Review of Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2

Five words in the title is the fifth game in the series. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 corrected many of the shortcomings of its predecessor. A hard-hitting stealth action game for sniper connoisseurs, it offers without a doubt the best gaming experience in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series. But! – with some reservations.

Mechanically and conceptually, this is the same Ghost Warrior Contracts. The protagonist, a first-class sniper and saboteur with the call sign Raven, goes to a troubled region with a full clip of Democracy in .50 BMG caliber. At his disposal is a rich arsenal of weapons, gadgets and special equipment. The goal is to eliminate the closest associates of the Middle Eastern dictator, cut off supply channels, disarm and eventually eliminate the tyrant.

Plot and companies

The structure of the campaign, as in the previous game, is as follows. There are five regions in front of the player, each of which is a large seamless location. In order to progress through, say, the story, the player must complete the main contracts in the region. The purpose of the task can be sabotage, reconnaissance or assassination. The contracts are varied and interesting: from infecting a supercomputer with a virus to rescuing and covering up a captive journalist.

Basically, the player himself is free to choose in what order and by what methods to complete the missions, but now the developers have tried to make the first passage of the region more linear. Between the main contracts, there are obvious routes by which the player will get to the next goal in the fastest and safest way. Occasionally, there are areas where the player can only get to by exploring the location – the habitats of optional targets. The need to find skins for weapons in locations rather than buying, as before, in the equipment store, spurs interest in research somewhat.

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Money in the game can be obtained both for the fulfillment of the contracts themselves, and for additional tasks – the elimination of optional goals. Here they are called orders and are awarded, among other things, tokens that are needed to buy the most trump rifles. Another source of money is trials. Now there are about twenty of them in the regions, and they obviously contradict each other. For example, kill the target without raising the alarm, or blow it up. Tests here are an element of “involvement”, so that after completing the main campaign, the player can tinker a little more in the locations. In addition, they give points for pumping the skills of the sniper himself.

The mission preparation system remained unchanged. The player chooses three types of weapons for himself, takes the skills he needs depending on the mission, supplements them with special equipment such as grenades, a drone or a sniper turret and goes to work. Equipment can now be changed without leaving the location, which is a definite plus. As in the previous part, the game remembers completed tasks, but after exiting the menu, it returns all enemies and all targets to their places. Therefore, if before the player was forced to choose equipment for the entire mission from and to, now he can more finely adjust the sniper to the current task.

Shooting mechanics in Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2

The mechanics of sniping has not changed radically since the first part. Shot accuracy is affected by distance, wind speed, barrel swing, and target movement. At easy difficulty levels, the interface helps: a red dot appears in the sight, indicating exactly where the bullet will fly. On higher difficulty, you will have to think a little more. But for successful shots, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 reward the player with a spectacular animation of the bullet’s flight and hitting the target. These animations are much more diverse and worked out much better than before – some of them can even shock.

But they radically improved the shooting of assault weapons. Assault rifles and shotguns have become much more pleasant to use. Some checkpoints in the game even want to attack head-on in order to once again get an assault rifle from the inventory. In addition, they made it possible to equip some models with a silencer and use them where it is far away for a pistol, and close for a sniper rifle. For the same purpose, a bow appeared in the game.

Contracts and testing on locations themselves have shifted noticeably towards sniping. Three of the five regions in the game are contracts for a shot from a kilometer or more. The player simply cannot get to the target’s home and must solve a kind of puzzle: wait for the right moment to shoot, lure enemies out of the premises or force them to leave their posts, move away from their comrades.

If necessary, hide the standard set: crawl in the grass on the belly, kill quietly and quickly, if necessary, throw pebbles and distract the enemy’s attention from yourself. By the way, about him.

The artificial vision of the enemies has been corrected: now their viewing angle is more like a cone – at least they do not spot us a couple of tens of meters above their heads. However, it didn’t get any better. For example, they do not see a hero in tall grass. But they see if he lies behind the grass. They see almost nothing with peripheral vision. In addition, it is not always clear from what distance they notice the sniper. In a word, weak.

Artificial intelligence in general is not bad. Enemies willingly use covers, fragmentation and smoke grenades. Among them are their snipers and sentries with binoculars, capable of spotting the player from afar. They are suppressing fire and will gladly cover the position of the player with a mortar.

It is also worth noting the animations of opponents. Since you will have to watch them often and for a long time, the developers have made sure that the enemies look more alive. They actively gesticulate in conversation, climb in phones, lean against walls to rest. After some overheard conversations, it’s even a pity to shoot them.

Of the obvious disadvantages, it is worth noting a meager arsenal. All types of weapons became significantly less. But, of course, literally at the start, for only 12 euros, you can buy two DLCs and replenish your weapon locker … with seven more models. Sniper and assault rifles, two SMGs, a sawed-off shotgun, a shotgun and a pistol. Moreover, the DLC’s PP is the only one on which you can put a silencer.

There were three notable bugs in the game in total. First: when loading into a small room with a door, the player may be locked in – the doors open only from the outside. Not cured, you need to load another checkpoint. Second: in the very last mission, the target is in a tent by the window. When fired, an animation is played, the bullet flies, but disappears somewhere on the approach. Exit – wait until the target leaves the tent. Third: the goal of one of the missions will be banned in the house and will not go out. Healed by reboot.

There is also a bug with the map that came from the first part: if it does not respond to the mouse, you need to move it with the WASD keys. Occasionally there are minor physics bugs. The rest of the game is well tested and optimized. I can’t say for the speed of downloads – the game was on an SSD. But with an overall decent and diverse picture – CryEngine is responsible for the graphics – Contracts 2 takes up 12 GB of memory on the disk, which is rare these days.

Diagnosis

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is a solid project with nice features and no major downsides. Those who liked the first “Contracts” should definitely take it. Those wishing to try themselves in a sniper simulator should also take a closer look. In the end, wait for the sale and grab it at a discount.

Pros

• Great sniping mechanics vs good AI
• Interesting sniper puzzles
• Decent and nice picture

Cons

• Stripped-down arsenal + paid DLC right at the start
• Artificial vision for enemies