Series Sniper Elite is so confident in its formula that its developer, Rebellion Developments, has never felt the need to reinvent the wheel from game to game. Its last part, Sniper Elite 5uses the same proven recipe, while finding a way to add an interesting ingredient.
Once again, in the single-player campaign, you play as sniper Karl Fairburne. At this point, he probably achieved the status of a Seven Hours Bonhomme within the Nazi troops. This time, he spearheads an operation to weaken Nazi defenses in France in preparation for the Allied D-Day invasion. However, once behind enemy lines, our protagonist uncovers a plot that threatens to reverse the balance of power in favor of the Axis forces. Fairburne will try to thwart this plan at all costs, even if it means disobeying the orders of his superiors. A quest that leads him to a series of increasingly difficult missions and a plethora of targets to eliminate.
let’s be honest, Sniper Elite 5 won’t win any prizes for its narrative qualities. Its story, at best simplistic, provides context interspersed between the phases of the game, nothing more. That said, regulars of the series will tell us that we are not playing a Sniper Elite for its history. We play it above all for its gameplay ― and, of course, for his macabre X-ray zooms that give us visceral insight into the damage inflicted on victims. This prioritization has served the series well so far.
The campaign has eight long missions in all, with their share of main objectives, but also optional side quests, high-ranking officers to assassinate and objects to collect. They present themselves to the player as expansive maps that, although they feel like open worlds, are much more linear in practice. The player is not however handcuffed in the execution of the missions and, in fact, the more limited range of certain spaces directs him towards interesting obstacles, forces him to take risks and to think carefully about the tactics that he wants to employ. The game often favors a stealthy approach, without making it mandatory. Anyway, we can adjust the difficulty and the level of realism to our liking thanks to a series of customizable options.
This campaign can be done in co-op mode with a friend, which is always welcome. Also, a new mode, called “Invasion”, allows another player to enter our game to embody a German sniper in charge of tracking us down. Thus, we must carry out our missions while being aware that we can be in the crosshairs of another player at any time. This tension increased by the duel makes the experience thrilling.
The game also features other more traditional multiplayer modes, such as all-on-all deathmatch and team deathmatch, which emphasize long lines of sight and ranged combat rather than close combat. . The popular “Survival” mode, in which you can join up to three other players to face waves of enemies, is also back.
In our opinion, there is no doubt that the followers of the series Sniper Elite will love this latest installment. And we wouldn’t be surprised if it attracted new fans.