Sniper Elite 5 review — We got a German here who wants to die for his country! Oblige him!

By Ron Burke

Posted on May 25, 2022

The date is May 28th, 1944, and the Nazi war machine continues to march across Europe. Once again you are put in the well-worn boots of U.S. Sniper Karl Fairburne, tasked with disrupting the Atlantikwall, a massive sea wall barrier fortified with massive coastal guns, batteries, mortars, artillery, and more meant to repel the advancing Allied forces. In the execution of his mission against this massive barricade he uncovers a secret Nazi project known as Project Kraken. His mission is now to fully uncover and ultimately stop this nefarious plot before it’s too late.

Sniper Elite 5 does suffer from an unfortunate affliction that has plagued games like The Witcher 3, Pokemon, Gears of War, Mass Effect and more. That hedgerow you are ducked behind? You can’t climb it. Unless you can? Sometimes, who can say? That log that comes up to your shin? It’d be safer if you just walked around. Small tank trap with a little bit of barbed wire? Completely impenetrable. So many times the path from here to there is littered with pointless maze elements that serve to funnel the player into unnecessary killboxes. There’s just no need as the maps are huge. The first level alone took me three hours to complete, so just let the map breathe and turn me loose. Or, for the love of ludonarrative dissonance, let me just jump for crying out loud!

I’m very happy to report, however, that the bulk of these movement issues are entirely bound to the first level of the game. It’s almost like that level came first as every level afterward is better than the last, and without all the movement hiccups. In short, let the first impression this game offers be the last one – finish that first mission and the game really hits its stride.

Much of your work as a sniper is spotting your targets, learning their patterns, and taking them out when the opportunity arises. Pulling out your binoculars you can see what weapons and equipment a soldier carries, their distance from you, as well as their name and some background information. How do I know that Radulph Holland “Eats his toenail clippings”, or that Anton Dryer “Once wicked up Rudolph Hess in his cab. Tells this to everyone. No one cares.”. Well, the way I’m telling it, our dear protagonist is actually agonized by the amount of bodies he leaves in his wake, so he makes up the most ludicrous stories to justify killing the Nazi scum he encounters. I know this to be true because the stories eventually start to repeat, ergo, all of these backstories are in his head, and I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

Each level in the game is a setpiece of some kind. Far smaller than the first level, each of them is a puzzle to be solved, such as a well-occupied beach full of tank traps, bridges, and long stretches of unoccupied space where other snipers can spot your approach. At the center lies a massive castle with information that needs to be retrieved at the top. Getting there is half the battle, and doing it quietly will be the best kind of struggle.

To help you crack these puzzles, there are a number of environmental opportunities in Sniper Elite 5. Finding a crowbar will pop the hinges off a crate faster than a lockpick, which is great when that crate is out in the open. Similarly, you’ll find bolt cutters that can snap a padlock instantly, granting alternate paths or access to additional gear. Safes can be a source of intel, ammunition and equipment, or all three. Opening that safe or door can be done loudly with explosives, but quietly if you can find the key or safe combination. There are no minigames to navigate, but it’s all time-based risk as you are vulnerable to enemy discovery, so you’ll need to plan accordingly. To help with this, there are several new pieces of gear, not the least of which is the most low-tech but incredibly useful – the decoy. Literally a helmet on a stick, this is the counter sniper tool you didn’t know you needed. Placing this object will cause soldiers to come investigate, allowing you to pick them off quietly. It can also become a distant target to reveal the hidden position of enemy snipers so you can dispatch them. The decoy confuses everyone within a certain range, and it’s perfect for drawing out those dug-in foes. While it may not necessarily fool a human player in multi, it does a good job of fooling the AI.

There’s an “invasion” mechanic, it’s precisely what the name suggests it to be. If enabled, you can invade another player’s game at any time and cause havoc. Acting as a fully kitted out enemy sniper with all 9 of your special skills unlocked, you’ll be devastating to an unprepared player. You can lie in wait as your only objective is to land that perfect shot. If you successfully take out the invaded player, you get weapons, customizations, skins, and more, plus the satisfaction of being the superior sniper, of course. The invaded player isn’t without options, however – dotting the map (frequently in bunkers) you’ll find various Invasion Phones. These reveal the last known location of the person who has invaded your game, letting you hone in to try to counter snipe. The fun part, however, is that these also work for the invader, so keep moving, Allies! If you are successful at shutting them down, you’ll pick up similar rewards. Naturally you can turn this off if it’s not your thing, but the additional rewards are alluring. Truthfully, you should try it at least once as it’s a completely unique experience that can suddenly make your mission approach change drastically. Personally I have yet to land a shot on another player thanks to a sharp AI that would often kill the other player before I could close the distance. It’ll be nice to square off against proper villains who can hold their own against the AI so we can stalk one another.

I have run into a handful of bugs on the launch release code. It’s likely there will be a day 1 patch, so these could evaporate soon enough, but they add some frustration to the equation. Stealthily grabbing a foe from a doorway and executing them is a key part of a quiet approach. Sometimes your character will have their back against the wall and be ready to attack, only to fail to prompt the player. The enemy will be alerted, and your run is ruined. In fact, selecting things can be a challenge pretty much all of the time. When you are in a hurry and need to pick up an object, fighting with finding the precise pixel that allows that to happen is a pain. Similarly, there are some general control issues that can’t be classified as bugs, but just fiddly controls. For example, vaulting over a wall is fine and good, but your soldier will often flip over to the other side and hang off the edge. If you’ve held forward for any length off time, you’ll end up just climbing back over the top, ending up where you started. You’ll get spotted more than once with this nonsense.

