The Sniper Elite series, coincidentally, is a franchise that I’ve never really dabbled too much into. I’ve reviewed the lamentable Sniper Elite V2 in the past (the ill-fated Wii U port to be exact) and while I saw potential in the franchise and the ideas it brought to the table there was something missing. Now, Sniper Elite 4 is here, and while it moves the tense action to the sunny coasts of Italy, it’s also the first game developed solely for the current generation of consoles which I find incredibly interesting.
What isn’t interesting about Sniper Elite 4 is its storyline, which hasn’t really changed that much since I played Sniper Elite V2 back in 2013. You play as OSS agent Karl Fairburne, who is assigned to work with the local resistance to fight against the fascist forces during the events of World War 2. The story, rife with stereotypes and tired war conventions, works as a nice window dressing to the action but is otherwise hard to really care about. Gruff, deep voiced American man fights against Nazis in Europe. That’s it.
The levels are well-designed and are more open than ever, presumably thanks to the games ditching the previous generation. Similarly, the levels are also designed with a sense of verticality to allow Karl to climb higher than in previous games. The level design is genuinely well executed – giving players opportunities to approach missions stealthily or go in guns blazing.
Another great expanded feature is the now signature X-Ray Killcams. When you pull off a rather impressive shot, Sniper Elite will follow the bullet from barrel to body and show it’s point of impact inside your victim’s body. Bones will shatter, lungs will deflate, stomachs will leak and hearts will break. It’s a great little system that makes you feel even more powerful after pulling off that perfect shot.
But the most surprising aspect of Sniper Elite 4 is just how viable non-Sniper combat methods are. Karl is outfitted with all kinds of explosives, ballistics and even semi-automatic weapons that he can rely upon should an enemy be too close or sniping not be viable. These weapons have a great sense of weight and feel to them and they’re incredibly fun to run around with, and were equally just as relied upon in my playthrough as the sniper rifles.
But while I really enjoyed this much more open ended approach to mission design, I found that Sniper Elite 4 got a little bit too repetitive at times. Missions were interesting but ultimately quite samey from a design perspective, with many environments even looking similar level to level. But while the design was quite repetitive, the game feels unevenly paced. Some missions took me up to two or three hours to finish while others took less than an hour.
The single player campaign, while lengthy but repetitive, is bolstered by a solid suite of multiplayer options. The competitive multiplayer is great, offering the same slow-but-tense action that the campaign does in its sporadic sniper battles across a variety of modes. I was only able to get five or so matches total, but what I played was very enjoyable albeit it’s doubtful that it will have major staying power. In addition to this, co-operative play is available for the campaign and works rather well. It’s great to see both multiplayer options included where most modern games commonly eschew one or the other.
Sniper Elite 4 is a vast improvement over Sniper Elite 2 and 3 in terms of scenario design and ambition, but there’s just something missing. The team at Rebellion have got the combat down. They’ve got the sniping mechanics down. They’ve even nailed the traversal mechanics – whether vertical or horizontal. But there’s a distinct lack of fantastical set pieces that stunt Sniper Elite 4 from reaching its true potential. Instead, we have some greatly designed, open missions; but ones that grow repetitive by the time the game ends. Issues with pacing and repetition aside, Sniper Elite 4 is still a competent experience, and one of the more authentic and true-to-life sniping simulators.
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I'm wondering will the multiplayer mode become more popular in next months. Singleplayer is ok, but hunting down other players is the best fun for me;)
It's a fun game but definitely needs some more polish and maybe a couple updates will fix some evident graphics issues and show more detail in the X-ray cam. Sniper 3 seemed better in some ways but still this is worth the purchase price. Great article by the way.