Marine Sharpshooter provides just what the title promises, but without many frills or thrills...
CTU:MS sends the player and his milquetoast minder to three different regions of the world with a matching variety of rifles that differ by their clip capacity, reload rate, and, to a lesser extent, stopping power. My first assumption when playing the game was that I might expect a few scenarios similar to the U.S. Army commercial in which a fully-camouflaged sniper hugs a hillside while waiting for days on a go-order for a particular target (although I do understand that “sniper” and “marksman” cover two relatively different methods of engagement). CTU:MS isn’t quite so particular, however: rather than hold out for a VIP, the game paints every enemy as a target, so each scenario plays out like a mobile shooting gallery; clear one area from afar, move to the next, make room for some sniping (ideally with a small leg-up from the machine gun-toting spotter, but a serviceable contribution from that guy is far from guaranteed), repeat. Not too shabby for a rainy afternoon or as a quick break between better FPS titles. As long as players don’t expect gobs of veracity in the form of environmental effects on shot trajectories or the aforementioned hide-and-wait camp-outs that real sharpshooters must endure, they might get a kick out of leading each series of moving targets like so many fleeing rabbits.
I know it’s a bit of a left-handed compliment considering the selections available, but Jarhead’s sophomore effort is actually one of the development group’s most solid and engaging titles. I found myself really getting into the trick of sniping on the run during the first mission in Chechnya, semi-blindly pegging enemy gunners through thin copses of trees, then taking a break to clear out a series of guard towers in the shallow valley below. The arid, snowy, and tropical settings in CTU:MS are fairly detailed and spacious even though they are never particularly scenic. I wouldn’t mind playing this game once more in another year or two before permanently mothballing it.