Other PS4 titles include Odin Sphere Leifthrasir, West of Dead, Star Ocean: Integrity and Faithlessness and Contra: Rogue Corps (which are backwards compatible on PS5). The PS4 and PS5 titles include Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2, Unpacking, Planet Coaster: Console Edition, Tails Noir, Cloudpunk, Call of the Sea and PAW Patrol The Movie: Adventure City Calls.

The only PS5-exclusive title is This War of Mine: Final Cut. The above titles are a part of the Game Catalog for Extra and Premium subscribers. The latter gets access to three Star Ocean titles – Star Ocean First Departure R, Star Ocean: Till the End of Time and Star Ocean: The Last Hope – 4K and FHD Remaster – and Dragon’s Crown Pro, all on PS4.

There are clear influences from the likes of HITMAN and even Battlefield, but Contracts never really finds its footing as to why it should be the best at what it’s trying to do. It’s evident that there’s a strong baseline somewhere in Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts, especially with the satisfying sniping and potential for really unique objectives and environments, but to get there you have to fight through repeated technical problems and a lot of repetitive, unoriginal gameplay that a lot of other games do significantly better.

"There’s very little differentiation in terms of objectives throughout the game’s five base missions, though."

After a brief introduction where you’re introduced to your boss, or “Keeper,” you’re dropped into the tundra of Siberia, where it’s immediately evident how much CI’s soft reboot of the series draws its structure directly from the rebooted HITMAN series in its relatively open-ended missions and wide array of possibilities. You’re given a series of missions, each of which takes place in a different map around Siberia and consists of a list of objectives, ranging from eliminating a target to retrieving an important piece of data.

There’s very little differentiation in terms of objectives throughout the game’s five base missions, though. Being a primarily sniping-focused game, every mission has a target to kill and something to retrieve from their area. It gets repetitive by the end, especially when you’re being asked to take out dozens of enemy guards with them every single time. While there are a couple of interesting offshoots of these basic objectives, they all likely end up with you killing everyone anyway.

One unique objective asks you to determine which of two identical people is the real target you’re searching for, but you end up having to kill both anyway. This is a microcosm of how standard the missions can become despite a hint of originality, where objectives can feel original because of a unique location or an interesting objective, like freeing a prisoner before time expires, and yet they all ultimately boil down to killing everyone in sight.

"At the outset of each mission, the entire map is open for you to roam around and explore."

Within each mission, though, you can attack any of your objectives in any order you want, so if you want to start by killing the head honcho and work backwards to find the important piece of data, that’s yours to decide. There are an impressive number of ways to attack each objective. As is expected with a game with “sniper” in the name, stealth is encouraged. You’ll be able to find different paths that lead to sniping outlooks on each camp, but there’s a lot of creativity in finding how you can get inside the boundaries of each camp without being noticed.

Walls have broken sections, and there are ground-level openings that you can crawl through to get past security cameras or turrets. The most interesting ones are the ones that allow you to get in and out of enemy territory without a peep. Like being able to kill a target in HITMAN without alerting anyone, finding these is among the most satisfying moments in the game, and knowing there’s a lot left to find means there is replay value for those who want to optimize their runs.

At the outset of each mission, the entire map is open for you to roam around and explore. Each map is ultimately either a snowy or grassy environment, and, while they’re generally pretty to look at, they do start to blend together after a while, especially outside of the primary landmarks in each map.

There are some side activities to complete throughout each map, such as finding collectibles or completing bounties on someone in the area, allowing for some organic experiences outside of just the primary objective areas. However, because fast travel points are available from the start, there’s not much motivation to do any of the external challenges, primarily because the rewards from them are negligible for the rest of the experience. You can get money to buy weapon upgrades or special types of ammo, but I never really felt the need to stray away from my trusty original one-hit kill sniper.

"What’s frustrating about this stealth element, though, is that, while the game encourages you to be stealthy and perfect your sniping expertise, it doesn’t complement that with enough of an ability to stay hidden for extended periods of time."

With that sniper, too, there’s a lot of satisfying kills you can get. It does a great job of telling you which way the wind is blowing and which direction your bullet will fly, and getting a headshot on an enemy 200 meters away never stopped making me feel like I was a badass, especially when it used the bullet cam. You can also mark enemies with your binoculars or interrogate enemies to tell you the locations of the rest of the soldiers, which is great at enhancing your ability to be entirely stealthy, though I wish it was more common for soldiers to tell you about other locations, like the objective or primary target.

