The best sniper games on PC

The latest release in the Sniper Ghost Warrior series, Contracts, takes you to five different locations in deepest Siberia, each of which is a ‘sniping sandbox’ full of objectives and tasks. The snowy wilds are visually stunning – the perfect venue to show off your carefully executed stealth sniping skills.

Boasting a new Dynamic Reticule System to manage the variables present in lining up the perfect headshot, instead of the old-fashioned red dot method, Contracts has gadgets galore to augment the tactical sniping experience. It’s a refreshing balance between the linear campaigns of the first two Sniper Ghost Warrior games and the open-world of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3.

City Interactive did well to fix the myriad issues of the first Sniper: Ghost Warrior game for the franchise’s second outing – they fixed the horrendous AI, tidied up their level design and, most importantly, made the game all about sniping. That means a much slower, leaner experience, which is exactly what you want from a sniper game.

Perhaps the most important change present in Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 is to the sniping mechanics themselves. Gone are the amped-up environmental effects that would send a seemingly simple shot careening off the screen or falling humiliatingly short. You’ll still have to observe wind direction and distance, but they’ve been dialled down to realistic levels.

The Sniper: Ghost Warrior series might be a little shonky for most people’s tastes, but as sniper games go they are tough to beat. If you want more, then you might consider checking out Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 as it boasts a few significant shifts from the second game, such as an open-world map and mission design, crafting, and overhauled enemy AI. After a delay, there was even Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 multiplayer.

Escape From Tarkov is many, many things. You go in to a match with barebones gear, and hope to kill and loot something more valuable before extracting. However, if you die, you lose everything, so ambushes and stealth tactics are dominant, making sniping in Escape From Tarkov a particularly viable strategy.

Shooting Nazis just never gets old. Sniper Elite 4 continues the series’ gradual transformation from linear stealther to a sniper’s dream sandbox game, marking the occasion with a switch to fascist Italy. The sniper game chops are intact, so expect realistic bullet drop and plenty of scope sway unless you’ve managed to slow your heart rate.

Sniper Elite 4 also fleshes out the franchise’s gory pièce de résistance: X-ray killcams. Now, in addition to being able to shoot out a nazi’s testicle from a mile away, you can see the internal damage caused by stabbing an enemy in the back, or shrapnel flying out from a nearby explosion. And what else are sniper games really about if not waving your crosshairs over a bad guy’s head, pulling the trigger, and then watching in morbid curiosity as their skull disintegrates.

Being a sniper in Arma 3 is no mean feat. It’s a war simulator and as such it prides itself on painstaking realism – you’ll have to use a rangefinder, zero your scope, and steady your breath ahead of every long-range shot. You’ll also have to engage with extreme caution, as making your position known when you’re operating as a ghost behind enemy lines will get you killed very quickly.

Arma 3 is so realistic, in fact, that some snipers pair up with a spotter who handles all the sums for them and points out new targets. Unlike many sniper games, Arma 3 makes sniping a cooperative experience. Better still, there are loads of Arma 3 updates and expansions, so it’s never too late to fall in love with this military simulator.

While there isn’t a sniper role in Squad, there is a marksman class – and if you don’t think there’s a difference between the two then Squad probably isn’t for you. Squad’s gameplay is all about teamwork, and as such there’s no room for lone wolf roles like snipers. A marksman’s job, on other hand, is to accompany the fire team wherever they go, providing the team with a response to longer-range fire and generally extending their effective reach when attacking and defending.

The original Insurgency offered a realistic albeit clunky modern FPS with some solid sniping mechanics. Insurgency: Sandstorm overhauls everything from graphics and animations, to sound design and weapon models, and the result is a multiplayer shooter that feels as authentic as Arma, especially when it comes to its powerful, one-hit-kill snipers. There’s not much in the way of bullet drop or travel time as most maps are very small, but the weapon models are impressively detailed, and small details like magnification effects when scoped in immerse you in the role of a marksman.

As so much of Insurgency: Sandstorm’s multiplayer focuses on large-scale attacks, playing a sniper in this FPS is all about holding cutting off flanking routes and holding lines of sight, so expect to pick a spot and stick to it for much of a match. Most multiplayer shooters move too fast to make holding a sniper’s nest worthwhile, but in Insurgency: Sandstorm it’s essential.

Battlefield games have always been ripe for would-be snipers, with bullet drop, travel time, and massive multiplayer maps ensuring long-range killers are well-catered for. Battlefield 5 doesn’t add a huge amount to the equation, but the selection of historic sniper rifles at your disposal are among the best in the FPS genre.

Quickscoping and noscoping may not be as feasible in Modern Warfare Remastered as they were in the original game, but the remastered edition of the game is still home to the best pair of sniper missions in gaming: All Ghillied Up and One Shot, One Kill.

Hitman might not spring to mind at the mention of sniper games, but while Agent 47 traditionally makes do with a selection of silly disguises and a spool of piano wire, he’s just as devastating with a high-powered sniper rifle in his icy cool grip.

What Hitman lacks in convincing bullet physics, it more than makes up for in scope sway, which makes taking that perfect shot a tense affair. And in most cases perfection is your only option, as targets will be nearly impossible to kill after you’ve startled them with a near miss. Get it right, however, and you’re rewarded with a satisfying pink mist and an easy escape.

There are lots of loadouts to choose from in Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, but when you’re operating in a sandbox that’s roughly 200 square kilometres only a sniper rifle makes sense. Especially when you can command a squad of AI soldiers to do all the room-clearing and dirty work for you, leaving you free to take potshots at bad guys from the safety of a grassy knoll far, far away.

So far away, in fact, that it’s possible to kill enemies over 1,000 metres from you. There’s some considerable bullet-drop to take into account but few things warm the cockles like picking off an entire enemy squad without them ever figuring out where you are. What else are sniper games for? Of course, because Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising is a war simulator, you’ll also have plenty of opportunities to pluck helicopters out of the sky with a single shot.

The acclaimed sequel to Hitman, Hitman 2 adds more of what we love – opportunities to take down targets silently and brutally.

Scope aficionados will enjoy Hitman Sniper Assassin, a game mode within Hitman 2 that can be played solo or multiplayer. You’re tasked with navigating a level armed only with your sniper rifle, and the mission becomes a puzzle that you must figure out how to solve using stealth, positioning, and timing. Landing the headshot won’t be enough – you’ll have to hide bodies and cover up the evidence in order to pass the level.

New levels for Hitman Sniper Assassin ‘The Prison’ and ‘Hantu Port’ were recently released with the latest Hitman 2 DLC.

Infinity Ward hasn’t quite matched the heights of the Call of Duty 4’s All Ghillied Up with the scoped-in set pieces of Modern Warfare’s campaign. However, their 2019 reimagining does feature plenty of standout sniper moments, from extreme distance shooting in the desert to stealthily clearing out a base with suppressed rifles and night vision.