Sniper Elite 5 review

Rebellion’s latest is yet another long-range bulls-eye for the franchise. Like series star Karl Fairburne, don’t miss this one, especially if you’re a fan of slow-boiled, methodical stealth.  

World War II lasted for six years. But the Sniper Elite series has been gunning down Nazis for nearly three times as long. Initially restrained by the capabilities of hardware, the franchise has evolved from a rather linear march punctuated by stirring set-pieces to an autonomous open-world playground. Most other third-person action series take aim at offering non-stop action. But Sniper Elite rewards the patient player who carefully studies and perhaps even draws out foes, before peering through the sights and pulling the trigger.

Yes, that means you’ll be hearing the voice of Tom Clark Hill, who returns as Second Lieutenant Karl Fairburne. After stints in the North African and Italian theatres across the 3^rd and 4^th Sniper Elite entries, Fairburne is now in France aiding the Resistance. As in previous games, he’s not exactly a complex character. As an extraordinarily talented marksman, savvy survivalist, and rogue individualist, he’s little more than a mixture of American military architypes. But he’s no Sam Fisher or even Domingo Chavez and doesn’t seem to acknowledge life outside of the battlefield.

Repress the Kraken

With Elite 5, Fairburne is ordered to take down Abelard Möller, the mastermind behind a secret Nazi project that is codenamed Kraken. On a smaller scaler, you’ll perform a sequence of missions to help disrupt the operation.  A battalion of enemies is scattered across eight spacious maps and one smaller locale, each standing between you and your primary as well as secondary objectives.

Although the game could have followed the trajectory of the cinematic depiction of the Normandy invasion, Sniper Elite 5’s more meandering route offers some European sightseeing. From quint farms, blooming apple orchards, and strands of lavender that serve as a backdrop for messy headshots, there’s a fascinating mix of grandeur and the grotesque. The only problem is that Sniper Elite has never been good at hosting firefights in interior spaces. While the castles and underground passages are certainly eye-catching, they aren’t exactly the best spaces for a sniping game.

Win the War with Guns, Grenades, and a Whistle

With long, medium and short-range guns, as well as inventory of explosives, medical supplies, and distractions, Fairburne carries a versatile arsenal. You’ll unlock additional tools like silencers as you make your way through the campaign, fulfilling secondary objectives and assassinating key figures. One of the biggest changes are the inclusion of workbenches. Finding these stations permit you to use different ammo types, like sub-sonic, armor piercing, or hollow-point rounds, as well as provide access to stocks, scopes, and different magazines that can customize your loadout.

How you use this fearsome toolset is up to you. Sure, Sniper Elite 5 rewards the finesse approach and you’ll gain more XP by eliminating enemies without them being aware of your presence or even using non-lethal methods. Of course, knocking them out is only a temporary fix and they’ll soon regain consciousness and join their brethren to hunt you down again. Occasionally, you’ll gain additional dividends by performing Hitman-like executions. Why just shoot a foe when you can kill them by dropping a chandelier on them?

Invest in Yourself and Your Equipment

Experience feeds into a tech-tree that is shared across the game’s campaign and multitude modes. Here, you can augment Fairburne in three specific areas: Combat, Equipment, or his Body. Expectedly, you won’t have enough XP to improve all your attributes. So, you’ll have to decide if either steadying your aim, carrying more equipment, or regenerating more health complements your own play style.

As with previous Sniper Elite entries, I favor a slow and methodical approach. At the start of a new stage, I’ll often perform upwards of ninety minutes performing reconnaissance. From tagging enemies from your binoculars, discerning objects that can sabotaged, and scouting for elevated perches that offer an ideal vantage point, it can be fun surveying the landscape. When plans do play out, it can feel like the final act in a war film. AI-controlled adversaries have phenomenal eyesight and hearing. They are able to descend on the location of a single shot with pinpoint accuracy, so it pays to be meticulous with your groundwork.

Of Headshots and Hooligans

But let’s say you don’t have the patience to accomplish all that. I’m sure there’s a group of players who just want to see skulls and testicles fragmented in Sniper Elite’s infamous slow-motion, x-ray kill cam.  Largely, Elite 5 accommodates an improvisational approach where you kill foes on sight and deal with the repercussions later. You’ll probably want to mask the sound of your gun by firing when a Stuka roars overhead. Or, you might lay down a cluster of traps on paths that lead to your position. These kinds of tactics help wear down enemy numbers. But if you just want to play Sniper Elite 5 like a maniac let loose against the Third Reich, Rebellion isn’t going to stop you. They’ll even offer to minimize the effect of bullet drop, so you can focus on mayhem instead of mathematics.

But your fellow players just might try to end you. If you have left the Invasions options on, online players can enter your campaign, tracking you down far more doggedly than any AI army. Unlike most of your underpowered CPU-driven rivals, flesh-and-blood competitors have a load-out that is comparable to your own. The best players will hunt you down while you’re dealing with subordinate enemies and the build up really ratchets up the level of tension.  While the payoff of completing a mission while other humans also gunning for you is alluring, being able to turn it off is welcome if cheating ever becomes prevalent.

Alternatively, you can play through the campaign with a co-operative partner and there’s a wave-based mode that will test you and your partner’s marksmanship.  For those seeking competition, there’s a suite of multiplayer modes, with Free-For-All, Squad Match, Team Match, Scoring, and a long-range only variant. There weren’t many people available to thoroughly test matchmaking and balance. However, at the very least Rebellion provides a rather robust package, which is promising.

Conclusion

The latest version of Elite continues to showcase sniping with its (optional) gory kill cams and provides bonuses for long-range assassinations. But make no mistake, this is a stealth game.  You can ad-lib your way through Sniper Elite 5. But there’s a plethora of military action games that offer pure action as a cheaper price. Rebellion’s latest is for the patient player, who values methodically planning their assault. Sniper Elite 5 reminds up it’s not just about making the long-range shot but waiting for the precise moment to pull the trigger.

Sniper Elite 5 was played on PC with
review code provided by the publisher.