The Sniper Elite series has always done one thing really well, and there are no prizes for guessing what that is – sniping. Taking the time to line up a perfect shot, waiting for a plane to fly over to mask the noise, breathing in to slow down time, and hitting the trigger. When you do it right, there is no more satisfying reward in any shooter game than Sniper Elite’s slow-motion kill-cam that gives you an X-ray view of each shot.
Long-time fans of the series will be pleased to know that the core experience is still very much intact in Sniper Elite 5. The sniping mechanics get just a little more refined with every game, and this new instalment is no exception as changing through your loadout is snappier, scoping-in is smoother, and recovering from a shot is quicker.
[mm-video type=video id=01g3xcs1zvhc6xkn0ghg playlist_id=none player_id=none image=https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/video/thumbnail/mmplus/01g3xcs1zvhc6xkn0ghg/01g3xcs1zvhc6xkn0ghg-006a85c06ab2342294d8964b0fa222a9.jpg]
Ultimately, that’s what the Sniper Elite series seems to be about now – small refinements with each game, as there isn’t much in the way of new stuff on offer this time around. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – don’t fix what isn’t broken, after all – but it means that after a while all the different games end up blurring into one experience. Unfortunately, Sniper Elite 5 feels especially homogenous compared to the previous entry in the series.
Up to this point, each game differentiated itself on its level design. V2 had the claustrophobic city streets of Berlin, 3 had the wide-open plains of North Africa, and 4 had a mixture of European villages and countryside. So where did 5 choose to set itself? France, where there are lots of European villages and countryside. Now you see the problem. The levels aren’t identical, as France’s more temperate climate is captured well, but there’s only so much you can do to set apart a beautiful green field from a different beautiful green field.
Although things are a bit disappointing on a macro scale, each individual level is well-designed and enjoyable to run, sneak, or blast through. On top of that, they are different enough from each other to always keep you on your toes and it feels like special attention was given to the pacing, it’s impressive how well this is done given how sometimes a single mission can take two hours or more.
The first three missions are the perfect example of how things are kept interesting. First, you’ll be trudging through a big beach-side area with lots of optional objectives to complete, giving you a little taste of everything you’ll experience in the rest of the game. The second level forces you to focus almost entirely on a single chateau where alerting one guard will likely alert them all. Then the third level takes you to a crowded town with a giant cathedral at the top, focusing on vertical movement and slipping into the shadows.
Just those three levels exemplify how the game wants you to constantly change up your tactics and refuses to let you settle into an easy rhythm, maximising the excitement.
The ideal way to play each level is by remaining unseen, and the stealth gameplay is just as good as ever. Most levels have some natural sound masking at regular intervals, but even when you don’t, you just need to sabotage a generator or a truck to cover your shots. Alternatively, you can get up close and personal with stealth takedowns and a silenced pistol to infiltrate areas. You can even take a non-lethal approach if you want to make life harder for yourself. The game equally rewards all styles of play so you won’t feel forced into using your sniper rifle as much as possible, you’ll only want to use it because of how good it feels.
However, no matter how hard you try to stay hidden, the moment you get seen you know that a whole army hunting you down is almost inevitable. Be it because of that guard you didn’t see, or the shot you were forced to take without masking the sound, all hell will break loose sooner or later, and thankfully that can be just as fun. It might not be as satisfying as stealthily headshotting someone from over 300 metres away, but it’s an enjoyable change of pace to let loose and unload a hail of bullets on some Nazis in more traditional shooter action.
Starting a fight isn’t the end of the world though, as it isn’t too difficult to return to stealth. If you’re in an open area you can always run away and come back when everyone’s calmed down, or if it’s more closed off, you can break line of sight, hide in corners, and stick to the shadows, taking people out one by one as they get more and more frantic. Surprisingly, though, I often found myself not wanting to return to stealth when chaos broke out. After infiltrating as carefully and slowly as I could, I found the sudden panic and adrenaline of a shootout invigorating. That sense of urgency altered my playstyle.
This all leads back to Sniper Elite 5’s central problem, which is that, as great as it is, you can get the same fundamental experience from Sniper Elite 4. The one thing that is brand new to this game is the invasion mode where other players can invade your campaign missions to try and kill you (and vice versa). When it happens it’s a fun little cat-and-mouse situation where you both get each other’s vague directions, but you won’t know their exact location without a direct line of sight.
This mode isn’t without its problems, though. The first couple of times you get invaded, it’s a thrilling experience, and even if you don’t win, the thrill of the chase is enough to sustain it, but it gets old fast. The biggest problem is that you can get re-invaded every time you die, meaning it can become more of an annoyance. Thankfully, you can turn it off whenever you want, but it’s a shame it can’t maintain the excitement over a longer period of time.
At the end of the day, Sniper Elite 5 is more of the same. If you’ve enjoyed the Sniper Elite series up until this point, then you’re going to like it, as it is another solid entry that continues to lean into what makes the series great. However, if you’re a new player wondering what all the fuss is about, then you’re not missing much by buying one of the older games instead. Sniper Elite 3 or 4 are just as good and much friendlier to your wallet.
Written by Ryan Woodrow on behalf of GLHF.
[listicle id=1322510]