my own "Sniper: Ghost Warrior" Review

[Jimbuna]

The only game I've got that has a bullet camera is Sniper Elite.

I really enjoyed playing that game so I'll probably have a look at this as well.

[Dowly]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

I really enjoyed playing that game so I'll probably have a look at this as well.

Oh yeh... great fun... everyone laying still for 15 minutes in our MP match.

[HunterICX]

Originally Posted by Dowly

Oh yeh... great fun... everyone laying still for 15 minutes in our MP match.

but that one shot was a kill, good for a startle or two

HunterICX

[Sledgehammer427]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The only game I've got that has a bullet camera is Sniper Elite.

I really enjoyed playing that game so I'll probably have a look at this as well.

you and me both Jim

Excellent write-up GR

[GoldenRivet]

Ok, on Dowly's post...

Originally Posted by Dowly

- Cover system is total BS, enemies can see you prone THROUGH foliage.

Apparently, City interactive has released a patch. problem with the patch is that the game updates through steam, and based on my research many updated games will still show "version 1.0.0" even though it is updated to the latest version. I purchased the game on Sunday... it came "off the shelf" patched to the latest version, so many of Dowly's complaints, while probably legitimate, were very likely based on the initial release version.

Originally Posted by Dowly

- No speed control like in SE

Speed control is still an issue. You basically have three speeds... Crawl which is the slowest speed. Crouched which is slightly faster than crawling, and "walk" which is really more of a slow jog and Run which is a sprint. so when you are sneaking past someone you have to pick a stance carefully

Originally Posted by Dowly

- Spelling mistakes

I did not notice this... what spelling errors specifically?

Originally Posted by Dowly

- Enemy animations are bugged quite often (not unheard off to see someone shoot 90degrees to the wrong direction and you still get hit), cutscene animations are pretty stupid too

It would appear that all animations have been fixed. the only animations that were not "great" were the death animations... every kill just goes "rag doll" and it is very unrealistic.

though a few of the cutscenes do little to advance the story, most of them do... and i dont see any reason to say that they are bad - not the best cutscenes i have ever seen, but far from the worst.

Just take a look at the first 5 minutes of gameplay here

keep in mind, none of the cutscenes are forced... so you can skip any of them.

Originally Posted by Dowly

- No head-splits-open gore like in SE

I was disappointed in this myself. The most your going to get is a puff of red mist.

Originally Posted by Dowly

- Did I mention the enemy AI yet? Example: You and your spotter are in prone position, wearing ghillie suits and using silenced rifles yet every enemy in the whole complex knows where you are.

This has been addressed in the patch. In the original release, if someone got eyes on you it was very hard to "re-hide". In the patched release, it only takes 4 or 5 seconds to vanish.

keep in mind that there are one or two levels where your spotter will draw fire but you will not be noticed as you pick off muzzle flashes. It took me several times playing this mission before i realized though that NONE of those guys were shooting at me... my spotter had run off and engaged them and they were all shooting at HIM while i picked them off one by one while prone in the underbrush.

Originally Posted by Dowly

- Tunnel map(s)

Not sure what a tunnel map is... i can only assume that this is a map where the player's approach to target is tightly controlled by obstacles etc. its about 50/50 though i think... there are several maps where i didnt even follow the waypoints and "explored" a bit probing a camp for weakness etc... on one mission for example, i found at least 5 different approaches to the target. In other missions that are more heavily scripted like "link up with team bravo and give them support" the maps are very "tunnel" like. but this is not applied to ALL maps.

Originally Posted by Dowly

PS. Ow and this was all on 'easy' difficulty.

play it on hard

nothing like having to aim 3 feet over a guys head and about 1.5 feet to the right of his head to correct for windage and bullet drop.

--------------


On McBee's Post

Originally Posted by nikimcbee

The real question is; can you chase each other around in circles while shooting like crazy and bunnyhop to avoid being hit?

That is how wars are actually fought.

No bunny hopping here.

bunny hopping would no doubt get you killed within 10 seconds. Think "If it moves in stalingrad, it dies" its the same concept here... if it moves in multiplayer, its dead. The big let down in multiplayer is that many of the things that make the game great in single player are GONE in MP.

no prone stance, no bullet cam etc. Everyone is sniping - there is no choice for anything else other than sniping. Its very annoying and difficult to play MP and take it seriously.

--------------

@ Platapus

Originally Posted by Platapus

I don't mind this too much, although I prefer to play solo type games. I can enjoy playing as a member of a team with AI members, as long as I can set the pace of the game.

