Sniper Ghost Warrior contracts with Contracts

After dreaming big Sniper Ghost Warrior 3, developers CI Games have decided that there's little practical difference between targets being far away or simply small, and accordingly announced Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts. After making a big fancy open-world in GW3, this time they're thinking smaller with- hang on, they mean contracts as a noun, not a verb. Ah. Well! They're still scaling down, talking about going from an open world to focused yet open-ended missions in a way that reminds me a bit of Hitman - though presumably without the option to dress as a clown. Not such good camouflage in Siberia, the ol' red honker.

"Contracts distils the core sniping gameplay that series fans have come to love, offering dense, more focused maps that reward tactical thinking," CI said in yesterday's announcement. "With a wealth of optional objectives to complete, the combination of open-ended missions and emergent gameplay ensure these scenarios are wildly replayable."

These murderous contracts have bonus objectives, for extra cash, and are repeatable too. Hence my Hitman thinking.

CI don't have anything of the game to show for now, but they are quite clear about what it isn't: not more Ghost Warrior 3. They've spoken quite openly about 3's shortcomings before, of dreaming too big and chasing after games with bigger teams and budgets. The series has always been janky but the end result of 3 was a game Edwin Evans-Thirlwell called in his preview "an off-brand Far Cry with a dash of Battlefield" - falling short of both.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is due some time in 2019. Given the limited options for fans of long-range face shooting and renewed focus, I am curious to see how it turns out. Still janky but tighter, I'd guess? And with wicked noscopes, going by the key art ↑ up there.