Sniper Ghost Warrior is a franchise born 3 years ago on the basis of a recipe that then seemed productive: the sniper game. The concept seemed promising: we buy a nice graphics engine and we let the unstressed FPS player play the hunter, camping for long moments to be able to place a super headshot well hidden a kilometer and a half from this nasty sentry who finally wanted point his head out the window. Inevitably to ensure profitability, we were cutting back on budgets, resulting in a really not folichon scenario and a limited lifespan. A basic multiplayer mode to complete the whole thing, and we offer you the product at a very competitive price. In short, the Logan of video games for short; a real product adapted to the crisis, without ambition but which does not claim anything. And its sequel seems to claim the same arguments, except that this time you play Cole Andersson, an American sniper who will have to chase an evil Russian through a scenario written on a end of table at noon. In short, nothing exciting, a dark betrayal and affairs of the heart like in a low-end series that can be seen between noon and two on TF1. Promise kept.
Lead in the head
As for the graphic engine, we are not robbed, since the game runs on CryEngine 3. The super graphic bomb from the Germans of Crytek will delight your retina. Admittedly, it's not Crysis 3 and it's much less well coded, but we still get a really nice performance from GI Games. Especially since we really spend a lot of time on the ground, hence the importance of creating realistic vegetation. As for the lifespan, we always keep the good old habits: 5 hours for the big max solo. Sir Andersson's wanderings are not exciting, and the levels quite repetitive. We often operate in the jungle with missions that consist of approaching a snipe point, dodging or silently neutralizing - therefore with a knife - the guards, before clearing a large area using your sniper rifle large caliber. The rare scenes with an M4 from the previous episode, not very successful I grant you, had the advantage of bringing a little distraction. This is no longer the case here. In short, the interest of the scenario should not seduce many people. Still, for €35, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 didn't promise anything. And at this price, we are lowering its requirements, and a CryEngine 3 at this price is pretty good.
Sir Andersson's wanderings are not exciting, and the levels quite repetitive. We often operate in the jungle with missions that consist of approaching a snipe point, dodging or silently neutralizing - therefore with a knife - the guards, before clearing a large area using your sniper rifle high caliber."
Concretely, in-game, the action is not very varied. For missions, two scenarios are possible. Once the approach phase is over, you must once at the snipe point clear the way on the fly, or eliminate the enemies in order to protect a team on the ground. A way like any other not to make you feel too alone in this game. Moreover, very often, a spotter will guide you and you will therefore only have to follow him to pass through the levels. The latter will also be very useful to tell you who and when to shoot, in order to trigger some cut-scenes of explosions. In the game mechanics, the ballistics are quite convincing and the impact of the wind on the projectiles too. Still, in the first two difficulty modes, a red dot tells you where to aim to automatically compensate for gravity and wind. This aid will only turn off in the highest difficulty setting, the only real way to have a tough challenge in this game after all, as it will be up to you to balance wind and gravity to get the perfect shot. For the rest, the environment, as sympathetic to the retina as it may be, is quite limited. Outside of snipe points and a few passageways, you mostly move through script-defined invisible corridors, and every step outside of it will be harshly suppressed by the game, which will invariably spawn enemies with demonic reflexes and precision, shooting you in the head with their AK-47s from over 500 meters away, just to send you back into the nails.
It's too much of the ball!
An intransigent script therefore, which does not allow the slightest initiative of the player. For the solo, you will therefore have to embody the soldier Andersson in a very military way, and obey all the orders given by your superiors. Unfortunately, there is not much available on the weapons menu. In solo, you will be equipped with a knife for silent assassinations, a pistol equipped with a silencer and very few cartridges, serving mainly for the rare times when enemies will be near you. As for rifles, you'll use the M700 and the CheyTac intervention most of the time, except once you get to the infamous snipe point, where you'll pull out a 50BMG caliber. Moreover, if the weapons have cosmetic differences, it was impossible for us to notice the slightest difference in terms of power, each weapon being able to eliminate an enemy in a single blow, in the head or not, which seems a bit contradictory in a sniper game demanding precision and flying heads. The only exception to the table, the level of Sarajevo, where the player finds himself immersed in the Balkan war in the middle of sniper alley; this famous avenue which in 1995 was filled with snipers spreading terror in the city. This level is finally the only real moment where one breathes, a clear and vast level, less scripted than the average, and which finally allows a good immersion in a context of armed conflict.
After 25 minutes of lying down to do 4 kills, we often decide to run like a good kamikaze to take our opponents from the back with a pistol. In short, multiplayer is therefore also a low cost version of what we can see in FPS.
As for multiplayer, it is extremely frugal. Indeed, only one mode is available: the "Team Deathmatch" which will oppose two teams in a face-to-face map. Cards which are also two in number. The first takes you back to Sarajevo, where two buildings face each other, while the other takes you into the jungle for a similar experience, but where you will hide in the vegetation rather than in the middle of a pile of rubble. For this multiplayer, the list of weapons is expanding compared to the single player mode, since some guns are unlockable. You will therefore be able to obtain a VSS Vintorez (Ah STALKER...), as well as another caliber 50BMG. New weapons that do not change much in the facts since the damage is absolutely identical, just like the ballistics. Moreover, the multiplayer mode displays the famous red dot for aiming assistance, which spoils the pleasure a little, since the main difficulty of the title (compensation for aiming) is therefore absent. The result of all this, c t is finally a multiplayer where you get bored, since all the players being snipers the camp will be de rigueur... After 25 minutes of lying down to get 4 kills, you often decide to run like a good kamikaze to take our adversaries from behind with pistols. In short, multiplayer is also a low cost version of what we can see in FPS.
