Let’s talk FPS games for a moment … shall we? Well, you’ve got WWII titles, sci-fi titles, fantasy fiction titles, Desert Storm titles, MMO titles, a partridge in a pear tree, and probably some that I’ve forgotten or left out just because there are so darned many of them. Nowadays, it probably gets a little tough trying to think up new angles or twists to the genre since there are a ton of them out there, but Groove and JarHead games managed to hit an area that has been done before but not specific to one particular area of combat soldiers … the elusive and deadly sniper.

CTU Marine Sharpshooter puts you in control of a member of the elite group known as the Counter Terror Unit in a mission to save the world and your country from a potential nuclear threat by hostile terrorists. There is no army to back you up, no online friends to help you out … it’s just you, a sniper rifle, and your trusty spotter who assists by calling out targets and providing rapid fire if a bad situation arises.

This was a really neat concept in my opinion when I first sat down to play it, and made it pretty entertaining up front simply due to the potential strategy that would go into something like this. I mean, when you’re armed with a deadly but slow sniper rifle, a pistol, a knife, and one back up man going up against an army … you can’t just break out Quake III style or you’ll probably wind up dead. Instead, you need to rely on the spotter to call out potential threats … then eliminate them from a distance if at all possible.

The spotter actually plays a pretty heavy role in this game at times not only from an assistance standpoint in being your eyes and ears … but also in the event that you happen to get into close combat with one or more bad guys. He only has a couple of simple commands … hold, follow, fire at will, or don’t fire … and he will react whenever each one is given. This is great, but also can be a pain and an aggravation if you forget to change it at certain points. For example, if you give him the “fire at will” order he will not only shoot at people in the same area as you, but will also take off running and shooting whatever may have been up to 100 feet in front of you, behind you, around corners or whatever. This creates a major problem since if you lose the spotter its game over, and he just won’t stop at times even with the “follow” order being given.

Another issue here is everyone’s favorite FPS problem … bad AI. To its credit, it shows some decent signs of intelligence now and then, but overall an enemy’s whole concept of hiding and returning fire usually consists of a roll, then stand up and start shooting wildly. This may not be so bad if they could actually hit you more often than they do, but the comparison I could make here would be to the movie Commando. Lots of guys shooting at one man in the open, and not a one actually hitting the target. The spotter suffers from the same bad aim problems as well, since there were a couple of times where a firefight would break out between the spotter and a terrorist for about 9 seconds before someone finally got dropped. The problem with this scenario is that they were standing a foot or two away from each other. In addition, many times enemies would not fire back, even if the guy next to him were hit, which just allowed for an easy kill.

On the gameplay, the “deadly from a distance” thing was neat but didn’t really happen a lot. My biggest issue with Marine Sharpshooter is the fact that it seems really confused on what it wants to be. In my opinion a sniper game should rely on a lot of hit and move tactics, but many times it just came down to me trading in my sniper rifle for a pistol and playing it the way I would play BF 1942 or something like that … charge in firing and hope for the best. Enemies also are quick to spot you from a distance, and that factor also takes away from the whole sniper concept. This even happens a lot when it’s pitch black outside, they have no night vision, and you should have the upper hand.

Another little gameplay issue that I encountered was in the spotter’s intent to get himself killed … not only by your enemies, but by you as well. There were a lot of times that he would call a target, I’d zoom in, and suddenly I’d just have a dark blur in the screen. This turned out to be his rear end or leg most of the time, and shooting him (which I wanted to do sometimes) was not a good option since shots to legs or arms kill just as bad as a head wound for your shooter and your opponents. I never saw a fatal gunshot wound in the ankle before … but I guess it could happen. 

Graphically, Marine Sharpshooter looks great in the character models and the facial detail. Gun shot areas were grabbed on the way down, and the terrorists often did some neat little acrobatics on the way down … like flipping head over heels when they tripped on a box or whatnot. The environment did not fair quite as well all of the time, since a lot of the trees were four sided models made of blotchy pixels or repetitive rock wall facings. This game also got an “M” rating for blood and violence, but blood actually looks like little more than a pinkish cloud or a paintball splat if it winds up on the wall behind you.

The sound in Marine Sharpshooter wasn’t too bad … just repetitive. The gunshots and pistol fire were sharp and sounded good. Unfortunately, the music just kept playing the same loop over and over again during a stage, and would occasionally get a little quicker during intense firefighting. The spotter sounded decent, and would not only call out target points … but would also get more excited if you were moving too fast … like he were giving you a warning to slow down. Enemies on the other hand usually just yelled the same unintelligible sentences or screamed for mercy over and over again when shot.

Now, while it may not seem like I liked this game that much, I did have some fun with it as it progressed and I just got used to the flaws. This is not really the way it should be, but it wasn’t a totally bad or unplayable experience either. There are some neat locales to visit, like sand, jungles, and snow, and you’ll be creeping around sometimes in mine shafts or caves or out in the brush. Unfortunately, this was a great concept that could have spent more time in the production studios or in testing. While it wasn’t horrible, I have to say that if you plan to get CTU: Marine Sharpshooter … keep the receipt just in case.   

Gameplay: 6.1
While this was a cool idea, and having the spotter along added to the “neat – o” factor, there were too many issues with the gameplay to make it great. The spotter had horrible aim, the enemies had horrible aim, and there were some problems with the AI on both sides. In addition, the spotter would occasionally get in the way of a shot or dash off where you couldn’t see him shooting at enemies and would not return when you told him to, and apparently a sniper round to the foot is just as deadly as one to the head (higher difficulty helped this get better though). The levels had a good variety, but there isn’t much replay value here unless you want to play over on a harder difficulty.

Graphics: 6.7
The characters and CG scenes themselves were done really well and were detailed down to expressions and enemies grabbing whatever part of their body they were shot in. Unfortunately, many of the backgrounds were very dull or objects pixilated, and there were some draw distance issues and collision detection problems that sprung up occasionally as well. Blood is little more than light red splotches or little clouds when enemies are hit.

Sound: 6.5
Gunshots were crisp and sounded pretty good. The spotter’s voice would also change pitch depending on the situation which was a neat little add in. The music wasn’t too bad, but it just ran on a repetitive loop over and over again with very minor changes during some of the more intense moments. The enemies also just yelled the same things repeatedly when shot or when they lay dying.

Difficulty: Medium
To somewhat quote L.L. Cool J … “How you gonna go against an army with a handgun”? Well, here’s your chance. There are a lot of times where a sniper rifle becomes useless, and it’s you and your spotter versus an army of bad guys. There are three different difficulty levels to choose from though, and while harder is more challenging … I didn’t have too much of a major issue overall once I learned the ropes.

Concept: 7.1
The whole concept and idea behind this game was great, I just wish it could have been more thoroughly worked on prior to its release. Hopefully the CTU will be back … next time with a little more solid gameplay and some of the bugs worked out.

Overall: 6.0
CTU : Marine Sharpshooter got more enjoyable the more you played and got used to the little issues, but it unfortunately just had way too many quirks to put it up higher on the list. If you feel the need to get this game, just make sure to purchase with caution or keep the receipt in case you feel the need to bring it back. It was a good try on a really good game idea, but this sniper game’s aim was just a little off of its target.