Shooter games come around pretty often, with new Call of Duty titles released yearly and some great gems like Doom Eternal popping up here and there. However, a perennial contender has always been Sniper Elite, and with the upcoming release of Sniper Elite 5, we’re about to have another tactical shooter in our midst.
But first, though, we need to talk about what Sniper Elite is.
What Is Sniper Elite?
Sniper Elite is a third-person tactical shooter created and usually released by Rebellion Developments. Unlike other shooters in the genre, the game series encourages players to do as a sniper does. This means they have to be invisible to enemies through the use of stealth to keep a fair amount of distance from soldiers. And lastly, to be precise on their shots against important enemy personnel.
This is also combined with a gory death camera that shows exactly how the enemy dies. It’s honestly pretty cool to see the way the bullets hit their bodies and evacuate their lives from it. Overall, a pretty good series of games that will hopefully have a great sequel in Sniper Elite 5.
Overall, the Sniper Elite series is one of the best third-person games that put a lot of emphasis on sniping enemies. Here’s hoping that Sniper Elite 5 will live up to the hype.
For more games with multiplayer check out this list of games like It Takes Two.
What Is Sniper Elite 5?
Sniper Elite 5 is a third-person action-adventure shooter created by and published by Rebellion. The game is the fifth entry to the Sniper Elite series, a beloved franchise of third-person shooting games with realistic sniping.
It’s slated for release on the 26th of May 2022 for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PS4, PS5, and PC.
Sniper Elite 5 Preview
Whether you should be excited about this game, we’ll find out once we’ve examined different aspects of Sniper Elite 5 ahead of its release.
Gameplay
As already stated, Sniper Elite 5 will follow the usual Sniper Elite gameplay methods. Sneak around, don’t get caught, line up the shot, kill the target, and get out. Simple and direct. Almost all of the game’s previous entries have levels that allow players to map out multiple ways to achieve their missions. This is the main draw of Sniper Elite, the fact that no matter what method you do, there’s always a way to achieve victory.
However, there’s also the guns blazing way of doing stuff, aka kill every single enemy in the mission. Players can do this by either sniping or taking the nearest other gun and mowing down enemies. Either way, there are a lot of ways to play Sniper Elite games, either the fun, intended way or the other fun, non-intended way. We’ll talk more about that in the combat and movement section of the preview.
Another main draw that Sniper Elite has is customizing weaponry.
Setting and Location
As per usual with Sniper Elite, the latest entry to the franchise takes place in World War 2. Players will control Karl Fairbourne once again in the series, this time, going to the heart of France. Karl needs to look for “Project Kraken”, a secret project by the Nazis who want to conquer the world. Pretty much par for the course with Nazis I say. Karl needs to navigate the various areas of France to take out key members of the Nazis and stop Project Kraken from completion.
Combat and Movement
As you can probably tell, Sniper Elite 5 makes the player use a sniper rifle. It’s the primary weapon for the game’s protagonist, though they can use other weaponry. However, the game encourages players to sneak around the map and not be seen to complete their mission. The movement needs to be very sneaky, as enemies can activate alarms and set the entire area into a manhunt. When sniping, or looking through sights though, the game transitions to a first-person perspective to help players line in their shots.
As already stated, players can also go in guns blazing in Sniper Elite 5. There’s a variety of guns and weaponry that the player can use to defeat their enemies. Rifles, SMGs, pistols, and more can be used and are very effective. In addition to all this, the main draw of Sniper Elite, the Kill Cam, is still there and shows in great detail what happens to the people the players kill.
It’s pretty fun to see the various paths that the bullet goes through upon killing the player’s enemy. What makes the kill cam even more hilarious is the fact that environmental kills are a thing. Due to this, we get kill cams of people getting squished by heavy objects, which tend to be one of the gorier Kill Cams.
In terms of movement, slow and steady is usually the best idea. After all, you don’t want to be seen by enemies when you’re trying to turn their boss’ head into a broken piñata. Players can also move around well on certain obstacles, vaulting over walls when running, climbing up for extra elevation, et cetera. Those things didn’t seem to have changed in Sniper Elite 5.
Multiplayer and Cross-Platform Features
Sniper Elite 5 has several options when it comes to multiplayer. The first is a 2-player co-op campaign, where 2 snipers do the various campaign missions. In addition to this though, is Invasion Mode. A mode where other players can invade a game session as Axis snipers attempting to kill the host and his/her partner sniper. Do note that players need to turn this feature on in the settings before players can actively invade a game session.
For those that remember, Doom Eternal was slated to have an Invasion mode where Doomslayer was invaded by various demons in the middle of a campaign. However, this was axed by id Software to create a Horde Mode. Hopefully, Sniper Elite 5 will have the Invasion Mode promised to them as fighting player-controlled enemy snipers alongside your co-op buddy seems like a fun time.
