Sniper Fury Review

Introduction:

Sniper Fury is a mobile game brought to fruition by high-class developer Gameloft. The product is available on the most used operating mobile system- iOS, Android, Windows. It is a free to play title that offers amazing visuals.

If you were expecting a continuation of the Modern Combat series, this isn’t it. It is really unfortunate that I will have to start with what is bad about this game. There is a lot to take in at first because of Gameloft’s reputation as a developer. They tried their hardest to create the best visually enticing software available on mobile devices. Succeeding in the graphical department, however won’t be enough to make up for all of the bad decisions about the gameplay. Let’s get one thing out of the way first. The game is filled with IAP (in-app purchases). This isn’t Gameloft’s first attempt to introduce them into a game and I believe it won’t be their last. It’s the type of product that is free at first so you can try it out and see if it fits your needs, and later on turns into a paid nightmare. You will have the option to pay for energy recharges, weapons and also parts. It is also a duplicate of the Contract Killer franchise developed by Glu Mobile. 

Unfortunately, it has picked up only the negative aspects of the cloning process without any positives. Sniper Fury has an energy recharge that is set to ten points when you begin the game. What surprised me is that it didn’t grow in number when leveling up. Apparently no matter what level you reach in the game- you will be stuck with the same ten points. The missions set up is exactly like in Contract Killer. You have the option to play from a distance as a sniper and up close and personal with an assault rifle. Also there is a campaign mode which will combine the two options into a single experience. Each mission you undergo is pretty short. Most of them you can clear in under a minute at the beginning, and the campaign ones could take up to two minutes. It takes four minutes to recharge a single point but no mission requires only one. What this means is that you will be able to play four or five times before needing to put your devices down and wait for energy. That takes the fun out of the entire experience. It is not a smart move to expand the game with a simple timer. Having played two days after each recharge, I was only able to reach the second chapter of the campaign. If this was straight gameplay, it would take no longer than an hour to finish the entire game.

Gameloft tries even harder to limit playtime:

Since we are bringing this up, at least Glu Mobile put two different recharge bars into their games. One for the single player action and the other for the PVP base attacking. That means extra playtime. Gameloft took things one step further by limiting the actual playtime as much as it possible could. Unlike Glu, Gameloft focused more on creating different objectives for the same locations. In some assignments you will have to protect teammates or hostages, in others your job will be to destroy armored vehicles, in some you will be tasked with killing helicopters pilots or ramp agents. The diversity is a nice element but without having the option to move from your location, it just can’t shine through. The breathtaking environments Gameloft has decided to create should have been exploitable and explorable. So much effort has been put into the different locations and I am here questioning why? I feel like the game hasn’t decided what it wants to be. It tries very hard to represent the best visuals and brings in amazing places where the action happens, however you are stuck in the same spot and only get glimpses of something that has been fully developed.

Weapons, Story and the Free to Pay model:

Is there great weapon variety to at least try and make up for all of the nonsense in the game? Unfortunately, no! All of guns you end up using do look alike. There are very subtle differences between them and to add to the already painful situation- you won’t be able to unlock them all. This is how things are laid out- the first weapon you will receive free of charge, afterwards the next two are going to require rubies (ingame currency), then the forth one is obtainable after some serious grinding. The fifth, sixth, eighth and ninth are locked out of reach too because of the amount of rubies they want. Last but not least the seventh gun is also possible to unlock with serious investment into the game. So, only three weapons of each class are going to be at your disposable. Do consider it took me two days to acquire a single gun and that is with the bonuses I got each day for signing into the game. It isn’t worth it. Another issue I have with the IAP is that they are beyond what a normal fully developed console game would cost (usually console games are more expensive than their PC variants). The smallest amount you can acquire is 5 euro and it won’t get you what you want. If you want some serious firepower that would last you the entire duration of the game, then an investment of at least 20 euro is needed (that being to purchase a single rifle, if you want to finish the side jobs too- then you need both a new sniper and assault rifle). At this point I will have to mention something about the story in Gameloft’s latest release. The narrative is there; it is just that the game can do without it. “You are a sniper who likes to get his hands dirty” (direct quote from Sniper Fury’s beginning). The sniper, who’s name I didn’t learn, is assigned to work for Cellstike, that is some sort of organization with the job to kill people. Is it authorized by any government, is it a special unit of some sorts, is it a rogue agency? I couldn’t tell you because Gameloft didn’t bother writing it into their product.

An authentic sniper experience?

This is nowhere near a true sniper game. It’s a simple zoom in and take the shot objective. There won’t be any windstorms you have to account for, distance also isn’t a factor here. Then again, Gameloft never claimed for this to be an authentic sniper experience. I think these mechanics aren’t in the game because they probably couldn’t have been introduced, rather than Gameloft not wanting to make them. In the end we are talking about a mobile title. The way enemies roll on the ground after getting shot is the only aspect of this game that might keep you interested. The ragdoll effects in the game are superb. I have never shot an actual person but the game brought me pretty close to the real situation. After taking a bullet, the enemy reacts depending on where he got struck. He either rolls to the side, lies flat down or goes tumbling backwards. I even noticed a couple of times where an enemy would put his hands on his body trying to hold onto the injury. 

Positives:

• Tremendous graphics on a mobile device

• Ragdoll physics are top notch

Negatives:

• IAP

• Unrealistic sniper experience

• Rechargeable energy needed to play a mission

• No movement

• There is no real story

Conclusion:

Sniper Fury is a true statement of Gameloft's change to more simple games. It doesn't offer much in terms of gameplay and it is filled with IAPs with ridiculous prices. The game tries very hard to have less content than the other titles it copies from.