Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 Review

Popular media often romanticizes snipers. Snipers are socially awkward misanthropes, incredible markspeople, and lone wolves who bring enormous skill and charisma to a team. Snipers are an essential part of any battlefield. However, they're not more important than other personnel involved in a war. This is essentially the evolution of "lone gunman", but it's taken to its most logical extreme.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior contracts 2 clearly subscribes to this mentality. It's the sixth installment in the long-running Sniper: Ghost Warrior Series and follows up to 2019's Sniper Ghost Warrior contracts 2. This game takes a Hitman-style, open-ended approach for its sneaky sniper gameplay. Contracts2originally released in June on other platforms. However, it has received a nice graphical and performance improvement on the PS5. How does this stealthy sniping title hold up?

The first thing you need to know about Ghost Warrior Contracts2 is that the story is nonsense. Raven is a moody edgelord who was born in the mid-2000s and has been assigned to a task of mastering sniping. It was difficult to understand the story because Contracts2 is subpar. CI Games doesn't know anything about nuance and depth so each character comes across as a generic, cheap archetype.

The plot is also not anything to write home about. The story is a standard "here's Middle Eastern country, destabilize" type of story. There are no compelling hooks or memorable moments to keep you interested. This is a very generic tale that does nothing to differentiate itself from the rest. It's clear that CI Games and we are not here for this story.

There's plenty of gameplay to make up for the lost time. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is, at its core, a mix of the Sniper Elite and Hitman games (as you might imagine, given that it lifts one Hitman's secondary titles). You have five levels to choose from, each one offering you the opportunity to defeat a number of targets. These levels are huge in scope and offer a lot of options.

As you might imagine, Ghost Warrior Contracts2 is all about the sniping. If you want to make the perfect kill, you need to consider many aspects of your shot, including distance, wind resistance and drop-off. It's an incredible feeling to see the bullet travel towards your target.

This is Contracts2's greatest strength and its biggest problem. It's extremely juvenile. This is a silly game, despite its gruff protagonist and insistent on imitating "real-world" political issues. You can see the damage that your bullet causes to an enemy's skull and internal organs using the Sniperfeature. Although it is a bit psychotic, it's quite satisfying.

This is unfortunately the only thing Ghost Warrior Contracts2 has going for it. You can end up in a giant firefight that resembles a sort of Battlefield-style disorganised melee if you want, but it feels more like failure than "choosing your own build". It's tempting to fire from cover and then try to stealthily reload while waves of enemies pound on your position.

Contracts2 has many tools that you can use to get around the mission. You will be able to use a sniper gun, but you also have a bow that can be used for silent takedowns and a silenced pistol for close-up engagements. You'll also find a scouting drone and C4 explosives for cars, turrets and many other gadgets. They all combine to make a nice toolbox for experimentation. It's all about making the perfect shot.

Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is not a long game. This is probably because it exhausts all the ideas it has in its short running time. Raven is a great character to spend time with. I still don't believe it. It felt like CI Games knew exactly what made their game so they wanted to concentrate on that and not the unneeded window dressing that the narrative offers.

The PS5 version of Contracts2 is the best. DualSense does its usual magic, making weapons feel real to hold and fire. The SSD speeds up loading times. There are two performance modes for PS5-enhanced games. One increases the FPS but decreases visual fidelity. The other is a graphics mode which increases resolution and lowers frame rates. We can't tell the difference between performance modes, so we recommend that you choose that.

Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is a great way to spend an hour or two. Although the sniping gameplay is interesting and complex enough to keep you engaged for a while it may become tedious after some time. Contracts2 has plenty of levels to challenge you if that's your thing. It's fine for a quick playthrough, but it's not recommended to be continued, especially if Raven opens his mouth again.