Sniper Elite 4 Review

Don’t hold your breath?

Historically, the Sniper Elite series have been fun, but a little one-note. It’s difficult to be much more than a stealth shooter that requires, by nature loads of trial and error, right?

Story:

The story would certainly lead you down that road. Whilst the game is technically subtitled ‘Italia’, the visual variety in the missions goes way beyond anything I’ve ever seen on my trips to Italy! The story is also just an excuse to send your character on a mission to assassinate a variety of (mainly) fictional Nazi characters level after level, whilst pre-orders will also get the chance to have a crack at Hitler himself (a series staple) in a bonus ninth level.

Gameplay:

However, the story probably isn’t why people are here in the first place, and thankfully Rebellion have absolutely nailed the gameplay. The upgrades to the game engine have resulted in some genuinely colossal maps, and it’s here than the biggest changes can be found. You’re still a sniper, you can still watch people get hit in the nuts (or brain, liver, heart etc.) in slow-motion, and you still can’t really survive missions by going guns-blazing, but the larger maps allow for a huge amount of freedom. For those that want realism, the higher difficulty levels will also see you have to cope with wind speed and direction, as well as scope drift, although I found that too much of a chore to bother with.

Rather than being relatively linear progressions, most of the maps are highly open, and very, very lengthy. The 8-mission campaign sounds sparse, but I challenge you to get through any of the maps in under an hour, even on the default Marksman difficulty. Objectives are normally marked out with a vague question mark spanning a pretty wide area, leaving you to take them out in any order you see fit, but also generally requiring you to scope out an area, either from a distance with your binoculars or by being a sneaky bastard and creeping into an area. Using the binoculars does allow you to tag enemies, weak spots, traps and collectables though, so was my personal preference. If you do get up close and personal though, you can distract enemies with rocks, plant various traps and lure them into them, and generally be a nuisance to the Germans.

Preparation is pretty important – even on the normal difficulty fighting off more than a couple of Nazis with your SMG is going to prove tricky – not because the combat mechanics are poor, but because you have limited health, and the AI can be pretty tricky to deal with once you’ve been spotted. On all but the highest difficulty, the game does give you the tools to escape though, and with those wide-open maps, there are plenty of hiding places! The 8 missions will take 8-12 hours to get through depending on how detailed and meticulous you are, as well as the difficulty. If you do muck it up though (which you will), the save and reload system is mightily impressive, as you can reload games almost instantly, which is really a superb addition to the game.

Multiplayer:

Sniper Elite doesn’t just stop at a solid campaign though – there’s a remarkably robust set of online features included out of the box too, including a number of co-op modes. Your rank also carries through from single player to multiplayer too, something which many developers seem to be abandoning, but is something I really like to see personally. Co-op is the way to go here for me though, either in the full campaign (a great feature in itself), or the brilliant overwatch mode, where one person has to get up close and personal whilst the other snipes from a distance and acts as a spotter. There’s also a survival/ horde mode which was surprisingly fun too.