Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 (besides being a very long title to type) is very good as long as you play to its formula. That formula is a very engaging, "realistic" sniper simulator which fans of earlier installments in either this series or Sniper Elite will be familiar. That means accounting for bullet drop over very long distances, wind resistance, enemy armor and the like. It evolves what could be a point-and-click shooter into a much more intricate balance of factors before taking that 1000+ meter perfect shot. And when you make that shot it feels good (and there's the series-famous gory kill cam that's fun the first few times, but grows repetitive quite quickly). Where the game falls short is in two places: Firstly, what happens whenever you stray from its formula; and secondly, in numerous small gameplay elements that do stack up negatively after a while. Addressing the first, silencers are inconsistent. The first sniper rifle you get comes with one, but it may as well not. Fire at anybody at mid range and you alert the whole base. As for silencers on pistols? Even worse. Most enemies wear helmets, and either I'm a terrible shot or it seems helmets completely negate the damage of that first headshot. You might as well throw a knife at the target instead, since even a knife throw to the limb will instantly incapacitate any target unless he's heavily armored. Of course, then your knife will likely fall through the flooring or roll hilariously down a cliff like a slippery meatball running away from atop someone's spaghetti. Addressing the second, there are collision issues aplenty. You'll regularly trip up on rocks and stones and logs and staircases and sometimes pebbles. Nothing breaks the immersion of being a super cool elite sniper ghost warrior like having to hop two feet in the air to get over a pebble, then falling edgewise off 6-foot embankment and instantly dying (fall damage in this game is super weird). Then there are the things that ARE in the formula that still manage to frustrate and dishearten. Exfiltration is the primary instance. Running away from a mission zone to cash in that bounty you just won or that contract you just completed could have been a white-knuckle race against the clock, or an auto-alarm that brings in extra enemy reinforcements, but instead its a boring, anticlimactic walk through the desert. And (because this is a sniper game) these maps are large. You might be walking for 5-10 minutes through (very!) obtusely designed levels in order to find an exfil point. And of course THIS is when the game blocks fast-traveling. I get why, but it is such a slog having to trudge all the way back to where you started whenever you finish a mission. As such, the fast-travel points really aren't used much; they're only really used if you're revisiting a map or if you mis-clicked on your entry drop. The game has a plethora of cool gadgets and toys to play with, including mines, a remote turret, a drone (that works half the time. Jammers litter most maps, preventing this simple recon tool from doing its simple job. Why such effort to nerf this gadget? It's not that powerful to begin with ...), grenades, and lures. One of my favorite strategies was to lure a bunch of enemies towards my location, pop a smoke grenade between us, and use infrared to calmly headshot them one at a time through the smoke with my SMG. All in all, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 (which still takes a long time to type) is a very polished sniper simulator with a good-looking presentation, passable gameplay when you're not sniping, and a negligible plot. How negligible? You could play with the dialogue off and have basically the same experience. Play it if you love sniper simulators, especially if it's on sale. Just expect frustration in all the places you wouldn't expect it.