Developer: Rebellion Oxford
Publisher: 505 Games
Platform: PC, PS3, PS4, 360, One
Sniper Elite 3 – Review
Sniping, a playstyle for many among us when playing our favorite shooter games but in reality it’s a trade that’s not to be underestimated. During the second World War a lot of battles were decided by these deadly sharpshooters. Today Sniper Elite 3 shows us a glimpse of the battles that were fought in Africa during that time.
Story
You continue your role as Karl Fairburne but truth be told, the information about your character does not go that deep. The game focuses more on the story of World War II and keeps the protagonist’s role fairly on the vague side.
You’ll go through eight different missions, which are all presented to you by several old school looking cutscenes. These scenes bring up a tad of authenticity to match the game’s realism. Other than that, the story value is fairly low.
That being said, it’s interesting to sketch a few scenarios around World War II, in a fairly realistic setting. The information might be little but in reality these men remained fairly unknown as well.
Graphics
Graphically Sniper Elite 3 looks fairly stunning, even on the ‘previous’ generation of consoles. Textures don’t seem to be overused and details are fairly noticeable.
Each of the expansive areas show a great deal of details as well as care from the developers. These areas look original and you’re never under the impression there’s a lot of copy pasting going on.
The vehicles looked a tad less detailed than the other portions of the game and a few bugs happened here and there. For instance you could often look through walls when hiding in buildings, the ground was not always that well done and invisible walls were kind of all over the place. These invisible walls were luckily not on key spots and thus did not hamper your overall gaming experience.
Sniper Elite 3’s key feature is its kill cam. When you make a kill with the sniper rifle you’ll see a slow motion video of where the bullet hits your enemy and the internal view of it passing through. It’s a delight to see that after several hours it didn’t get old, seeing you wish to see what ‘cinematic’ other spots will get you. (Yes, you can shoot people in the nuts and then see an internal view.)
Overall Sniper Elite 3 looks fairly realistic, even with its minor flaws.
Sound
When it comes to the overall soundtrack – simple but effective – is what the game is going for. Of course there will be music to give you that bit of extra adrenaline but in essence the game is about silence and waiting for your prey to come in to your sight.
The sound of your own heartbeat or the heavy breathing emphasizes the realistic factor Sniper Elite 3 is trying to go for and it pays off.
Gameplay
Sniper Elite 3 is a tactical third person shooter, that offers a more realistic shooting experience than most other games currently available.
The missions you’ll have to sneak your way through, will always provide you with one main goal that changes/updates whenever you achieve it. During you path towards you main objective(s), you’ll often come across side objectives which will result in giving you more experience when the mission is over.
Areas in the missions are fairly expansive and will offer you many vantage points to take out your enemies. You will soon find out that the game excels in its sniping features and not so much in the more ‘close combat’ features.
Sniping feels fairly realistic seeing you’ll have to take in account the wind and so on, to deliver the killing blow. Going for a too rash approach might end up in alarming your enemies which will just put you in a predicament.
Whilst the rest of the movement feels like a typical third person shooter, the game has a delay when pressing a certain command. Searching a body or just crouching feels as if the game processes these commands fairly slow, which sometimes ends up being annoying. Even turning around etc often feels this way.
When getting used to playing the game, you’ll soon notice that your binoculars are a very important asset in the game. You’ll be soon marking your enemies, to create a better overview of who is surrounding you and thus allowing you to choose a better location to kill your foes. However for the hardcore snipers among us, this might take away a bit of the overall realism the creators were aiming for.
During the missions you’ll be rewarded experience for the way you kill your opponents as well as complete side objectives. This experience will in turn promote your rank and grant you access to more items for your arsenal.
You’ll be able to carry one sniper rifle, a pistol and an extra machine gun as your main weapons. Med kits and throwables can also be equipped in the extra slots. These can always be found during the missions themselves as well to replenish your arsenal.
Customization options are available for your rifle, such as the scope, barrel and stock. These will in turn alter the basic stats the standard rifle has. You’ll be able to do more damage, gain more stability or more ammo this way.
The kill cam proves to be very motivating in trying to take out your enemies differently or to try and shoot them from different angles.
Multiplayer proves to be a great feature Sniper Elite 3 has to offer as well. Whilst being treated to the typical Death Match modes you’ll probably spend the most of your time playing the ‘No Cross’ mode. In this mode both teams will have no means to reach each other to engage each others in close combat, thus forcing you to bring out the true sniper inside of you. You’ll have to be very patient in this mode and constantly scout the distant to see that small shimmer of light or movement in the distance. By far is the most interesting and fun multiplayer mode Sniper Elite 3 has to offer.
Sadly the game does not support split screen but then again, you’d might just want to invite a friend to help you spot enemies to take them out together.
Conclusion
Sniper Elite 3 proves to be a must have for the tactical shooter lovers. The game offers a great experience and lengthy missions for you to bring your sniping skills to the test. You’ll have enough multiplayer content to keep you occupied after the initial campaign and the realism factor will keep you intrigued.
Sniper Elite 3 - Review,
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