Introduction

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2: Contracts is a long-range sniping assassination simulator wrapped in a beautiful first-person adventure. In its single-player campaign, you play as a contract killer who is supposed to plan and execute medium-to-extreme range assassinations using a sniper rifle.

This isn't a simple point-and-click, all the bullet physics from the real world are carried over, including projectile motion, wind, the player's own body motion, and even the Earth's rotation. These mechanics have already been implemented in several other games from this sub-genre, such as Sniper Elite; however, Ghost Warrior 2 is set in the modern era, uses the latest weapons and optics, and incorporates many other gameplay elements from assassination-focused games, like Hitman.



The single-player campaign takes you to a fictive Middle Eastern country with several exotic locations where you must reach a sniping point, putting out enemies along the way; once reached, you plan the perfect shot at your high-value target. Besides long-range sniping missions, there's also more close-range combat, which is best executed with stealth. There is plenty of customization to be had. You can not only customize your main sniper rifle, but also your secondary guns, and other kit you carry with you on your mission.

Developed by CI Games, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2: Contracts utilizes CryEngine, and uses the DirectX 11 API exclusive. The game can be taxing on your machine, particularly as it's trying to render distant 3D scenes in great detail. In this mini review, we test it across a wide range of graphics cards to show you how it plays.

Screenshots

All screenshots were taken at the highest setting. The gallery can be navigated with the cursor keys.

Graphics Settings

• The first settings screen deals with the usual monitor-related settings
• The game supports "windowed" and "fullscreen." A borderless setting is not available, but can be achieved with a settings file edit, see below.
• There are no artificial FPS limits, and V-Sync can be disabled completely.
• Using the "quality" setting, you can quickly select from the following presets: medium, high, and very high.

• The "Advanced Options" screen has additional settings for fine-tuning
• What's interesting is that AMD Fidelity FX defaults to "on." While it usually works very well and is subtle, I found that it oversharpens some details in many scenes with this title, so I turned it off.