Agent 47 – Hitman Series

Enhanced speed, reflexes, strength and even a slight healing factor – Agent 47 possesses all of this and more, further supplemented by training in all forms of assassination. That includes sniping, as he can take down targets and vanish with barely any trace. Such is his overall infamy that he’s considered a legend in the ICA and will go to any lengths to kill a target.

City Interactive Games, which is resposible for the Sniper: Ghost Warrior franchise, has revealed sales figures and revenue for 2013. Thanks to the success of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, the developer reported a consolidated revenue of $35.3 million with a net income of $3.7 million. The game managed to sell 1.5 million units worldwide, with total franchise sales at more than 5 million units worldwide.

CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski stated that,”2013 has been a great year for us, driven by the success of the latest in our popular Sniper: Ghost Warrior series. For 2014, we have an even stronger line-up, with Enemy Front and Lords of the Fallen coming in the second half of the year.”

The developer also has strategic distribution agreements to allow for the sale of its games in every major territory worldwide. With two big releases planned for 2014, things can only get better for the Sniper: Ghost Warrior developer. Stay tuned for more updates.

niper: Ghost Warrior 2 is a game that was released back in March by 505 games. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 featured Cry-engine 3 and realistic sniping mechanics. For our original review of the game please click here. Siberian Strike is the game’s first single-player DLC that was released not too long ago. Is the DLC worth the price and what kind of content does it offer on top of the original game?

Find out in the review below.

Siberian Strike DLC Additions and Gameplay:

Siberian Strike is the very first Downloadable Content Pack for Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 and is set in Russian in Siberia. This single-player DLC is divided into three different missions that take up about 3 or so hours of gameplay depending on how fast you get through it and what difficulty you’re playing it on.

In Siberian Strike you play as Cole “Sandman” Anderson who must find a undercover lab technician who is reporting on Russian arms R&D. The story is exceptional and will do for the small piece single-player DLC, so I don’t actually have any complaints in that regard.

The gameplay structure in Siberian Strike is pretty much the same as Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2. If you enjoyed the gameplay in Sniper Ghost Warrior 2, then you will feel right at home with Siberian Strike. Now is that a good or a poor thing you ask? In my opinion, the original game had a few issues such as graphical flickering and the super-slow paced gameplay that I did not like.

The same continues in Siberian Strike, although the graphical issues are not as severe as the original, however, the gameplay still feels somewhat boring and linear, and it doesn’t honestly bring much new to the table.

Siberian Strike is being advertised as a more of an open world/sandbox, as opposed to the original game. I am going to have to say that’s half true. The maps and levels do feel bigger, but the amount of action and enemies is somewhat underwhelming and there are also areas that are almost impossible to get through without having the enemy soldiers alerted. The level design is much better than the original game, but the efforts have been wasted, because there is just not enough going on in those vast beautiful snowy levels.

The sniping areas are pretty much the same for the most part. In one of the missions, you have to provide sniping cover for a guy who’s trying to infiltrate the building while another mission has you sniping criminal subjects who are escaping and you have to kill them before they get away. There is nothing actually new here in terms of mission types. However, this is just a DLC, which doesn’t have to reinvent the wheel or add anything no one has ever seen before.

Final Verdict

Overall Siberian Strike DLC pack just offers more of the same gameplay that the original game had on top of it. The only big difference between the levels is the map size. The maps sizes are vaster than the original game. However, despite the bigger map space the developers have done absolutely nothing to make good use of it and that is unfortunate.

However, if you actually enjoyed the original game then I’d recommend you buy Siberian Strike DLC pack. It offers the same linear gameplay the original game had with a total of three different missions.

I am hoping that 505 Games are learning from their mistakes and that future downloadable content will be improved upon. Siberian Strike did give the game a bit of improvement such as making the overall levels feel wider and bigger than the original game, even though the space didn’t really get used, it was still nice to be in a bigger world.

I am hoping that the next Downloadable Content pack will provide players with more freedom in terms of how you can sneak around and snipe out your enemies. In Siberian Strike, it still felt limited in terms of how you can take out your enemies without alerting them. The game needs to be less linear and more open than it currently is. Siberian Strike is making the game head in the right direction, but it also gets sidetracked with the same issues that plagued the original.

