If we talk about rifles, telescopic sights and snipers, the Sniper Elite saga is iconic for its proposal, but Sniper Elite 5 is encouraged to innovate. Will it work for you? We play this newly released title on Xbox Game Pass on PC and we tell you everything.
the saga Sniper Elite It was always characterized by proposing distance combat, it is no coincidence that it is called what it is called. Missions where close-quarters or close-quarters combat were much less frequent than shots through our telescopic sights, crouching from afar, holding our air, to see in slow motion how some part of our enemy’s body exploded. This feeling is always intensified thanks to the x-ray shots that show us with medical accuracy how the bullet destroys its target. But Sniper Elite 5on the contrary, seems to have more missions with melee battles than ranged. We play this third and first person shooter on PC through the Xbox Game Pass that included it at launch, and we’ll tell you everything.
And perhaps we are being very detailed, but there is something that is key: when we sit down to play Sniper Elite 5, we want to be like Vassili Zaitsev, Chris Kyle or Heinz Thorvald. We want to have that task of placing ourselves hundreds of meters from the target, and with a single bullet we end the problems. And while there is a lot of that in this fifth installment, not everything will depend on how we feel like playing, but on what each mission presents us with.
The game features a campaign mode that consists of eight huge levels, packed with primary and secondary missions. The fourth installment had been very good, and it was the first one that broke a little the basic scheme that the previous three had been presenting, turning the protagonist into a sort of Rambo with a sniper rifle. This fifth edition takes up that path that marked Sniper Elite 4, and enhances it in every way.
Learning to use the map and the option of being able to mark enemies, alarms or objects that we consider important, becomes our best ally. At the beginning of each mission, we will find different observation points, generally far from the action and at the height, so that we can crouch down and with a lot of patience and with binoculars, be able to examine every inch of enemy terrain. Everything we mark will be reflected on the map, and it will help us a lot when it comes to getting fully into the action.
Another great detail for those moments in which we need to make use of our qualities as snipers is the noise bar. A big change in this installment is that we just make a shot in the distance to shoot down an enemy, the others that are walking around the area they will hear the shot and they will begin to approach.
They are not going to fight from a distance, but rather they are going to seek to eliminate us up close. To avoid this, we can “hide” the noise of our shots with other sounds, such as the sound of an airplane passing overhead. If the environment does not provide us with these opportunities, many times we will find different elements, such as engines, that we can activate not only to cover the noise of the shot, but to divert the attention of the damn Nazis.
Returning to what was mentioned in the first paragraphs, and to explain it better, there are many missions that the story of the game gives us, where the use of our rifle is not going to be effective at all, since we may be in closed and small places, where a telescopic sight only becomes a nuisance. The different short arms or machine guns become, then, the priority to be able to fulfill those missions.
And don’t get me wrong, this is not something bad, or boring. If you like style games Call of Dutyyou’re going to really enjoy these moments, because it has that kind of more chaotic action, where you have to face many enemies at the same time and everything becomes more frenetic. Not that all this is something negative, but honestly, we believe that it takes a bit of magic away from that iconic feature that the saga used to have and that gives so much presence to its name.
Ironically, the game becomes monotonous and a bit repetitive when you bet on close combat. We arrive at a place full of enemies, we eliminate one stealthily, we hide it, we crouch to the next one, we kill it silently, we hide it, and if at some point someone sees us and many soldiers come, it is a matter of pressing the trigger a good machine gun and eliminate them all together, since they do not offer much resistance. Honestly, the Nazis in this title aren’t very smart.
On the contrary, the moments where we have to use the rifles from a distance do make us feel like a soldier who is really prepared to be a sniper, because we are going to have to think of different variants. First, find the best point to shoot, depending on the terrain where we are. It is even good to see different points, to shoot at one, and when the enemies realize where the shots are coming from, run towards that other point and surprise them.
We also have to take into account the elements of the environment that generate noise, or which are explosive to generate distractions or even deadly. Deciding well in which order to eliminate the enemies that we have in our sights also helps to make our mission more effective. In summary, the game proposes many more variants when we have to be snipers with all the letterssomething that the French allies do not seem to understand when giving us certain missions.
However, we can play all these missions cooperatively and that gives us the possibility to better choose our role. Here we can organize ourselves with a friend (or whoever is the person on the other side) to be able to go as snipers or as a soldier who likes to walk between the line of fire. And like most cooperative games, you can feel the difference between one mode and another, it really makes a contrast to be able to choose how to play and, therefore, how to enjoy this title.
Visually, the game is great. There is a photographic fidelity in the recreation of the scenes of the south of France, often cities with imposing landscapes full of green, to coastal cities with very marked gray and blue tones. The closed areas or even the interiors of the houses, the bases and even the bunkers that we can access are full of very specific details that help a lot to create the necessary immersion with history and, above all, with the historical context.
The customization of our weapons is something that shines in this fifth installment, and it is something technically new in the saga. Before starting each mission we will be given the possibility to customize our weapons, changing different parts to better adapt them to our type of game. Issues such as weight, distance or rate of fire They are going to be vital so that our way of playing is taken to the highest level. And depending on what setup we put together, we’re really going to feel the difference between the weapons. As with any of these games, once we get used to certain weapons, we are not going to change them.
The Invasion Mode is also something to highlight. When we play in this mode, another player from anywhere in the world he can enter our game as a German sniper and eliminate us without us noticing. This forces us to do the entire journey with much more caution, using stealth as our best friend and taking a good look at each new place that we are going to register.
For his part, the other player can do the same to create an ambush, or stand still in a position waiting for us. The tension that this generates adds a twist to the gameplay and makes it really entertaining.. In addition, with a fairly weak AI as we already mentioned, having this type of challenge is greatly appreciated.
Sniper Elite 5 It’s a fun game that has strong points, like the Invasion Mode mentioned in the previous paragraph, and other weak points, like how repetitive and monotonous some missions can become. We don’t feel it was better or worse than Sniper Elite 4but yes, different. There is another search beyond entertainment, which has to do with immersion, realism and variety of missions. And it is noted that rebellion He takes things very seriously with this saga, because it is technically impeccable and has a very complete polish in each of its sections.
RELEASE DATE | May 25, 2022 |
DEVELOPER | rebellion |
DISTRIBUTOR | rebellion |
PLATAFORMS | PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 |