The Sniper: Ghost Warrior series will probably always be compared to Sniper Elite for good reason but Ghost Warrior does things a little differently and it does them surprisingly well.

In SGW3, you play as an elite US Marine Corps marksman named Jon North who is based in the former Soviet republic of Georgia in the middle of an emerging civil war. Jon discovers the existence of a mysterious group, one that may also be responsible for the capture of his younger brother Robert.

We’re introduced to Jon and Rob in the prologue cut-scenes which features the brothers as close friends. Jon who is the oldest of the 2 by a solid 7+yrs from the looks of it is poised to ship off to Afghanistan and Rob is worried he may lose his big brother. Seems that Jon and Rob have a little game of wilderness hide and seek that they liked to play and Rob runs off. We’re then fast forwarded to present time and handheld along on the first mission of the game which acts as a tutorial.

Without going into too many details so as to not spoil anything, I have to say that the story is rather cookie cutter and extremely predictable with some pretty bad voice acting and rough dialogue. I’m not saying I could do better but I hope that next time, they try a little harder.

Now, if you can ignore this, you will find a game that is actually quite enjoyable. Mixing elements of Sniper Elite with a little Far Cry open world setting SGW3 will provide you with about 10+ hours of campaign and many more hours scouring the country side looking for collectibles, killing bad guys and releasing their hostages to tracking and finding treasures.

In between missions, if you want to just keep on with the campaign, the player will want to fast travel back to their safe house to craft items, buy provisions, weapons, ammunition, modify weapons and even set yourself to sleep if you prefer the cover of night. Me personally, I like going in during the day time so I can see the white of their eyes as one of my bullets pierces their skulls like a pin in a balloon (try using Armor Piercing bullets on a non armored person – the result is hilarious… I have issues. lol).

Before embarking on your mission, it’s best to use your high tech gadgets to case the place out. Using your trusty drone, you can fly over your target area and tag enemies giving you a good idea of EXACTLY where everyone is but don’t fly too close as it may be detected by someone and set the entire encampment on high alert or worse searching for you and peppering the area they know you to be in with mortar shelling.

One thing to note, is Jon can hear ALL the chatter on the enemy comms. Meaning you will always know when they’re on high alert, when they’re about to start dropping mortars etc. It kinda makes the game a shade on the easy side and I personally think it would have been better can I been in my little crows nest they get alerted and then I hear the whistle of the mortar being launched. Another thing I noticed was the AI is rather… unintelligent. The best example of this was when I used an AP bullet on a guard not realizing there was another guard just steps away and all he did was turn around and say “Hey. What’s wrong? You Ok?!?” when clearly the gentleman he was speaking with was NOT OK as his head exploded like a watermelon filled with dynamite.

The game suffers from framerate drop periodically and one area in particular it was awful but once I killed the nearest enemy, it went back to normal. The loading times are long. 3-4 minutes on average from main screen to being in the action or switching acts which will take you to new maps. It’s not bad enough that the load time is 3-4 minutes in length but the song… oh that song drove me crazy.

All that to be said the game was not without it’s challenges/issues but I found myself to be highly entertained for about 12hours of gameplay as I slowly plotted and scouted my path methodically plugging bad guy after bad guy and clearing the area before entering it. The slow-mo kill cam was always a treat and never once felt annoying to me. I usually found myself chuckling each time. If you like this sort of game, SGW3 is a solid purchase for you and will no doubt keep you happily entertained.

PixelCereal gives Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 a happy little 7 out of 10

Initial release date: April 25, 2017
Developer: CI Games
Engine: CRYENGINE
Publisher: CI Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One(Reviewed), Microsoft Windows
Genres: First-person shooter, Tactical shooter

J