What’s frustrating about this stealth element, though, is that, while the game encourages you to be stealthy and perfect your sniping expertise, it doesn’t complement that with enough of an ability to stay hidden for extended periods of time. Even playing on the Normal difficulty, I was rarely able to make it through any single objective without being seen because enemies can see you from virtually anywhere and can alert the entire camp within just a few seconds of noticing you. Though you have a slight buffer to take out an enemy who’s found a dead body before they ring the alarm, the game doesn’t do a good job of telling you when someone has found one, nor does it do a good job of telling you when you’re being shot at.

At the same time, though, these didn’t give me the motivation to go back and try the section again to get it without being seen. Instead, I would either sit back and try to snipe at enemies shooting at me, or I would go in guns blazing and try to brute force my way through. Either way, death is common in Contracts to a frustrating extent. There are points where it hits a really nice balance of trial and error for stealth, but there are a lot of other moments where it felt futile to even try to be sneaky because there felt like no way to get through a mission without alerting everyone. I didn’t want as much action as I had, especially because the gunplay is clearly focused on the snipers and less refined in assault rifles and snipers, but I was forced into it a lot of times.

"Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is a game with a strong skeleton that’s unsupported by the structure and organization of everything surrounding it."

Unfortunately, Contracts is hampered by consistent significant bugs throughout. Some of these are particularly amusing, such as my character floating in the air upon each death, but some of them can be downright infuriating. During my playthrough, every single mission had at least one area where markers I put on enemies would disappear quickly, forcing me to play effectively blind despite my efforts to take note of their locations. This came alongside some enemy teleportation issues and significant stuttering issues later in the game. It’s clear that this game is a platform for more missions and patches, which your boss not-so-subtly hints at, so it’s very possible that these issues will be ironed out. However, it’s frustrating nonetheless that these issues exist so thoroughly throughout the game.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is a game with a strong skeleton that’s unsupported by the structure and organization of everything surrounding it. I enjoyed many pieces of my time sniping and sneaking around camps, but any time I was forced into an action sequence or hit with another wave of bugs, I couldn’t help but feel disappointed. It has promise for future updates and additional missions that could add more variety and clean up some of the technical issues, but it’s unfortunate that the main package isn’t where it needs to be. While there is a number of improvements and a clear foundation for future installments, Contracts is more of a step sideways than a step forward for the series.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Contracts

The game is about, shock of shocks, contracts. Players will take on different contracts, assassinating targets to earn money and upgrades. The campaign is composed of 25 contracts in total. Though there is a loose “story” governing the pace and background information on each main target, your main purpose is to fulfill these contracts and get paid. It’s a lot like IO Interactive’s recent Hitman games but with more realistic sniping.

Side Objectives

Of course, it’s not as cut and dry as simply assassinating a target. During a contract, you’ll have specific side-objectives to fulfill. Think of them as additional objectives which can be completed for an improved payout. CI Games also noted that there would be bounty contracts which aren’t required to progress through the campaign but provide additional challenges to master.

No Open World

The overall scale of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, coupled with its optimization, led to numerous gameplay issues and long loading times. By emphasizing assassinations with clear parameters in focused zones, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts returns to what matters most – sniping. It also doesn’t hurt that loading times are better and visuals have been improved with this scaled down approach.

Five Sandbox Areas

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts is set entirely in Siberia with five large sandboxes each containing five main contracts to complete. Complete contracting from a previous region will unlock the next so there is a set path of progression in the campaign. Each sandbox has its share of unique areas for contracts and despite confined to only one province, there are a variety of sights to see like dense forests, industrial areas and lakes.

Dynamic Reticle System

Unlike many games, the sniping here is pretty realistic. You need to measure bullet distance, wind direction and other conditions to successfully kill foes. Fortunately, there’s the Dynamic Reticle System which provides a clearer outline for your shots (including the exact travel path of your bullets). Setting up and measuring shots carefully is imperative to success.

AR Mask

To better navigate the sandbox, players will have an Augmented Reality or AR Mask. This includes thermal vision, the ability to scan geometry and even functions as a pair of binoculars. Is it a fancier term for a HUD that also supports marking foes and zooming into distant objects? From the outset, sure, but as you unlock upgrades, going into “Mask Mode” will enable a variety of fun tactics like revealing weak spots for vehicles and fuse boxes to destroy them.

