Sniper: Ghost Warrior makes itself more accessible than the more stringent military sims by granting the equivalent of sniper super powers holding down the shift key while zoomed in with a sniper rifle causes the world to slow, simulating the increased concentration of an inwardly held breath from a trained marksman. Shots from the titular sniper rifles in Ghost Warrior are subject to gravity and environmental effects from wind and the like, such that play is predicated less on twitch gunplay and more on setting up and taking the right shots at targets - at least at first. While Sniper: Ghost Warrior isn't quite as excruciatingly prone to realism as, say, ARMA 2 or the original Operation: Flashpoint, it seems realistic. What's more striking is the sniping mechanic itself. While character models look rough around the edges, the environments appear expansive and lush.

Using the Chrome 4 engine originally featured in Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood in 2009, Sniper bears a fair bit of resemblance to last year's video game western, except for, well, all those trees and bushes.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior makes a rough but sort of charming first impression. This is my experience with Sniper: Ghost Warrior in a nutshell. Defeated, I walk back up the hill, walk down the path, which triggers a voiceover, which enables the GPS marker, which spawns enemies on the path ahead of me that kill me. Finally, I find a way past these obstacles in the brush and silently arrive at my GPS designated destination marker, but my objective won't clear. I crawl to the edge of the brush, frantically run across an exposed trail, and into the foliage to the left of the path, figuring that a different route might be in order, but I'm stymied again as I find myself stuck on a rock that raises only six inches off the ground. I come to a sudden stop inexplicably, an invisible wall blocks my forward progress.

Slowly belly-crawling through the underbrush, I scan the distance for signs of enemy troops.

Sniper ghost warrior review