Sniper Elite 4 Hands-on Preview – Old Fashioned Co-op Fun

Sniper Elite 4 is one of the most fun co-op experiences I’ve ever had. I have played previous Sniper Elite games, but only ever single player. While I did enjoy the older games, I can say that co-op is what this game is made for.

My partner and I started off on the edge of the level, out of sight. Looking at the map, I think it’s safe to say that the levels are bigger and more open than any of the previous Sniper games offered. After reacquainting myself with the controls, I quickly and stealthily took down an enemy with a melee attack. My partner then pulled out her binoculars and marked all the remaining enemies in the visible area. There was 3 enemies, one of which was standing under a crane holding wooden materials, with a spot to shoot in the chain to drop the items on the unsuspecting enemy. Together, we each picked our targets, and opened fire. The crane dropped the supplies on the enemy, my first shot hit the other enemy but in doing so alerted the final one. He started to run, I marked him again and without much hesitation, my partner dropped him.Even though we’d never played together before and even though it wasn’t perfectly executed, this felt smooth, organized and deliberate. In a nutshell, that was the very moment I fell in love with Sniper Elite 4.

We played on PS4. Graphically speaking, the game is very pretty. The textures are smooth, frame rate too. Everything looks very era appropriate and I must admit there was a handful of times I got distracted looking at the beautiful water, sky and landscapes. After making our way towards the main objective, I found a high watch tower to sit in, overlooking a big portion of the map. My partner on the other hand, started making her way through the map on ground level. We hit this amazing stride of her moving towards enemies, me marking them and sniping the ones she was unable to reach and it felt much like we were relying on each other, which isn’t something I have felt since we played Portal 2 together.My favourite thing about the Sniper Elite series has to be the slow-mo kill cam. It’s back and just as fun as ever. It’s so satisfying seeing and hearing the bullet plow through an enemies skull, even more so for testicles. It makes you feel a bit sadistic, but it’s undeniably enjoyable when you make a long shot and it ends with the kill cam. I managed to get a kill shot at 413m, but was constantly trying to best that – this is something I can see earning you bragging rights among your friends who also play.

In any case, I really enjoyed my time with Sniper Elite 4 and I am looking forward to checking out single player as well as working on my tactics for more complicated take downs and timed shots in co-op. sniper

Sniper Elite 4 releases on February 14th for PS4, Xbox One and PC.