Hey, and we’re back with another review, today I will be doing a Sniper Elite 5 review, here are some of my quick first impressions for you guys.
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This is the newest one on the block. It’s actually been five years since Sniper Elite 4, isn’t that crazy? Well, I’ve been playing them all since V2 and Sniper Elite 4 was really the one that really took the game-playing concepts to the next level, you know, to the big leagues.
Sniper Elite 5 review: Location
So Sniper Elite 5 sticks with that formula. You know, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, I guess? But it’s refined here, with a bunch of cool new stuff to check out, way more customization and possibilities, and more Nazi killing.
So Sniper Elite 5, once again, commits to a unique location in World War II.
With 3, it was Africa, with 4, it was Italy, and now, here with 5, it’s France.
It’s 1944 when shit is really going down and, after a brief tutorial, the first location opens up to you and it’s one in a sequence of really, really big maps.
4 was big and they feel bigger here, and they’re downright stunning.
They look gorgeous and are super detailed with tons of hidden little areas.
Now missions are, once again, somewhat straightforward but deep in the map, behind enemy lines, where it’s easy to also just get distracted by side objectives that also get you rewards.
The main mission is usually introduced by a cut scene, a few character conversations, and just general movements in the war and then eventually a bigger conspiracy that the bad guys are planning.
Gameplay
Sniper Elite 5 attempts to give a bit more story and personality to the basic plot and to the main character, you know, gruff.
Every-man sniper Carl Fairburn, but it didn’t really work for me.
It’s not often where I don’t care about a cut scene in a game, but I just really wasn’t interested in it much here between the voice acting and the presentation and everything.
This game is all gameplay and that’s where it fricking shines, man.
If you’ve played 4, it’s immediately going to feel really familiar.
It’s all about creeping around big battlefields like a simpler, kind of less smooth Metal Gear Solid 5, scoping out areas, and planning your approach.
You can take these games really, really impressively slow if you want.
You can really spend a handful of hours in each area and I’m not even talking about doing the side objectives, which are nice.
But no, if you want to perfect the stealth main mission, it can take a long time and requires some patience.
And that’s not even considering what difficulty mode you’re playing on, of which there are plenty of options for all of that.
Sniper Elite 5 review: Game Mechanics
There are a lot of assists and options just to adjust how difficult you want the sniping to be, specifically, too.
This is the bread and butter of the game.
You have to use sound from the area to mask your shots, like planes flying overhead, or a backfiring generator.
You have to worry about the distance, bullet drops, and the wind, and the game gives you plenty of options as to how challenging or realistic you want it to be.
Really, on default settings, and some tweaks, it walks the perfect line between realism and just good, genuine, fun sniping in a video game.
Sniping is still the strongest feature of these games.
The up close and personal melee attacks and pistols and machine guns do feel stronger this time around and are definitely a totally worthy tactic with how the aiming and how the controls feel.
If you wanna go guns blazing, you totally can and it’s still challenging.
You know, you have a lot of tools for trickery and combat, even if the AI, up close and personal, still seems kinda dumb sometimes.
Also, there’s just an inconsistency sometimes overall.
You can spend a lot of time planning and taking it slow, but you often still end up being spotted instantly by some guy a mile away sometimes where you can’t even tell.
So you have to kinda go with the flow and improvise.
Enemies seem to search for you longer when you run and hide, which means you’re gonna need even more patience if you wanna take it slow this time around.
And as a minor complaint, really, for me personally, I actually found some of the maps too big where I get kind of bored crouch-walking from one place to the next.
I just wanted to get into that sniping action, you know? Put me in a bell tower.
It’s not the biggest issue.
The game does provide those moments for you.
You have to kind of work for ’em a little bit.
I just wish things were condensed a tiny bit, just a tad more quality over quantity with the world size, you know? It’s a weird clash when you still manage to run into invisible walls and bushes you can’t pass through, despite the openness and size of everything.