Slow Mo Bullet Cam

It wouldn’t be a sniping game without some kind of slow mo bullet cam to trace the path of shots to a target. There’s no X-Ray mode like Sniper Elite 4 so you won’t see bones and muscles ripping apart with each shot landed. But there is a nice cinematic flair added to kill, which can hopefully be skipped when we don’t want to see it every time.

Open-Ended Gameplay

While sniping is pretty much your main means of killing, you don’t have to play that way. You can get up close and personal with a silenced pistol and eliminate enemies one by one. Want to run around with a knife, chaining kills? How about running and gunning with a shotgun or just killing targets with grenades? It’s all possible but the louder the approach, the tougher it’ll be to complete the contract. That’s because you need to evacuate after an assassination so even when sniping, being silent is imperative for a smooth escape. The contract won’t be completed without a successful evac.

Rivals

One element which hasn’t been detailed much are the Rivals that can crop up during missions. These are essentially AI snipers competing for the same contracts as you. Either take out a target before they do or eliminate them altogether to secure the contract. Will different Rivals have different play-styles? Will there be different incentive for taking down Rivals? The developer has yet to provide more details, sadly.

Mask and Suit Upgrades

There a number of upgrade trees in-game, ranging from the AR Mask’s Scouting, Utility and Awareness categories to customizing one’s suit. Suit unlocks start out fairly straightforward, increasing your overall health and stamina. Later perks confer benefits like no noise generation while walking or sprinting, reduced fall damage and additional armor. As for the AR Mask, one upgrade will let you see the cone of vision for enemies while another enables you to see all traps and mines laid within a five meter range when in Mask Mode.

Support Items and Gadgets

Support Items include the sniper turret and scout drone. The sniper turret is particularly intriguing since you can customize it for semi-auto fire or equip a silencer and increase its number of targets. Likewise, the scout drone can also be customized to have thermal vision, emit an EMP and also tag all enemies in a 10 meter range. Other gadgets include mines, throwing knives, smoke grenades and much more to make life difficult for your foes. There also special ammo types like D.A.R.P.A Bullets which ignore weather and elevation, Armor Piercing Bullets to hit enemies through walls and EMP Bullets to disable electronics.

Weapon Customization

If you’re used to fine-tuning your weapons, don’t worry – Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts features a robust weapon customization system. You can change the scope, magazine, barrel, underbarrel, camo and much more to suit your preferences. Along with a primary sniper rifle – with options like the Tactical XCR 700, Sturm – Precision and Model Ron B82 – there are secondary weapons like the AKA-47 and AMA Ace-7 assault rifles and Giovanni M4 shotgun. You can also have sidearms like the Fort P99, Falcom IRM and Spring 686.

Stealth

Stealth on its own is a major component – the more sneaky you are while sniping, the less attention drawn to you and the easier it is to evacuate. However, this applies when infiltrating a base on foot as you can sneak behind enemies and silently take them down. You can also interrogate enemies to gain access to locations for enemies and supplies. Interrogating officers may provide critical information for your mission.

Multiplayer Options

Another area where CI Games has been strangely quiet is multiplayer. The developer had previously confirmed that there would be multiplayer options but hasn’t offered more information on the same. Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 did have a multiplayer mode which included different maps, modes and weapons but this arrived a full nine months after the base game’s launch. Whether this will be the same approach for Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts remains to be seen.

Xbox One X/PS4 Pro Support

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts will support the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro along with “newer” PC hardware. However, again, there isn’t any information on the resolution, frame rate, possible visual enhancements, different modes etc. So if you’re playing on either console and expect 4K resolution support of some kind, best to temper expectations until CI Games offers more details.

Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts hopes to be the ultimate sniping simulator. Taking the series back to its roots of sandbox like levels where you must determine the best approach to taking out targets, it promises lots of uses for your trigger finger. While the series has always been focused on single player, Contracts does have a multiplayer component, though we haven’t seen anything from it yet. And it seems we probably won’t by launch, either, as only single player will be available.

Via their official Twitter account, CI Games announced that the game would be a single player only experience at launch. The multiplayer is still coming, as promised, and will come with a free patch next month completely free of charge. We’ll probably get more details after the game launches. 

