“This is justice, American-style,” one of the protagonist’s handlers tells him early on. From the outset, it doesn’t feel like this game wants players to have a complicated relationship with that premise. A grizzled, profanity-spouting marine wanders around forests and marshlands killing big, bad Russians who commit horrific war crimes. While the full narrative obviously can’t be commented on at this point, what story missions were available didn’t leave me with high hopes. However, based on the current state of the game, it’s questionable if those lofty goals can be accomplished when so many fundamentals feel undercooked. From the two hours I spent running around through a portion of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3’s Georgia wilderness, it’s clear that the Lords of the Fallen developer is hoping to capitalize on a formula set in stone by the likes of Ubisoft. There seems to be a definite demand for the franchise, enough to merit CI putting forth a serious AAA production effort with this latest entry. Yet over 2.5 million units CI Games’ franchise have wound up in consumers’ hands. The Sniper franchise has continued to truck on for almost a decade, despite a history of lukewarm to outright negative critical reaction.