But still, it’s minor. Sniping still kicks ass and allows for crazy Hitman-style scenarios and just really fun stuff.
New Additions
There’s an active reload mechanic now and special noise-suppressed ammo. In fact, they actually go all out embracing stealth players by giving you a bunch more non-lethal, extra sneaky options, too.
Now progression is upgraded and that’s what I’ve been digging the most.
There’s more to earn and unlock and work through.
You level up and spend points in a skill tree and you improve your character in various ways, hold more gadgets, have better recoil resistance, better heart rate management, you know, stuff like that, but actually genuinely useful, especially the one to revive yourself if you get killed.
If you have a med pack, definitely recommend that one right away ’cause you are gonna die.
But also you come across detailed workbenches that allow you to customize your weapons a lot like stocks, barrels, magnification, ammo storage, foregrip, the actual material, and even little cosmetics for Carl himself.
And all of the weapons swap stuff makes a big difference towards embracing your play style pretty well.
Do you just snip dudes and not really care? Just equip this and go loud.
Are you trying to maximize your range and reduce bullet drop? Maybe use this barrel or this thing.
It’s surprisingly in-depth. And is it realistic? I don’t know, I don’t care, It’s fun.
Also, of course, it’s worth mentioning, the famous kill cam.
Kill Cam
Well-placed, long-range sniper shots give you gratuitously, real-time camera angle closeups and sometimes x-ray vision of bullets shattering Nazi skulls, exploding spleens, piercing hearts, blowing up dudes’ balls, all in gory glory.
And I’m happy to report that, after all these years, they never get old or repetitive.
The up-close melee finishers don’t always look great, but they still have their moments.
Overall, the game is just a super crazy, gory, fun time at least, thankfully.
And the offering here, the amount of it, is really impressive ’cause, once again, there is co-op gameplay in these open maps, which is really impressive, to say the least.
Didn’t get too much time to test it, but enjoyed it in 4.
Sniper Elite 5 review: Survival mode
There’s also the survival horde-ish mode, a great addition, and a traditional multiplayer modes thing, which are whatever, really.
They pale in comparison to the potential that is this new access invasion mode.
So when you have this enabled during your single-player adventures, you get more XP because, at any point, someone can invade your game, basically like an enemy sniper.
It’s pretty sweet because it can make some missions way more hectic and stressful, knowing that someone is hunting you down.
Now, each side has ways of getting clues to the enemy’s last known location and it can make for some tense, satisfying battles, especially when you’re already screwed or pinned down by the AI.
There’s potential for some really great, one-on-one sniper hunting here.
I’m talking like the end Metal Gear Solid 3-style stuff.
Conclusion
I’ve been able to see some of it here. It seems like some players just try to run up to you and blast you like it’s Call of Duty, but when I have had good players playing against me and we get in stalemates or standoffs, it’s awesome.
This game also makes sure to aggressively push you out of camping, which is interesting.
I’m curious to see how this mode is gonna grow.
I really hope people embrace it and I hope they add to it.
But Sniper Elite 5, and I don’t mean this in a bad way, they made another one.
It’s just good old sniping fun in new environments, new maps, and more stuff to work
towards, and it seems good. I played some of it on Xbox Series X and it ran well.
We also captured this footage on the PC version and we had trouble getting it at a solid frame rate.
It might be optimization stuff, but be sure to maybe consult your favorite technical PCU YouTuber for something like that.
Overall, if you’re talking to me, I talk fun factor.
I think, you know, Sniper Elite 5 definitely has it.
So that’s where we’re at with it and that’s how it goes.
I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinions and now I wanna hear yours
down in the comments. What’s your experience with this series? Did you love 4? Did you love 3?
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I think 3 is still technically my favorite. I can’t explain why. But 5 is a nice improvement over 4. So I wanna know what you’re thinking. If you jumped in, if you bought it day one, or if you’re playing I on Game Pass or whatever.
Whatever platform you’re on, let us know what you think. You can also reach out to us on Twitter.
