If you were slightly dubious as to the playability of Sniper Ghost Warrior no one could blame you. The earlier release of this game to Xbox 360 and PC was fraught with numerous bugs that made the title all but unplayable! Of course a lot of these kinks have been ironed out for the PS3 release, leaving us with a game that is enjoyable, good value for money and that features only occasional bugs, rather than constant ones. The AI has been tweaked, new content has been included and some of the impossible assault missions have been removed, all based on feedback from the community. As such, this should be an excellent and highly playable game, but unfortunately even with the improvements it still isn’t everything that we could want from a sniper game.
Storyline
Sniper Ghost Warrior is set on the fictional South American island nation of Isla Trueno, an island currently under a tyrannical rule. You will play a marine sniper who goes by the name of Sgt. Tyler Wells, and your role is essentially to delve into the jungles of this land to pick off the dictator’s soldiers, one at a time. In aiding the rebel forces the hope is that you can help to overthrow the government and restore peace to the beautiful land.
Gameplay
This isn’t a game in which you can run into an environment, guns blazing, and take out everything that moves with your submachine gun. You will need to carefully consider every action and every target. This is a strategic game and, as such, requires a little patience to get right. Stick with it though and you’ll soon find yourself immersed in the world around you and your own strategy; it’s highly addictive.
An assortment of sniper rifles including the AS50 and MSG90 should keep everyone happy, especially when these fearsome weapons are teamed with the slow-motion Bullet Cam Mode. With time slowed to a crawl you’ll be able to watch the bullet leave your rifle and make its way toward the target, finally hitting and annihilating your opponent. There’s not much more satisfying than that in the world of sniper games!
The game’s simple controls mean it won’t take long for you to be enjoying the action, and with AI of a reasonable intelligence and a range of different skill levels, anyone should be able to jump into this title.
Graphics
The environment with which you will be presented in Sniper Ghost Warrior is truly spectacular at times. Lush and fertile jungle scenery is well created and rendered, and provides an absolutely perfect environment for a sniper game. There’s many a bush to hide behind, as well as rocks and even holes in the ground that can be used to your advantage as you pick off your targets.
It’s a shame that there are still many invisible walls that could stop you from reaching the position that you wish to reach, and occasional dramatic dips in frame-rate that make playing the game difficult.
Conclusion
Sniper Ghost Warrior is a beautiful game packed with potential. The fixes made to the previous versions of the game have certainly improved things, and have made the PS3 version of the title the best around. Unfortunately the bugs that do still exist will hamper the enjoyment of your gameplay, but if you can look past them there is still plenty of enjoyment to be had here.