Siberian Strike is priced at $9.99 on Steam/PlayStation Network and 800 Microsoft points on Xbox Live Marketplace. For $9.99 Siberian Strike definitely justifies the purchase considering you’re getting three new missions with three different difficulty settings that will last for a good 3 or more hours depending on how you play. Overall, Siberian Strike is not a horrible DLC, it’s just for those who actually enjoyed Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

The first game wasn’t rated all that highly among people but it did manage to sell 2 million because it was actually a good game and got the core mechanics correct, however, it was a bit generic. With this game not only are the production values high you also get to explore variety of environments at a high visual fidelity and actually get to witness some good story in the process as well.

The game is developed by City Interactive and will also be published by them. The game was released on the PS3, Xbox 360 and PC.

We also reviewed the game and gave it a 6.5 out of 10 score. You can read that here.

Let’s start this guide with the achievements.

Achievements Guide

There are a lot of Achievements in the game and here’s how to get most of them. These videos

These videos are courtesy of YouTube user iNTiMiDaTeGaming and NeedtoAchieve.

1. Operation Quarterback (10G) — Completed Act 1

2. Operation Archangel (20G) — Completed Act 2

3. Left No Man Behind (20G) — Completed the game on Casual

4. My Rifle Is My Best Friend (50G) — Completed the game on Medium

5. Harvester Of Sorrow (75G) — Completed the game on Expert

6. Poking the Bush (20G) — Collected all secrets in Act 1

7. Keepsakes Of War (20G) — Collected all secrets in Act 2

8. In Search of Enlightenment (20G) — Collected all secrets in Act 3

9. Hazardous Materials (25G) — Killed three or more enemies by shooting a grenade

10. Death’s Scythe (30G) — Took 50 headshots in single player

11. Nerves Of Steel (30G) — Achieved 100% accuracy in any single player mission

12. Balls Of Steel (20G) — Completed any single player mission without using med kits, but taking damage

13. Say Hello To My Little Friend (10G) — Killed 30 enemies using your sidearm

14. Psst, Don’t Look Behind You (20G) — Killed 15 enemies with a stealth kill

15. Kill With Still (10G) — Killed 50 enemies while holding your breath

16. Distance Matters Not (20G) — Killed 20 enemies from a distance of 600m or greater

17. Fisher King (10G) — Killed 25 enemies using thermal or night vision goggles

18. Worlds Apart (20G) — Took a successful shot from a distance of 1 km or greater

19. Bullets Can’t Hurt Me (25G) — Completed any act without using medkits

20. I Never Bleed (75G) — Completed the Campaign using max one medkit per mission

21. Bloodstreak (10G) — Killed 25 opponents in multiplayer

22. Pure Ownage (30G) — Killed 50 opponents in multiplayer

23. The Sniper Elite (50G) — Killed 100 opponents in multiplayer

24. Kill That F**ing Band! (20G) — Took 25 headshots in multiplayer

25. Blood And Tears (50G) — Took 50 headshots in multiplayer

26. Unhappy Camper (10G) — Killed 10 opponents in multiplayer using your sidearm

27. U Can’t Touch This (50G) — Won 5 rounds in a row in Team Deathmatch

28. Wrath Child (10G) — Won 10 Team Deathmatch rounds

29. Death Dealer (30G) — Won 25 Team Deathmatch rounds

30. Everything But The Kitchen Sink (50G) — In one multiplayer round killed an opponent with a sniper rifle, sidearm and melee attack

31. World Warrior (5G) — Participated in any multiplayer match

32. Hangman’s Knot (10G) — Killed Major Vladic (“And Justice For All”)

33. Nemesis (10G) — Killed Maddox once and for all (“No Loose Ends”)

34. Laugh This Off (50G) — In the final duel with Maddox, killed him with the first shot (“No Loose Ends”)

35. Back To School (30G) — Killed all enemy snipers in Sniper Alley without being hit (“Ghosts of Sarajevo”)

36. Guardian Angel (15G) — Rescued the friendly (“From Out Of Nowhere”)

37. Karma Chameleon (20G) — Retrieved your weapon without being detected (“Burning Bridges”)

38. Solid Sandman (20G) — Killed all enemies in the beach houses without causing an alarm (“Leave No Man Behind”)

Secrets Guide

There are a lot of secrets in the game as well and here’s how to find all of them.

