Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Review
Game Emblems
The Good
This game is a lot fun for people who enjoy sniping in every other FPS game. But it lacks in terms of upgrades & MP.
Satisfying stealth and shooting make Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 a notable improvement over its predecessor.
The Good
- Great enemy AI presents a real challenge
- Mostly realistic stealth mechanics
- Well-balanced difficulty settings
- Atmospheric presentation ramps up the intensity.
The Bad
- Checkpoints are too spread out
- Some level design quirks
- Multiplayer is an afterthought.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is a superior shooter when compared to its predecessor. Granted, that isn't saying much. Said predecessor suffered from terrible artificial intelligence, absurd bullet physics, and an overall level of difficulty on par with solving a Rubik's Cube while navigating white-water rapids blindfolded. This time around, however, developer City Interactive has addressed virtually all of the sore points that made the earlier game miss as often as it hit. This is an accomplished stealthy shooter, with smarter enemy AI, more-realistic sniper physics, and scaled-down difficulty that provide a challenging, not maddening, sniping experience. Only miscues like the spread-out save checkpoints and throwaway multiplayer keep it from achieving greatness.
Most of your time with Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 will be spent with the three-part campaign. You play as Cole, a special-ops sniper helping out assault teams in hot zones ranging from the Philippines to Sarajevo to Nepal. You come to care for Cole and his buddies through this seven- to eight-hour saga of betrayal and revenge that begins today, bounces back to 1993 for a look at the civil war that ravaged the former Yugoslavia, and then jumps to the present to wrap everything up along the border between Nepal and India.
A well-written, well-acted script give the game a great action-movie vibe, as do authentic-looking visuals and animations powered by the CryEngine 3. Excellent sound effects do a wonderful job of pulling you in. Weapon noises, the shouts of enemy voices, the far-off rattle of weapon fire in war-torn Sarajevo, and various atmospheric sounds like the background hum of the Philippine jungle are all handled extremely well and enhance the tension as you line up each careful shot.
The presentation isn't the only thing that excels in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2. Almost every aspect of the first game has been refined for this sequel. Enemy AI is much more cunning now. Where bad guys tended to run around mindlessly and freeze in place before, now they smartly respond to fire by taking cover. Foes react like real soldiers. First they hunker down so they don't get their heads blown off. Then they peek out to look for who is shooting at them. And then they return fire appropriately or rush your position, which makes firefights feel natural rather than staged.
If you've got a good spot on high ground against a small number of enemies, the baddies generally grab cover and snipe back. But if you're in a more vulnerable position, or are taking on a large number of foes, you can expect to be rushed and shot down like a dog. Either way, you need to be patient. Enemies sit back and wait you out at times. If you get antsy and leave cover, they generally make you pay for it.
Shooting is also much more enjoyable, whether you're using a mouse-and-keyboard setup or a gamepad. In the earlier game, bullet drops were extreme, slight winds significantly affected shots, and your heart rate caused the scope to carom all over the place. Here, the physics here are just right. As a result, it's easier to gauge shots on your own without relying on the little red dot showing shot location that's offered in the lower two difficulty settings. Now you can play on the advanced setting and feel as though you are lining up shots like a real sniping pro. Before, shooting without the interface aid felt like guesswork.
Gamepad controls deserve a mention for being easy to use, too. Playing on the consoles is a little more challenging than on the PC, due to the superior accuracy of a mouse. But it isn't that much more difficult, because you have fine control over scope movement even with the right stick. It's only a little annoying when shooting right after running, since your speedy heart rate bounces the scope around so much that it seems like you're atop a mechanical bull.
107 comments
2 Like wow lots of you taking this game stick up the ass level serious. im having fun with this game becuae i installed it with the mind set of, idc i just want to empty a few melons out at long range. and its fun. i dont know about terrific voice acting, but FAR from phoning it in. AI isnt too much of a shooting gallery; some will wait and\or look for you. some have night vision and WILL use it. you can hide in the bushes if you dont move a muscle and go prone and they will walk riiiight past you. and yes, i feel badass at times, although getting the fuck out of Sarajevo is taking way too long for for a badass sniper imo lol. it is what it is, go for it if youre not in an 'epic GOTY' mood. 7.0-7.5
2 Like i picked this game up for £10 after using some points on my card from game. £15 on PC normally. Its NOT a AAA title, its not supposed to be and because of that this game is pretty good for that price.
