Sometimes you jump over a rock or something, you land and next thing you know, you're stuck, can't move at all, can't jump, crouch, prone, etc. Sometimes you go over a surface and it seemed fine at first, but now you're stuck. One of the more major issues I've had with the game is jumping/movement and getting stuck. Sometimes the highlight is covered by stuff but there are plenty of ledges you'll come across where you go into "Mask mode" and it won't show up, but you absolutely CAN grab onto said ledge. However there are some ledges that aren't highlighted at all, but CAN be grabbed/climbed. This issue of not showing prompts is also present with ledge climbing, most ledges are highlight showing you can grab/climb them. I know some items don't show the prompt, for example the Motion Sensors/Warning Devices, if you place those down, you don't get a prompt, but you can still retrieve them by facing them and holding "E". Not only is there no "Press E" prompt, just pressing and holding it does nothing. If you place a block of C4, or a decoy trap, you can't get it back. So if you see a target show up while scoped in, and they aren't tagged, you either need to use the range-estimation lines, or just know your holds/have mental distance markers/references because you're going in blind since if you're using a bipod for example, you can't use mask mode unless you stop using bipod, not just unscoping, but specifically leaving bipod mode/not bracing up against cover for stability.Īnother major downgrade I've noted is that you can't retrieve C4 or decoy traps. You only have the range estimation lines where you line up the top of the target's head to the line. Your fancy scope DOES NOT have a range finder that gives you the exact range. You can only tag enemies in mask/scout mode, that is also THE ONLY WAY to range a target. but regular mask/highlight mode isn't, but you don't have a battery indicator on screen until SGWC2 so you have no idea how much power your mask has until it can't use "highlight" mode. Thermal vision is infinite use on your mask. There are minor things that should've been displayed on the HUD, but aren't until SGWC2. The game does not have the SGW aiming dot that helps with wind/bullet drop compensation, not the end of the world, makes for a more fun and challenging game, but if you need that assistance, sadly its not present in C1, it gets brought back in C2. It just gives you dots which doesn't show which way the enemy is facing, a little too simple IMO, it works but its not great.
While its an overall improvement of SGW3 which IMO is still a decent game (just not quite good enough due to enemy despawn distance being so low), there are some minor downgrades, most of which are in the HUD/UI. If you make a purchase you regret in C2, you're stuck with it as the game won't give you the reward money for replaying contracts. This is not present in SGWC2 (Contracts 2), once you complete a main mission in C2, you CAN replay it, but you DO NOT get money for replaying it. Same goes with challenges, you can complete an area in segments, or do it one single shot, then later on you can revisit the mission and complete any challenges you missed, while still getting money from completing the main contracts. The nice thing about SGWC1 is that, once you've completed either one of the primary objectives and exfil, you can continue on, or quit, and restart the mission and repeat that part to farm money. You get additional money from challenges within that region (for example, kill only this guy and nobody else, get x amount of additional money), and collect bounties that are within the area. You have 5 regions, within those regions are contracts/jobs, you do them, you get paid. SGWC1 (Contracts 1), remedied this by having the world semi-open world or at least what I would define as a semi-open world experience.
Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 was when the game series started to improve, however a major downside to SGW3 is that, despite being open world, enemies would despawn after a certain distance, leading to a very lackluster sniper experience since you'll be shooting from a distance within 300m most of the time with a few exceptions. Some very minor downgrades and issues but overall I recommend it, more so than Contracts 2 to be honest as it takes what SGW3 did good, and builds upon it (while not truly open world, you can approach missions anyway you want), while not being too much of a downgrade (most of which are UI things and generally are super minor). TL DR this game is a very nice improvement over SGW3, focusing on quality of smaller areas (ditching open world from SGW3) over quantity.