Customer Reviews

Sniper: Ghost Warrior

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

In the face of the onslaught of negative reviews, I have to go against the grain and state that I'm totally loving this game. I've been a fan of PC sniper games for years. They are rare, so I grab every one of them. "Sniper Elite" was great, but had no first-person option. And there are a few other, lesser attempts, and a few hard-core games like "ArmA 2' which is a great sniper game if your system can handle it.

"Ghost Warrior" fits my playing style perfectly. I like to take my time and set up my shots, so I do a lot of belly-crawling and sneaking around. Which you will need to do in this game. I'm currently deep into Mission 8 (about halfway through the entire game), and have thus far spent almost nine hours game-time getting there. And I've had a blast. But again, don't play this if you're even the slightest bit impatient, or this game will kick your butt. Fortunately, the PC version allows you to save anywhere, and also Quicksave and Quickload. Quickload takes about one second, so it really is quick. Graphics look stunning to me, similar to the original Far Cry. Areas are huge, and provide plenty of various places to snipe from. There are some invisible walls here and there, but I was actually quite pleased that a budget title let me go exploring as much as it did. The ballistics model takes into account bullet-drop, your breathing and heartrate, and wind. There is a red dot in the scope showing you exactly where the bullet will land, which makes it easy. But on the hard difficulty setting, you can play with this red dot turned off. How accurate the ballistics are, I have no idea, as I'm not an actual sniper. However, for a game, they are more than accurate enough.

Controls work extremely well. I mapped 'C' for crouch. So you press your crouch button to toggle crouch. You hold that same button to toggle prone. It's very intuitive, and I love that aspect. Zoom defaults to right mouse button of course. Depending on which rifle you have, there are 3 or 4 levels of zoom, controlled with the mouse wheel. Again, very intuitive. Left Shift key causes you to hold your breath and slow down time, which is handy, but makes hitting moving targets quite difficult. There is also a very nifty bullet-cam if you manage a headshot, but this feature can be turned off if desired.

AI is a bit too sharp though. Foliage sometimes works, and sometimes doesn't work for cover. And if you take out a guy who is near another guy, make sure you're out of the line-of-sight of the guy you aren't shooting, or he'll be all over you if he spots you. Once I figured out how to play this game strategically, I'm having no trouble with the AI however. I actually like it.

Okay, performance is a bit of an issue. I am experiencing good framerates, but this game really pushes my GTX260 with everything cranked to the max and at 1920 x 1200. I'm also running a quad-core Intel, and it seems to be making use of all 4 cores, according to my monitoring program. I'd recommend nothing less than an 8800GT, but you'd have to turn a few things down. Out of curiosity, I installed it also on my older single-core 3700+ with a 7900GS. It runs in that case, but only with everything turned down, and set to 1024 x 768.

I've thus far only run into 2 action sequences, and yes, they both sucked. But the first only took 15 minutes to get through, and the second about a half hour. Most of my 9 hours in this game have been blissful sniping, so I can forgive the game its flaws, however I hope for the next installment, they strip those COD sequences right out of there. Using a turret-gun has no place in a sniping game.

Overall, I'm really loving this game in spite of those few annoyances. Be warned though, this is definitely a love it or hate it type game. If you still have doubts, please do more research, or watch a few gameplay videos before you purchase. Myself, I'm already hoping for a sequel.

As a marksman-in-training, I will write my review less on the game play and story and more on the technical stuff. I make no claims at being 100% accurate on the factual information I provide, but I will do my best. If you want my overall opinion skip to the bottom. For the rest of you who want to be bored by my technical babble, read on my friends.

Lets start with the stuff i found realistic from my experiences.

When looking down a scope, your field of view (FOV) is usually fairly narrow (it depends on what scope you have and a myriad of other factors). So when you look down the scope in Ghost Warrior it does give a fairly realistic FOV. Although this is frustrating, it does lend itself to the real world fairly well.

When you squeeze off a shot intended for someone more than about 100 yards down range, the bullet will drop at a calculated rate, and the wind will do its best to make your bullet fly away in the wrong direction. These are very real problems that do manifest themselves well in GW. In fact, this is why most snipers/spotters have binoculars- which GW neglects to give you.

