Is that the one where you had to reposition the satellite dishes or which one was it?

I'm almost finished with this one. Act 4 with two story missions to go, all side ops and Most Wanted done and dusted.

If, like me, you want the achievement for a 500m shot, just wait until act 4 and you'll get it in a mission (side op)

I've had fun with this game.

Yes, it´s the one were you have to reposition the satellite dishes.

Yes, I liked that one too. Most missions I found engaging enough. One of the Act 4 missions was tough, I died twice. In all though 14 deaths and 800 kills That's a lot of sniping.

No, I have to say I died more then once in each mission. I guess it has to do with the hard mode, or Iam just rushing at times. I also find it engaging and fun, definitely a good gaming experience on my end too

And there´s always the Challange mode...



Red

Picked up SGW Contracts...
Fanatical Sniper Ghost Warrior

Havent played it yet, downloading now.

Red

Let us know how it goes Red... I will get this eventually!

Hi Trooper117!

Ok, these are my initial thoughts playing in Sniper mode (three modes: Marksman, Sniper, and Eye something), being Sniper the standard mode. Marksman is easy, Sniper standard, and Eye whatever hard...

The bad:

- It´s not like SGW3 were you can drive your buggy around the map as you please, or set the time of day. There´s no hide-out either. Crafting, Iam not sure as I havent done any of that. But I think there´s no crafting (bench) like SGW3, it´s more of a point system were you unlock gadgets or buy stuff. Not as many ways of approach as SGW3.

Personally, I miss the freedom of SGW3, and the hide-out. Basically I miss all of the above, but the game compensates all that in other ways.

- Maps are actually the contracts area, In other words, you have a huge map were all the side missions/contract happens. It´s condense in a large map, although you don´t have as many ways of approach as SGW3, there are ways to do so though.
- Fast travel is set as you advance. Not like SGW3 were you had to drive there first in order to unlock that fast travel point.
- I personally don´t like the Mask gadget, and the futuristic crap developers put in games like these. I can live with a drone, and EMP nades but that´s about it. Give me a bino with thermal, NV and a range finder and be done!
- The EAC (Easy Anti Cheat) is not liked by alot of users. My guess is that it´s implemented because they plan to add multiplayer later on. MP was added later in SWG3, and alot of users complained about in-game hackers, so it makes sense they added EAC now.
- Had a CTD on the tutorial, and SGWC would not close (ran in background) on the first plays, but that fixed it´s self by rebooting my PC.
- They need to add some sort of queue (aim dot) for when throwing nades or knifes.

While it seems there´s more bad things then good, it has to do more with differences between each other, and not that one is better then the other.

The good:

- Ballistics are ALOT better then SGW3! You can actually see the bullet drop among other things. You will miss alot of shots, and moving targets are hard to hit. Alot of wind in the first map!

This personally makes up for everything bad (different) in the game for me!

- AI is alot smarter then SGW3.
- While not as many areas of approach as SGW3, the ones you do have, have to be very well though out and planned. It´s more of a thinking mans game now.
- In high settings the game runs just fine for me. Looks great too!
- Overall the game is alot more difficult, at least in Sniper mode. For me that´s great.

All this is just trying the first mission and in Sniper mode, as said initial thoughts.

Bear in mind that when SGW3 was released, it was aimed as a triple A game, thus had a 60 doller price tag at launch, that meant it had to be bigger and with more options. SGWC has a smaller price tag and it´s more condense in it´s options, which dosent necessarily mean a bad thing. From what I have red, there´s 15-20hrs of gameplay, so that´s quite resonable at it´s price point.

Putting aside the futuristic BS, I have a feeling that they will expand on this title alot more then SGW3 because of it´s better bullet mechanics, I think they really improved the ballistics, and that´s what a sniper game is all about, ballistics and stealth. People are asking a remaster of SGW3 with SGWC ballistics, just so you get an Idea of what hey have achieved now with SGWC.

Anyhow, back to snipping....

Red

Thanks for the review Red.

