Home Gaming Hands on with Sniper Ghost Warrior III – Deadly hands, deadlier lands

Hands on with Sniper Ghost Warrior III – Deadly hands, deadlier lands

4 min read
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If there’s one thing that the Sniper Ghost Warrior games pretty much nailed, it was the titular sniping of the series title. Few other games managed to make long-distance killing as authentic as that series of games, with the mechanics behind the rifles reaching a high point in Sniper Ghost Warrior II.

So how does one build on that idea, and make a Sniper Ghost Warrior game that adds more to the experience in its crosshairs? By making the world around your marksman, a deadly and dangerous enemy.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (5)

Over at E3, CI Games demoed their sequel, before I got a chance to go hands on with it. And it’s a massively different game now, when compared to its predecessors. Inspired by the Bosnian war of the early 1990s, Sniper Ghost Warrior III has players stalking the lands as Marine Scout Jonathan North.

Far behind enemy lines, players have to locate and find an enemy sniper who has crucial intel on the American presence in Georgia, which if revealed could escalate a cold war into a full and bloody open conflict between the USA and Russia, a war that could drag the rest of the world in as well.

The catch here? That rogue sniper happens to be your younger brother, who also has the advantage of being a better sniper than you and quite possibly insane. Time to make a tough decision.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (1)

But there’s more to the game than just a massive open-world and a clear objective. Beyond that, CI Games say that you’ll be free to carve your own path as you hunt down your brother. The game won’t tell you what to do or where to go, leaving you to figure that information out for yourself, throwing in some side quests to the main mission at hand.

And that makes for a hell of a different game. Sure, there were some markers present when I went hands on, but Sniper Ghost Warrior III definitely felt open-world. Dangerously so. I died during that session. A lot. Natural pitfalls, snipers who could actually see from hundreds of meters away and land mines resulted in an episode of a 100 Ways To Die as I slowly figured out to not rush the game and to actually take my time exploring the landscape.

And to do so, I’d need some tools – which the game provided. My key tool being a portable drone which I could use to survey the landscape…provided that the enemy didn’t see it and alert an entire base to my location. And that’s going to be another trademark of this game. According to CI, enemy soldiers aren’t going to give up looking for you when you’ve left a bullet in the head of one of their comrades and return to a cigarette break.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (3)

They’re going to scour the landscape trying to find you, and having an exit strategy in place is the key to success here. One detour to kill an enemy commander provided three points from which to end his life. Players could infiltrate and get up close inside of his army base, or snipe him from a vantage point that was guarded by perimeter patrols.

Distance sniping carried its own challenge, as not only would you have to hit your target, but compensate for all manner of things such as air humidity, rain, wind and other factors which could alter the path of your bullet. Even the sniping mechanics feel more authentic now, with body factors such as breathing affecting my killshot.

For once, it felt like more than a simple game of just aiming and pulling a digital trigger. And once that kill went off, I had to haul ass.

The base went on full alert, a chopper started combing the land and soldiers mobilised. Sniper Ghost Warrior III is clearly not f***ing around. And that’s the game, instantly summed up.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 (2)

Sniper Ghost Warrior III is going to appeal to players who want to play chess with their environment, enemies and allies. The game isn’t a run ‘n gun extravaganza. It’s a tactical survivor course, where lighting up your survivor sense in order to survey your killing grounds becomes second nature. Players don’t level up, they increase their skills through practise. The more you do, the better you get. Simple.

It’s bloody tense, and the slower, more natural pace may throw off players who are used to charging in headfirst and adopting spray ‘n pray tactics. That won’t work here. You’ll be dead within minutes and the game will be over. But adopting the mindset of a sniper, observing your environment and planning every kill?

That’s the kind of game that Sniper Ghost Warrior III is. And that’s a  refreshing change of pace in a game where every kill truly does matter.

Last Updated: June 22, 2015

23 Comments

  1. Geoffrey Tim

    June 22, 2015 at 11:03

    that sounds cool, but does it have POCs and women in it?