I personally own a rifle that is very similar to the SA-25 so I can say GW does do it justice. The effective range is roughly 1000 yards. This means that any shot taken that is less than 1000 yards should be accurate. While playing GW, the gun is extremely accurate, and in my opinion does the real world justice.

However, this is really where the realism starts to taper off... quickly.

The most frustrating part for me was how much the gun bounces around, even while prone. While standing, yes it will bounce around a lot, and the game does a good job of showing you that. However, when you are prone or crouching the gun sill bounces around at an unrealistic rate. The guns have bi-pods on the front for just this reason. No its not perfect, but at least you can get a stable shot off.

Next, as i stated earlier, the effective range of the SA-25 is roughly 1000 yards. This means you should be able to be accurate at roughly 1000 yards. The effective range of an AK-47 is roughly 300 yards (I am being a bit generous). The longest engagement i can remember was roughly 250 yards. This means that the enemy will have no trouble shooting back at me with a great deal of accuracy. As a sniper, this puts you in a bad position. If you miss, or you are discovered, the enemy can shoot back and kill you.

I believe this is the fundamental flaw of this game. Almost every engagement you get into has enemies shooting back at you. If this game is supposed to give you the experience of being a elite sniper, why does it force you into a situation that a trained sniper would intentionally avoid? If i were in the position of needing to take out an enemy, i would use my own strengths... that is, i would put a lot of ground in between me and my target... say 500 to 600 yards? And i sure as hell wouldn't put 100 yards between me and my enemy as this game does time and time again.

Nevertheless, I think there is a good reason the game does this. Anyone who has never shot a gun before could go out to a range and shoot reasonably accurately at 200 yards after about a day. Shooting at 600 yards is a totally different story. As there are probably more people out there who cannot shoot at 600 yards than people who can, the game needs to be tailored to them. So, annoyingly, your restricted to close-quarters engagements.

OVERALL:
In the end the game was fairly entertaining. Watching the bullet-cam is very entertaining (in a sick, twisted way). Sneaking around enemies with X-Ray vision and telepathic powers is fairly infuriating. Fortunately, this game does give a nice mix of the two. I just wish it were more of a real sniper game. Overall, I think its worth the $30 despite the plethora of AI flaws, game engine annoyances, and game play lapses which im sure you will read in other people's reviews.

I've been an avid fan of First Person Shooters since their creation many years ago. My Valve / Steam library reflects this with most of the FPS available on their service. I purchased this when the price came down shortly after I made it through COD MW2 Black Ops.

Having read the previous reviews, I had a fairly good idea of what I was purchasing. I always come to Amazon for the thoughts and opinions of everyone who's purchased a product. The reviews were mixed but for less than $20, I went ahead.

I love this game. It's a sniping game, make no doubt about that. You're not going to be happy if you can't adapt to the concept of stealthily moving slowly, taking time to assess what's ahead, to the sides, and behind. There are times when running pall mall is best, but for the most part take your time and get into a good position to hit the known targets before first pulling the trigger.

The storyline isn't stellar, but it's entertaining. The cut scenes are fun. Watching your bullet wing it's way in slow motion to find the target is entertaining. If you don't like to see enemies fall in a cloud of pinkish red mist, you won't like the game.

If you like the FEAR series, Far Cry series, Crysis series, COD / COD MW series, Half Life franchise, Bioshock, Max Payne games, L4D series, Blacksite, Wolfenstein series, Timeshift, Halo, etc. you will most likely like this game provided you enjoy taking time and sniping. If you prefer to run / point / shoot your way through, this game will most likely frustrate you.

The graphics are good if not exceptional. You won't really see anything new here. I'm playing on an Asus N61JQ-X1 which has 8 gb 1333 ddr3, i7 720m, and ati 4650 1 gb graphics laptop. The game play is fluid without burps or stutters.

Bottom line: I recommend this if you enjoy FPS.

This game has problems that I have never encountered before. It will hang at times and hang you up so you cant go on. You have to replay seens over many times. That gets boring and tiring I finally gave up.

