Personal Review

[Raptor762]

This is just some personal rambling, I'm just curious if anyone shares the same sentiments about the game.

I've played this game and the first extensively although I don't go for the highest difficulty and mainly go after most challenges. I have to say as a sniping game it is extremely fun to snipe at both extreme ranges and get up close with a suppressed pistol or a blade but the immersion in this game is non-existent and it would kill the fun if the other aspects I just mentioned weren't as engaging. First off why do the enemies speak English? Why? They are clearly meant to speak Russian or a similar dialect yet they speak English with a Russian accent. Totally breaks immersion for me. Secondly why did they change the name of your character to Raven? I though Seeker was much more mysterious, same for the voice actor of the handler. That almost robotic voice in the first game made him sound great now it's just a generic british voice.

Speaking of the characters, you, the player are playing as a hand picked expert sniper and during some missions the handler and you will talk about the most basic sniping tips ever. Like "remember to account for wind and bullet drop Raven"... Are you serious? Like obviously your character would know about this. The characters in this game do not speak at all like anyone would IRL, its so bad and breaks any immersion in making this world believable.

The game overall is fun but the story is meh and the things i mentioned above makes it worse than it could be. CI Games needs to trust in their players intelligence and give us a more realistic experience, not the just in the scope but in the world itself.

[doomedSniper]

Originally posted by Raptor762:

CI Games needs to trust in their players intelligence and give us a more realistic experience, not the just in the scope but in the world itself.

They did. See the reviews for that result. Most of the players are so "braindead" that they could not even figure out how to shoot. So, they had to implement the red dot(feed the babies, hell yeah).

Some of the comments from the reviews :

"Pure Luck if you hit anything".
"Aiming sucks".
"Give me quicksave".

I bet many of the players play with the "One shot One kill principle". So, they have infinite luck, are you kidding me?


What I say to CI :
Develop the game in 2 channels.
One for the hardcore and one for the casual.
Most of your playerbase will be casual and won't understand what it takes to be a sniper. So, develop the lower difficulties for them so that they can enjoy the game. Give them the so called "choices".
There are a lot more tactical players out there with huge fan bases, hire them to showcase your game. Not some braindead CS player. What did you think, CS is tactical?

Now Curators comes in with their world class review players. They play the game in easy and mock the game to be an easy one. Hilarious!

[Foosball]

Originally posted by Raptor762:

This is just some personal rambling, I'm just curious if anyone shares the same sentiments about the game...

Absolutely. The writing is absolute garbage.

At best this game is a decent visual sniping demo.

The writing is so cringe AF, the character's commentary absolutely ruins any immersion.

For someone outfitted with so much tech, the commentary the character spews out ruins the sniping experience. Some of the lines the guy says, such as "This won't be easy", not only do not come from a sniper, they wouldn't even come out of a recruit.

If you kill both contracts in one shot in the first mission, the sniper actually says, my instructor would have been proud, and then once you're notified you're to be paid for both, you actually say, "wow, two for the price of one!".

Who says this?

The garbage writing also extends itself to the commentary of the soldiers. On the first mission, one guy is heard talking about the need to get a cat. Wtf?

The cost of items in the game is also beyond broken. 18,900 for a .50 caliber mag add-on? A McMillan TAC®-50C costs 11,000 for the entire weapon system. Why is the costing system so badly bungled?

Under all of the layers of tech and the Cry engine is a game so badly written its base price is worth 5 bucks, never mind the sale.

[ಠ_ಠ]

Originally posted by Foosball:

Blah.

Someone doesn't appreciate one-liners. And what does real world cost have to do with a video game? (Absolutely nothing.)

Originally posted by Raptor762:

I've played this game and the first extensively although I don't go for the highest difficulty and mainly go after most challenges.

I assume you mean the first "Contracts" game. This series has six titles. My favorite is either Ghost Warrior 3, or the first Contracts. I feel like Contracts 2 was a bit lacking (though I am going to replay it soon).

As for languages, that's pretty typical. Most developers don't have Ubisoft level budgets for voice acting and subtitling. Personally, I don't really care if characters speak their native languages. I had the same thoughts regarding immersion (though more about movies) when I was 20. 20 years later, I don't care. Convenience and usability are arguably more important than immersion. It takes more effort to read subtitles than to listen to immersion shattering dialogue.

