On the surface, Sniper: Ghost Warrior looks like an interesting and compelling game, taking the sniping genre into the realm of simulation as opposed to the arcade-style of many of the modern shooters. Sadly, looking below the surface quickly dissolves this illusion.

The release of the trailer video several months ago served to aptly stoke my anticipation for Sniper: Ghost Warrior. The footage looked incredible, with lush settings and nicely rendered combatants. The reality was a bit less striking. The locales were nicely designed and many of the effects were well done, though not nearly as polished as some of the other recently released titles. The jungles move around you as you slink about, but the patterns become a bit repetitive and lose any feeling of natural movement. Various animals fill the landscapes, which is a nice addition. There is even an achievement for shooting some of the birds that are flying around, a task which is more difficult than it sounds. In short, while the graphics are not top of the line, they also do not distract too much from the overall experience.

The audio quality of the game is on a similar level as the graphics. It is not spectacular by any means and nothing really stands out, but the explosions are loud, the report of the sniper rifles are crisp and the environmental sounds add to the immersion factor nicely. In short, had Sniper: Ghost Warrior been released two or three years ago, it would have been at the head of the pack from a graphics and audio standpoint. Now, it simply looks to be slightly behind the times; not too bad, but nothing outstanding either.

The story behind the Sniper: Ghost Warrior game is about as generic as they come. For the majority of the game, the player controls a sniper that is sent in to help overthrow a rebel government in some fictitious country. As the sniper, your primary mission is supporting a special operations team. However, from time to time, the player is also put in control of one of the special ops team members during an assault. While this may seem like a pleasant change of pace, it really served as more of a distraction and did not add much to the game. In fact, had City Interactive spent more time on the sniping campaign and less dividing their attention, Sniper: Ghost Warrior could have really been sensational.

In Sniping Mode, players will move to predetermined checkpoints in order to lend fire support to the spec ops team. Sometimes movement will consist of sprinting from place to place, taking out enemies along the way in whatever way is most efficient. Other times, the job calls for stealth. The sneaking mechanism is pretty banal. The player must crouch and remain in the cover of bushes, staying out of the line of sight of the enemy units. However, even on the Normal difficulty, it was far too often that, though not moving, I was spotted by an enemy patrol. In some cases, being spotted immediately ends the mission, causing the player to have to restart at the last checkpoint (more on this later). Eventually, these missions came down to learning the pattern of the enemy troops and moving in such a way as to avoid them. Trial and error, rinse and repeat, tedious and frustrating.

When playing as a spec ops teammate, the player will be one of a three man team. These missions are normally incursions into enemy encampments, either to destroy equipment or take out important targets. Unfortunately, the team A.I. is about as incompetent as the enemy A.I., so it often comes down to what the player does, regardless of the support (or lack thereof) of one's teammates. To be fair, this is true in most games of the genre, so it is hard to fault Sniper: Ghost Warrior for this flaw. The real issue with the spec ops part of the game is that it is NOT sniping. The weapons are not accurate and it is all run-and-gun; no stealth, no quick kills and no skill. Just point, shoot and hope you hit them first.

In the single player campaign of Sniper: Ghost Warrior, there are three difficulty settings. In the easiest setting, enemies are about as intelligent as a fence post, players are provided with a red dot in the scope that shows where the bullet will hit and enemies are highlighted in red on the screen. Normal difficulty ramps up the enemy A.I. a bit, but still provides a substantial amount of assistance to the sniper in the form of the red dot and enemy highlighting. The highest difficulty setting removes all assistance and makes the game a real challenge (read: uber-frustration). The gap between Normal and Hard is expansive. On the lower difficulty levels, headshots are frequent occurrences, enough to make the bullet-cam into an annoyance at times, but when sniping on the hardest difficulty, where enemies can (and often do) move after the shot is fired, I found myself going for body shots because they were far more likely to find their target.

Difficulty takes on a whole new meaning in Sniper: Ghost Warrior's multiplayer mode. I will be the first to admit that I LOVE "camping" with my sniper rifle in games such as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Watching my enemies try to locate me after I have taken out of few of their teammates is one of my favorite pastimes. So when I anticipated playing multiplayer in Sniper: Ghost Warrior, I envisioned finding my way to a great sniper hole and wreaking havoc upon my enemies while they flailed about helpless to find me. Sadly, this was not to be. The inclusion of a mini-map in multiplayer which shows the direction of all players on both teams, regardless of movement or noise, total destroys that aspect of sniping which makes it so appealing to me. Add to this issues with spawn camping, graphical glitches that can be taken advantage of and an inept matchmaking mechanic, and Multiplayer Mode quickly becomes about as appealing as spending a summer day laying insulation in an attic in South Louisiana (that is to say, not very appealing at all).

Sniper: Ghost Warrior was touted as being a realistic sniping game, and it does a nice job in trying to do this, but too many factors lessen the experience. As mentioned above, unless you are playing on the highest difficulty, executing a perfect headshot is a fairly easy accomplishment. Add to this the player's ability to enter Focus Mode, a pseudo-bullet time effect where everything and everyone slow down for a short amount of time, allowing the player to fire off several shots in the span of a couple of seconds, and realism flies right out of the window. One of the more frustrating points in the game came when I was forced to man a stationary gun and defend my location until an extraction helicopter arrived. Swarmed by enemies, I was continually on the verge of death awaiting my rescue. This seemed completely out of character for a sniper who is an expert at escape and evasion. Why face off against a numerically superior force in an exposed position when one could simply escape into the jungle to await extraction?

Sniper: Ghost Warrior has some moments of great enjoyment. The first kill cam headshot is certainly a memorable moment, as is the first time a player successfully manages to kill multiple enemies in a single Focus Mode. Unfortunately, too many flaws make the experience not worth the overall effort. Checkpoint saves? I'm not even going to say more on this, as it really isn't necessary. Wacky enemy A.I., often too predictable, yet overly adept at spotting a hiding sniper from 2000 yards away, destroy any sense of stealth. Graphical anomalies, lagging framerates and other technical issues also serve to lessen the enjoyment. Even at the $39.99 price tag, the price is too high. Sniper: Ghost Warrior is at best a rental. Given a little time, this game will undoubtedly be taking up stealthy residence in the bargain bin of your local video store.