If you want detailed description of how to find them you can just visit YouTube user Gametastik‘s channel for more information.

ACT 1:

ACT 2:

ACT 3:

Note: This guide will be updated once we have more information on the game.

CI Games promises a more open-world feel to the DLC compared to the main campaign. Cole “Sandman” Anderson returns to rescue a CIA operative from a Russian facility in Siberia. With only a simple GPS signal and no assistance, Anderson must rely on maps and good old-fashioned navigation, picking up clues on the way, to rescue the operative.

Of course, touting a sniper rifle and picking off foes from a safe distance never hurt anyone. Except the foes of course.

Siberian Strike is currently available for 800 Microsoft Points or £8.99 – you can check out our rather somber review of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 here. Check out the new trailer for DLC and also the spiffy new screenshots that CI Games has released.

Cole “Sandman” Anderson must infilitrate a Russian military facility located in the Siberian city of Birsovik to locate CIA operative M. Diaz, who went undercover to see if the Russians were manufacturing WMDs or not. He’ll be working alongside Task 121, and only has Diaz’s GPS signal. From there, it’s all rote discovery.

Check out our review of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 here.

niper Ghost Warrior 2 is a first-person shooter game that focuses on the simulation of what it is like to be a realistic sniper that runs on the CryEngine 3. If you like sniping and and enjoy sneaking around then this might be a game for you. However, the game isn’t as realistic as you might expect it to be due to numerous problems it has. I will be explaining the game’s high and low points, but first lets cover the presentation of the game.

Presentation:

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is a decent looking game, but it could have been so much more better looking. It’s running on Crytek’s CryEngine 3 which is the powerhouse behind the graphical behemoth Crysis 3. Crysis 3 really took the advantage of the engine, however, Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 does not.

It looks good, but it’s nowhere near the beauty of Crysis 3, even though it’s running on the same engine. I kind of find this rather disappointing because the developers had great potential to make this a beautiful looking game. It’s a sniping and sneaking game at heart and it’s not even open world like Far Cry 3, this really baffles me why the developers have gone the low quality route on this one.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is also filled with graphical glitches, such as skybox flickering, repeatable textures that are used way too much, noticeable texture pop-ins that are easy to see and sometimes disappearing corpses after shooting them down with your trustworthy pistol.

While these graphical glitches don’t happen that often, they’re still noticeable and can distract the player from the main experience and ruin the immersion of realism. However, there are times when Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 does look pretty, especially when you look at something from a distance. Overall the presentation of the game is actually decent. There is a nice soundtrack when combat kicks in, great voice acting and good looking character models.

Gameplay and Structure:

The gameplay in Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is usually divided into three elements, which are sneaking and sniping throughout the missions. In the game you will be sneaking past enemies, taking out enemy snipers from long distances, killing main targets and covering your AI partners in certain mission scenarios. The sniping mechanics are well implemented and easy to understand. You zoom in on your sniper rifle and wait for a few seconds too see a tiny red circle appear. This actually indicates where the bullet will land. The game takes into account the wind direction, heartbeat rate and distance which determines where your bullet will actually land. Once you think you’re ready to take the shot, you can hold down shift to take a deep-breath and makes the world go into slow-motion so you can properly aim your shot and then push the trigger.

The game has 3 difficulty settings, easy, normal and hard. Playing easy and normal will still make the small red circle appear when you zoom in with your sniper rifle, while the hard difficulty completely relies on your sniping intuition and skills. The game consists of 3 Acts with 3 missions in each act. The missions usually range from 20-30 minutes depending on how fast you snipe and sneak around. There are also secret collectibles that you can collect. If you’re into collecting and completing the Acts 100%, then the game will obviously become longer due to the exploration aspect.

Your sniper is also equipped with a knife, pistol with an attached silencer. You may also use binoculars to locate hard to see targets in the distance, thermal vision and night vision for missions in the dark. The pistol is useful for the sneaking parts of the game and can also help you out of sticky situations if the enemies decide to charge and gun you down. The game makes clever use of binoculars and other gadgets during your snipe hunt.