And I say that as an avid reader. I finished 66 books last year. Not exactly record breaking, but I consistently read at least one book a week, and I still find it more difficult to read subtitles while also trying to play a game. I do still prefer subtitled shows as opposed to dubbed shows, though.

[Foosball]

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ:

Originally posted by Foosball:

Blah.

Someone doesn't appreciate one-liners. And what does real world cost have to do with a video game? :conwayheadscratch: (Absolutely nothing.)

If you're going to quote me, at least quote me on words I used instead of inserting primary school level thinking. That way people can take you seriously.

What you failed to gather from my previous post was that the one-liners are beyond incongruous to what you'd expect from a sniper with a million dollar mask. The one-liners themselves are beyond cringe and break the immersion. It's a constant stream of self-doubting ♥♥♥♥ that gets actually irritating after a while. The writing for the game is downright silly and it makes this clear 10 minutes in the game. Unless you are the type who enjoys games and doesn't need anything halfway decent regarding writing.

Consider some of the cringe:

"Sounds like a piece of cake...except for the range...and with no spotter."

"No pressure then."

"At this distance, it's not going to be easy. Even with this fancy new gear."

For anyone with a halfway functioning sense, they're not just one-liners. It's this constant stream of insecure self-doubt that borders on ridiculous. As a sniper with the latest tech, why does the guy constantly put out these soy boy phrases? Would it hurt the devs to have the writing instead reflect something closer to the type of conversation between a sniper and his handler?

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ:

And what does real world cost have to do with a video game? :conwayheadscratch: (Absolutely nothing.)

You should dig deeper. The closer a game sticks to real-world, the greater immersion and authenticity it creates. It's why missions like "Clean House" and "All Ghillied up" rank highly among gamers as one of the best episodes. The greater the reality and real-world, the greater immersion it provides. The costing system is so immature in the game, it begs to be criticized. $9,000 for a scope? $200,000 for a high-ranking gun? The disparity between the cost of the guns and what the game offers contracts wise makes it mickey mouse.

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ:

Personally, I don't really care if characters speak their native languages. Convenience and usability are arguably more important than immersion. It takes more effort to read subtitles than to listen to immersion shattering dialogue.

Yeah, not really. You're in the middle of some nowhere mountain, in some foreign country, and the guards are speaking perfectly grammatical English with a heavy accent, and they're talking about switching their diets along with the quality of meat. The writing first of all again, is nonsensical because it stands out so much, and second, if you have the finances and time to use the game engine, along with the technical level to make pretty decent multilayered sound, then you should have the time to hire someone speaking the language. It takes zero effort to read subtitles unless you have a formal learning difficulty or if you're just lazy. Lol. Is asking for the language to be authentic that immersion shattering? Shattering? Wow.

Originally posted by ಠ_ಠ:

And I say that as an avid reader. I finished 66 books last year.

" Cool story bro. I think we all did the same when we were in university. But pro tip: "avid" means 5-6 a week, not the 5 or so a month you pointed out.

[Foosball]

Originally posted by Raptor762:

Speaking of the characters, you, the player are playing as a hand picked expert sniper and during some missions the handler and you will talk about the most basic sniping tips ever. Like "remember to account for wind and bullet drop Raven"... Are you serious? Like obviously your character would know about this. The characters in this game do not speak at all like anyone would IRL, its so bad and breaks any immersion in making this world believable.

Absolutely. It's one of the FIRST things that struck me with this game. You are this hand picked sniper, with a mask alone that costs a fortune, and the handler is talking to you like you just finished ranger school. The handler is basically holding the guy's hand throughout the first mission. Then the sniper responds with all of these out of place comments that not only break immersion, they ruin the credibility.

It is the writing that breaks the game, it is so bad. Ever pay attention to the enemy soldiers talking? They talk in grammatically perfect English but with accents about the phones their kids have, or if they should change their diets around eating meat. It's not only cringe, it's so far-fetched. It's not just once or twice, the language itself which is odd stands out more and more and it makes for cringe listening.

The graphics are decent, the sound is actually quite good at certain points, plenty of opportunities to have different shooting outcomes, but the downright strange writing leaves people thinking, "Wtf did I just listen to?"

[astrofelix59]

Welcome to the bell curve, the lowest common denominator and the largest market share.
One end of the curve will just drop it as soon as they hit something they don't understand, the other end will write lengthy essays but otherwise remain engaged.