CI Games returns with the fourth entry in its Sniper Ghost Warrior (SGW) series. Though I have played Rebellion’s Sniper Elite series fairly heavily, I have not spent much time in Sniper Ghost Warrior, until getting a review code for this latest entry, SGW: Contracts. If you’re thinking this sounds like a blend of Hitman: Contracts and SGW, you’re not far off.
You take the role of “Seeker,” a generic merc who agrees to take on numerous assassination contracts provided to you by Handler. Handler is that sort of constant voice-in-your-ear character, or head rather. As part of the opening cutscenes, you are being provided a specialized hi-tech mask that gives you realtime field data and information about the weapons you’re carrying. It’s near-future sci-fi stuff, and that’s fine, I was on board with it. Anyhow, Handler tells you about how the area of Siberia is unrest after a revolution against Russia was completed, only for the new Siberian government to immediately become corrupt and cause a group known as the Siberian Wolves to rise up against them. Stealing state goods and trying to destroy the natural resource commodities of Siberia is their way of showing disapproval with the newly positioned government. Your job is to take out key targets while gathering intel and a few other types of typical clandestine goals.
After the opening cutscene, players are placed in a secret mountainous training ground that allows you to test your sniping skills against pop-up targets and to also try alternate ammo. I played on the medium difficulty and found the accuracy of shooting to be more cumbersome and unpredictable than I anticipated. Players can tag enemies with their binoculars or spot them in their scopes to tag them. Then, with your special mask, you can get a good reading on wind speed and direction, as well as distance and bullet drop. A small animation that plays while you’re not holding your breath shows how the bullets trajectory will go. You can also adjust the scope’s distance setting to better match the calculated distance of the target, too. Nevertheless, despite being prone and holding my breath, it took me a little while to get accustomed to being accurate.
After this opening training set you’ll be dropped into your first contract. As the game carries on, another four major areas open up and players are invited to come back to take on more optional objectives, find collectibles, take on special bounties, and things like that to keep you going. However, I found myself eager to push through the primary objectives and little else, I just wasn’t invested in the experience. My character was essentially a generic, faceless merc with a disagreeable outlook. The Tom Clancy-ish backstory was also a lot of familiar hoopla that wasn’t engaging, similar to Ghost Recon/Rainbow 6/Splinter Cell games. Bland AI combined with cheap shots from enemy snipers further reduced the amount of fun and investment I was willing to put into Contracts.
On the flip side, SGW: Contracts does have some polish in its visual presentation and when it’s at its best it is fun, in spurts. Completing objectives and finding collectibles while being a badass sniper is, not surprisingly, a fun experience when things are clicking. That said, being able to play this is local co-op would have made up for a lot of the frustrations and short-comings that I encountered in single player, but at least the game doesn’t rely on lootboxes, live services, or multiplayer. If you’re looking for an okay FPS sniping experience, SGW Contracts is not a bad choice, but it leaves a lot of room for growth.
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