    Reply

    • Blood Emperor Trevor

      June 22, 2015 at 11:19

      I hope so, tired of shooting straight white men, need some diversity. 😉

      Reply

      • Ranting Raptor

        June 22, 2015 at 11:22

        Oh so now you want to perpetuate race hate with violence?

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          June 22, 2015 at 11:23

          And gender & sexuality. Gotta hate ’em all!

          Reply

        • SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

          June 22, 2015 at 11:25

          I find if you indiscriminately murder everyone, you can’t really be guilty of race hate.
          Being a bastard, yes. But perpetuating racial hatred? Hardly.

          Reply

        • SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

          June 22, 2015 at 11:25

          I find if you indiscriminately murder everyone, you can’t really be guilty of race hate.
          Being a bastard, yes. But perpetuating racial hatred? Hardly.

          Reply

    • Greylingad[CNFRMD]

      June 22, 2015 at 11:32

      This^

      Reply

  2. Blood Emperor Trevor

    June 22, 2015 at 11:18

    I’ve played the 2 previous ones, I’d never call them authentic or even very good. Fun, but not very good. They were okay, linear shooters where your spotter held your hand every step of the way.

    This one sounds more promising though.

    Reply

  3. Hammersteyn

    June 22, 2015 at 11:21

    • Ranting Raptor

      June 22, 2015 at 11:28

      Hey at least it wasn’t Snip-three-R

      Reply

      • SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

        June 22, 2015 at 11:30

        Or “SNIPPER 3: GHOST WARRIOR” in which you play a derange grandma running around and cutting off random bits of hair from your enemies head.

        Reply

        • Blood Emperor Trevor

          June 22, 2015 at 11:32

          SNIPPER 3: THE CIRCUMCISION – this time, it’s personal!

          Reply

          • SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

            June 22, 2015 at 11:34

            Lead role given to Arnold Schwarzenegger.

          • HvR

            June 22, 2015 at 12:09

            Shia LaBeouf seems like a better option as a lead.

        • Ranting Raptor

          June 22, 2015 at 11:33

          looooool

          Reply

  4. SargonTheBatpandaOfTI5

    June 22, 2015 at 11:27

    This sounds pretty cool. I like the idea that this game sounds like it wants to present to the player.

    BUT BUT BUT does it have the AWESOME KILL MURDER TESTICLE RIPPING CAM that Sniper Elite has? Because those REALLY make the long range kills (read short enough range to murder a man’s unborn children) worth it.

    Reply

  5. Klipkop1980

    June 22, 2015 at 11:50

    Just press “Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q Q”, place will light up like a Xmas tree. <— That one is for all the Bad Company 2 veterans out there….stay strong, brothers.

    Reply

  6. Michael

    June 22, 2015 at 14:43

    Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 sounds good for me. All of this information about this game sounds great and I hope they realize it and Sniper will be great game. Older brother vs junger brother? Honestly I’m in:) It can be great story and I want to see it on my eye.

    Reply

  7. Jonah Cash

    June 22, 2015 at 17:27

    I want this game! I enjoyed 1 and 2 more than what I should have 🙂

    Reply

  8. Twisted_rail

    June 26, 2015 at 20:33

    This drone looks nice! Sniper Ghost Warrior III is clearly not f***ing around. 😀

    Reply

  9. Rollo

    July 4, 2015 at 00:03

    SGW3 looks pretty 😉 Open world, good story (I hope), realistic game – what we want more? Mare few beers, free week at work and wife visiting her mother 😀

    Reply

  10. Rollo

    July 4, 2015 at 00:03

    SGW3 looks pretty 😉 Open world, good story (I hope), realistic game – what we want more? Mare few beers, free week at work and wife visiting her mother 😀

    Reply

  11. Clamp

    July 7, 2015 at 19:41

    Great news from the front. Sniper Ghost Warrior III with more creative thinking of “how to kill” and not onlu go ‘n’ shot. I wonder if CI Games will release the E3 Demo for PC or consoles. This would be nice.

    Reply

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