The game is a tactical shooter played from a first-person perspective. As the
title suggests, a large portion of the game consists of stealth, staking out targets and
firing sniper rifles. Bullet trajectories are subject to wind, gravity and flight time,
all of which players must account for when taking shots. To simplify this procedure,
easier difficulty settings contain indicators that highlight enemies and show precisely
where a bullet will hit. The main weapons used in the game are silenced pistols, knives
and various types of sniper rifles. In missions that are played with characters who are
not snipers, the stealth aspect is dropped in favor of faster-paced "run and
gun" scenarios. An exception to this are spotting missions, in which the primary
objective consists of marking targets for a computer-controlled sniper character. Most
of the game takes place in a dense jungle environment. Waypoint overlays at all times
display the correct routes through the areas players must traverse. While these routes
need not be followed exactly, the level design usually ensures an overall linear path
due to obstacle placement and invisible walls. Many waypoints trigger scripted mission
events, and some waypoints act as checkpoints, which automatically save the game. The
single player campaign of Sniper: Ghost Warrior is made up of four separate acts, each
of which deals with a different conflict. All acts are split up into various missions,
which usually depict the same event from different points of view. For example, in one
segment players may be participating in an infantry assault on an enemy camp, while the
next segment has them assuming the role of a supporting sniper who backs up the assault.
There is downloadable content available for the title that seamlessly continues the
story line with three additional campaign missions.
