Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 Review

Hot shots?

Competition is hotting up in the world of tactical, slower-paced shooters. CI Games are back with their latest sniping game, but following hot on the heels of the excellent Sniper Elite 4, can “Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3” stack up against the competition?

Story:

Ghost Warrior’s story is unfortunately really underwhelming. There’s a lengthy cut-scene at the start, introducing two young brothers that for some reason love the idea of sniping stuff (someone please call their parents!), who start to live out their dream together in the military before they get separated during the prologue. The plot shamelessly rips off a number of films, drops in some shallow love interest, and never gets you to care enough about either brother.

The script is throwaway, and the voice acting and delivery are average at best. This is a real shame, because Sniper Elite has never focused on the plot, and so CI’s effort could have really stolen a march here by getting the players brought into the characters and universe.

Gameplay:

Even after the initial scenes, it takes a long time to get into Ghost Warrior. And that’s because of the loading times, which run at somewhere between 3 and 5 minutes every time that you enter a new map. Thankfully there’s only 3, although the 26 mission plot does have you going back and forth between them every 2-3 hours. Each of these maps is genuinely huge, taking a good 4-5 minutes to drive across, and are filled with a number of optional side events. There’s hidden treasure and collectables to uncover, bonus high-value targets to eliminate, and more detailed side missions to undertake for the local militia.

It’s an interesting idea, and it mostly pays off, because the content is for the most part, interesting. With the campaign, there’s easily a dozen hours of content, and probably nearer 20, so it’s a generous enough chunk. If you pre-ordered, the season pass will also be available for free, which will further expand the game over the coming months, making the game decent enough value.

However, the playing of the game shows some of the deficiencies when compared to Sniper Elite. The open worlds bring in a certain amount of jank, with technical issues ranging from dodgy physics to disappearing models, all of which are somewhat expected but never welcome. The bullet cam seems like an afterthought, and isn’t anywhere near as effective or interesting as the competition.

The actual sniping itself isn’t quite as detailed or realistic in the simulation at the higher difficulty level, although for the majority of the players, there’s not much in it. The game does have superiority though in a few areas, even if they themselves can still feel underdeveloped. Using assault weapons is far more satisfying and effective. You’re occasionally put into close quarters, and using rifles does feel like a (not recommended) plausible way of completing the missions.