As a relatively special long-range soldier in the modern warfare environment, snipers have gradually developed their own technology tree and ecological chain in various games with their low-key style, dangerous temperament, one-shot kill forbearance and hidden combat methods. A sniper rifle that kills the enemy invisibly is not only the watershed between Douyin newbies and YouTube bigwigs, but also a touchstone for whether some “squatting” can eventually grow into “Ksitigarbha”.As a “high-level” profession, the sniper is difficult to operate, has a cool posture, and accurate shooting skills.
If we adjust the scope and focus on those games that use a single “profession” such as sniper as the core content, CI games will definitely appear in the center of the crosshairs. The company’s “Sniper” series is definitely a veritable genre specialty, so much so that its market segments also have two major IPs, “Sniper Elite” and “Sniper: Ghost Warrior”. In recent years, as the fixed customer base of “Sniper Simulator” has become stable, and the graphics technology is temporarily difficult to reach the cross-generation level, CI games has started by enriching the game content and form, trying to integrate more infiltration, exploration and assassination elements into the game. For example, the “Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts” (hereinafter referred to as “Contracts”) that we reviewed this time is an evolutionary product that integrates more gameplay content after the previous game has entered the open world format for the first time.
1. As we all know, snipers are masters of close combat – the open world improves the traditional gameplay of the series
Before Sniper Elite brought players the high-energy experience of “one shot, one little brother” with the excellent performance of the Cry Engine, there were only a few games specializing in sniper themes, such as Silent Sniper (Note: an arcade game from KONAMI at the time, combining the frame design that made military fans lean back and fold and complain with the traditional track-pushing light gun gameplay, and later ported to home consoles). When other games allow players to use sniper rifles specifically, it is either in the plot-given or semi-mandatory sniper levels, such as the classic “Chernobyl” in COD4: Modern Warfare, or the snowy battle of Wolf in Risnek in MGS, or in multiplayer FPS, players actively choose sniper rifles and embark on the Shura journey of “one shoot, one kill”.
It can be seen that the gameplay of sniper simulation has obvious subject matter appeal and gameplay limitations. Its natural appeal lies in that through the portrayal or rendering of film and television works such as “Saving Private Ryan”, “Enemy at the Gates” and “The Lord of the Rings”, snipers have established a high-quality image of long-range sharpshooters + handsome and cool guys in the minds of ordinary viewers. This imagination of the coming of death and the generally slender and compact “figure” of sniper rifles are implemented in the interactive experience of the game, and it becomes the romance of a long-range shot in a shooting game; and the limitation is that such “point kills” are usually difficult to support a complete set of gameplay design, with more adjustments than taking on the main role.
“Contract” is committed to breaking the shackles of its own themes and content. Based on the previous work, this work continues to use a level-based open world. Although the combined area of the five mission maps cannot be compared with first-tier open world games, it can be seen that the development team has learned from the mature experience of friendly competitors in games such as “Metal Gear Solid Phantom Pain” and “Far Cry”, combining elements such as sneaking in after understanding the terrain, silent assassination in close combat, upgrading equipment and skill trees with core sniper technology, in the form of serving the main business, enriching the choice of side jobs.
For example, in order to reach a favorable sniping position, players will need to plan a route in advance according to the height difference of the terrain, and then approach the target step by step to complete the contract without alerting (or assassinating) patrolling enemy soldiers. Among them, marking enemy soldiers with high-powered binoculars, hiding enemy bodies after assassination, terrain climbing and other elements can make players who like stealth games feel familiar; and trekking through mountains and rivers and collecting hidden items are the “designated actions” provided to players in most open maps.
This open world system is like a double increase of problems and means for the sniper controlled by the player. The problem is that the player is in a 360-degree dynamic environment at any time, and your every move may trigger a series of reactions from the enemy. Take the snowy day in the first scene as an example. The combination of flying snow and searchlights makes it difficult for players to find a suitable covert route in the first place. The enemy’s stress feedback is more flexible than that of linear scenes. The familiar “clearing enemy soldiers from a distance – swaggering and invading – looting and leaving” mode of old players has been fiercely challenged here. It can be regarded as a dynamic way in the early stage of the game, combined with the freshness of the scene to “force” players to step out of the comfort zone of tactical routines.
In terms of means, this game has the most abundant weapons and equipment technology tree in the series so far. The rewards players get from completing contracts can be used to upgrade the search system, purchase powerful firearms, enhance durability and recovery, and configure remote-controlled unmanned turrets for themselves. These upgrade methods will allow players to independently change the level strategy after reaching different unlocked content. Combined with the non-linear task completion order in the open map, the same level can allow each player to experience different gameplay at different stages of the character. Although I still can’t shoot like COD after upgrading the defense-related equipment, if you are familiar enough with the terrain and operations, it is not completely impossible to realize Assassin’s Creed with a dagger.
