A RONSEAL game if ever there was one. Sniper does exactly what is says on the tin and very little else.

It is one of the first questions raised when you play a shooter. “What’s the sniper like? What’s the range like?” and full credit to programmers City Interactive for at least investigating the possibilities.

However just imagine playing a game when the sole objective was to just snipe. It takes all of three screens before you get really, really bored.

The best way I can describe Sniper is a really bad version of a Tom Clancy game which looks like it has been extracted right off the shelf of a 1990s Amstrad 464 enthusiast. Yes, it is that playable!

It is just so basic. Prepare weapon. Listen to your earpiece for advice. Hide. Shoot. Kill. So after just a few minutes every aspect of this game has been covered.

The game boasts about realism and ballistics but the bottom line is that if a game is not fun then no amount of realism is going to get a gamesplayer in the mood.
Perhaps the multi-player option would offer this game some kind of ‘legs’ but the bread and butter is the solo play and anyone expecting an exciting espionage/stealth/shooter will be sorely disappointed.

There is no espionage to speak of. You go where you are told when you are told by the voice in your ear. A bit of a cop out if you ask me.

There is no stealth at all. You can crouch and lie down. You cannot climb or peer around walls so basically your character has as much freedom of movement as a 1980s Nintendo sprite.

Shooter? Well I guess in definition there is shooting but once again only at scheduled points and under the guidance of the annoying voice in your ear.

It is so disappointing to come back to games like this when you have played games which have tested the limits of consoles.

I was no great admirer of the Clancy franchise but at least those games have been researched a tad more than the idiots behind Sniper who it seems just wanted to develop a game where you could kill people from distance.

No real story, no real enjoyment, no real heart.

Now there are a lot of games out there which feature a better sniping option than Sniper so games lovers do not be fooled. Rent a game which has a story and is not 100 per cent reliant on one gun.

RATING: 1/5