Sniper Elite 3 Preview

The sniper has long had a cosy relationship with the videogaming world. It’s a military role that blends perfectly with the key principle of gaming: that the player is in control. While your regular Tommy can’t do a lot about a badly timed bullet to the brain or other misfortune, the sniper is a model of battlefield supremacy and power. As much as certain action titles attempt to throw you into the general masses, that necessity of control makes the player more like a super-soldier than ‘one of the old boys’. Playing as a sniper, however, is much more fitting. The Sniper Elite franchise has, since 2005, taken advantage of that affinity with three well-liked titles. With the third entry in the series, aptly titled Sniper Elite III, developers Rebellion are attempting to bring their third-person stealth series to the masses. If my time with the game shows anything however, it’s that despite the broadened target market, they’re not making any compromises on what made Sniper Elite V2 a success.

Which means the element that made V2 both infamous and a hit in one fell swoop is back with a vengeance. The Mortal Kombat-esque x-ray cam is here for Sniper Elite III and it’s just as brutal, scarily satisfying and Mary Whitehouse-bludgeoning as it was before. The slow-mo is still used and abused with great effect, while the improved next-gen visuals only help to make the mechanic all the more visceral. A new vehicle X-ray mechanic also mixes things up. So that’s one big thing ticked off the ‘what fans want to see’ list. The next, according to Lead game Designer Michael How, was the role of the AI: “the community have given us feedback and they didn’t want an omnipotent AI, they wanted an AI which feels human. So you can toy with them and start to trick them, and I think that’s an element that grows with the player as they spend more time with the game.”

During our playthrough of the first two levels of the game, it was clear to see that Rebellion has acted on these community suggestions. Whereas in V2 your entire plan could be scarpered by a misplaced foot being spotted by the enemy, Sniper Elite III features a more realistic and less telepathic AI. While it’s still just as easy to be spotted if you’re not careful, it’s now possible to relocate from your firing position and throw the Nazis off the scent. The game uses a measurement mechanic in which the player must move a certain distance from their firing position in order to lose the enemy. Along with the more human AI, it makes for a much more natural gameplay experience in which you feel less like you’re playing a game about sniping, and more like you’re an actual WW2 sniper.

Michael How was also keen to highlight the differences between their game and the slew of military actions games out there. “We’re trying to incentivise more of a thinking man’s shooter; slowing down, assessing threats, it’s not about bursting into the room with the highest velocity weapon you have and just spraying bullets everywhere.” A large part of that thinking involves the slow and steady traversing of the game’s various levels. Most of the stages will be huge open environments in which the player has free roam to complete their objectives in whatever manner they see fit. It’s a tactic employed by various recent shooters such as Killzone: Shadowfall, but it has yet to be pulled off particularly well. Sniper Elite III looks to change that; the second level presents the player’s first real taste of an open environment and it’s a beauty.

With the game now set in Northern Africa during the height of WW2, there’s plenty of opportunity for some spectacular visuals. That second level takes place at night around a desert lake, cocooned by mountain peaks. It’s an excellent setting for sneaking and gunplay, especially when the environment plays such a key role in the gameplay. Darkness makes it more difficult for enemies to spot you, sounds around the map can mask your gunfire and it’s your job to use the terrain to your advantage. Rebellion has provided a playground of death and destruction and it’s the player’s job to set everything in motion. What makes Sniper Elite III such an appealing prospect is that freedom to take the level in any given direction. Michael How noted that he loved watching multiple people play through the same level at once, as it demonstrates just how many options there are.

Where one player may move slowly through the grasslands, popping out every once in a while to slit a throat, another may take the literal high road and snipe from the raised paths using sounds and other distractions to their advantage. Or then again the player could dash between obstacles, using their silenced pistol to take out enemies at close range and setting traps to lure them into a nasty end. Of course, despite their efforts to make this a game of stealth, Rebellion has also included the ability to go loud if needs be. So you could just spray the whole Nazi army full of bullets if the mood takes you and you’re good enough to survive. The variety is beyond anything we’ve yet seen in similar games such as Dishonored or V2 for that matter. It could well be the ace up Rebellion’s sleeve, so it’ll be interesting to see how they handle it throughout the game.

As mentioned, Sniper Elite III is themed around North Africa during WW2, a time and place not typically associated with snipers. That’s because they rarely operated in the desert where mobility and vehicles were king. Suspension of disbelief is at play here, or “fun trumps realism” as How titles it, and if it means we get to pop the testicles of endless Nazis then who’s going to complain? Except perhaps the Daily Mail. What that setting also means is that vehicles will play a much more important role in the game. As well as simple noise masking and cover, vehicles can now be targeted and taken down with your sniper rifle. A quick check through the new binoculars (which can target enemies much like in Far Cry 3) and you can spot a vehicles’ weak spots. Aim well and you can blow the tank/truck/armoured car to smithereens with one well placed bullet, killing and distracting enemies.

Sniper Elite III is filled to the brim with interesting interactive elements such as this, giving the player more and more options once let loose on the battlefield. Whether this variety can be maintained through each level has yet to be seen, and will likely be the toughest challenge for Rebellion. Based on the large levels that we have played on, there’ll be a few surprises and new options to play around with across the large stages. “There’s a lot of depth with the traps and the way they interact with each other” notes How, “you can lure your enemy into them, then set off a chain of traps so it all kicks off. It’s cool to see all of that unfold.” While our attempts at creating these chained traps fell a little short of Tom and Jerry, we did see some real potential in this mechanic which blends well with the more realistic AI.

It’s all shaping up to be a bit of a dark horse, really. While Watch_Dogs and its kin have taken the spotlight, it could be down to ‘smaller’ titles like Sniper Elite III to give the next-gen consoles their first must-play game. It could also be the best next-gen title for a spot of co-op. The basic campaign mode will be fully playable in two player co-op, a mode that perfectly suits the stealth and snipe gameplay. It will also be available in the separate Overwatch and Survivor game modes, which provide different challenges to those posed in the campaign.“It was interesting juggling some of the location mechanics for co-op, but I think we’ve got something now that does just work. if you want to take town units tactically then often it works better in a co-op environment.” This could be the key selling point for Sniper Elite III, as next-gen gamers look for the first truly decent co-op game on PS4 and Xbox One.

There’s a deep gap between brilliance and failure, named mediocrity, which Sniper Elite III will have to avoid when released later this month. A niche game from a small developer and publisher combo could go the wrong way. But from what we’ve seen so far, this game has all the potential to be not only the best sniping game of all time, but one of the best games yet on PS4 and Xbox One, not forgetting PC of course. Don’t worry though, the game will also be on Xbox 360 and PS3 for those who’ve (understandably) yet to make the jump. After loving Sniper Elite V2, we’re really looking forward to number three and the host of improvements it’s bringing to the series. The beautiful setting, great returning features and excellent co-op support make this one to watch with a sniper’s eye.