Story
The SNIPER GHOST WARRIOR series has been an interesting blip on the gaming radar over the past several years and when the game arrived in my review queue, I was eager to dive into see how it would all turn as the beta was way better than I was expecting because let's face it, hasn't the whole sniper shooter genre been a bit played out? I'm happy to report that this game is way better than it deserves to be. Starting off with story, well, it's the tale of two brothers while it isn't absolutely riveting, it's not a bad tale story to dive into. It involves a lot of buzzwords and phrases like "Stay frosty!" and other cliches but I was intrigued to find out what happens as you bust caps all over Eastern Europe and find out what happened to your bro.
Gameplay
That's gonna leave a mark. Yep, you are going to be stealthing around, headshotting, and capping fools left and right as you unlock, upgrade, and tweak your weapons. The game is definitely a solid shooter and huge improvement over the previous entries in the series that were more linear and straight forward experience. As soon as you open up your first safehouse, where you sleep and tweak your arsenal, you can wander around as you see fit. While this isn't the best open world shooter out there, once again, it was a ton o' fun exploring and plotting your next mission. Or, you can just drive around and collect hard to find items and gear. The choice is yours and that's the best part of GHOST WARRIOR 3. Physics, weapon weight and feel are all fantastic in the game with quick patches making the gameplay better and better. Props to the devs for updating the game so efficiently.
Graphics
If there's one thing that WARRIOR 3 absolutely excels at, it's the graphical artistry on display here. Sneaking through a swampy bog to attack your next target looks phenonmal and even the smallest detail like campfires at moonlight look fantastic in the game. Seriously, I took hundreds of screenshots and marveled at several areas including on of my personal faves, the church in the second mission at nighttime. Gorgeous. Effects, vehicles, weapons, and environments all shine here. Please though devs, stop using low resolution pre rendered scenes for intros and stories during the game. It's really distracting in such a gorgeous game engine.
Replayability
There is a ton to do and see in this game and it will keep you busy for a long time. Sure, you can rush through the main missions fairly quickly but honestly, I enjoyed to sneaking around and raiding outposts, camps, and finding collectibles for hours on end. As with most open world games, how you approach the challenges and how you play it really is up to you and that's the biggest compliment I can give.
What It Could Have Done Better
Honestly, it's tough to put much criticism on a title that's done so much to improve itself. That being said, I will say this over and over about modern games: Developers, please stop making any shooter that the dialogue sounds like 15 year olds in a locker room. We want intelligent stories that aren't full of unnecessary and juvenile profanity and cheesy language. Yes, it is rated M for Mature but that doesn't mean we need an F bomb every five seconds. Also, killing civilians results in no penalties and the mission borders are a bit small, automatically ending a mission if you cross it. Other than that, the pre rendered cutscenes were a little distracting but overall, there isn't much I'd do different.
Verdict
In the end, SNIPER GHOST WARRIOR 3 is a blast to play, very beautiful to look at, and provides a huge open world and sandbox for shooter finds to explore and shoot up. While the game provides a massive improvement over previous titles in the series, it still suffers from juvenile dialogue and some major cliches. If story and dialogue choices don't bother you, it's hard not to recommend for any sniping/shooter fan. I really debating back and forth on the score but let's just say, I cannot wait to see what this team does next. "Stay frosty!"