If this is added, there’s also potential for a 2v2 multiplayer mode where 2 Allied and 2 Axis snipers duke it out. With Allied Snipers attempting to kill important officers, and the Axis snipers attempting to kill them, and vice versa. However, there are 4 multiplayer modes already confirmed for Sniper Elite 5, and they’re all pretty self-explanatory. These are Free-for-all, Squad Match, Team Match, and No Cross.
Lastly, Cross-Platform is confirmed to be available on Sniper Elite 5, with the developers stating they want no restrictions on multiplayer.
Sniper Elite 5 vs Similar Games
Now that we’ve talked about Sniper Elite 5, let’s talk about other games like it. We’ll start with the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, followed by the Call of Duty series. Next would be Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, Hitman 3, and lastly, Escape from Tarkov.
Sniper: Ghost Warrior series
First off is the most obvious competitor on this list, the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series. This game series has players play various snipers throughout various areas of the world. Each of the games has a certain place where the snipers are doing their work.
In addition to all this, the sniping on Sniper: Ghost Warrior tends to be pretty similar to Sniper Elite. However, there’s also a bit of inspiration from the Call of Duty games with the series being a first-person shooter. Next to this, Sniper: Ghost Warrior tends to be a more action-packed version of Sniper Elite, with the games focusing on the action and enemy killing.
Last but not least, is the setting between Sniper Elite and Sniper: Ghost Warrior. Sniper Elite predominantly takes place in World War 2, and most of the maps and events in the Sniper Elite games take place in that time in history. Sniper: Ghost Warrior, on the other hand, takes place in the modern-day, albeit in some fictional locales in the world. There are a lot of modern guns in Sniper: Ghost Warrior as well, though both games do allow players to customize their weapons to their liking.
All in all, the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series tend to be pretty cool replacements for the Sniper Elite series. They have similar gameplay and emphasize stealth and sneaky kills, but the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series puts it on fun FPS action.
Call of Duty Series
Next on the list is the Call of Duty series, which is just action, action, action in FPS format. The games tend to have their games set all over the timeline of the world, with one even occurring shortly on Advanced and Infinite Warfare. That was a pretty nutty time. Plot-wise, the games tend to be all over the place, with the ones set in WW2 being the more reasonable in terms of plot.
Meanwhile, the Modern Warfare games in the series tend to have a modern take on the Call of Duty games. These games tend to have guns from real militaries in them, and they usually sound really good. In addition, the Modern Warfare series has a pretty decent plot involving a Russian (Because of course) named Makarov and a few other enemies each with their agendas. The Modern Warfare games revolve around those characters as well as the players. Thus it stands out compared to some of the other games on this list.
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Next is Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Blacklist, the last true game of Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell. The game is set a few years after Splinter Cell: Conviction, where the player once again controls Sam Fisher, spymaster extraordinaire for the 4th Echelon. In this entry, the player needs to stop the Engineers, terrorists that want the US to recall all of their troops stationed in other countries.
Gameplay-wise, Splinter Cell: Blacklist is a bit similar to Sniper Elite’s though there’s more focus on up-close and personal stealth. Players sneak around the game’s maps, take out unsuspecting enemies, and generally be a nuisance to the various enemies roaming around.
Of course, there are also various multiplayer modes for players to enjoy. There’s Spies Vs. Mercs, and their Co-Op Multiplayer mode.
Hitman 3
Next is Hitman 3, which has similar gameplay to Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell with the addition of Agent 47 disguising himself to get into tough areas. Also, the game’s various missions tend to be all over the place and occur even during the day, which adds a lot of difficulty to the game.
Players are placed back in the role of Agent 47, who, after the events of Hitman 2, now works together with former enemy Lucas Grey. Now, the two hunt down the leaders of Providence, which is the Illuminati in all but name. The game’s methods of actually killing these Providence members vary. There’s the poison them route, beat them and then drown them route, the simple snipe ‘em route, et cetera.
There are a lot of methods for Agent 47 to kill his targets, depending on the mission. Also, there are unique ways to infiltrate, exfiltrate, and kill. The sheer amount of ways to finish a mission, from the standard to the silly, makes Hitman 3 one of the best assassination games available.
Escape from Tarkov
Last but not least is Escape from Tarkov. This game made its way on this list due to the sheer amount of customization players can do with their weapons. Yes, Escape from Tarkov is a battle royale game, but it’s a hyper-realistic battle royale game. There are a lot of nuances that players need to know to survive in Tarkov, and choosing what fights to take is necessary because picking wrongly can lead to death.
In addition to this, there’s way more emphasis on survival rather than killing enemies in Escape from Tarkov. There are a lot of roving AI enemies all over the map that can and will kill players if provoked. Stealth is option players have to not get themselves killed, and scavenging is a way of life. In the end though, if you’re alive in Escape from Tarkov, then you’re good.
Should You Be Excited for Sniper Elite 5?
Overall, Sniper Elite 5 is set to follow the previous entries in the Sniper Elite series. There’s a lot of hype from the fans for this game, and hopefully, it’ll deliver.
But given how good the Sniper Elite games got, there’s a pretty good chance that it will. Therefore, it’s a good reason to be excited and watch out for the release of the game.
