Welcome to our review of Sniper Elite 5, the fifth in the series by one of my favorite gaming companies: Rebellion.
The latest installment in the award-winning series, Sniper Elite 5 offers unparalleled sniping, tactical third-person combat, and an enhanced kill cam. Fight your way across the most immersive maps yet, with many real-world locations captured in stunning detail, and an improved traversal system that lets you explore more of them than ever before.
France, 1944 – As part of a covert US Rangers operation to weaken the Atlantikwall fortifications along the coast of Brittany, elite marksman Karl Fairburne makes contact with the French Resistance. Soon they uncover a secret Nazi project that threatens to end the war before the Allies can even invade Europe: Operation Kraken.
Many real-world locations have been captured using photogrammetry to recreate a living, immersive environment, and multiple infiltration and extraction points and kill list targets provide a whole new perspective on each mission. Take on the Nazi plot solo or work with a partner, with improved co-op mechanics allowing you to share ammo and items, give orders and heal each other.
Use ziplines, slide down slopes and shimmy along ledges to reach the perfect vantage point, or to sneak past a sharp-eyed lookout. Factor in rifle stock and barrel options along with gravity, wind and heart rate while you line up your sights on the target.
Use workbenches to customise and upgrade virtually every aspect of your weapon – change scopes, stocks, barrels, magazines and more. Rifles, secondaries and pistols all have a huge variety of options. On top of that you can select the ammo to suit your target, from armour-piercing right down to non-lethal.
Invade another player’s Campaign as an Axis sniper and engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse, providing a new dimension to the challenge as you stalk your prey. Alternatively, as Karl you can call for assistance and have a second sniper drop in to help you out of a tricky situation.
Customise your character and loadout and earn XP, medals and ribbons as you take on intensely competitive 16 player battles that will really test your sharpshooting skills. If co-op’s more your style, you can team up with up to 3 other players against waves of enemies in Survival mode.
More realistic and grisly than ever, the trademark X-ray kill cam returns, showing you the true destructive power of each shot. Bones deflect bullets unpredictably, ripping a new path through enemy bodies. SMGs and pistols can also trigger kill cams, including multiple shots in dramatic slow motion.
I will admit I am a lover of the genre, being a sniper and just getting rid of the bad guys. It is my preferred way of playing in just about any game that involves sniper rifles and Rebellion does a great job at it. Sniper Elite 5 is just the natural progression of a great game series and it just keeps getting expanded with all these little tweaks that make the game more fun with every entry.
I remember the kill cam from my first encounter with the games and even though it is something that I do disable after about an hour into a game, I still love how they implement things when you perform that one perfect shot from across the map. What I also love a lot, is the number of “toys” at your disposal, from several types of bombs to wire cutters, lock picking tools, and decoys, ….
Needless to say, Sniper Elite 5 does not disappoint. I got really into the first map and I think I went into every nook and cranny on that massive map. Finding collectibles, bunkers filled with enemies, important enemy commanders, and more. I really get into these games and just go all in. Even when the game borks on you, which it always does. I recall a moment when I shot a guy in the back of his head from up close thanks to my sneaking skills and it did not even kill him.
Those are probably the only times that I do not appreciate the game or when you empty a clip of a handgun and barely took 4 guys out of the 12 inbound enemies. It is not always logical, even on the easiest mode, where you barely have to hide or duck behind a wall, and in the hardest mode where it feels like the slightest mistake will make you the next casualty in the war.
In conclusion, Sniper Elite 5 is amazing as a game for lovers of first-person shooters and sniping games. Rebellion never fails to deliver and that was the case in this game as well.
