Like a fleet of Allied landing craft storming the beaches of Normandy,Sniper Elite 5has blown me away.
as it delivered yet another incredibly designed level to creep around while turning Nazi skulls into cornflakes.
Sniper Elite has been dependably entertaining for a while.
It just needed a spark of inspiration to make it excellent.
Sniper Elite 5 finds that spark in an unlikely place: the Allied invasion of France.
By all logic Sniper Elite 5 should feel more derivative than the previous games.
Even at this stage, Sniper Elite 5 feels like a marked improvement over previous games.
It’s worth noting that Sniper Elite 5 is more unashamedly gruesome than ever before.
From across the water, it seems like a sniper’s paradise.
As you infiltrate the island proper, however, it becomes clear that this is no simple shooting gallery.
The narrow medieval streets, combined with the level’s continuously upward progression, make effective sniping opportunities rare.
In this way, Sniper Elite 5 perfects the balance between sniping and more general stealth.
No one tactic works universally.
These are quieter than standard ammunition, but are less powerful and less accurate.
Completely silent kills can only be achieved up close, which has its own inherent drawbacks.
On the flipside, no tactic feels redundant either.
But it’s good to have the option nonetheless.
None of which is to say that Sniper Elite 5 is perfect.
While the majority of the levels are excellent, a couple of them are merely ‘good’.
The AI offers a decent challenge, especially on harder difficulties.
But there’s one crucial ingredient I haven’t mentioned yet invasions.
Invasions fit into Sniper Elite like ten grams of lead into an SS officer’s eye-socket.
But Rebellion also makes some smart iterations on the formula.