I finished SGW3 yesterday. Had to play the final mission twice, died twice more and ended with 16. I got the achievement for taking 500 hits just before the game ended. I did not manage to unlock every weapon, though I completed every mission. Must be a few still hidden out there that were not mission rewards.

It was three maps not four as I said earlier. I think they are 9km x 9km, so fairly big.

I liked the game, but I feel like it would have been much better with more tension outside the missions. Roving enemy patrols would have been great, as I mentioned already. The way NPCs spawn or appear should have been handled differently as well. Too often they were invisible even though they should have been well within view. But crossing over the magic line made them all appear suddenly. This severely limited the long-distance sniping to really test your skill. My longest kill shot ended up being around 535m, which is a long shot, but it was only because it was on a mission designed for it. Most shots came under 250m.

My preferred loadout for the second half of the game was

Brezatelya sniper rifle -- Fictitious name for the VSS Vintorez subsonic sniper rifle. Mis-chambered in 7.62x51 (should be 9x39). Integrated suppressor never degrades. Slightly quieter than other sniper rifles. Short barrel length makes it good in interiors and near cover. 20-round mag with upgrade for sufficient ammunition for any mission. I tried out all scopes, but generally went with the x8 x16 x32 Scope. The ones with four magnification levels seemed to have an adverse effect on scope movement, slower, I suppose due to their much larger size.

For ammunition I never used explosive or tagging rounds. I did use the luring rounds a lot, enough to get the achievement. And of course standard ball and AP. I crafted the ammo to save money, even though it isn't really necessary if you're scavenging. You'll have plenty of cash and mats.

Herstal assault rifle -- M4A1 chambered in 5.56. I rarely used this weapon, or any secondary weapon really. But there are times when the sh!t hits the fan and the automatic fire is appreciated. I wanted to use a bow, because stealth's my thing, but the lack of magnification of the sight makes it mostly impractical. Good indoors, but mostly useless outdoors.

Wagram pistol -- Glock 21 .45. Used the pistol a little more, and this one had good stopping power compared to the 9mm choices, but you really need a headshot and that's hard except at close range.

I used the heaviest body armor I had unlocked. For gadgets I carried a variety, but these never get used. I tried planting a few gas mines on one mission but more likely to set them off myself. Knife got used quite a bit for close range stealth takedowns. Threw a few grenades. I could have easily played through the game with no gadgets at all.

For the drone I went with

Advanced Camo
Big Battery
Intelligent Recon
Hacking

I didn't use the drone much early on, but as time went on I began using it more and more. By the end it was essential piece of gear, particularly to tag enemies and hack the panels for the cameras.

It's a good game that requires some skill (don't play on easy level), with some cool missions, nice graphics and cool kit. It's let down somewhat by an open world design lacking any random encounters or dangers (aside from wolves) and exploitable NPCs that give up the search after five minutes despite the dead bodies at their feet.

CI Games sale on Steam...
Ghost Warriror 3, Ghost Warrior Contracts etc.

CI Games sale

Red

So the sale is on for a few more hours and I am really tempted by the cheap prices on Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 and 3. As someone who doesn't like STEALTH games much, but does like Sniping, and a more casual play style, do you think I would like 2 better than 3 from the perspective of a more linear game vs. more open world or general style? They are cheap enough to get both....but I already have so many games I never play....I am hesitant to add a few more.

For reference, I did like Sniper Elite 2, though I am inexorably stuck on the Tiergarten Flak Tower level which I cannot seem to pass either by Stealth or by Run and Gun....

I only played 3. So I cannot help much Recluse, but stealth is a core component of that game. Remaining undetected is the aim. For me it was well worth the 8 bucks I spent on it, and I even finished it, which says something right there. Using cover, distance and working out the path and timing of patrols is a key part of it. The season pass version is only $9 and the base game is five under this sale and for that price I'd say give it a go.

Ghost Warrior 2 has good Steam comments, players like it for the most part. It's a few years older, but that never stops me.

