Sniper
Elite 3 Review (PS4)
*POSSIBLE SPOILERS AHEAD!* Sniper Elite 3 is the sequel to Sniper Elite V2. Compared
to Sniper Elite V2, Rebellion and 505 Game’s latest entry in the series
improves on V2 quite a bit, but is it enough to make this a worthy entry? Throughout
this review, I will be going over the 7 main aspects of the game; story,
combat, sniping, the environments, graphics, different enemy types, and the
multiplayer.
The game’s story is, well, meh. The main story will take you about 10
hours, more or less and is spanned over 8 missions. Honestly, there really isn’t
much of a story. The one main thing you are doing is just killing Nazis (insert
Inglourious Basterds joke here). To sum it all up, you are Karl
Fairburne, who is singlehandedly taking down the entire German forces in Afrika.
By the end of the game, you are tasked with destroying this giant tank called “The
Ratte”, that if not destroyed, Germany has a chance of winning the war. None of
the campaign is remotely cohesive. It’s all over the place. Just enjoy it for
what it is, killing Nazis.
The combat now consists of a few up-close take downs including neck
snaps, punching, and stabbing Nazis in the throat. These get repetitive, and I
found myself only going in for up close takedowns if I only really needed to.
You have a small variety of weapons and defenses, including, sniper rifles,
machine guns, pistols, and a panzerschreck (bazooka). These weapons don’t do
you much good, due to their terrible accuracy and minimal power. Your load out can also be customized. Your weapons can be selected via a radial menu, plus, you can assign your favorite weapons to the directional pad. You are however, better
off just sticking to your sniper rifle. You also have traps; grenades,
landmines, bouncing betties, dynamite, and trip mines. Karl can also distract
the Nazis via throwing rocks or lighting this thing on fire. Health does not regenerate;
instead you can use bandages to heal a portion of your health or med kits to
heal yourself completely.
Sniping, Sniper Elite’s best thing it has going for itself. X-ray
kill cams are back and they are as sick of a thrill as ever! Watching Nazi's
eyes explode, bones crushed, hearts ripped through, and testicles shot off is
absolutely breathtakingly awesome! Two new layers have been added to the x-ray
kill cams; circulatory system and muscle layer, allowing for more detailed
kills. Focus your shot and let that bullet fly baby! Hear the sound of the
bullet as it flies through the air; watch it spin, until it gets to that sweet
payoff; destroying a Nazis internal or external body parts in glorious slow
motion. Depending on what difficulty setting you play on, sniping will range from
stupid-easy to authentic. Authentic makes you pay attention to wind speed and
the height of your shot to hit your target. I would only recommend it to the
hardcore players who want a serious challenge. Playing on Authentic mode is
really the only way you are going to really challenge yourself. This is
considering the fact that the AI is completely brain dead or how I would like
to put it, lobotomized. They walk around, patrolling, waiting for you to kill
them. Half the time, they don’t even see you unless you are directly in front
of them and the other half, once they do see you, all you have to do is run 50
meters away/relocate and they will go back to their normal patrols like you don’t
even exist. Sometimes, they will start shooting at you like they know exactly
where you are even if you haven’t been spotted at all.
Sniper Elite 3’s mission environments are a HUGE improvement over
its predecessor. The maps are no longer linear. The maps are huge, giving you
freedom to explore and take multiple approaches to accomplish your objectives.
Speaking of objectives, the game also has side objectives that you can complete
while on your main mission. These are a nice addition, adding more replay value.
Most of the game’s graphics, besides the environments look average. The two things that make the game remotely next-gen are the x-ray kill cams, which
have extraordinary detail; and that on PS4, the game runs at a smooth 60 fps,
1080p HD. Character models are average and just like its predecessor, the main
character’s hair still looks like a ken doll. There are times, where the
lighting is quite impressive, while other times, it’s just too bright. On a
side note, the game also has some bugs and glitches. During their patrols,
enemies would sometimes just walk into walls and stay there. Also, the game’s
ragdoll physics create some pretty funny deaths. So many times, I shot an enemy
only to watch them fly 30 feet backwards or their legs twist up like a pretzel.
To be honest, it was hilarious and did not at all take away from my overall
experience with the game.
Enemy types are pretty much the same as the last game; soldiers,
snipers, trucks, and tanks. As I said before, the enemy AI is brain dead, but
the odd thing is that the vehicle AI is pretty challenging. The trucks and tanks
are quite keen on spotting you and they will unload on you if they have a view
on your position, so watch out. The trucks and tanks have weak spots. These weak
spots can be exposed by shooting a hole in the vehicle’s grill, exposing a gas
tank or an engine block for you to shoot, thus immobilizing or blowing the
vehicles to bits. This evens out the difficulty of fighting against the
vehicles in the game.
The Multiplayer in Sniper
Elite 3 brings back some oldies, but also some new, creative modes, like “Distance
King” where your objective is to kill your target from as far away as possible.
“No Cross”, which was also in V2, puts two teams on opposite sides of the map,
it’s team death match, except neither team can go to the other team’s side of
the map. CO-OP allows players to team up and tackle the entire campaign
together. There are also the CO-OP modes, “Survival”
and “Over watch.” “Survival” mode pits the player against unlimited enemies
until they die. “Over watch” assigns the roles of operative and sniper to two
players. One is a spotter, tagging enemies for you and one is a sniper, shooting
those tagged enemies.
In conclusion, Sniper Elite 3 has made good strides when compared
to its predecessor, but nothing significantly stands out. I would recommend
this game to fans of shooters and fans of the game’s predecessor. Plus, its
only $50 on Next-Gen and only $40 on Last-Gen. I give Sniper Elite 3 an 8/10.
PROS:
-
Brutal,
x-ray kill cams
-
Open,
detailed mission environments
-
Multiple
objectives to tackle
-
Authentic
mode gives a nice challenge
-
Creative
Multiplayer
CONS:
-
Garbage
story
-
Other
weapons are nothing compared to your sniper rifle
-
Lobotomized
AI
