We speak to CI Games Lead Producer Krzysztof Golatowski about the latest installment in the best-selling sniper franchise.

Plan your attack, equip authentic gadgets and equipment, take down targets from over 1 kilometer away, and bring down a brutal dictatorship as Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 launches today for PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC. Powered by CRYENGINE, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 takes you to Kuamar, a lawless fictional region of the Middle East located along the Lebanese and Syrian borders. You’ll play the role of Raven, a Contract Sniper Assassin, as you fight through five vast, distinct, and diverse sandbox levels built for replayability. Experience high-pressure tactical combat, deep inside enemy territory, in the most challenging and authentic entry in the series yet.

Discover more about the game, find out how the team has evolved the franchise, and learn how CRYENGINE helped them achieve their vision in our interview with Krzysztof Golatowski, Lead Producer at CI Games.

Hey Krzysztof! Congratulations on the launch! Can you tell us about the setting for Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2?

Contracts 2 tells the story of a fictional Middle Eastern regime gone bad. The President of Kuamar has been murdered, and his wife, Bibi Rashida, has taken control. Unfortunately, she faces many internal threats and has bolstered her support with the aid of some very dangerous people. Now her regime is threatening neighboring states, and it’s time for Raven to intervene in his own unique way! 

Players will explore a mix of punishing deserts, lush oasis outposts, and even dense forest, which thrives on the mountain’s microclimate. 

What are your favorite new features in Contracts 2? 

For the first time in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series, we have introduced extreme-range sniping sections. The large, open maps players loved in the first Contracts are returning, but now we also have some maps focused more on the long shot scenarios with a number of challenges and ways to achieve mission goals. 

The dev team spent a lot of time reading comments and reviews for Contracts 1, and a system that we thought we needed to take to another level was the game’s difficulty level. The new approach to difficulty ensures that even casual players will have a lot of fun with the game. At the same time, the "Dead Eye" mode - the most difficult one - will set a new level of challenge for even the most experienced players.

Players can look forward to many positive changes to the weapon ballistics, weapon mechanics, the save system, AI behaviors, mission construction, and much more. The long shot contracts are probably my favorite new feature, but there are plenty of other features which were also redesigned and improved. 

How does the 1 km distance for sniping change the design of the game and the player experience? 

The 1 km sniping shots are one of the greatest features in the game, but it was also one of the most challenging things to achieve without losing the visual quality. Try to imagine; the engine has to render objects that are really far away from the player position, and players can quickly aim to that distance. As a result, we had to spend a lot of time thinking about our approach to building maps, optimizing assets, and modifying existing systems that would not lose visual quality during these scenarios. 

Our designers also didn’t have an easy job while building the maps; they had to make sure that all the key elements for gameplay would be visible from the right angle, and they had to come up with a lot of scenarios that allowed players to feel that each shot had affected distant enemies.

The programming team prepared the systems, artists created great graphics, designers planned enjoyable missions, and our brave QA department played through every single element of the complicated maps and contracts. 

The result of all this hard work means that Contracts 2 introduces very different gameplay experiences, such as the extreme-range sniping scenarios, which we can’t wait to see players get their hands on.

What technical and visual improvements can fans look out for?  

We spent a lot of time creating assets to the highest standard of quality. A good example of this is that we use technology for scanning real people and clothing when it comes to making our in-game characters. 

We also improved our in-game textures. For example, we use Megascans Textures for a lot of objects and terrain assets. Also, we further developed a system called “Array Textures,” which allows us to use higher texture resolutions without additional memory usage and game performance overheads.

Overall, we’ve updated all environments and characters using scan data to the highest possible quality to achieve even greater realism.

How has CRYENGINE helped the team achieve its vision for the game?

CRYENGINE has been a wonderful tool to allow us to achieve the incredible visual fidelity of the Contracts series. We’ve had a lot of feedback praising the graphics in the new Contracts game, and CRYENGINE has been a really important partner in allowing us to reach those visual heights.

Cheers, Krzysztof!

Set your sights on https://www.sniperghostwarriorcontracts2.com to learn more about the game.

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