Sniper Ghost Warrior: Contracts will release on November 22nd for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. For an extended look at the sniping-based gameplay, take a look through here.

Update regarding #SGWContracts multiplayer. pic.twitter.com/PFhMvAg0Z2

— Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 | ON SALE (@SGWContracts) November 12, 2019

Spirit of the North

Developed by Infuse Studio and releasing for PS4, Spirit of the North is a mellow tale of exploration. It sees a red fox meeting a fox spirit who acts as the Northern Lights’ guardian. Together, you’ll explore the mysterious landscape, traversing meadows and caves inspired by Iceland, and attempt to solve the world’s mystery. Beautiful, relaxing and wholly intriguing, Spirit of the North is out on November 1^st.

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order

Initially met with skepticism, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has had some fairly positive pre-launch impressions. The story revolves around Cal Kestis, a Jedi Padawan who survived Order 66 and lives in secrecy. Of course, that doesn’t last for long and the Empire’s Inquistorius, namely the Second Sister, are after his life. With gameplay reminiscent of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Force powers and a variety of planets to explore, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order could be a dark horse. It’s out on November 15^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

Game Freak’s eighth generation Pokemon title travels to the Galar Region with numerous stadiums and giant Pokemon created by Gigantamaxing (who naturally battle). As usual, your job will be to scour the region, take on gym leaders and ultimately challenge in the Champions Cup. There are open space areas that players are free to explore along with co-op raid bosses to topple and new Pokemon to collect. Pokemon Sword and Shield releases on November 15^th for the Nintendo Switch and the hype is very much real.

Shenmue 3

It’s been a long, long wait for Shenmue 3, the next chapter in Yu Suzuki’s long-running saga. And while there have been ups, downs and delays, the sequel is on track to release on November 19^th for PS4 and PC. Protagonist Ryu Hazuki continues his quest to hunt down Lan Di, his father’s killer, venturing to Bailu Village, Choubu and Baisha in China. With various mini-games, numerous NPCs to talk to, underground fights, training and much more to explore, Shenmue 3 promises to be a worthy follow-up to the series.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts

After the open world slump of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts is moving back to more mission-based gameplay. Set in Siberia, players will take on contracts to hunt targets, completing bonus objectives for more money. Sniping is still king and the new Dynamic Reticle System promises a realistic experience, though you also get sniper turrets and drones (because of course sniper turrets are a thing). Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts arrives on November 22^nd for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Need for Speed Heat

Electronic Arts has been rather reserved in its marketing for Need for Speed Heat, which introduces the Miami-inspired Palm City as the player’s latest racing playground. Nevertheless, the emphasis is back on street racing and evading the cop. There’s an interesting mechanic where racing during the day rewards money and upgrades but racing in the night rewards rep. Night races are illegal though so you’ll have to evade the cops and return to a safehouse for those rep gains. With 127 cars and no Speedcards, Need for Speed Heat might be worth checking out when it releases on November 8th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

Red Dead Redemption 2 (PC)

Rockstar Games’ Red Dead Redemption 2 is coming to PC, which is a big deal given how the game’s visuals could look even better than they do already. Along with improved graphics, PC players can also look forward to new weapons, bounty missions, gang hideouts and more. Though it won’t be available on Steam until December, you can pick it up on the Humble Store, Epic Games Store and Rockstar Games launcher on November 5^th.

Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020

Mario and Sonic compete, once again, to prove their sporting prowess. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 does look better than previous collaborations. It boasts higher production values and some very cool new features like Classic 2D Events where 2D sprites of the cast compete across 10 events. There also Dream Events like hoverboarding, karate and much more to keep you busy. Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 is out on November 5^th for Nintendo Switch.

Death Stranding

Regardless of where you stand, there’s no denying that the release of Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding is a momentous occasion. Taking place in the future, the story focuses on Sam Bridges, played by Norman Reedus, as he ventures the country to reconnect its cities following a great disaster. Along the way, he’ll deal with eerie entities known as the B.T.s and the enigmatic Cliff played by Mads Mikkelsen. Death Stranding has looked gorgeous so far thanks to the Decima Engine – with its release for PS4 on November 8^th, we’ll soon find out exactly what it has to offer.

