I haven't posted any screens of these games, but I managed to take one. This is a typical view. You spend some time finding a good vantage point, then spend some time scanning the area to tag as many targets as possible, then start taking them down, hopefully in such order that they all fall one by one outside of the view of their friends so that they are not alerted. Range here is around 200m.

The newest edition has been released

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 @ Steam

Good early comments. Looks like the emphasis is on more long range shooting, which was one of the things I wanted to see, as there was very little of it in the previous games, vanilla or Contracts. For example I had to play through virtually the entire SGW3 to finally get a crack at a shot approaching 500m. But the new Contracts pushes this out to 1000m, evidently.

Comments are positive. I may wait for a sale, but I plan to pick it up for sure. It's not a crowded field these days, but this series has become my go-to sniper shooter.

Finally picked this one up SGW Contracts 2. They haven't done much to alter the formula, still the same solid sniper game. But in Contracts 2 there has been a shift with an emphasis on long range shooting, out past a kilometer, and these sorts of shots from the very first mission. I play without any of the aids, and it's challenging to hit targets at this sort of range, as you'd expect. The problem is if you miss and alert the target he can get in a vehicle and get the hell out of there! So you can't miss.

It's a shift away from where this game series was a few titles ago, where you'd have a target area, say a train yard, or a construction site, and your job was to take everyone down. Now, there are more objectives to complete, stuff to steal, data to retrieve. So for me the series is moving away from pure sniper sim toward a more black ops sort of focus. Not sure I prefer it. Not keen on infiltration in this game. Just let me case the joint, formulate a plan and then carry it out, one lethal shot at a time.

This isn't to say it's bad, and some players will prefer this type of play. But for me I'm just looking for a sniper game. The sniping is well done here, the rifles and gadgets are cool and extensive. still the same good old SGW at its core. But there's been a subtle move away from that and as a result I've only put a few hours in so far. The game didn't grab me in the same way the earlier titles did. But I'll give it more time.

I set Forza aside long enough to play some more missions in Contracts 2. I'm sort of split over it. I like it well enough, the shooting is good as ever. I have a lot of fun with the stealth aspects. Moving around the maps is great, utilizing cover and concealment, and trying to prosecute the missions without being detected. Hiding bodies, taking your target out at the precise moment he will fall unobserved by his squadmates. Sneaking up on one with his back turned to interrogate him with a knife at this throat, to get him to spill the dope on his friends or other mission-related information.

Contracts moves away from the open world setup we saw in SGW3. Maps are still big, but more...not linear, but maybe focused is the right word. There's not much dead ground like in SGW3. I've played on three maps so far. The first is a short tutorial. The second map is focused on long-range sniping. The third on short-range, black ops sort of play. Good variety, and you can modify your loadout to suit the situation, light rifle for the short map, heavy for the long range map. The game told me ahead of time that I should prepare for long shots, or short shots, but not sure it will continue to do so for the remaining maps.

Speaking of long-range, it really is! In the previous games most shots were in the 200-500m range. But in contracts, on a long-range map, the shots are out over a kilck and a half. My longest is just under 1600m which is really reaching out there. I wanted more of this in this series, so I'm happy to see it. The AI is good. They react reasonably to my intrusions, are good shots, spot well and in this game, most are armed and armored soldiers, not the irregular forces we saw more in the earlier titles. What I really like is how they search when they know you're around but not where you are. It's really quite convincing, and you feel like you're being hunted, holding your breath in the tall grass as a patrol moves down the trail a few feet away, muzzles swaying as they try to spot your hide. It's exciting and tense, and lots of fun.

One of the things that I really liked about the non-Contracts SGW3 was the drone. As I played i began using it more and more. It was such a cool and invaluable tool, especially as it became upgraded for new abilities. But the devs seek to reign it in I guess. They've introduced drone jamming towers that severely limit drone effectiveness. These towers can be disabled, but it's all a huge pain in the ass and I'm disappointed they've decided to go this route. As a result I hardly ever use the drone in Contracts and that's a shame. It makes you feel high-tech and super-stealthy. But when you release it and it gets jammed after 10 meters you wonder what's the point?

