REVIEW: Sniper Elite III

I’ve spent the last 5 days playing the hell out of this game, going through the campaign as well as the varied and distinct multiplayer modes. 5 days of intensive play, and I still can’t decide how to put this game to you guys.

You see, Sniper Elite 3 is a dichotomy of a game. It has a fair few problems, and some are pretty big. It is also, despite those problems, a game I found incredibly difficult to put down.

So let’s start at the very beginning (I have it on good authority that’s a ‘very good place to start’). The story underpinning the game is serviceable, but instantly forgettable. You play Jeff McSniperson (ok, its Karl Fairburne) an Elite Allied sniper who finds himself on the African front in 1942. He proceeds across the continent, single-handedly clearing conflict zones and turning the tide of the entire war. It isn’t going to make a compelling movie, but it provides a backdrop for us to pull out bolt-action and get busy.

This is the third outing for the Sniper Elite franchise, and the first appearance on 8th Gen consoles. The series is famous for its ‘sniper bullet-cam’ and it once again takes center-stage in this iteration. For those that aren’t familiar with the series, this effect is seen by many as the ultimate in video game bullet-porn. Every time you take a well-aimed shot, the camera will slow down and cinematically follow the bullet all the way to its destination. Once it arrives at the target you’ll be treated to a slow motion x-ray kill cam, seeing exactly what the bullet does at an intimately anatomical level. Organs will be pulverized, bones will splinter, and eyeballs will burst.

The game, like its predecessors, is fundamentally a stealth ’em up in the style of Hitman or Splinter Cell, but (obviously)with an far greater emphasis on sniping. What the game has gained with its jump to 8th gen is an unprecedented sense of freedom. Each level is now set in a different (and HUGE) open world area. There is a main mission on every level, but there are also a number of side missions which are picked up by exploring the surroundings.

Side missions can be approached in any order; allowing for long range kills via your rifle, or for you to get up close and personal with melee and silenced weapons. Between the slow, meticulous way missions need to be approached and the sheer scale of the maps, some of these levels can literally take hours. You are afforded a wealth of tools and weapons to get the job done, such as trip mines, dynamite, regular and silenced firearms and your all important scoped rifle.

What hasn’t made the jump to next gen is Sniper Elite 3’s take on A.I. In an era of drivatars and cloud-controlled spectres, predictable routines and behaviour really should be a thing of the past. Unfortunately, the Axis powers disappoint on this score with predictable, immersion-killing behaviour. Once you are spotted, enemies will just run towards you, en masse. They will take cover, but frequently poke their guns through solid objects. Not to worry though, because after 30 seconds of you being out of sight, the enemy will presume the gunfight they had been in previously was a bad dream, and they’ll return to a cycle of heavily scripted actions.

You could have shot a soldier’s best friend in the face, spraying their blood, bone and brain matter across his uniform in the process. Yet still, after less than a minute of searching, he will presume the exploding skull had occurred via natural causes, and then step over the warm corpse of his childhood buddy to get back on patrol.

Besides these issues, there are also some annoying glitches that are just plain untidy. On more than one occasion I threw a rock for distraction, only to have the AI head towards the origin (me) rather than the destination of said rock. You can sneak up and stealth-kill enemies– but I learned the hard way that if they’re sitting down, attempting said stealth kill only serves to irritate your target, rather than kill them. On more than one occasion I took damage through thick solid walls, and witnessed enemies electing to poke their guns through chunks of scenery to get a better angle of attack.

It should be noted that this is not an FPS or a ‘run n’ gun’. This game requires methodical planning and patience – and the latter will be tested repeatedly. If you want Wolfenstein with added bullet time, walk away now. Your character isn’t a bullet sponge that can walk into any situation with two barrels blazing, BJ Blazkowicz-style.

On ‘Sniper Elite’ difficulty or above, your character is a realistically fragile human being who will be very lucky to escape alive from an open gun fight with more than two or three enemies. This is about planning your angles, finding a vantage point, protecting your rear with tripwires and mines, observing your targets and then using environmental sounds to mask your shots. It’s perhaps to be expected from a game called Sniper Elite then, that these are some of the game’s biggest strengths.

There is something incredibly rewarding about the payoff of a carefully planned attack. Choosing the order of your targets based on their locations and patrols, and timing your shots to be masked by cannon fire and low-flying aircraft, is surprisingly nuanced at times. It may be a slow game in comparison to some of the other shooters out there, but that is actually what sets it apart and makes it feel far more fresh than the latest CoD or Battlefield.

The game also provides a very comprehensive set of multiplayer options. By far the least effective is the simple deathmatch. To be honest, it’s provided for completeness, and will unlikely worry DICE or Activision. However, there are also a number of co-op options, all are good fun. I found myself spending many, many hours (thanks Unabanzie) on the various modes, and was always happy to go for ‘just one more’ despite the time each takes (again, often 2hrs plus).

The most straight-forward option is to play the entire campaign co-operatively. This puts missions and maps in a totally new light. They can now be approached differently, allowing you to employ advanced co-operative tactics. In addition, there is a survival mode in which you and a friend take on 15 waves of enemies (including soldiers, tanks and snipers) in a ‘horde mode’ style of play.

Finally there is the most interesting co-op mode; ‘Overwatch’. This has you and your partner alternating the roles of sniper and spotter. The sniper has his trusty rifle and a pistol, but little else. The spotter has a machine gun, binoculars and two important abilities: picking locks and tagging targets. The sniper stays on overwatch and has to cover the spotter as he makes his way to various objectives around the map. The spotter has to mark targets for the sniper and work with him to move around without being caught.

Despite suffering the same problems as the single player, the co-op modes are great fun and it’s a real shame that there are only 2 maps available for each of the most playable modes.

So in summary, you are a one (or optionally two) man army, roaming the African front exploding the skulls and testicles (yeah, really) of the entire (moronic) Nazi force. There is a lot of fun to be had, but also some grief and frustration.

This is not a perfectly crafted Sniper Simulator.

…but you know what? If you want a realistic sniper simulator – spending the last 20 hours of someone’s life watching them through a 40x scope while you sit motionless on a hill – you need help. Seriously. That isn’t fun.

THIS. IS. A. GAME. Despite the problems and flaws, it’s a really fun one. It has something brilliantly reminiscent of the best Metal Gear games, and it is compelling in its own right. This game requires a real time investment to get the most out of it, and it was an investment I found myself happy to make time and time again, both in single player and in co-op. The sniper-spotter paradigm truly comes in to its own with a co-op friend in tow.

In fact, if it weren’t for the problems I encountered, in at least some respects this would be a near perfect game. I for one am really looking forward to what Rebellion can do next time out.

You have to approach this game understanding the limitations it has and the type of play it requires. If you have little patience you may want to give it a miss. However, if you’re looking for a game that requires a bit more thought and time than most – and you are prepared to forgive the above flaws –this will certainly give you many hours of fun.