Sniper: Ghost Warrior review

Anyone who has ever played a first-person shooter game, such as Call of Duty, will doubtless have had the pleasure of playing through the sniping level, the inevitable part of the game where you’re suddenly handed a scoped rifle and tasked with picking off your enemies from afar.

It’s a classic way of breaking up the action but would you want a whole game made up of this sort of gameplay? That is, broadly speaking, what you get with Sniper: Ghost Warrior.

In the game, you get to play a number of different characters, each of whom has a part to play in reclaiming a small island nation from a hostile military regime, usually by, you guessed it, sniping your way from point A to point B.

To be fair, some effort has been made to try and prevent the game from sliding into one-note telescopic tedium. Mission objectives are relatively varied and each of the characters you play has a slightly different take on the action. Sometimes stealth is very much the way forward, while other instances require a more traditional ‘guns blazing’ approach.

Unfortunately a number of annoying quirks mar what could have been a surprisingly fun game. Take the graphics: at first they seem pretty good, with jungle environments that look rich and detailed, for example. The trouble is that, while Ghost Warrior often encourages you to crouch down and conceal yourself amongst the foliage, your enemies’ reactions aren’t always as realistic. Often they’ll spot you regardless of how well hidden you are, while a single, dark, textureless leaf shape entirely obscures your aim and prevents you from returning fire.

Get past Ghost Warrior’s frequent frustrations and the game will, at the very least, provide you with more than the occasional opportunity to pull off some satisfying sniper shots. Multiplayer modes have a similarly enjoyable quality, though they fail to stand out from the crowd.

If you’re looking for an authentic simulation of real-life sniper-based military operations, then Sniper: Ghost Warrior isn’t it. Instead it’s a moderately entertaining shooter that wears its flaws on its camouflaged sleeve.

PEGI age rating: 16+