensively for 2 weeks - 2 months ( depending on your skill). Picking these achievements up will not be hard in the beginning but eventually you'le reach the point where you have to cross a big gap between the achievements and this will start to feel like a grind. None of the Achievements is unobtainable although it appears that this game has several achievements that have a relatively high chance of glitching.
Estimated time for completing without boosting: 80 hours
(Average player gets 8 kills per 20 min match. 8x3=24 a hour
2000:24=83.33 hours. Becoming better in this game will increase your amount of kills per hour but you also have to add the singleplayer to this which is approximatly 8 hours)
If you have any questions, suggestions or concerns. Please post them in the comments section and i will try to anwser them to the best of my abilities.
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MingledFoot
55,880
TA Score for this game: 648
Posted on 27 July 10 at 14:18, Edited on 08 October 10 at 17:38 |
This review has 15 positive votes and 15 negative votes. Please log in to vote. |
Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a FPS, with something very special. Ballistic trajectories. I wish that was the only thing that was special about it, but unfortunately, not.
My first complaint with the game is the lack of true sniper platforms in the game. While I enjoy shooting the MSG 90, it remains that two of the weapons are marksman weapons, and one is an anti-material rifle. While as much as I would have liked to have seen such odd calibres as the .408 CheyTac and .416 Barrett, even the addition of bolt action Accuracy International rifles would have brought this game up a notch.
The second issue I have with the game is in level design. I believe this game was designed by people who have no knowledge of what it is to be a sniper. If it was about being an infantry sniper, then I can see what they were trying to do, in spirit. In being a slightly more specialised sniper, ie a Marine Scout Sniper, I believe they have failed. If the levels were far more open, and in some cases target accquisition easier, it wouldn't have lost a few marks.
The final complaint I have is the Ai is just too smart of the time. Not only are they able to see you, they are able to engage you, accurately, with rifle fire at ranges that only a marksman could conceiveable work at. Every single one of them. Now I would have appreciated some stealth aspects that are difficult, but failing a mission for one detection is a little hard to justify in the modern genre and market.
What this game does right is sound. Each weapon has a unique sound, and if you know what to listen for you can tell your weapons apart. The 7.62 weapons have that sharp crack that they need to have, the the AS 50 is a beast with a mighty roar. Suppressed weapons sound like it, though I believe they could be a touch louder without loosing anything. Music is acceptable, it's no Zimmer piece, but it does the job.
Environment is well done, but this leads onto the remaining issue I have with the game. The engine is brilliant for ballistics, but not so for movement. There have been a few times I've been stuck on terrain, and unable to move in a way I would have thought I should of. While it's not a game breaker, it is something which is an annoyance, and does break my focus.
While I would have appreciated a true sniper only game, it would be effectively impossible to complete due to the focus required. The interspacing of levels of a run and gun game bring the game to a wider audience and provide a break from the complex nature of shooting. Another element I would have appreciated would be to look at some modern sights and have those on the M4, while not to the degree of MW 2 or a similar title, still for CQC a properly equipped M4/M4A1 would have kept my interest more than a base platform.
Finally, the story, if you know the demo, then you know the 'twist' in it. To be honest, it's the usual psuedo military shooter fare. It's not one you think about, and it's not one that leaves you going 'wow' at the end. It works to a point, and if you're focsued on your shooting then you're not focused on how bad the story is.
Ideally, if the game had a few more months in development, then it could have shown Medal of Honour and Call of Duty what a good shooter is. Not only in weapons, but in engine as well. Perhaps in that time they could have added a few elements I feel could bring the game up to a level MoH and CoD only dream of achieveing, but I must review what is in front of me.
The final question, is it fun? It is, if you want to challenge yourself, learn the weapons then try Hard mode without completeing the lower difficulties. I plan to try shortly.
Part 2,
I would like to continue this for a little. As I have now completed the game I feel I can better give a reason for my views on the game. Through all of the levels, I felt like I was meant to shoot people at range, and not properly engage as a sniper. This feeling was only amplified by the final shot, which took all of three seconds to aim, and pull the trigger. In all this game has disappointed on too many levels for it to be a keeper. Rent this one guys, or buy second hand.
If you want a good sniper experience, try Sniper Elite: Berlin 1945. Graphics may not be the best, but the shooting was significantly better.
As a final aside, for all of those who want the technical aspects, this game also encourages the idea that you shoot for the head. You try hitting a watermelon size target at 300+ metres, difficult. That's why you aim for the torso. It's a bigger target.
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