Hey Red, have you put more time in to Contracts? Has your view of the sniping changed at all? I'm all for improved sniping mechanics over SGW3, but I get the feeling maybe they overthought it. What's your take?

And I want to add that even though I mentioned the dialog early in this thread, that by the end it was truly atrocious. Straight out of a Steven Seagal movie. I didn't care, but it was pretty bad. Actually the story was pretty bad, but the ending was OK. I liked it for the stealth, the shooting and tactical-puzzle approach I took to each of the outdoors missions. Indoors is kind of difficult, all about timing. But those indoors areas are few thankfully.

Once past the tutorial and having arrived at the first safehouse, the game opens up. I liked how I could set my own pace on everything. There were only one or two timed sequences in the game. I just practiced on outposts for a few hours before I tried the first story mission.

I guess Iam late to reply, either way I still maintain my thoughts with Contracts. Havent played it lately, but I was having a hard time getting to one of the objectives in the first map, which is a good thing because that means I have to re-think my initial plan. But yea. as I said, the sniping is improved in Conracts versus GW3.

Red

Well, I pulled the trigger... pun intended. We'll see!! Ended up getting the Franchise Pack as the cost was about the same as Vanilla SGW 2 + SGW3. SGW 1 got such bad reviews I doubt I will even look at that.

Now all I need to do is tear myself away from finishing the Blood And Wine expansion to Witcher 3! I thought Hearts of Stone was long... more quests keep popping up in Blood and Wine!!

Thanks Red. I think I'm going to miss this sale. I'll still be at work by the time it ends, so I will wait until the next one to pick up Contracts. That's two sales in two months so I expect another one before too long.

Let us know what you think of it Recluse. Once you get through the tutorial it's better. The rest of the game is not the hand-holding experience that the prologue is.

Yeah, Witcher 3 is great, I still count it as the best video game ever. The expansions are great too.

Well, SGW3 will be there when you are done. I looked at Steam and I got 68 hours out of Ghost Warrior 3 and that's having skipped some stuff. But I did take a slow approach.

SGWC has just released the Multiplayer mode.

GOG has a sale on the series, ends soon.

Red

You know what game has an interesting multiplayer mode? Hitman 2. Actually, it has a few. But one of them pits two players against each other in a race to take out the five random targets on the map, and the kills must be unnoticed of course. It's called Ghost Mode. You can see the other player, but he is in his own instance, so his actions don't affect you or the other way around. Except for one thing, you can toss coins that DO affect his instance. So for example you could watch him disposing of his target, but throw a coin that makes a guard investigate and catch your opponent in the act.

It's pretty cool. Not to go too far off tangent, but I've been playing the sh!t out of Hitman 2. It's a great game. There is sniping, but it's simplistic and there aren't too many opportunities to use it. And even then you have to smuggle a sniper rifle in, which means there is something else you aren't smuggling in. Opportunity cost. I bought Hitman (2016) too, and the two games can be combined and played under the Hitman 2 banner. Great maps, tons of solutions, good mechanics. I love getting kills when I've already moved to a different part of the map. So satisfying. Like poison, or setting up an 'accident' that your target triggers while you are far away. Good stuff.

But that is not Ghost Warrior. Forgive the derail. Oh wait, it's my thread right? I'll allow it

I finally got around to picking up Contracts, as I needed to fill the schedule gap resulting from the delay of Cyberpunk haha. It's on sale for half-off at the mo. I played through the prologue and first contract. Not sure what I think yet. Maybe it's just the fact that I am going through a tutorial sort of section, but I hope the game opens out a bit. There are some interesting bits, but it will take time to get a proper feel for it. For the price it's definitely worth a punt, and I think once I get further in and have some freedom it will pick up. So far it has more of a spec ops vibe to it than a sniper game. Instead of taking down an encampment from range I am expected to infiltrate and find and destroy things. Close range and indoor action was not a strong suit of SGW3 in my view so I hope there is not much of this, and it's more about shooting dudes from very long range.

I completed the first of the five maps and have a better handle on things now. Contracts is pretty good. I'm playing on the middle 'Sniper' difficulty. The story is a bit convoluted and I'm not really paying much attention to the backstory and what my motivations should be. I'm just in it for the shooting.

