Hello Ladies and Gentleman, and welcome back for another E3 2019 coverage from Honey’s Anime. We were graced with the privilege of attending a presentation from CI Games Studios about their title, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts! If you are familiar with previous Sniper Ghost Warrior titles, then Contracts will surely challenge you further and make you fall in love with the intricate details you’ll experience in Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts. Keep reading on if you want to know what’s coming to you when SGW Contracts launches on PC, Xbox, and PS4.
We were shown the latest installment to the Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise where CI Games has listened to their audience and changed from an open-world environment to a sandbox style map. This signifies a complete full experience of Sniper Ghost Warriors at is best because CI Games actually listened. They’ve also made contracts clean and clean to understand and you can also complete them in any order you choose. There is the ability to work through puzzles within the game that add extra replay value when you want to complete all of them and the game rewards the player with unique tokens and in-game cash. These currencies are ways to upgrade your weapons, gear, character, and more.
One of the first things shown to us was their new map for SGW Contracts called, the Snowstorm Map set in Siberia, and thus, our first experience with a contract in Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts. We are transported to a mission briefing where we are told our target is a Russian scientist and his needs to be eliminated. CI Games chose Russian as their setting because it provides a wide variety of content like maps with snowy areas, forest areas, industrial areas, and so on. There is a lot you can do visually so they were pretty excited about that.
Each map has a portion of it dedicated to specific contracts which you can complete in any order and at any time. The contract you are active with will be shown in a red glow highlighting where you should be heading. Since stealth is also a huge attribute in the game, it is possible to avoid all confrontation if you wanted to but let’s be real, who wants to do that?! Especially, when CI Games implemented their new and enhanced scope features which have the ability to hit 24x zoom and hit targets as you search your surroundings. The previous zoom view was rather small so CI Games widened the view to Full Screen for more immersion and better range of view. This is a matter of keeping the integrity of being a sniper and trying to exploit the details of it in the game.
With the new zoom features, you can see precision items light fuse boxes and security cameras from about a kilometer away, you can see grenades on the side of a soldiers belt that you can shoot to use as an advantage, but that would be too loud so there are other ways of being efficient and quiet at the same time. So what they did next was show us how you can change your bullet types on the spot and use them to your advantage when it comes to taking down two targets at the same time. You will, of course, need to fully equip yourself before you go out on a mission, so make sure you have the right items in your loadout based on the contract you will be taking on—tems such as Armor-piercing bullets, EMP bullets, Tagging bullets, Luring bullet, and more. And what is being a sniper if you can’t, or rather have to, hide the bodies you kill so it doesn’t raise any alarms. The fact that you can choose to ignore this or not but your decisions will drastically affect your gameplay. That’s why being quiet and stealthy will be the best option for the game.
The use of binoculars is very handy in Sniper Ghost Warriors Contracts, as it allows you to marks the enemy in the surrounding area making it easier to maneuver around without being seen. The binoculars also help you find other items or tech that may be against or with you on the field. When coming across enemies, you have to also be mindful of your surroundings/environment as there can be land mines laying around and if you kill someone and they fall on a land mine, then your problems immediately graduate to issues without a tissue! In addition to silent takedowns, the adaptive environment, adaptive AI, you also have an upgraded tech kit at your disposal. With perimeter warning devices to watch your back by notifying you when someone is approaching, completing your contracts have never been more exciting and achievable!
What is nice about Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is that the maps will have a lot of infiltration points throughout the game which brings new ways to complete your contracts while also making it challenging as well. When talking about the bounty system CI Games has implemented, you can go out on your main contract but if another contract suddenly becomes available while playing, you can stop, go to that contract and play it first before finishing the original contract you were working on. At the same time, if another player decides to show up and play the same contract, they can go in and steal your contract so be careful. If you use the Tagging bullets, you can shoot them where you think it is a good place to hide for snipers—other players—or your main target.
When aiming at a target, you have to take into account for the wind speed and weather in-game or you could miss some very valuable targets. A new feature allows you to adjust your scope on the fly and also has a very nifty red dot marking where the bullet could “potentially” hit but let’s be real, it’s just another assist feature. Don’t get us wrong, we have nothing against assist features as long as you have the ability to turn the UI off for that specific function. We love us a challenge but also know that some games are unforgiving! And if you want that extra added experience which seems not too far from reality, you can wear and upgrade tactical masks for the field. Some have attributes made for specific conditions but others are adaptive.
Once you find your mark/target, all you need to do is select your loadout, make sure to stick with what you packed yourself with because some gear combinations can quickly work against you if you aren’t careful. After you kill your target, you still need to get out so having the right amount of ammo is a necessity but if all hell breaks loose, then taking the enemies weapons is the next best thing.
Honey’s Final Thoughts
After seeing some gameplay, testing it out for ourselves, and asking some questions that warranted an explanation in the kindest manner possible, we are in love with the franchise once again. Not that we never stop loving them, just this new iteration looks like it is going to the best one yet. In addition to encountering other players on the field, and you being able to kill them if need be, there is a leaderboard tracker for that specifically and you can also compete with other players based on stats from your completed contracts. The more you compete, the harder the other opponents will be as everyone is competing to be the fastest or more efficient and accurate.
Another main feature that we also enjoyed is that for your missions, it is possible to complete them with just a knife in hand but that will be difficult but yet, challenging. This is possible because the maps are very open even though they are sandbox style. They’re just huge maps but because of the openness, you are able to move around more and choose the right spot to advance or take down an enemy. The beautiful cutscenes after you shoot your weapon and the bullet slow-motions its way to the sorry bastard at the other end of the barrel is still there, still awesome, and looking better and better every time.
Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is slated t release this year so we can hopefully look forward to it towards the end of the year but definitely not at or around the same time as Cyber Punk 2077, Borderlands 3, and/or Monster Hunter: World - Iceborne! Those titles will overshadow it… If this game sounds like it’s right down your alley, then make sure stop let us know in the comment box below. We’d love to hear from you and talk some more about what we all love video games and anime!
Ja ne!
Author: Alfonso "Fonzy" Ortiz