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Sniper Elite 5: Thanks to the impact of games like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the Hitman reboots, Sniper Elite delivers what I consider to be its strongest iteration since the original—thanks in large part to the influence of games like Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain and the Hitman reboots. However, a lack of faith in the game’s basic sniper concept, as well as a truly terrible tale, detract from an otherwise enjoyable stealth game.
It’s definitely not what most people are interested in when they come to Sniper Elite 5, but someone at Rebellion was determined to squeeze as many cutscenes as possible into this game, and they are all, without exception, duller than the Nazis’ dead eyes left in the trail of protagonist Karl Fairburne. This manly American commando and sharpshooter is a video game gruff-man that seems like he didn’t even make it to the end of the factory’s assembly line where these cookie cutter guys are made. It’s not hard to endow a Nazi murdering machine with inner life and depth—BJ Blazkowicz’s stream of introspection in Wolfenstein is subversive. Karl, on the other hand, is a cliche, and everything he says reverberates in my head like white noise.
Sniper Elite 5: Must Know
What is it? A sniper stealth action game.
Expect to pay $50/£45
Released May 26, 2022
Developer Rebellion
Publisher Rebellion
Reviewed on Nvidia
GeForce GTX-970, Intel i7-4790K, 16GB RAM
Multiplayer? Yes
Link: Official site
Where to buy: kinguin
Everything saves the unintentional comedic moments, such as when Karl utters “Nazi bastards” after witnessing their submarine destroyed while a sorrowful accordion plays at the start of the game. Accordions! Is that clear? Because it takes place in France!
The soundtrack options in the game offer a not-so-subtle indication of the level Sniper Elite is working on. It’s the Second World War as seen through the eyes of a young adolescent. Which isn’t important in the broad scheme of shooting Nazis, but it does prevent it from having much in the way of personality or tone—never is it lighthearted enough to pull off Hitman’s macabre humour, nor serious enough to interact with the horrors of occupied France.
The French resistance is present throughout, and I couldn’t help but ask why they weren’t the show’s main attraction. Why weren’t we some under-resourced sharpshooters who had to rely on their wits and cunning to defeat the Nazi war machine? Someone has a personal investment in the country and relationships with it. It’s such a simple way to liven up the proceedings, but for some reason, the series seems to be wed to its bargain bin action hero.
It doesn’t help that Sniper Elite 5 starts off on the wrong foot with a tedious tutorial. But, once it does, you can start enjoying what the game is best at: selecting a roost and blasting bad guys from a great distance. It isn’t an open world. In practice, though, the levels are significantly more linear than the broad landscapes suggest. Not that they’re short on options; in fact, the game’s more constrained scope allows it to funnel players into exciting challenges. You’re forced to take risks to avoid patrols and reach vantage points unobserved, rather than finding the right hill and doing long-distance brain surgery from safety. The reward of a secret tunnel or climbable ledge seems earned rather than handed to you.
The Spy Academy, set on the real-life Mont Saint Michel, a tidal island well-defended from the outside world, is perhaps the game’s high point and a demonstration of its best features. Even obvious sniper sites, such as a church tower, can turn out to be duds, requiring you to pay close attention rather than just going through the motions.
Sniper Elite 5: Absence of hit man
While the stages in Sniper Elite 5 aren’t quite as good as those in the Hitman games, they do add a lot more to the proceedings than merely popping heads off. These levels are expansive labyrinths full of small choke points and surprises worth exploiting, while not appearing to be as wide as they appear. You may even create accidents in certain locations. However, the AI in the game doesn’t recognize them as such and interprets any death as proof that a sniper is around. Even though the lack of a true atmosphere, or even a sense that these soldiers are doing anything other than waiting for you to show up, means there’s little excitement in your trespassing, the fact that there are many possibilities available makes levels more enjoyable to abuse.
I timed it so that an incoming patrol car would set off a mine I planted after I took out a sniper under the cover of a low-flying jet, distracting adjacent soldiers as I dashed under enemy lines. These moments, as rare as they are, are incredibly fulfilling.
These levels are sprawling labyrinths full of little choke points and secrets worth exploiting.