As mentioned, it feels a bit more spec ops than sniper. On the first map at least the objectives included assassinations, finding virus samples, destroying files on a laptop and that sort of thing. So rather than being a game focused on long-range sniping, it's a bit of a hybrid. SGW3 had some of this too, but that game felt more slanted toward the sniping. Here, the objectives force you to close the enemy at times.

Contracts has five maps, which are quite large. The player is given a number of objectives and challenges to complete, which you can do at your own pace and in any order. Completing these pays in two types of currency, cash and tokens. Cash and tokens are then used to purchase new weapons and gadgets, modify them, and to upgrade the player's skills. I played the entire first level with the starting equipment, but I gained enough currency that I was able to buy a new pistol, a drone and apply a number of upgrades to my equipment and skills before the second map. The weapons and gadgets choices are fairly extensive, but if it's anything like SGW3 I'll just use the sniper rifle and the drone most of the time. With the added emphasis on getting down in the weeds, the pistol, shotgun and other tools have a bit more utility in Contracts.

New for this game is the mask. It scans the surroundings and highlights important bits -- collectibles, mission objectives, hackables and so on. Also new is the Dynamic Reticle System, which adds a shot fall line, showing the projectile path displaying bullet drop and wind effects. It feels like training wheels. It helps, but really isn't needed, nor wanted in my case. The shooting in SGW3 felt like an art, the Kentucky windage being the player's responsibility. But here that is simplified and displayed, taking some of the skill out of it. Maybe it can be turned off but I'm using it for now.

The sniping itself is largely unchanged aside from the new reticle features. It's still a lot of fun. In the first map my longest shot came at 205m, which is rather short really. Most shots came between 50 and 100m. On the second map though I was taking out targets at 330m in the first few minutes. I worried that the long-range bits might be few and far between, but I think that was just a result of the nature of the first map. One welcome change seems to be how NPCs are rendered. I had complained about SGW3 that NPCs were rendered at relatively short distance, limiting the long-range shooting. There was a magic distance that when crossed made the NPCs suddenly appear when they should have been plainly visible already. Contracts seems to have corrected this and the NPCs can be seen from very long distance giving us more opportunities for long shots.

The AI on Sniper difficulty is very much switched on. Detection ability is quite high, more than the first game. They spot better and can find you more easily. Getting through a mission with zero alerts is more difficult now. It feels really good, the AI less exploitable than the SGW3. They still will give up the search after a bit if you stay hidden, but otherwise seem to have been given a bit of a boost for this game.

For the sale price it's a really good value. Just like SGW3, Contracts is a game that doesn't break any new ground, does not have a gripping story and doesn't try to do too much. But what it does do is done well enough that the sum is a solid sniper-shooter that feels good and plays well.

So far I've completed three of the five maps. I'm having fun with Contracts. Even though this game is not 'open world' like SGW3 is, the maps are quite big and honestly it feels probably more open world than SGW3 did. Mostly this is due to having patrols stationed or roving throughout the maps, snipers positioned on ledges. You need to be on your toes a little more as you move from strongpoint to strongpoint.

The drone feels less useful now. Mostly this is due to the presence of enemy drone jammers, which make it useless until you disable the jammer. Not a fan.

I've not done nearly enough experimenting with the kit. I've bought one pistol and modified it, one sniper rifle and modified it. Ditto an assault rifle. A drone, some explosives and grenades and that's it. I did buy a remote-operated sniper turret, but yet to actually deploy it. But I've not bothered to try anything else. The rifle I have works fine. The sniping's great. And having sunk 30 hours in to it now it's definitely a hybrid, not a pure sniping game. There's lots to do as far as obtaining intel, destroying stuff. There's plenty of distance shooting, but to complete the tasks you have to get on the objective and close the enemy.

Longest shot so far is around 430m I think. Most of it is in the 200m range or under. But there are some spots to open it out. We'll see what the last two maps have in store.