Released last year for PC and Xbox 360, Sniper: Ghost Warrior was a game with more problems than good ideas. A few months later, developer City Interactive announced a sort of director's cut of Sniper for the PlayStation 3. Promising improved graphics, refinements to existing levels and all-new content, Sniper: Ghost Warrior PS3 is here almost exactly one year after its 360 and PC counterparts. But it's brought new problems with it without fixing what made Sniper less than the sum of its parts last time around.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior PS3 makes a rough initial impression. Using the Chrome 4 engine originally featured in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in 2009, Sniper bears a fair bit of resemblance to that video game western, except for all those trees and bushes. But somewhere in the journey from PC/360 to PS3, something has gone very wrong. Character models are awkward and bizarrely shiny, though the environments appear expansive and lush. However, this is punctuated by an abysmal framerate -- the game chugs along unless you're looking at the floor or directly at the sky. Almost as distracting is the egregious screen tearing that plagues Sniper: Ghost Warrior on PS3 -- at times it seems like the image on screen is breaking apart in three of four different places. The "improved graphics" are nowhere to be found and Sniper: Ghost Warrior PS3 is one of the uglier shooters of the last few years.
The sniping mechanic itself has made the transition to the PS3 more or less intact, though. While Sniper: Ghost Warrior isn't quite as excruciatingly prone to realism as, say, ARMA 2 or the original Operation: Flashpoint, it seems realistic. Shots from the titular sniper rifles in Ghost Warrior are subject to gravity and environmental effects from wind and the like, such that play is predicated less on twitch gunplay and more on setting up and taking the right shots at targets -- at least at first.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior PS3 makes a rough initial impression. Using the Chrome 4 engine originally featured in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in 2009, Sniper bears a fair bit of resemblance to that video game western, except for all those trees and bushes. But somewhere in the journey from PC/360 to PS3, something has gone very wrong. Character models are awkward and bizarrely shiny, though the environments appear expansive and lush. However, this is punctuated by an abysmal framerate -- the game chugs along unless you're looking at the floor or directly at the sky. Almost as distracting is the egregious screen tearing that plagues Sniper: Ghost Warrior on PS3 -- at times it seems like the image on screen is breaking apart in three of four different places. The "improved graphics" are nowhere to be found and Sniper: Ghost Warrior PS3 is one of the uglier shooters of the last few years.
The sniping mechanic itself has made the transition to the PS3 more or less intact, though. While Sniper: Ghost Warrior isn't quite as excruciatingly prone to realism as, say, ARMA 2 or the original Operation: Flashpoint, it seems realistic. Shots from the titular sniper rifles in Ghost Warrior are subject to gravity and environmental effects from wind and the like, such that play is predicated less on twitch gunplay and more on setting up and taking the right shots at targets -- at least at first.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior makes itself more accessible than the more stringent military simulations by granting the equivalent of sniper super powers; clicking in the right stick while zoomed in with a sniper rifle causes the world to slow, simulating the increased concentration of an inwardly held breath from a trained marksman. On the default difficulty, this is accompanied by a red circular sub-reticule that will appear if you hold your aim long enough, which displays exactly where your bullet will land after the effects of wind and gravity. On harder difficulties, this sub-reticule vanishes, leaving you more at the whim of the elements. Firing a sniper rifle in Ghost Warrior feels distinctive and particularly rewarding in comparison to most titles' point-and-click approach to long-range combat. Unfortunately, from there, the game loses its sense of inventiveness and falls into a tired bed of cliches and limitations that sabotage a great deal of its strengths.
Take those lush environments, for starters. They seem wide open for creative positioning and a true sniping experience involving meticulous positioning in search of cover and the perfect shot. Of course, this isn't the way the game works. The world of Sniper: Ghost Warrior is littered with more invisible walls and strange, 12-inch tall barriers than any shooter this side of Modern Warfare. This would be less infuriating if these barriers made sense, but rest assured that areas that seem like the best perches and nests for your clandestine activities are likely to be off-limits. That's assuming of course that you can effectively navigate or aim your shots in those wide open spaces, given Sniper: Ghost Warrior's consistently poor graphical performance.
The graphical issues -- as well as some generally poor voicework and text riddled with grammatical errors -- pale in comparison to level design that does little to support actual sniping, and which is often dependent on AI triggers tied to waypoints that aren't especially well implemented. Enemies will spawn into levels based on these triggers in bizarre ways that test suspension of disbelief, and make it difficult to effectively plan out an approach.
The run-and-gun sections from last year's 360 and PC releases of Sniper: Ghost Warrior have been removed more or less, replaced by cutscenes that show the results of the assault missions in question. While these sections were generic, not-fun messes, their removal is somewhat of a wash, leaving Sniper: Ghost Warrior on PS3 a game that suffers even more from a feeling of sameness. Some new, actual gameplay addition would have been welcome. Instead, there are more sniper levels, set aside from the main game and available for immediate play. But the only really new conceit -- to take away the HUD and checkpoints -- don't make for more fun. They make for even more frustration. These sections serve only to demonstrate how poor the AI and basic shooting in Sniper: Ghost Warrior are -- when the AI isn't spotting you with machine-like precision in brush from 2000 yards away, that is.
Multiplayer also does little to add much to the game. It feels like more missed opportunities, as stages are comparatively small and littered with enough objects that lining up that perfect long range snipe against your opponents feels fruitless; you're more likely to get kills spamming grenades or running around with a silenced pistol.
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