Just Dance 2020

Ubisoft’s next title in the Just Dance series is out on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Wii, PS4 and Xbox One on November 5^th (with a launch on Google Stadia as well). Yes, we almost forgot about it as well but as a game to play with friends and family, the Just Dance series works pretty well. Just Dance 2020 will continue this trend with songs like Bangarang from Skrillex, Kill This Love by Blackpink and of course, the universally loved and not at all loathed Baby Shark by Pinkfong.

The Sniper Ghost Warrior series will return this November in the form of Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts. The game promises a return to form for the series after a slight detour into more open world fare. Today we got a detailed walkthrough video to give a good idea of how the game plays.

The walkthrough goes over a section of the game called Kolchak Harbor. It’ll look familiar, because earlier in the year we got a pretty big look at this section of the game. This time around we got some commentary to go along with the gameplay, breaking down how the game flows as well as mechanics such as the Dynamic Reticle System that adjusts for atmospheric conditions for the perfect shot. You can check it out below.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts will release November 22nd for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The game hopes to become the ultimate “sniping” experience, which you can read about through here.

We now know when the latest game in the sniping simulator series, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts, will come out. The game is hoping to create the ultimate sniping game in open areas where you chose how best to dispose of a contract. Now we get to see a good amount of gameplay to see just how happy your trigger finger will be.

The video comes to use via Arekkz’s YouTube channel. Set in Siberian, the game pulls back its open world approach from the previous title due to fan feedback, instead opting for smaller, sandbox levels that allows you multiple paths to your target. Each completed contract will net you cash, which you can then use to buy various items that can open up more options. This video highlights Kolchak Harbor and how you must account for several factors, such as enemy placement as well as things like environment and wind speed, as you hunt down your target.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts releases on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC on November 22nd.

CI Games has announced that Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts will be releasing on November 22nd. It will be coming to Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Check out the latest trailer below, showcasing some of the sniper gameplay we know and love in a new region.

After the disappointing Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, the latest game focuses more on set missions instead of an open world setting. Players will have a major objective and various secondary objectives for additional cash and upgrades. Enhanced Scope Mode offers the “most realistic” sniping experience with the tactical tagging system used to mark foes.

New gadgets include drones, remote sniper turrets and sticky bombs but you can also take the stealthy approach and silently kill targets. Players will fight across Siberia, hunting across forests and mountainsides for their missions. Deathmatch is also making a return with new maps for multiplayer fans to sink their teeth into. Stay tuned for more details on the title in the coming months.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is hoping to be a lot of things. One is being the ultimate sniping simulation game on the market. The other thing, though, is to not be like its predecessor. The last game in the series, Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, was a more open world affair. Contracts is pulling back to sandbox style single levels, and the developer says that came from the fans.

In an interview with OnlySP,  Senior Level Designer Daniel Sławiński talked about the game’s new design. He said they tried something with the previous title that many fans weren’t fond of. Now they are going back and redefining what people loved about the series for something new, but also a little more familiar to those who didn’t take to the last game.

“After Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, we got a lot of feedback from the community,” said Sławiński. “What going open-world meant for us was filling the world with a lot of different activities. We felt that it kind of diverted the whole experience away from that sniper experience. Instead of focusing on the essence of the sniping experience, we got diverted in different directions. In Contracts, we really wanted to capture that core feeling of being a sniper behind enemy lines.”

Hopefully, they can craft something that fans will dig more into. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts will release some time this year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.

The next installment in the stealth based sniping series, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts, got its coming out party at this year’s E3. We got a CG teaser as well as very brief snippets of the gameplay. Today we got an idea from the development team what they hope to accomplish with the experience, hoping to both go back to the roots of the franchise and create the ultimate sniping simulation.

In speaking with Gamereactor, Art Director Rick Nath broke down what he saw as the game returning to its roots. While the last entry had gone into a more full open world approach, this one will go back into the more sandbox single levels of older games, where you will be challenged to tackle targets a number of ways, giving players more freedom.

“One of the first things we wanted to address was what exactly we wanted to deliver to the fans, which was the ultimate sniping experience,” said Nath. “We wanted to deliver something that is complete and one of the issues we had with open-world was we had to spread out our resources, so what we’ve done is we’ve taken away the open-world and condensed it back to the sandbox style contract system. So, within that, you have a lot more freedom to play and have more opportunities in terms of the upgrades.”

Sniper Ghost Warriors Contracts is announced to come out some time this year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can check out the initial tense teaser announcement here.