Sniper Elite 4 ‘Deathstorm Part 2: Infiltration’ Review – A Fairly Slow Burn
By Alex Avard
Rebellion is certainly showing confidence by releasing more Sniper Elite 4 DLC on the day of Sniper Ghost Warrior 3’s release, but is the cockiness justified?
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Publisher: Rebellion Developments
Platform: PlayStation 4 (Version reviewed), Xbox One, PC
Release Date: April 25th, 2017
Last month, I expressed reservations about the value for money of Sniper Elite 4’s season pass, after the first piece of story DLC – “Inception” – failed to really deliver.
Now, the second chapter in the game’s latest three-part campaign arrives in the form of Deathstorm Part 2: Infiltration (Seriously, developers need to learn how to write catchier titles. I’ve just finished Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy – The Telltale Series: Episode One “Tangled Up in Blue”).
The fact is that there’s not a whole lot to say about Infiltration since it’s really just another mission for Sniper Elite 4. That’s great if you’re a mega fan of the game, but it’s more of the same again with Part Two of Deathstorm, including a repeat of the flaws that Sniper Elite is known for, most notably its forgettable narrative. That said, there are at least some pretty sights to see and a few cool multiplayer updates.
While Inception had frozen tundras and abandoned ship graveyards, Rebellion brings Deathstorm’s subsequent chapter to more familiar territory, by setting Infiltration within a Nazi-occupied town in northern Italy. Though the geography and architecture are very much in keeping with what we’ve seen from Sniper Elite 4 in the past, the dusk-set weather and outbreaks of fires across the city lends it a certain miasmic quality, which brings to mind the supernatural aura of Rebellion’s Zombie Army spin-off from 2015.
More from Reviews
- Sonic Dream Team review: A welcome surprise to Apple Arcade
- Nacon’s Revolution 5 Pro for Playstation: Is it worth it?
- Jusant review: An uplifting tale about lifting yourself up
- WarioWare: Move It review: A waggle in the right direction for the series
- Alan Wake 2 review: Am I high right now?
There’s also a number of peaking towers peppered around the landscape, which make for great sniper perches to do your long-range business from atop of. Even if you’re more of a close-range combatant, I still recommend climbing them just to check out the view and give yourself something to do.
Sticking to the theme of familiarity, Infiltration seems to want to place more emphasis on the stealth aspects of Sniper Elite 4’s gameplay, but the reality is that you’re free to mess around with the game’s parameters as per usual. There are a few new additions to the blueprint, including one new enemy type and a nifty explosive gadget, but they’re minor accoutrements to an otherwise by-the-numbers experience. Rebellion has proven to be a developer which sticks to what it knows, but that philosophy is beginning to make Sniper Elite 4’s DLC feel like a train which refuses to leave the station, let alone veer off the tracks.
The story, for example, is another run-of-the-mill checklist of arbitrary objectives which faceless patriot Karl Fairburne must complete, so devoid of drama that I really couldn’t care less about where this overarching narrative goes. I mean, I know that Fairburne will win anyway – I can already almost picture how the story will end – but it all just feels so inconsequential.
In better news, there are a couple of free multiplayer updates for non-season pass owners to dig their teeth into, and they’re not half bad too. There’s a new map, Urban, which brings some of the verticality present in Infiltration’s northern Italy setting to the online scene, in addition to a riotously entertaining capture the flag mode.
Unlike traditional CTF modes found in multiplayer shooters, which tend to be fast and frenetic at all times, there’s an intensity to the slower-paced dynamics of Sniper Elite 4’s equivalent, where carrying the flag is especially tense knowing that you could be killed within a fraction of a second. In short, it’s still all fun and games online, though finding a match took a little while this time around; an indication that the online community isn’t as large or active as it once was at launch.
6. Rebellion continues to stay within its comfort zone, which makes Infiltration another perfectly average piece of DLC that no one is compelled to play.. Rebellion. . Sniper Elite 4 - Deathstorm Part 2: Infiltration
A copy of this game was provided to App Trigger for the purpose of this review. All scores are ranked out of 10, with .5 increments. Click here to learn more about our Review Policy.