Many first-person shooter fans will tell you that there is an unparalleled joy in picking up a sniper rifle in a game. The whole process of stealth and precision, before basking in the glory of your target crumpling silently to the ground a million miles away. Perhaps it's that whole sense of inconsequential action, with you tucked away secretly in the distance as an invisible assassin. Or maybe it's just inflicting chaos as you watch your helpless enemies run around in horror, not knowing where your shot came from.
For those who understand what I'm talking about, Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is intended to float your boat. But while it promises to deliver one of the most realistic and exciting sniper video games to date, it certainly has its fair share of faults. Unfortunately, these faults creep into nearly every facet of the game, much like a ghost warrior of glitches.
One of the main issues, despite a marketing angle that targets this game toward a niche audience, is how derivative Ghost Warrior 2 is. When you're playing, the game reminds you of every other sniping mission you've ever played in a video game. Except with all of the fun sucked out of it.
Ghost Warrior 2 is painfully linear, with each mission forcing you to adhere to set rules and directions. One of the joys of sniping games is assessing your surroundings and plotting the ideal vantage spot to take down your opponents. Here, all of that freedom is stripped away from you. There are no alternative routes or even much variation from one mission to the next. Instead, the game constantly instructs you where you should go, who you should shoot, and even when you need to hide. There were moments in the game where I expected it to tell me to go wash my hands or eat my vegetables. The game seems to suffer from extreme obsessive compulsive disorder. And if you go against any of the multitude of orders being barked at you, it's an instant fail.
When you're not being ordered around, you will get the chance to actually play the game. Again, the fun-factor has been limited severely thanks to dull AI - enemies will simply stand around like cardboard cutouts. They also don't seem to have any problems when stumbling across piles of dead men, often ignoring their fallen comrades while standing a few metres from them. Granted, there are times when the AI gets it right, such as rushing your position in numbers or taking cover behind a big rock. But most of the time you'll be picking off targets as if you're at a carnival duck shooting gallery.
