Sniper Elite 3 Review

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