2 Like I really have enjoyed this game people seem to think its meant to be a AAA title its a budget title guys take it as it is the game costs £24 in the UK its a bargain
More reviews with similar scores:
7/10, http://www.godisageek.com/2013/03/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review/
6.5 http://gamingbolt.com/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review
3.75/5 (7.5?) http://irbgamer.com/2013/03/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review-bullseye/
7/10 http://playturn.com/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review.html
6 Like "Multiplayer is an afterthought."
That's not a bad thing, sick of games relying too much on multiplayer, I buy a game so that it will entertain me, I don't buy a game to make my own entertainment.
1 Like @stev69 I like the multiplayer because it's slow and methodical. It's a very nice change of pace. Including only two maps and one mode however, is sloppy at best. To be fair, Sniper Elite didn't' patch in competitive multiplayer until six months after launch.
Sniper Elite is better. Even though I really don't like the slow mo of the umm... male nether regions being you know, I think the shooting is just... better in that and I prefer a good WWII setting over a tropical jungle.
is it just me? or do they speak Arabic with an american accent? (the timing of the words isn't right, and they don't speak "naturally", the words don't flow like they should)
1 Like @youngzen69 @ShadowRun02 it just sounds wierd, and somehow GS gave this game the "terrific voice acting" medal.
just pointing out some other flaws in the game :P
@ShadowRun02 I don't know about Arabic, but guys speaking Bosnian during Sarajevo missions clearly have no idea what they are speaking about (i.e. they seem to be American voice actors reading from a piece of paper without actually understanding a word of it). Accent and inflection are wrong too.
While it is clear that they have researched Sarajevo architecture, buildings are placed wrong. Few examples: fountain in front of the railway station never existed (reminds me of the Leningrad crocodile fountain), also a skyscraper building you can see in the distance on the same level - Bosmal City Center - is placed in the wrong position. It should be behind the player as they enter that part of the level. What players could have seen is Avaz Twist Tower, but there is a snag; neither of these buildings existed in 1993.
There is another thing wrong with the story: Croatian air force over Sarajevo! In 1993, no less! They were never anywhere near that part of Bosnia, and in 1993-1994. there was a three way conflict between Bosnian Government armed forces, Serbian paramilitaries, and Croatian Army. One last thing, parts of the city where the game takes place were actually free territory, so our sniper team wouldn't actually need to fight anyone in that particular part of the city.
@dark_sith_ @ShadowRun02 Eee-gads, incorrect building placement in real locales, fictional environments loosely based on actual places, and hypothetical situations generated from non-existent realities? May God have mercy on us all.
1 Like strange... Gamespot's reviews are usually 10 points below metacritic score. Seems like paid review. I've played this game and can confirm it's a POS.
I just love the fact(sarcasm) that the reviewer calls the AI for smart when you can clearly see in the video that they are dum as f*ck.
1 Like @netnerd85 You see them peak up from cover in a very stupid way. You see AI's getting shot while their companions just stare at it doing nothing.
@Cheapjokekiller @netnerd85 The AI did look poor, (01:43) in one instance you can clearly see soldiers under fire, with half their body exposed "peeking" over the top of cover, for an extended period of time. No soldier (or human) would ever do that, ridiculous.
More challenging to hit the pins in bowling.
1 Like Paid Review - how clear is that. Or reviewer is a moron. Played this game - it's complete crap.
5 Like @effendi360 yea let's trust the guy who gave Metal Gear 4 a 1.0 and F.e.a.r. 3 a 10.0
I thought GS was getting tough with there reviews but when this gets a 7 here and has a metacritic socre of 56, I was thinking a 5 or something for this game since it's a major flop everywhere
@Supabul you need to look around, a lot more places are giving it a higher score, not just GS - metacritic don't show every review
@Supabul there are some major differences between GS's review and IGN's , for example : IGN says the AI is stupid and the difficulty settings are waaay too easy
Heh wait how can lack of check point be a bad thing.. so the game is hard and you cant save every 2 seconds.. I think that would actually knock it up a ponit for me..
Not played the game so cant really comment on anything else but it just seemed pretty odd that it got marked down for this..
