Hello Ladies, gentlemen and those of a non-binary nature, My name is Daibhi, this is Gamerhub, and today’s review is of Sniper Elite 5. I’ll try to keep the plot relatively free of spoilers, but this review will contain a couple. To be honest, if you’ve ever played a Sniper Elite game before, you should already know what the rough plot is, but if you haven’t, here’s a brief precis: You play as an elite sniper during World War 2, working for the Special Operations Executive, Winston Churchill’s secret army. To complete your missions, you must collect intelligence, assassinate certain people and destroy any Nazi military installations along the way. Whilst this precis sounds pretty heavy, the games are famed for a “hitman-esque” sense of humour which keeps the game light and sometimes humorous.
They made 5 of these things?
Yes, Rebellion Developments, based out of Oxford in England, have made 5 of these games so far, as well as the interconnected Zombie Army series that comes alongside it. I guess Rebellion Developments just really liked the concept of Nazi Zombies… Anyway, back on track, Sniper Elite 5 is the fifth instalment of this incredibly popular franchise, and was released in May 2022 for the PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles. It’s a tactical shooter/stealth game hybrid and came out to some… mixed reviews. Destructoid gave it s 6.5/10 whilst Gamespot gave it a 8/10 score. You’ll find out what I think later on in this review.
Basic Plot
The year is 1944, and like in real life, the Americans have officially entered World War 2. SOE sniper Karl Fairburne is attached to a battalion of Army Rangers, to assist in securing landing beaches ahead of D-Day. When Karl arrives in the village and meets a resistance contact, he has to watch as a submarine full of American troops is blown up by the Nazis. From this point going forwards, Fairburne is on a suitably testosterone-fuelled one man mission of revenge in order to gain justice for his fallen brothers-in-arms and doing the one thing he’s very good at doing: Killing Nazis.
I’m not one to nitpick at plot points, but the basic premise of this game isn’t complicated, and that’s by design. The narrative given to you, if you just want to complete the missions and start your next videogame, is simple. The reason is this: Rebellion Developments know exactly they’re aiming this at, and to be fair, it isn’t the same people who play Animal Crossing or The Legend Of Zelda games. The beauty of the plot, however, can be found in the materials you can discover along the way. All the collectible bits of intelligence paint a darkly comic and often hilarious but tragic tale of war. From a Nazi who suffers from wetting the bed (it’s only after about 10 minutes I realised that the lad had probably got combat PTSD), to one guy constantly arguing with his subordinates about a hole in the ceiling in a tower of a French chateaux. Seriously, when you play this game (which I strongly recommend that you do, even if war games aren’t your bag), make a beeline to get as many of these as you can. The humour lifts what can otherwise be quite an oppressive game.
Do you feel lucky punk?
When it comes to reviewing a videogame, I tend to focus on the game’s gameplay. I can look past a paint-by-numbers plot and questionable graphics if the game is actually good to play, and gamers, I was not disappointed in this game. The gameplay basically accepts that shooting Nazis through the bollocks at long range and watching their testicles explode through X-Ray vision is never not going to be fun. The sandboxes to sneak around are absolutely gigantic this time, and the range of NPC AI is a lot sharper than in previous instalments (although, you can scale the difficulty down if you’re so inclined). The options of how to kill the Nazis can range from gigantic, long-range sniper shots to something that could quite literally have come out of a Hitman game. There’s a fair few nods to different war films in here too, with a lovely nod to Quentin Tarantino’s war film, Inglorious Basterds. The kill cams in this game are far more frequent than in previous games, but to truly talk about the gameplay, we need to talk about the guns.
In Sniper Elite 4, the guns are pretty fun, if a little less customisable than we might hope, and a little less realistic. No such problems are found in this game. All the guns are customisable to an insane degree (although nicely kept behind progression locks), and for once, we have a videogame that understands how a silencer works. You see, Hollywood and James Bond films have lied to you about silencers. Despite their name, silencers don’t actually mute your fire. What they do is muffle the sound of your gunfire, making the gunfire far less loud. So, if you fire a silenced long-range sniper shot, Nazis in your vicinity will hear it. Even with a silencer, you need to be careful, so a top tip from me on this one is to wait for a plane to fly overhead in order to completely silence the shot when you take it. It makes the game that one bit harder and it gives you one extra layer of strategy, even if it has been done in previous instalments of the game franchise.
