Sniper Elite 5 review: Kill shots galore
Title: Sniper Elite 5
Developer: Rebellion
Platforms: PS4, PS5 (Reviewed on), Xbox One, Xbox Series S/X, PC
Release Date: May 26, 2022
Let’s be honest with each other, I’m brand new to the Sniper Elite series. I somehow just never played any of the games in the franchise. When the chance came up to play Sniper Elite 5 I wasn’t sure what to expect, other than a few close-up x-ray sniper cutscenes of taking down the Axis soldiers. Fortunately, I wasn’t let down on the kill-shot vids. Snipe Elite 5 is simply a blast to play.
The Nazis have something called Project Kraken in the works, and it’s up to you, Karl Fairburne, to make sure it never gets off the ground. Luckily you’re a one-man-powerhouse, able to clear entire battalions of troops with your skills. I don’t want to spoil much else when it comes to the story, but I will say, I enjoyed how real-life events from World War II were weaved into the story of Sniper Elite 5. I was never blown away by the storytelling, but I didn’t need to be, the gameplay sold me.
Each mission takes place on a large map. With each map comes a handful of mission goals to try and achieve. You have a central goal that you have to get done in order to get to the next mission and map. But you also have a handful of side missions. These are not required in order to advance, but they do add a lot of depth, often making clearing the level more difficult and time-consuming.
Often side missions within the main one add more story and depth to understanding what you are actually doing in France. On top of that, the bonus goals also add time to your missions. While the main mission is more direct and straightforward, the side missions are harder to achieve, often feeling much more rewarding when you are able to pull them off. I found trying to take out whoever the special target on the map was to be the hardest part of the missions. The second mission alone took over an hour and a half to complete.
The sheer size of the maps is something to behold too. There is so much you can explore on each mission, Sniper Elite 5’s missions are clearly meant to be replayed several times. Besides being massive in size, there is a lot to explore. Most maps have several infiltration points. These are places that once you unlock them let you start that mission from a different location. Being able to start, or go in several different directions really made the game feel open, even when there are boundaries. I never felt forced to only go in one direction.
One of my few negative criticisms is the unlocking of all the weapons. In order to do so you have to find all of the workbenches which are spread throughout each map. It was simply just not fun or rewarding. While playing in a mission I found myself searching every nook and cranny trying to find these workbenches so I could unlock new weapons to use.
The other disappointing aspect was that the difference in weapons was small. Most stats between them were similar enough that you wouldn’t notice while playing on the easier difficulty of the game. Luckily the game does tell you which maps have which weapons to unlock, but having to find workbenches during the missions to unlock all the cool stuff is a bit of a bummer.
At first, I was a bit worried about the pace of the play. Sniper Elite 5 doesn’t come off as a run and gun style of game, a genre I am much more familiar with. Instead, you take your time. Survey the field, and make decisions based on patterns you see of movement. Plan your shots when you see a plane overhead so you don’t draw attention to the sound. Shooting at everything you see leads to sirens going off, and being swarmed is never fun, you’d run out of ammo before you’d run out of Nazis to shoot.
I love that Sniper Elite 5 comes with a lot of different ways to customize the difficulty. You can choose from civilian, cadet, sharpshooter, sniper elite, and authentic. Not only can you choose how to play overall, but you can control the combat, sniping, and tactical aspect of the game. As someone with little experience in this style of game, I found cadet to be enough to keep me busy. The harder the difficulty means features like bullet drop are something you have to account for. The game will disable radar, or give you a smaller hud. You can even change the difficulty mid-mission if you feel like things are too heated, or too easy.
Apparently, the co-op mode put Sniper Elite on the radar of a lot of gamers, and thankfully it has returned. That is not your only way to play online either. An invasion mode allows you to play on the other team’s side, invading someone else’s campaign. Your goal here is to take out the person who’s game you’ve randomly joined. There’s also an endless horde mode, letting you try to survive wave after wave of troops. And of course a traditional free for all, team, and squad deathmatch.
Sniper Elite 5 is as big and massive as its maps are. There is tons to explore while you attempt to take down the Axis powers all by yourself. The x-ray kill shots are back, and a fantastic detail is carried over from previous entries. Besides a great campaign to play by yourself you can do it again in co-op, something I can’t wait to do now that everyone has access to the game. New additions like the invasion mode are hopefully going to allow the game to have some staying power. If only I could find all those workbenches I might not have anything to complain about.
Snipe Elite 5 (PS5) Score: 8.5/10
It’s easy to get lost exploring the giant maps in Rebellion’s Sniper Elite 5, it’s been a while since I’ve played a game where I lost track of time. The collecting part leaves something to be desired, but the co-op and invasion gameplay modes more than make up for that.
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.