@Bexorcist @Caldrin haha.. but making games too easy jsut makes them boring as you can run through them without thinking.. now if you ahve to stop and think before running and shooting at everything thats a good thing :)
@Caldrin @Bexorcist you are right Caldrin - I was so bored while playing Crysis 2 and 3... a good game but way to easy
1 Like @Caldrin @Bexorcist Well, you don't have to save if you don't want to, my immortal FPS champion <3
2 Like Great review! I agree with the score. Game is not as bad as some COD lovers show it to be
It seams like all the recent video reviews are people standing in for someone else, nothing wrong with that, just made me smile.
@SpazldNinjaDude Brett Todd, (the written review) has been a Ganespot freelancer for a long time. Freelancers don't do the video reviews. They have Gamespot staff do them for them.
@ChiefFreeman @SpazldNinjaDude Yer I know, it's just weird how all the recent video reviews I have watched have been people standing in, it was Cam (for GSUK) standing in for Mark they both are full time, and both have done video reviews, ok this on is different, but not all of them are Freelancers being stepped in for. I know Freelancers don't do the videos, but...oh don't worry you get my point, right?
4 Like I don't see this game as superior to the first one, somehow it's even worse. I'm not questioning Brett's overall analysis, but there are some strange acclaims. Terrific voice acting badge, although he barely mentiones any voice talents? The voices are decent at best, the characters as flat and non-interesting as a post-it note. I'm glad you cared for the people you mention, Brett, don't get me wrong. The environments look awesome, I'll give them that, they used CryEngine 3 this time around, although at close all textures are awful. Animations are stiff and awkward, even in the cutscenes (what they call cutscenes). For what I've played, I don't think there is much of a story and the story is by far not well-written or well-acted. I'm starting to question if I even played the same game as Brett. Yeah, the shooting is okay, sniping is always fun and the AI is thoroughly improved over the first game, but that's all the praise it gets from me. I'm sorry I can't be in your band of jolly good people, people, but the guys at CI are just plain talentless.
@xsonicchaos I disagree, but you are entitled to your opinion and it is very valid, all I care about in this game is that the AI is better, and the shooting is better, the rest does not matter to me, all I want to do is snipe. So I thank you for making 100% sense, and not just saying "YOUR WRONG YOU SUCK!" (I put your on purpose cause people grammar it up wrong (and that was on purpose too)). So again thank you for being a good human-internet-being. I like your comment because you really explain what you said...I think I said that 5 times already.....CI are alright, they a new and need time to work out what they are doing fully, their games at least work out the box, unlike the mega publishers ones. Ok the MP is a bit laggy, but not as bad as say CoD, or (even if I love it) Halo 4 was at launch, it got fixed in like 2 days, but still. Anyway, thanks...and all that stuff I said 100 times, and keep being a good human-internet-being.
Great to see Brett Todd giving some praise to an awesome game, plenty of DLC/patches for S:GW2 on the way, first up is free MP maps/mode then it's DirectX11 support apparently
1 Like @netnerd85 Are you paid by the publisher or something? It's accepted across the net that the game is bad and here you are fooling people into thinking it's brilliant thus parting them with their hard earned cash? Shame on you.
@ACWH @netnerd85 go read the steam forums you, read the comments here, read the review, go search the internet, god you're full of it. Shame on you for being so pathetically immature. Grow up.
@ACWH@netnerd85Oh grow up you cherry picker:
7/10, http://www.godisageek.com/2013/03/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review/
6.5 http://gamingbolt.com/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review
3.75/5 (7.5?) http://irbgamer.com/2013/03/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review-bullseye/
7/10 http://playturn.com/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review.html
@netnerd85 @ACWH 2 things, 1 just because lots of people say something doesn't mean it's true for everyone, 2 we are allowed to say something is good, even if we are the only one, why? Because we can. The AI is ok, much better than in the first, the game looks decent, doesn't need to be redefining standards, the shooting is epic! The rest, yer, story crap, VA meh, characters meh. But the game in terms of gameplay is good. Which is all I want, and I'm sure ACWH does (or did) too. Ok, now for the part I say, if you don't like it, ok not gunna say you're wrong, cause you're not.
http://www.oxm.co.uk/51216/reviews/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review/
http://www.videogamer.com/reviews/sniper_ghost_warrior_2_review.html
http://www.gamesreviews.com/xbox360/xbox360-reviews/03/sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review/
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2013-03-20-sniper-ghost-warrior-2-review
Now stop talking crap, your making yourself look silly.
Conversation powered by Livefyre
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 Navigation
