14 DAY TRIAL // 
If you’ve never played the previous installments in the Sniper Elite franchise and you’re wondering what to expect, the name says it loud and clear.
It’s a sniper stealth action game whose main goal is to let you shoot enemies to death from long distances, all with a series of extras whose main role is to generate a unique twist to a genre that has left a lot to be desired so far.
To be honest, I’ve always been a fan of the genre, so titles like Call of Duty and Metal Gear Solid have been on my top list from the moment they were announced. However, each came with its very own letdowns, not to mention the direction that Call of Duty has embraced at one point, stepping away from the historical recipe its fame was built onto.
Rebellion has tried to evolve Sniper Elite into a “more complete” title, as if the company was afraid that players could eventually get bored with sniping Nazis. In some ways, this was entirely possible, but on the other hand, Sniper Elite 5 turned into the kind of title that’s supposed to let you choose how to do its mission without actually letting you do it.
Let me explain.
First and foremost, while you could be tempted to believe you’re playing in an open world, you’re not, and you may occasionally bump into invisible walls when trying to run away from your enemy. This isn’t necessarily a big drawback as the maps are pretty huge anyway, but I’ve tried to pull back on several occasions when fighting too many Nazis, only to end up having nowhere to run anymore.
In theory, there are two ways you can complete your missions. You can either be the stealthy sniper you’re supposed to be and infiltrate behind enemy lines while taking out a handful of Nazis during the process or just go down there and shoot at everything you see.
The latter option is also the more challenging, not only because the AI is overpowered but because in some missions, there are hordes of Nazis that keep coming at you unless you run out of ammo. So yes, you need to plan your mission carefully, but unfortunately, Sniper Elite 5 doesn’t always give you the power of choice.
You could end up discovering mid-mission that there’s just one way to continue, and more often than not, the indicators that show up on the screen to tell you what to do kind of ruin the whole fun. Put the explosives here, look under the bed here, and so on, all of these make Sniper Elite 5 feel ridiculous at certain times.\
The cinematics are dull, to say the least. The dialogs and the graphics are occasionally painful to be a part of, and if Rebellion wanted to make Karl Fairburne charismatic, well, they totally failed the mission. His lines are often super-dry, even though he’s a sniper, and snipers are supposed to be pretty smart.
The X-ray kill camera is Sniper Elite’s signature, and to be honest, I kind of enjoyed it in the first 30 minutes or so. At one point, however, the repeating animations just end up boring, and I found myself skipping them without even wanting to do it. The kill camera somehow interrupts the action and makes the game overall feel slower, so after you take down a few enemies and get bored with the whole thing, you could end up skipping them as well.
All of these don’t necessarily make Sniper Elite 5 a flop. Not at all. The game is still one of the best releases in a long time, but on the other hand, many might be more tempted to believe that Sniper Elite 5 is more of a DLC to its predecessor rather than a completely new version.
Unfortunately, the gameplay doesn’t involve as much sniping as I expected. The AI is also glitchy, but they serve their role just right in combat.
The Good
- Invasion mode is great
- Multiple ways to complete missions (sometimes)
- More weapons, troops, and vehicles
- Larger maps
The Bad
- AI is still glitchy
- Cinematics are dull
- The main character isn't by any means charismatic
CONCLUSIONS
Rebellion has clearly improved the parts that fans have been asking for, so you’re getting not only larger maps, but also more varied levels, better equipment, more troops, more vehicles, more weapon customization options, and so on.
The new invasion mode also makes missions more challenging by allowing human players to enter your game and take the role of an Axis sniper, though you can obviously disable this mode if you just want to stick with single-player action. So overall, Sniper Elite 5 has a little bit of everything, eventually creating one of the most solid gameplays of the year so far.
Review code provided by the publisher.