The map for a single mission is not very large, but if you want to complete some time-limited challenges, you must plan your route well.
II. Rough but detailed: map and mission design
In “Contract”, the area of a single mission map is not large. The developers try to maintain the fresh feeling of players when they are in the game by making rich changes between the five mission scenes. For example, the first two levels have a strong contrast between the snow-capped mountains at night and the sunset dock, and the proportion of natural landforms and man-made buildings is used to distinguish the outdoor and indoor activity spaces. It is the combination of regional cutting, height difference and environmental factors that constitutes the interactive relationship between the map and mission design of this game.
First of all, in each level map, there is a clear division of mission areas. What players have to do outside the area is mainly to collect intelligence, such as marking the patrol paths of enemy soldiers, or finding the attack routes that they think are reasonable. Because of the long-range attack characteristics of the sniper itself, the player is fully capable of clearing out a lot of enemy soldiers before entering the mission area, so this game also intentionally places a considerable number of mission targets in indoor or semi-enclosed environments surrounded by heavy weapons. Specifically in the map, the modeling of outdoor scenes is mostly rough, and the flat map information in the hands of the player is limited. Some remote mission areas will make people feel embarrassed that they “don’t know how to get there”. Once you enter the mission area (at this time, automatic saving often appears as an indirect prompt), the terrain and building design that have been strictly planned will bring old players back to the useful context of the series of linear levels.
Then there is the height difference of the terrain. For snipers, this is undoubtedly an important terrain factor with strategic value. An important change that the open map brings to the series’ gameplay is that players can attack targets in the mission area from outside the mission area. The specific method is a bit similar to the gameplay in GTAOL where you kill most of the enemies first and then trigger the mission, but the terrain design of “Contract” allows but does not encourage players to do so, because the terrain of the mission area is usually higher than the surrounding area, making it difficult for you to find an ideal “sweet spot”, “quit while you are ahead” or shoot one shot and move to another place has become a more reasonable way to advance the offense.
The biggest beneficiary of the terrain height difference is probably the enemy sniper, especially since the graphics of this game are not that detailed and the warning prompts are rather vague, so the players themselves become victims of the “sniper elite”. Sometimes you can’t even figure out how the sniper who is stuck on the eaves of the roof and stalking people can get to such a high place.
Finally, this game strengthens the impact of environmental factors on the player’s gameplay, such as strong light that limits the field of vision, heavy snow, cold river water that can only be touched briefly, etc., forming effective level restriction factors. When the mask scan is turned on, the devices used to attract the enemy’s attention or shield the electronic equipment in the scene will be displayed. Although the original intention of this auxiliary means is to increase the variables in the gameplay, in the actual game, because the sniper itself is still powerful enough, players are often unwilling to go far away. On the contrary, some interactive mechanisms used for hiding in indoor scenes, such as lockers, or design details that hack the opponent’s surveillance equipment for my own use, can make players feel more interesting in the gameplay.
3. Sci-fi shooting, bullets dancing – micro-innovation in combat experience
Since it is a sniper-themed game, how to use sniper rifles to fight efficiently and beautifully has naturally become the top priority of “Contract”.
The number of guns in this game has set a new record in the series, and the design of the sniper rifle is naturally very thoughtful, so the parameters that are usually used to distinguish different types of guns in other FPS games are used on the single type of weapon, the sniper rifle. In addition to the differences in the initial range, rate of fire, firepower, and ammunition carrying capacity of different sniper rifles, players can also make more detailed modifications to a weapon. For example, some sniper rifles with excellent firepower and range, if no silencer is installed, each shot will sound like a cannon, and most enemies in the immediate area will be able to immediately know your location.
This game also strengthens the unique functionality of special ammunition. As players use contract rewards to upgrade their arsenal, they can add high-energy bullets including electromagnetic bombs that shield enemy electronic equipment, armor-piercing bullets that attack enemies behind cover, and explosive bombs with built-in explosive properties. These bullets do not require as much operation from the player as ordinary bullets, but can still demonstrate excellent practical value in specific levels and against more difficult enemies.
In terms of the shooting feel of sniper rifles, if we take the popular “COD: Modern Warfare” as a reference, the sniper rifle in “Contract” is obviously much faster, and people can hardly feel the sluggishness of the gun body. The time to hold breath and stabilize the crosshairs is also longer than that of ordinary FPS (after all, they are professional snipers), and it can be further enhanced through props (MGS series also has similar auxiliary drugs). Before pulling the trigger, wind direction is still an important influencing factor that players must consider, and the wind direction changes in this game are still relatively flexible. Raising the gun in the same direction within a small range of dozens of meters sometimes causes a relatively obvious change in wind direction, which requires players to confirm each time they shoot. The design of the scope in this game reflects a high level of care and professionalism. In addition to marking the dynamic estimated trajectory of the ballistic drop, players can calibrate the best shooting point on the corresponding scale of the scope based on the distance and wind speed data obtained during observation. Players familiar with the latest works in the series know that even when shooting at fixed targets, it is sometimes necessary to deflect the crosshairs in advance according to the wind direction, so as to ensure that the bullet maintains an accurate flight trajectory after it is fired. Experts can predict the drop of the bullet to hit some enemies hiding behind cover, and the effect is similar to the legendary “bullet turn”.
