Let me preface this short opinion-piece on SNIPER: Ghost Warrior with an observation after having played the XBOX 360 version last year, at least 'til I encountered a gamestopper prior to the patch: yes, it's better; but, not by much. SNIPER is still bogged down by the leash of mediocrity and missed opportunities.
Muddy textures, pop-in and other odd visual quirks are accentuated byLet me preface this short opinion-piece on SNIPER: Ghost Warrior with an observation after having played the XBOX 360 version last year, at least 'til I encountered a gamestopper prior to the patch: yes, it's better; but, not by much. SNIPER is still bogged down by the leash of mediocrity and missed opportunities.
Muddy textures, pop-in and other odd visual quirks are accentuated by often poor FPS. While the AI has been modified, op-for still perform like clowns at the circus, they either can target and hit your toon from across the map with an assault rifle or they stand mute, ignorant and complacent while you pop a melon right in front of 'em. Stiff and jerky animations prevail with your sniper getting stuck on environmental objects frequently. Op-for spawn into the level from out-of-bounds areas based upon trigger points and checkpoints can be triggered when your sniper is low on health or surrounded for a sharp lesson in "die and retry" savegame mechanics. What is odd, is that the rope and climbing bugs from the first version have been ironed-out and almost work, in a clunky, undesirable manner. And, while your sniper might rappel down the side of cliff overhangs, he simply canNOT mantle over small objects such as waist-high fences or foliage. Sometimes, a ladder might be climb-able and other times, not. Ladder climbing is a Half-Life affair as your sniper magically floats up the rungs of any ladder. Crawling is equally underdeveloped with your sniper's rifle floating, nearly stationary, while your toon fumbles about. However, the devs DID make it possible to crawl on top of a roof system and fire downward at odd angles for easier targeting. BUT, the most annoying idiosyncratic oddity with SNIPER (for me) will be your toon's incessant snorting, huffing and puffing while in scopeview. In addition to severe asthma, your sniper will wobble the scope to and fro, up and down without respite until you push the requisite button. More "game-y" and annoying, this minigame reminded me of a 4 year old waving about their first camera phone. Add to this frustration, the lensview of the scope suffers from major pop-in and muddy textures so that when sighting, you will have to wait while the textures resolve into something intelligible. Often, I would target some op-for and by the time he was redrawn for scope view, he'd changed position so I wasn't able to take the shot. The overall stealth mechanics of SNIPER are fiddly and unconvincing. Enemies do not seemingly patrol routes, they stand and wait. They never group their forces to hunt you down, either. One HUGE complaint is the many clipping issues that you will likely encounter. Targeting is hit or miss, pardon the pun, but while your sniper can occasionally target and hit through semi-hard surfaces, FORGET about tagging an op-for hiding behind a fern. Bullet trajectories, seemingly, cannot traverse environmental areas with a high density of foliage. No, not trees, -ferns and bushes. Correct, you cannot shoot through a fern. Op-for, in fact, will hide behind bushes and fern-like plants. So, for all the devs bravado over "realism" SNIPER cannot shoot through many of the plants on display. :(
Sniper Elite for the first XBOX and later, PS2, WAS a very good sniper game with many similar mechanics. It's unfortunate that the devs of this new franchise cannot seem to meld CQB stealth mechanics with long distance sniping.… Expand