The new Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 gameplay trailer really pops

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Death-from-a-distance simulator Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 was, we were told last summer, expected to be out in the fall of 2020. That plan ultimately went sideways twice, first in a delay to early 2021, and then to the second quarter of the year. Now, however, we've got a proper (and hopefully final) release set for June, and a new trailer showcasing the skull-popping action we've all come to see.

Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 features a singleplayer campaign set in the modern-day Middle East (of course), with five sandbox maps, replayable missions and unlockable rewards, and "extreme-range sniping" that gives players the opportunity to put bullets into brains from more than 1,000 meters away. (That's also two-thirds of a mile, for our non-metric readers.)

Pulling off shots like that will be tricky business. Unlike most videogames, which use a simple point-and-kill system for sniping, the Sniper Ghost Warrior series attempts to inject some realism into the process by forcing players to contend with factors like wind and bullet drop. As Shaun said in his 2019 preview of the original Contracts, "These games are simulators rather than shooters," aimed squarely at the relatively (okay, very) niche "sniper nerd subgenre."

The series has more misses than hits—Ghost Warrior 2 was built around "tortuously linear missions [that] drag you between utterly forgettable pockets of action," while Ghost Warrior 3 was a technical mess that developer CI Games ultimately admitted was just too much for it to take on. Contracts was an effort to get the series "back to basics" that seemed to work out fairly well; hopefully Contracts 2 will be another step in the right direction.

I do wish they'd shorten up that title, though. As it stands, it's one colon away from being an unironic contender for the perfect FPS title. I also can't help but notice that you can rearrange it in just about any way you like, and it doesn't change a thing. Ghost Warrior: Sniper Contracts 2. Or Ghost Warrior 2: Sniper Contracts. Or Sniper 2: Ghost Warrior Contracts. See?

I jest, but I do hope it's good. Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 is set to come out on June 4, and you can find out more at sniperghostwarriorcontracts2.com.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.