CI Games (formerly City Interactive) hasn’t generated particularly high levels of acclaim for its Sniper: Ghost Warrior games, but Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 looked like it could be different. With a shift to an open world, the possibilities for tactics seemed endless, but the game was ultimately released in an unpolished state. CI Games has now admitted that it bit off more than it could chew, and that it won’t make the same mistakes in the future.
“When we began development on Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3, we decided on such a relatively large scale of the game with its open world that we now realize was just too ambitious versus what we could have been able to deliver in any reasonable amount of time,” said CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski in a press release. “We simply made the wrong math considering the size of our team and the originally-given timeframe. By positioning the game in the AAA category, it took us away from what we could have done [well].”
A fourth Sniper: Ghost Warrior game hasn’t been officially announced, but CI Games said that it will be creating a “new tactical shooter” at a later date, and it will be developed “without all of the trappings of a large open-world setting.”
The game also found substantial competition in Sniper Elite 4, which received much more positive reviews. While the game doesn’t utilize a completely open world, its individual levels are open, with players able to traverse them as they see fit in order to set up long-distance headshots and sneak by enemy troops undetected. The series’ signature X-ray bullet camera also makes a return, showing gory carnage whenever a particularly impressive shot is fired.
Perhaps CI Games’ most recognizable project was Lords of the Fallen, a Souls-like action-role-playing game developed by German studio Deck13. A sequel to the game is in the works, but Deck13 chose to leave the franchise in order to develop The Surge. It also uses several elements from the Dark Souls series, but combines them with a gritty science-fiction setting and a few combat mechanics not found in From Software’s works.