My main point of contention though is probably centered on my personal preference. It's about how the missions and objectives are structured. I mentioned it in the previous post, but it's moved from a sniping game to a black ops game, with infiltration of enemy installations, uploading mainframe viruses, disabling infrastructure and that sort of thing. Like you snipe, but you're not really a sniper in the traditional sense. To succeed you need to get down there in the weeds, in and amongst the enemy. Not exactly what I want out of a game like this, but it is what it is. The drone would make this side of the game feel more professional. Snipers should never be taken by surprise, but it's sort of inevitable here.

Overall though the game is good. It allows enough freedom of maneuver, even if the terrain acts like gutters on a bowling alley and keeps you oriented in the proper direction. I love moving around and trying to avoid detection while thinning the ranks through precision shooting. The AI is convincing and competent. I maybe wish the missions were done a little differently, more of a pure sniper game. But as a sort of 'super-soldier' game it works well.

I reached the fourth region in the game, another 'long range' map. And it's frustrating. Let me 'splain. No there is too much, let me sum up.

These long-range maps are configured in such a way that the sniping spot is obvious, with very little in the way of alternate hides. There is the target, 1500m thataway, and you will lie down righthere and shoot. One of the objectives is to free a prisoner and 'escort' him out of the town. But escort means shoot anyone in his path or that has overwatch on it, from 1300m away. If the NPCs spot your ally they gun him down. If you miss a shot or otherwise alert the enemy, they instantly know which plateau you're perched on and dispatch squads there tout suite. This sort of thing irritates me. There's no way the enemy would instantly know which compass point on the 360-degree mountain range the shot came from, but of course they do, and they arrive there in 20 seconds. And then you need to shift from hidden sniper to CQC and fight off a few waves of soldiers.

I failed enough times that I finally bumped the difficulty down to give me a chance, and I succeeded. I fought off three waves of QRF teams, and feeling emboldened, returned to the sniping spot to pick off the rest in the town. Having cleared the village, I turned to exfil and promptly stepped on an anti-personnel mine I had dropped to protect my hide from the rear. Dead. Ugg. OK, that one was on me, but still....

It's this mix of pure sniper sim and action hero that divides my opinion on Contracts 2. It's fun enough that I want to keep going, but frustrating enough at times that I shut it down until I think of a different approach, then I go back in. These are very long shots, and that precision distance shooting is a big draw. But I could do without some of the grunt-level action that you're bound to get caught up in because of how the missions and objectives are structured.

It keeps tugging at me, this game. I completed the fourth region, but I had to bump the difficulty down a notch to do it. Shameful

Actually, the biggest 'cheat' in this game might be bullet cam. It's the sort of thing I turn off straight away. Not interested in that sort of cinematic touch. But it has a possibly unintended side-effect that makes the shooting overly easy. That's because when bullet cam is triggered, it locks the scene while the cinematic is playing. Against stationary targets this is no advantage. But against moving targets it sure is. Because if you trigger bulletcam, the fact that the target is moving no longer factors. it's a hit. Guaranteed. And on maps where shots are coming from 1500m+ away, this is a significant freeze of time. allowing the bullets to cover the distance with no possible alteration to target position.

So I turned bullet cam on for a mission I was struggling with, attempting to lead the targets enough that I could hit them after the bullet traveled for 2 or 3 seconds. Much easier! I turned bullet cam off afterwards. Not only do I not care for the cinematics (they are cool yeah, but not what I want), but upon discovering how it simplifies the shooting I realized I couldn't have that. It's like not using manual targeting in sub sims ya know? None of that, thanks very much!

So as it turns out, and despite clamoring for more true long range sniping in the series, it's the closer range maps that I am enjoying the most. The long range missions are too gamey, even if the shooting is fun. But the shorter range maps hit a sweet spot between the shooting, the movement and the tactical approach to the problem. It's still more 'black ops' than I want out of a game like. It doesn't make it bad, far from it, but it means it's not exactly how I would have approached designing the game.