Sniper Elite 5 is releasing on Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC, and unfortunately it’s starting to show. There’s a lot to love in the game graphically, but then there are moments that remind you that this game has one foot still in Gen 8. Plant life looks great most of the time, but there are moments where the camera gets a little too close, showcasing some awful low-resolution representations. Similarly, faces look solid most times, but can fall directly into the uncanny valley at times. On the other hand, it’s clear the team used photogrammetry for the buildings as they are gorgeously detailed. Your missions will take you from the beaches of Normandy to the interior of Northern France, Calais, and Germany, complete with bunkers, nests, and military installations that you can visit in the real world. It’s clear the Rebellion team did a lot of on-location work, and we are the beneficiaries. Just let this be the last Gen 8 game in this series – the whole product would be elevated for it.

Rather than just slapping a 5 on the end and calling it a day, developer Rebellion has put a lot of work into overhauling major portions of the game, and for the better. There are customizations galore, with scopes, barrels, ammo types, stocks, and much more for each and every weapon in the game. While you start off with just a handful, by the time you beat the game you’ll have access to a metric ton of weapons, accessories, and equipment to match your tactics. There are four base stats that each weapon and mod affects, but hitting the tab key exposes significantly more lying under the surface. If you want to get into the nitty gritty of min/maxing your loadout, it’s here for you.

With your selected primary, secondary, sidearm, and equipment all set (you can save up to five loadouts) you are ready to head into the field. Leaning into flexibility, Sniper Elite 5 lets you handle your approach however you see fit. Using your binoculars to spot targets, you are free to blast holes in them, complete with the gory killcams we all know and love, but that’s certainly the messy and loud way to accomplish your mission. Your weapons all have a distance rating, meaning your foes will be able to echolocate your position if you are inside of that range, so shooter beware. Your second and subsequent shots will allow the enemy to further dial in your position regardless, so expect a parade of angry Nazis headed your way. A more stealthy approach might be a suppressor attached to a Welrod pistol, and getting within throwing distance, reserving your long shots for when you only need to fire once at a VIP target. Either way, the choice is yours, and both options feel like they are viable, though the game does obviously tilt more heavily towards the more stealthy approach.

When you do land that meticulously planned long-distance shot that the series is known for, the aforementioned 3D killcam is waiting for you. Not a surprise as it’s a primary calling card for the series, but what’s new is that this has been extended to your pistols, secondary weapons, knives, and other environmental objects. For example, shooting a spotlight might shred the soldier behind it as the glass explodes around him. The team recognizes that this might be a bit much, so you are welcome to adjust the frequency you see this for each weapon category, even turning it off for each as you see fit.

One thing I’ve not tried in previous games, but is very viable here, is a completely non-lethal approach. You have always been able to knock out foes rather than killing them, but now non-lethal rounds are more readily available. If you are looking for a completely non-lethal level completion (and I can’t imagine why you would – these are Nazis after all), you now can. So…yay? If non-lethal approaches aren’t your cup of tea, you’ll be happy to see additional difficulty levels to push your approach to the limit. Higher difficulty levels Hard and Authentic add additional mechanics like more realistic bullet drop, wind, disabled radar, and tighter active reloading mechanics to make it more difficult.

While the audio in the game, especially the weapons, is well above par, the voice repetition in this game, especially in multiplayer, is non-stop. Hearing my character comment on the fact that long grass can hide them is only overshadowed by her saying that she’ll “need to take care of this before the end of the mission” even more often than that. It’s patchable, but you can’t tell me that QA at Rebellion didn’t hear this nonsense.
Speaking of multiplayer, there is a lot to unpack here. The entire game can be played cooperatively with a second player. Even better, it supports co-op cross-play right out of the box, so feel free to team up with other players from whatever platform they prefer. Multiplayer can drastically change your approach to a mission, letting you set up kill traps, being a sniper/spotter pair, or running and gunning together. I’m glad it’s here as it’s far more fun than I could have even anticipated.

Beyond the cooperative campaign, you can also team up with three other players for a horde-like mode called Survival. You can play Survival solo as well, but that’s going to be insanely challenging as you are tasked to hold checkpoints against increasingly challenging foes in both number and tactics. There are three maps and four points to control (called campaigns) available at launch, with up to 10 waves in total, though I can imagine that expanding greatly over time based on previous installments in this series. There’s also a staggering amount of difficulty moderation options, giving you every bolt and nut to turn under the hood to create precisely the game you’d like. It’s a blast with another player or two and I hope Rebellion continues to add to it.

If you want to stretch out multiplayer a bit more, you’ll be happy to see the return of free-for-all, team deathmatch, and no-cross modes from previous games. A new Squad Match mode that pits 4 teams of 4 against one another just sounds like pure chaos. I was surprised to see that your customization and progression are separate for single player and multiplayer. In fact, there are unique unlocks specifically for multiplayer, split between the five different classes exclusive to that mode. I’m not sure how many folks will be duking it out online, but this multiplayer mode feels like a net positive instead of detracting from the overall package. During pre-launch there were few if any multiplayer games going, and illness caused me to miss the window to test this mode thoroughly, but there’s more than enough to play even if this mode didn’t exist, so anything additional will be icing on the cake.

There are a total of nine maps, with a 10th being offered as DLC in the campaign. In all, Sniper Elite 5 will take you roughly 25-30 hours, with that number rocketing to far higher levels if you take your time and do it quietly. Throw in additional difficulty levels and this is one that can keep you busy for some time to come.

Sniper Elite 5 review — We got a German here who wants to die for his country! Oblige him!

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