I never played the original Sniper: Ghost Warrior, though my reasons are more due to personal taste rather than anything negative I’d heard about the game. As you can probably establish from the title, you spend the majority of your time picking off targets with a sniper rifle, and while that’s all well and good, I prefer the more run and gun style of FPS gameplay. That said, I did get some hands on time with Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 and it was quite entertaining.
At the beginning of the demo, you’re in a jungle area with an A.I. partner, which I’m going to assume is near the start of the game, on account of the tutorial-like instructions I was given. As the game teaches you the controls and gets you accustomed to the whole sniping bit, you are tasked with picking off targets one by one so that you may approach without being detected. Despite the typical gun sway that comes with trying to aim a sniper rifle, these early areas weren’t too difficult, and we found ourselves sneaking through a building.
From here, the game introduces you to its version of silent takedowns, where you can creep up on an enemy and get a quiet kill without any of his comrades noticing. My computer controlled partner was far more efficient at this than I was, quickly dispatching foes before I even had a chance to learn what the button combination was to perform this. The following segments required me to pick off more enemies in a building, crawl under a train, and try to advance behind enemy lines before I was accidentally discovered and subsequently dealt with. That last part was not a scripted event, I just screwed up.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 also uses the CryEngine 3, so it’s impressive looking on a graphical level and will boast multiplayer modes in addition to the single player campaign. You’ll be given gear such as night vision goggles as well as weaponry modeled after actual guns, adding a layer of authenticity to the experience. One cool feature I noticed while firing at the enemy is that during one particular instance, the camera followed the bullet all the way to the point where it entered the soldier’s flesh. I have no idea how I did it, but the end result was morbidly satisfying.
Look for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 to release on August 21 for Xbox 360, PS3, and PC.
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