Thanks to our friends at Rebellion, and our colleague Bill, I got my hands on Sniper Elite 5 about two weeks ago…and it’s been a hell-of-a-sniping experience since I installed it.
Hitman, Battlefield, and one of my all-time WWII movies Inglorious Basterds have one thing in common, sniping! Add Sniper Elite 5 to the mix and I have all the ingredients that allow me to fulfill my fantasy of being a sniper, in World War II. Mind you FPS has always been my favorite genre.
With the above in mind, you can imagine why I’m having a blast taking out targets, one-shot-one-kill at a time.
I’m playing mostly at night, when the wife and kiddo are asleep, putting in about two hours each time I play. I’ve completed the first four missions of the campaign and feel I will finish it by the end of next week.
I play the game slowly, I try to eliminate all the enemies one by one, without giving them the chance to raise the alarm (simply put I go for stealth). It’s a weird yet welcome tactic because it forces me to plan, and scope around (pun intended) by using my binoculars before taking my shots. Unlike my regular “balls-out”/”attack approach in FPS, in SE5, I take my time. I find myself admiring the beautiful landscapes (or checking out the painting inside the castle in mission 2 for example) while selecting the perfect hide-out. Plus, I spend time shooting at floodlights to reduce my visibility. In addition, I look out for snipers, especially where I expect them to be, in high towers, rooftops, etc. By the way, I don’t care much about the sound of my shot as I normally mask it by sabotaging a generator or waiting for a plane to fly by.
What’s cool and entertaining is messing with the NPCs – yes, the AI does some funny things! They can be smart, super aggressive, and accurate, or get lost while looking for me, yay! They may just walk by you without noticing you are 2 feet away, which is brutally welcomed for a mortal melee attack. Add bottles, whistles, and traps to the mines, TNT, and rat bombs and I have all the tools to turn my sniping experience into a fun game! I trick an NPC with a Schu-mine just to sneak around it and whaaaaam, stick him with a melee attack, which by the way is very satisfying! Or plant mines on the path of an armored vehicle and patiently wait for it to go “boom”. I also take shots at the birds for s#$ts and giggles. In the end, SE5 is both: seriously strategic and entertaining.
I am planning to play the Invasion and Co-Op modes next. I’m sure there will be plenty of lessons to be learned. That said, I’ll be careful at first, I know that there will be traps everywhere waiting for me. Moving slowly and quietly will be key, and avoiding open spaces will be a must. No to mention, taking shots from afar will be tricky yet gratifying. And…who knows, I may run into a few friends!
If you haven’t played any of the earlier versions of the game, SE5 can be a great way to immerse yourself in the franchise as well as in the world of a sniper in WWII. You’ll have it all, highly detailed real-world locations, impressive graphics, realistic weapons, and the “enhanced Kill cam” (if you are into the “anatomy” of a shot, then the trademarked x-ray kill cam is for you!) Give it a shot Red Team!