What I really hate are games where I either have to escort an AI or be a member of an AI team and I have to rush through areas of the game. I am a slow cautious FPS player. I like to conduct disciplined recon and take my time.

In Ghost Warrior, when you are teamed up with an AI, does the AI member react to you, or do you have to react to the AI member?

In Ghost warrior, there are a couple of action missions where you are teamed up with a fast moving squad to take over an oil rig etc. In those missions, you set the pace, they wait on you etc.

as a sniper, you rarely have a team mate - physically present anyhow - you will have a spotter on some missions, or a commander watching over you (though it is not made clear whether this is via satellite or UAV etc) if you do have a spotter, he will warn you of upcoming patrols etc but you only have a spotter on a couple of missions IIRC

[Fincuan]

What kind of sniping distances are we dealing with in the game? "FPS sniping" from a few hundred meters max, or proper sniping from greater distances?

[GoldenRivet]

This is the longest shot in the game - 326 meters approx.



keep in mind that this video focuses on the final shot of the game - the shot you have spent the whole game waiting for... about 15 minutes of gameplay has been edited out of this video and it ends with "the end" without showing end credit animations etc.

Your sniper shots range anywhere from virtually point blank, up to about 200 -300 meters

i think if the game had been set in an ubran environment, or something more "open" than dense jungle.... longer shots would have made an appearance.



EDIT:

consider this.

@ $29.99 and with about 8 or 9 hours of gameplay (if played through at the proper pace) your looking at a game which has cost you about $3.75 to $3.33 per hour to play.

compare that to Similar games with similar play times at prices of about $49.99 where it costs you about $6 or $7 per hour to play.

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by jimbuna

The only game I've got that has a bullet camera is Sniper Elite.

Sniper art of victory has a bullet cam for headshots only. Not a bad game. I need to check out Sniper Elite to add to my sniper collection.

[Platapus]

I always get a chuckle out of the instant silent kills with a throwing knife at those distances.

[jumpy]

check it out

Booyah!

[Jimbuna]

Originally Posted by jumpy

check it out

Booyah!

That's the boy

[GoldenRivet]

I just want to stress to you how amazingly terrible the multiplayer component of this game really is.

They REALLY messed up not including a multiplayer cooperative campaign - even if it were a scant 4 or 5 missions.

I just spent 20 minutes getting my ass positively handed to me... I joined in the middle of the game in a very open spawn area and was killed within 3 seconds. I was "spawn killed" a half dozen times. The rest of the 30 minutes of game time... i spent about 6 rounds of ammunition... and spent about 26 cumulative minutes just looking for someone to shoot.

terrible... absolutely horrible multiplayer this game

its a good thing the single player campaign is fun, because it is NOT in any way shape or form a good multiplayer game.

multiplayer is the BACKBONE of any decent modern day FPS. and during the development of this game... the absolute FLOOD of questions they had in the forum...

"Will the be a cooperative campaign?"

"will we have coop multiplayer?"

"is there going to be missions where one works as a spotter and the other as a sniper?"

"we're going to have a multiplayer coop mode right?"

"hey, just curious what the multiplayer is going to be like, will there be a cooperative mode so i can play coop with my friends?"

"It would be cool if there were a game mode that players could work together in multiplayer - will there be such a thing in the game?"

then they come out with this crap about "Well... we decided that a cooperative mode wouldn't be fun."



oh well...

[Fincuan]

Player vs. player sniper-maps can be fun in MP, if just done right. I remember an excellent one we had for Arma2 in Tacticalgamer.com: You had a central objective, a bunch of buildings sitting next to a marsh filled with rubble and surrounded by hills, and the all-human sniper-spotter pairs would start out separately about 2 km from the objective. Each pair's goal would be to get within the fenced area at the objective and remain there as long as they could, each minute bringing in a set amount of points. Some excellent games resulted from this. The fun really started when you took the objective yourself, because once you were inside one of the buildings you didn't exactly fancy looking out of the windows

[Platapus]

Originally Posted by GoldenRivet

multiplayer is the BACKBONE of any decent modern day FPS.

To me it is the opposite. I, personally, have no interest in any multiplayer video games. If I wanted to associate with people, I would not play a video game.

I like video games expressly because I don't have to deal with other people.

I think it is great that they include multiplayer aspects in the games, but I want a way to turn it off.

[Platapus]

I just purchased Sniper Elite, and so far it seems like a pretty good game.

Thanks for the recommendation