‘Sniper Ghost Warrior 2’ gameplay trailer released

Alright, let’s lay the cards on the table. Sniper Ghost Warrior was, at best, average. Fear not, though, sniper fans. The game’s metacritic  rating of 55/100 isn’t stopping City Interactive from delivering another round of long-range deadliness. Hoping to improve upon the old,  the publisher/developer will release Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 early next year.

Today, for the first time, fans can catch a glimpse of the in-game action with the following gameplay trailer:

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The first thing you’ll notice–as well as later on–is that the first-person protagonist stabs his enemy in the armpit. According to a quick Google search, this is a method for eliminating enemy combatants on the battlefield, however, any advantage gained by circumventing body armor and letting him bleed out would almost immediately be negated–one would think–by the screaming of the soldier you’ve just stabbed. So that seems a little odd.

The shooting in the game–its main course–does look good. In the trailer we see the return of “bullet vision,” as well as the need for taking into account bullet drop and wind and all those other sniperly factors you never really consider except in that one level of Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

Lastly, let’s talk about the graphics for a moment. They look pretty damn decent. Granted, this was probably “recorded” on a PC, but the colors and textures are nothing to sneeze at. If they do carry over to the console, the game could receive some acclaim simply for its graphical execution–especially at a time when so many people are dissatisfied with the state of console graphics as they compare to PC images.

Sniper Ghost Warrior 2 launches January 15, 2013 on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, Playstation Vita, and the Wii U.