Oh dear. A game that had the potential to be the new "Sniper Elite" but actually fails to deliver.

Set on a Caribbean type island you sneak around chasing a clichéd bad guy dictator and zapping AI bad guys that are either over aware or blissfully stupid. Like Sniper Elite, you have 'bullet time' so you can enjoy(?) a slo-mo replay of your better shots, gore and all. The story line is daft and the gameplay surprisingly poor. The AI can spot you far too easily or if there is shooting, then other AI in the area don't seem to notice. Graphics and rendering are weak at times and it does feel a little bit contrived I have to say. It wants to be a blend of Sniper Elite and Medal of Honour but fails on both parts.

I only do single player, so can't comment on the multi-player, but I finished this very easily in a weekend so from my perspective this is poor value for money and a real lost opportunity to engage the players who loved Sniper Elite. I have given this two stars, but only just - you would be far better waiting a year and getting this at a bargain price that would be more realistic.

Very disappointed. The graphics are only OK at times by todays standards, the water is laughable. The game is totally scripted with very narrow paths you must stay on. You can not even jump over a bush if it is not on the path they want you to take. Most items are not useable, such as vehicles. No serious weapons choices, just once in awhile you can pick up a dead guys weapon.

In Far Cry 2 and The Saboteur you have full access to the entire map, you can go off on side trips killing and blowing things up at will, then later come back to the mission and you can use all earned weapons plus what you take off downed enemies. Not here, you must follow their scripted missions with hardly any discression. It is really more like a arcade game. Move here, now do this, OK now move here and shoot this guy........Blah, Blah.

Short.

Fair would be $19.95, at $49.95 it is a rip off. If you think you would like to try it, wait for the bargain bin, should not be that long of a wait.

It took me a while to decide to purchase Sniper: Ghost Warrior and now that I did I find that it wasn't as bad as some were saying. I was looking for something to pass the time that was more challenging and would make you stop and think what the heck is the best way to handle the situation the game puts you in. Being a sniper puts you at some pretty long distances and calls for a pretty steady aim/hand to make a shot. It even gives you and idea of what your heart rate is along with your breathing when you are about ready to take out a target. You are usually in constant contact with whoever you happen to be doing the job for. There are several situations where you are switched to another role related to a sniper such as a spotter and even support of a fire team that you are sometimes tossed into and another sniper is working in conjunction with you. The terrain is rugged and mostly jungle since you're dealing mostly with drug cartels. You even get to play in the rain in a few spots. One thing you don't want to do is rush into any situation, take the time to figure out how to sneak into areas without being detected. Some of the missions are night operations but you're not given night vision goggles and it is quite dark at times. One of the features I found interesting is that when you fire a shot and it is going to be a head shot it goes into a cut scene of sorts and it follows the bullet all the way to the target with deadly results (like Max Payne). You do get one handy tool that I haven't seen in any other shooter and that's a grappling hook. It comes in handy when getting into trees and in one particular mission you have to use it to climb up beside a waterfall. I fell off a few times before getting the hang of when to let go of the rope. Eventually you do get to take out the head pain in the rear general and getting to a position to get a good shot requires pure stealth. Shoot a guard and you are toast, though if you can get close enough to use your knife you are in good shape. Even then you still don't want to kill every guy you come across. The only thing I found to be a pain is the aiming system, you have to hold the right mouse button down the entire time you are trying to target your targets.

The game does have an online version but the few times I logged in there were very few playing. Other than that the game is a decent value. Oh yea it runs on Windows 7 64 bit without any problems.

This game is awesome! I wonder if these guys will make several sequels. Graphic are great. Absolutely love the bullet cam. Missions are realistic. If they made more versions I`d buy every one of `em.

this game is very cool. the graphics are outstanding,and game play is challenging. multi player is a blast. this game combines skills in precision shooting and concealment. the only reason I can not give this game five stars is that it would be better if it had a 360 degree go anyway map style. If you like first person shooters and like to sneak up on enemies and take them out this is a game for you.

The single player is really cool, has nice graffics. Its actually a little bit hard to beet it when its set on easy.

However the downside to it is the multiplayer is does not compliment the greatness of the singleplayer.