The last time CI Games invited players into the world of Sniper Ghost Warrior, it dropped them in a massive open world and let them lose to play how they wanted, but it seems that fans were not that receptive to that, so for the next entry, they have scale things down, at least in land mass, but upped the scale on choice.

Rather than having a massive open world, overflowing with missions, players this time will get access to a number of smaller land masses that offer a range of objectives to complete. Each map will contain a primary objective, or set of them, but will also include a host of alternate missions that will be completely optional to players, giving them the choice on how to proceed. While you can ignore the optional ones, as they are just that, each will offer reward to players, making the decision to pass them over harder to make, as the game progresses. My time with the game at E3 was split between a guided demo and then a chance to let loose on the game myself and I am thankful for that, as the demo that was controlled by one of the development team members, gave me a chance to see a lot more than I had on my own playthrough.

The mission was the same, assassinate a former Russian general, who had snuck across to Siberia, where his cousin was leading the country, whilst there the general started to experiment more with the bio weapons he was known for and created a most deadly toxin that kills whomever it comes in contact with. The objective also require us to steal the documents on the program, so that no-one else could attempt to replicate the work, ensuring that the secrets to this poison were lost with the general. While both objectives sounded easy enough, the first hurdle came in that we were dropped quite a distance away from where the general was known to be, thankfully as the demo had a strict time limit, we were warped closer and the hunt began in earnest.

As we needed to get in close to get a solid shot, the first thing was to locate a place where we could remain undetected, which was almost blown in the first few minutes as there were some soldiers waiting across the creek that was in front of us. Thankfully, the guy demoing the game knew what he was doing, he backtracked a little, found a nice spot and was able to take them both out with a single shot. With that little roadblock removed, the climb upwards began and pretty soon a nice perch was found, in which we could begin to surveil the world and that is where things got more interesting, because up until now it felt very by the numbers.

There were a number of ingress points that could be used by players around this base, some were quite open, as in they were driveways, holes in walls and such, some required some more planning to make use of. There were lights that could be shot out, power that could be taken down and with the use of some special noise making bullets, luring a guard away from its post, while you take down his mate, they were all possible. The catch was that each action you took, had the potential to alert the base, which would have caused the general to move away from his comfy and exposed position, to inside the large facility built into the rock behind him. Eventually, the general was taken out, which set the base on high alert and as someone was close enough to hear the shot, they called in support for a hunt on the location they knew us to be, thankfully  one the shot was made, it was time to get out of there. A sneak around the base and then the collecting of some files and the mission was done, now it was my turn.

Having just witnessed it being done, by someone who knows what they are doing, I decided to try a different route and headed more to the left, skirting the edges of the playzone and I quickly came across a couple of soldiers doing a patrol. Rather than taking them on, I waited in the grass for them to pass and once clear, pushed forward, I was doing far better than I thought, however after dropping down a ledge, I was spotted by a sniper, but thankfully just managed to get back into cover as they shot. It took a few sneak peeks to try and locate where the guy was, but I was able to line up a shot and take him out, clearing my way forward. I soon came upon the camp and made the best use of my position to scout in and while I know I missed a lot on the right side, I felt I was safe enough to try and push in on the left.

Turns out, I was wrong as no sooner had I entered in on the left, I was spotted by a camera, which called a large number of enemy soldiers to my location and while as a sniper I could take them out in one shot, up close and with a small pistol, I was not only outnumbered, but completely out gunned, and that then ended my sniping career.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts is still set on offering up a lot of choice for players, but taking a more focused approach to things, which is only a good thing. While we only got a detailed look at one portion of one mission, if the rest of the game lives up to what this delivered, then fans of the series will be quite happy.