Ain’t war pretty?
So, time to talk graphics. For the sake of transparency, my review was completed using an Xbox Series X. Remember when I said I could tolerate bad graphics and plot if the gameplay worked? I had no such concern with this game. Rebellion Developments really pushed the boat out on this game, and it shows. Everything is detailed to the nth degree. The scope of graphical details is insane, and you can see where the budget for most of this game went. Even the flora (according to our resident floral expert) matches what the game describes it as accurately.
To give you a good example of how good the graphics are, wait until you have unlocked the full gun customisation options, and then when you play in the practice zones, and check out how good the customisable patterns are on your weapons of choice. I know the Call Of Duty and Medal Of Honor games did this first, but this game perfects how it looks. It’s seriously impressive, and even holds up on a PS4 Pro. So don’t worry, for those who haven’t got their hands on a previous gen console, you’re not getting left out on this mark.
Good points, bad points.
Let’s start with the negatives. The game is clunky at points, particularly when you play online. Because this game is insanely popular with soldiers, if you’re new to this franchise, expect to be sniped out by soldiers and ex-soldiers immediately when playing online. It’s a problem with their ranking system that existed within the previous two games, but with this game, there really is no excuse on this level to have a ranking system so broken.
The next negative also applies mainly to online play. Whilst PVP and normal online matches work extremely well, because the maps are so big that one-on-one matches can take upwards of an hour, leading for things to get monotonous. If you have the patience required, it can be extremely rewarding, but I can’t honestly see casual fans enjoying this at all.
Lastly, the elephant in the room: the plot. It’s a basic paint-by-numbers plot with very little in the way of adversity for Karl and as thus, he really is just a useful tool for his superiors, and something akin to a “Mary Sue” character. The plot has no twists that feel exciting, and it’s by design, but it’s still disappointing for a AAA videogame. If I’m dropping £40+ on a videogame, I expect to be enthralled by the plot throughout the first playthrough, and not merely get told the full story through the collectibles. Rebellion Developments clearly haven’t learned the storytelling principle of “show, don’t tell”.
Now for the good parts. Dear lord, this game is beautiful. It’s hard not to just stop and looking at the sandbox maps and want to just take screenshots, as some of these could well be used as backgrounds for your desktops. From how insanely finely detailed this game is, to the vistas and sunsets taken with this game, to the fact that Rebellion Developments made the stars in the night sky be accurate to how they actually are in that region in the world, this game is graphically incredibly impressive. It’s nearing the Drive Club level of graphics, and for me, that was an utter delight to discover.
Secondly, the gameplay is incredibly impressive when you’re not playing online. Like Hitman, the levels on this game are meant to be played multiple times, and you get rewarded handsomely for doing so. For completing the game multiple times, you get hilarious and darkly comic intelligence, more guns, ammunition and new targets to kill, whilst also levelling up your character and getting more proficient with your weapons. There’s also hilariously named achievements. For example, while “the nutcracker” made Sniper Elite 4 infamous, there’s an achievement in this game called “Organ Grinder”, where you have to get an X-Ray shot with a rifle to hit every available organ at least once.
The Yorkshireman’s war cry- How much?
If you’re an Xbox gamer, this game is currently available on Game Pass, but if you want to buy it, at the time of writing this review in June 2023, it’s £54.99, and optimised for current-gen consoles. For PlayStation gamers, it’s a damn sight cheaper for the base game without DLC, costing £27.49, but it isn’t available on any tier of the PlayStation plus model of gaming. For the PC Master Racers among us, it’s £44.99. So, is it worth it? My honest answer is a solid yes. It’s funny, difficult to master and a great time can be had for hours on end. It’s beautiful, insanely replayable and kept me entertained way after my hours cut-off point for reviews. I’ve had a lot of fun playing through and reviewing this game, and honestly, for my second review back, I’ve really enjoyed this game. Just make sure your kids aren’t around when playing this one though, folks. It more than earned the age rating it got.
So, if you’re still here after nearly 1700 words, and you’ve enjoyed this, I’m very glad. I hope you enjoyed this, as I really did. I’ll see you all on Tuesday the 13th for my Xbox breakdown of what we got overnight, as I’m still waiting for emails to get back to me with more information about the games Xbox showed us yesterday.
For the Gamerhub, I’ve been Daibhi and you are legends.
See you Tomorrow.
