Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 Review for PlayStation 5

My experience with first person shooters usually doesn’t involve the ones that are very militaristic such as the seasonal ones we get like Call of Duty or Battlefield. The multiplayers often scare me away. I can admit I am not good enough to play with the big boys, nor do I care to spend enough time getting better at them. Fortunately, with Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, I was enamored by this different approach to the first-person shooter genre. From developer CI Games, this is another addition to their Sniper series, but my first time playing any of them, and with the sniper-centric approach, I found it quite refreshing. 

These aren’t really the types of games where you go in for the compelling story. This one isn’t much of an exception, but it is serviceable enough to get you going. The real draw here is honing your marksman skills and popping heads like popcorn. You play as Raven, a contract sniper who is hired to take out several baddies throughout areas of the Middle East. The overall story is mainly to keep your character going from mission to mission, with a game like this, I was perfectly fine with that. 

I was taken aback by how gory “SGWC2” actually is, and I was relishing in all of it. Whenever you make a kill shot everything goes in slow motion, the bullet explodes out of the barrel of your rifle and you satisfyingly follow it all the way to your target. Often times the shot will land on the head, if so, you’re in for some amazing head explosion physics that give the likes of Mortal Kombat a run for their money. I don’t know what that says about me, getting so much joy out of taking the perfect shot and then taking pleasure watching a most violent death present itself on screen, but I don’t care. It’s a fun time, the developers know that and lean into it. 

I feel like this game is also tailored towards gamers with a bit more patience; this isn’t like the seasonal military games where guns are blazing all the time. It’s much more tactical. You scope out your surroundings, you have gadgets such as a drone to help you locate all nearby targets, or even to hack enemy computers for intel. Once an area is surveyed, you have the option to do whatever you want; you could run and gun with an automatic rifle, but that usually puts you in more trouble than you’d like. Sniping from afar is the name of the game here. It may actually take time and effort for you to get to your main sniping location and that’s what the second part of a level is about. Traveling to the right destination, camping out, and killing your enemies in a timely and strategic manor. This is a take that may not be for many people, and maybe not even for me, because I’ll be honest, I’m not that good at it. But I respect it. 

The level designs are very smartly designed to be tailored for the sniper experience and I was also blown away at how good “SGWC2” looks. I feel the graphics can easily be compared to some of the year’s big heavy hitters. Having released back in June, this Playstation 5 version is a little late to the game, but it makes up for it in all the awesomeness the console has to offer, including its DualSense. Each weapon physically feels different when using it, there is weight to the triggers. The haptics I felt were very smartly used. 

If I had to critique the game, I guess it would be selfish critiques that may only pertain to just me, such as I find the game to be a bit too difficult, even on the easiest setting. I feel like using a mouse and keyboard will be more people’s cup of tea. Also, there are many instances where I feel like I messed up the mission by letting someone escape all because I missed a shot or two and redeeming your screwups were just too difficult. But even though it’s hard, I was able to power through eventually, although it did hinder my overall enjoyment of the experience. Having said that, even if I wasn’t their main demographic, I think what they were aiming for here they hit a solid bullseye. I could easily see this as the new gold standard for sniping games. 

8/10 

You can check out the Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 trailer here – https://youtu.be/wJjRzgwLZfU

More information about Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 can be found at www.SniperGhostWarriorContracts2.com.

Nick Navarro

+ posts

Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87

• Metal Slug Tactics Review for PlayStation 5
• Empire of the Ants Review for PlayStation 5
• SLITTERHEAD Review for PlayStation 5
• Dragon Age: The Veilguard Review for PlayStation 5