But I can’t avoid the notion that the game suffers as a result of the variety. It has done a bunch of things pretty well rather than one thing exceptionally well. I think of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s All Ghillied Up and One Shot, One Kill levels when I think of the best sniping representations in video games. Of course, the design is linear and set-piece focused, but it emphasizes stealth and patience in order to set up for one crucial shot rather than exterminating hordes of soldiers. Sniper Elite 5 occasionally feels ashamed of the sniping, as if it’s afraid you’ll get bored. I don’t need games to recreate the complete concept of staking out a single target, but they should be able to make me do more than just be a second hand weapon. Do you know who Sam Fisher is?
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Sniper Elite 5: Killer sights
The X-ray kill camera appears to be an attempt to bloat the sniping experience with unneeded spectacle. Since the second game, it’s become the series’ calling card. Despite this, they continue to struggle to find their place in a game with such a lack of meaningful tone. Is it supposed to be like Mortal Kombat, with its delightful over-the-top grotesqueness? The kills are just too mundane and uninteresting for that. Maybe a direct reminder of the misery you’re causing? Not when exploding testicles are treated as the world’s greatest joke. The X-ray killings are emblematic of the series’ many flaws. In place of anything truly unique, they’ve clung to a single, odd yet noticeable element while failing to figure out what they’re going for.
Even the skill trees demonstrate a lack of thought, with benefits that have little impact on how you play the game. Here’s an extra tool, and there’s a little more health there. Everything feels repetitive in a way that reflects the scarcity of really diverse possibilities. Although the game forces you to spend more time sneaking around in close quarters, it doesn’t do so particularly successfully. Sniper Elite 5’s close combat feels awkward and unsophisticated, even when compared to the decades-old Splinter Cell games. There are no wall splits here.
The game feels at war with itself because of the combination of close and far-off objectives. It’s not called Sniper and Sneaking Into Buildings To Steal Documents Elite for nothing. The pleasure of assessing a shot, keeping an eye on the wind and distance, and calculating the proper modifications is what the game shines at. Adding clumsy close-quarters stealth to the mix only detracts from the good.
Sniper Elite 5: Firing blind
Difficulty settings, on the other hand, really help bring out that good. Sniper Elite, like most recent stealth games, is overloaded with data. You can tag and follow foes, be alerted when they’re about to spot you, and get sniping help. The game puts on some training wheels at every bend and expects you to feel in control. It results in a lack of tension, which may be remedied by fiddling with the difficulty options.
You can drastically reduce the game’s complexity in the Sniper Elite 5. In addition to no HUD, no aids, smarter enemies, and no method to monitor foes other than remembering what you’ve seen, there is no way to track foes. It’s definitely more difficult, but it’s also more interesting. I was really bored by the lack of friction or difficulty with all those assistance settings. What is my recommendation? Put as much emphasis on “genuine” as possible, and take your time with it, for a far more memorable experience in which you’ll have to actively engage with what you’re seeing and hearing.
Even by comparison to the decades old Splinter Cell titles, Sniper Elite 5’s close encounters feel clunky and basic.
Those aren’t the only changes in the game. Co-op is back, and it completely transforms how Sniper Elite is played, allowing for simultaneous takedowns and coordination that adds a whole new layer to the game. Then there’s the new invasion mode, a Dark Souls-style feature in which players can play as an Axis sniper in other people’s games. It has a true Enemy At The Gates feel to it, which adds a lot more drama than the offline game can, because you have to suddenly slow down and duke it out with a real-life enemy rather than the relatively dull AI. There’s no fooling a real player by tossing a bottle into the distance. You can always turn it off completely if the prospect of strangers waiting in the bushes is too much for you. However, it would be a mistake to ignore the multiplayer aspect of the game, since I believe the game itself undersells how important these aspects are to the overall experience.
Sniper Elite 5 is a fine, occasionally outstanding stealth game in the appropriate circumstances—surprising enough to give it an advantage, but too inconsistent to preserve it. It is wise to keep an eye on the competition; nonetheless, it is unable to hit the mark.
Sniper elite 5.