Get ready to shoot, pull the trigger, and the iconic bullet time of the series will begin its performance (of course, the premise is that your shooting skills are accurate enough). The camera will start with a close-up of the character’s action, follow the trajectory of the bullet’s flight, and focus on showing the special visual effect of the camera rotating until it is upside down. This part of the performance may make some players feel dizzy (when I played in the store, the viewer behind me expressed a similar view), but fortunately, you can choose to turn it off in the system settings. In the final hit link, the signature organ destruction perspective performance of the neighboring “Sniper Elite” was not used. The performance of “only” brain splashing and “anus” bleeding may disappoint some players who come here for the reputation.
Compared with the full set of skills of the sniper rifle, the other firearms in this game, although there are enough types and quantities, have the same shooting feel and lack the feeling of real bullet impact when hitting the target. The details such as recoil are even more careless. Perhaps in the eyes of the development team, these weapons are just a temporary means of life-saving (or death-saving) for players, so they lack the kind of focus and dedication when designing close-range assassinations.
4. Innocent but obvious technical shortcomings – Summary of shortcomings
Objectively speaking, the “Sniper” series is now more well-known than its actual commercial performance. Cry Engine, once a graphics card killer, has long been overtaken by later competitors that boast of more cutting-edge graphics technologies. More often than not, it is thanks to the development team’s proficiency in fixed themes over many years that the series has been able to retain a place in the fiercely competitive shooting game battlefield despite limited development resources.
However, while the overall playability of “Contract” is acceptable, it still has some obvious shortcomings. It can even be said that the process of adjusting to these shortcomings is also a process for new players to understand the game’s own mechanisms:
1. The protagonist wears a high-tech mask with the attributes of an old-school cool killer, doing the work of taking money and eliminating disasters for others. But from beginning to end, the players have no chance to understand even a little bit of the character and resume of this sniper, so they are completely reduced to tools to execute the “contract” with him.
2. It may be that the creators were influenced by the general environment. The story background setting of “Contract” closely follows the footsteps of a certain year’s shooting masterpiece, and various stereotypes of the “enemy camp” in film and television works, such as separatists, bad warlords, reactionary leaders, chemical weapons villains, etc., are copied into the game accordingly, with almost no creative innovation.
In the past, similar themes at least had beautiful female spies, but now there are only middle-aged warlords.
3. The map guidance function is not supported. For players who do not have a good sense of direction, they may need to switch frequently between scenes and maps to clarify the direction of travel when entering a mission for the first time, which slightly affects the continuity of the game.
4. The details of the picture are not taken seriously. The main manifestation is that although the function of hiding in the bushes for secret assassination is set, the 3D modeling of the bushes is as thick as a wall. In the first-person perspective, the player cannot see the actions of the enemy soldiers outside when hiding inside, and is caught in a dilemma. The phenomenon of enemy soldiers penetrating the model when moving quickly or fighting will lead to the appearance of some supernatural scenes. As a ninjutsu, “earth escape” sometimes becomes a secret weapon when dealing with players.
5. The alert level of the enemy AI fluctuates. One second you are enjoying the thrill of a head-on assassination during the “peak” period of Assassin’s Creed, and the next second you will be exposed by a seemingly absent-minded patrolling enemy soldier a hundred meters away. Moreover, once the enemy enters combat mode, the weapon range is very terrifying, and some disordered actions are generated, such as appearing from a place where there was no one. In short, considering the consequences of stirring up a hornet’s nest, not exposing yourself throughout the process is the minimum consumption that players should adhere to when performing tasks in this game.
If this game wants to go further in the future, it needs to solve some head-on scenes.
Conclusion: The Sniper Simulator is still being upgraded
The current version of “Contract” tries to connect with the general rules of the open world based on the original “Sniper Simulator” in the series. Although from the results, the separated mission areas do not add a complete experience of a system upgrade version to the classic gameplay, but the more complex and vast scenes, more upgradeable weapons and equipment, and diversified mission completion methods still create some new space for the classic “profession” of sniper.
Considering the price of this game in the Steam Chinese region is 88 yuan (my PS4 version cost more than 200 yuan), players who like military themes or shooting games can consider buying it.
