The Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 open beta is now live, with two single-player missions set in the lovely Republic of Georgia: Cut Off, an infiltration mission into an enemy communications site, and Blockout, which is more of a straight-up hit.
"You have to throw away everything you know about the series, since Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is a redefinition of the franchise developed from scratch and with a much-higher budget," Marek Tymiński, CEO of developer CI Games, said. "This beta includes two single-player missions from the beginning of the game, and is just a glimpse of what you'll experience in the full open-world game. Every bit of feedback you give is invaluable to us, and we'll listen closely to all comments."
There's an awful lot of non-sniping action going on in this trailer, like shooting down helicopters, running guys over, blowing up conveniently-placed barrels of fuel, and plenty of noisy gunfire. The trailer is actually quite explicit about it, saying, "Be a warrior and defeat your enemies from close range," which is pretty much the opposite of my understanding of a sniper's job. On the other hand, spending an hour getting into position, waiting all night, shooting a guy, and then slipping out quietly, repeated over a dozen or more levels, might not make for the most compelling mainstream game experience ever. (Personally, I'd love it, but that's also a pretty spot-on description of how I play Team Fortress 2 so take it for what it's worth.)
To clarify, because I'm constantly mixing them up: the Second World War shooter Sniper Elite 4 will support DirectX 12 and comes out on February 14; the modern era Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3—the one that's now in beta—is offering the season pass as a preorder bonus and is scheduled for release on April 4. The open beta runs until February 5, and if you haven't already you can sign up for it here.