The AI in the game is not that smart which is disappointing, because this is supposed to be a realistic sniping experience. When the AI gets alerted they either run straight to you, or go behind cover and not even try to shoot you until you kill them with a pistol or snipe them down. This makes the game really easy, I was able to get through most of the missions just by killing everyone with a pistol and didn’t even need to use my sniper.

One thing that I do like about Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is the bullet cam. When you snipe down the last guy in the zone, the final hit is beautifully demonstrated in a slow-motion movement and the feeling of the impact when the bullet hits someone’s face. It’s fun to see and adds a cinematic feel to the game thanks to the camera angles. Players may also turn the bullet cam feature off in the options menu if they don’t like it.

Overall the pacing of the game is decent. I just wish there was a bit more sniping in the game and less areas where you can just sneak past enemies or even gun them down if you want to put your sniper rifle to use. The actual sniping is fun and feels good when you start popping enemies heads one by one. The dumb AI doesn’t help the game at all and makes it unrealistic which is a shame. Graphical glitches that I’ve mentioned earlier can also break the immersion during sniping sections. The game is also very linear, it tries hard to make you think that it’s open world. However, in reality its far from it and you just follow objectives until your done with the mission.

Multiplayer:

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 has a 12 player multiplayer. You can create/join a server or host a LAN party if you wish. Looking  for multiplayer games, I was able to see 2 servers in the Server Browser, which indicates that the multiplayer in this game is not that popular. After about an hour of sniping in online session I became super bored. The pace of the game is way to slow for me and its just wasn’t that fun overall.

The game only included Team Deathmatch mode and 2 maps for the online play and nothing else. Not only was the multiplayer experience not that fun, but it was also lacking in content. Majority of gamers are used to having multiple game modes  to choose from. If you’re looking for a good multiplayer sniping experience then you’re not going to find it here.

Overall

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 is a decent game but it has too many issues. The game’s biggest problem is the AI. The game is advertised as a realistic sniping experience and the AI doesn’t complement that in any way whatsoever. While the game is powered up by CryEngine 3 it definitely does look pretty in certain places, but nowhere near the quality of other CryEngine 3 powered games. The graphical texture pop-ins, overused repeatable textures and flickering skyboxes don’t help the game either. Bullet cam and actual sniping is decent, but not amazing. Thankfully the game is $30, so if you’re looking for a quick sniper fix then buy it.

If you have friends that are looking for a varied multiplayer experience then look elsewhere. There are plenty of other first-person shooter games with fantastic multiplayer content out on the market. Overall it’s not a horrible game by any means, I just think it wasn’t executed as well as it could be. Hopefully a future sequel (if there ever will be one) will address the main issues and make the game better.

This game was reviewed on the PC.

This normally wouldn’t be surprising since critics have been raving about the game. But this is with the debuts of God of War: Ascension, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm and Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2. Two highly anticipated big-name sequels and the oft-delayed follow-up to City Interactive’s surprising success.

In other news, FIFA 13 has finally fallen off the top 5 into the number 6 spot. It’s former position is now occupied by SimCity, which saw a drop from its number 2 position the week before. The negative reception towards the DRM and severe server troubles may have finally caught up with Maxis’s city simulator.

That isn’t all that’s wrong with the game though – check out our official review of SimCity to learn more.

On top that, there will also be free multiplayer DLC released, which will include two new maps – Tower Defense and Temple Crossing – and a new game mode.

CEO of City Interactive Games Marek Tyminski states that the DLC “is just the first step in our plan to support the Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 experience for our fans after launch. We will also soon release a dedicated update to the PC version of the game that will allow gamers to enjoy all the advantages of DirectX 11.”

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 releases for Xbox 360 and PS3 at £39.99 and alongside PC for £24.99.

Captain Cole Anderson and his fellow spotter return for more sniping missions around the world. This time, they’ll be tasked with eliminating hostiles in Sarajevo, Burma and Tibet. Unlike most other games that feature sniping, Ghost Warrior 2 will rely on calculating distance to target, effect of wind and many other factors.

Which is where the spotter comes in handy, since he’ll cover your back and even offer some useful advice every now and then.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 will be releasing on multiple platforms like PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PlayStation Vita. Will it live up to the original’s success or be too little, too late with its many delays? We’ll soon find out.