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Before I started playing the games to review them, I always thought Sniper Elite V2 was cool. Just based on what I played of it some time ago. Over the years, I saw different Sniper Elite games pop up on various store fronts so I decided to give the first one a shot and found it quite enjoyable. After that, I played V2 again and I considered myself of fan of the series or at least the first two games and then I played Sniper Elite III. That’s the one that really hooked me and kept me craving for more so I’ve been looking forward to playing the next entry, Sniper Elite 4. Developed and published by Rebellion Developments, Sniper Elite 4 was released for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in February, 2017, and Switch and Stadia in November, 2020. For this review, I played the PC version. Sniper Elite 4 continues the series tradition of being a stealth game with a cool gimmick but it also aims to build upon what Sniper Elite III brought to the table.
Set in 1943, after the events of the previous game, returning protagonist and sniper, Karl Fairburne, is sent to Italy after a new Nazi weapon sinks a Royal Navy freighter. Karl works with another OSS agent along with a resistance group and even the Mafia in an effort to eliminate all those involved with the weapon including the high ranking Nazi general overseeing its development. The plot does feel similar to those of the prior games but there is a bit more drama here. The story is primarily advanced through briefings or narration and interactions. This time, Karl can interact with characters and a radio to acquire objectives before starting many missions. But the series tradition of not bogging you down with too much story is retained. Once a mission begins, you’re free to go about your business at your own pace. In my opinion, one of the highlights of the game is the setting. Italy makes for a nice change of scenery when compared to the many World War II games set in Germany and France.
Sniper Elite 4 is much like its predecessor and expands upon things as well as include some refinements and new features. The game does come with a campaign that can be played solo or cooperatively, a survival mode, and competitive multiplayer modes. As for the campaign, the first mission gives you a pretty good idea of how the rest of it will be and I fell in love with the gameplay almost immediately. If you play this fresh off Sniper Elite III and enjoy that game, you should be able to get into the groove of things pretty quick. It’s basically more of the same but bigger and more fleshed out. The only bummer I can really think of is that Sniper Elite 4 doesn’t carry over the same kind of rifle customization – installing parts and what have you. Instead, rifles along with other weapons can be upgraded but the upgrades need to be unlocked.
The campaign throws you into large open-ended maps and basically tells you “have at it”, just like the previous game. But the maps here are much bigger. Sniper Elite 4 is very much a stealth game and you’re given multiple options for getting around including crouch running, climbing things, and shimmying along ledges. You can also hide in foliage. Being stealthy is typically better and safer than running and gunning but that is an option. In fact, the weapon upgrade system encourages you to use every weapon in the game. Each mission comes with primary and optional objectives and even challenges to complete. The maps feature areas that are interconnected so there’s often multiple ways to reach destinations and there’s plenty of collectibles to find which encourages exploration and you will earn experience and rank up just like in the previous game. New to Sniper Elite 4 is the skill tree. When you reach certain ranks, you can activate one of two skills that come with that rank. Also, as you rank up, you earn tokens that can be spent to unlock new weapons and items.
Before jumping into missions, you can configure your skill tree and multiple loadouts. Rifles, secondary weapons, handguns, and many of the same items as before make a return and come with dual functions. For example, if you equip the rock, you can switch it to whistling during gameplay. All weapons have let’s call them challenges to complete and these are basically different ways to kill foes. Kill enough foes in these specific ways to complete the challenges and unlock upgrades and skins. If you’re goal is to unlock all upgrades for every weapon, you will be occupied for a while. While this upgrade system is fine, I do wish the rifle customization feature from the last game was carried over and even more fleshed out.
The stealth works pretty much like it did before but there are some refinements and whether you’re stealthy or loud, it’s all satisfying. The X-Ray Kill Cam returns and these kills always look brutal, gory, and awesome as expected. If enemies see you, they can acquire you and distance will affect the speed of this. Noises will help the enemy triangulate your position so if you can’t mask the sounds of your shots, relocating is typically the best course of action. Suspicious or alert enemies will run for cover and even hunt for you and if you keep attacking from the same position, it becomes easier for them to find you. The game does give you multiple suppressed pistols and suppressed pistol and rifle ammo which is significant. Suppressed weapons and ammo can be very beneficial if you’re goal is to stay quiet. But even quiet kills are not foolproof. Dropping a foe quietly near or in view of other enemies for example will still put them on alert but using suppressed weapons and ammo can make it more difficult for them to triangulate your position.
Sniper Elite 4 features many different enemy types from soldiers to vehicles and they all serve different purposes. For example, a radio operator can call for reinforcements and a spotter can fire a flare gun to call in an artillery strike on your position. You will often come across parked vehicles, just ripe for blowing up, but enemies will also be driving them around. If you’re cover is blown, enemies will know where you are and come gunning for you. They will rush you, lob grenades your way, and may even approach you from behind so it’s always wise to be mindful of your surroundings and where enemies are located. You can, of course, set up traps and there are multiple ways to distract foes. If you’re under fire and can get out of sight, you can distance yourself from your last known position and then flank foes.
One thing I really like about Sniper Elite 4 is that it encourages you to explore. Not only can collectibles like documents and letters be found in the environments but also on enemies. This means looting all bodies is a good idea, assuming you want to collect everything. The maps are very large and it is easy to get sidetracked and forget where certain bodies are so you may want to tag them if you can’t get to them right away. Certain enemies are guaranteed to have collectibles. Snipers, for example, carry sniper reports. Some documents are actually beneficial like duty rosters which can be found on officers. Finding these will reveal the locations of troops, or in other words tag troops for you. Some officers even have codes required to open safes that contain supplies.
Sniper Elite 4 is yet another game all about options. Whether it’s choosing what weapons and items to bring with you, navigating the maps, or killing enemies – you have options. There are multiple weapons and items to choose from and more can be found in the environments. The maps are huge with numerous areas, buildings, and routes to explore and there’s typically always more than one way to approach a situation. There’s multiple ways to deal with foes whether it be shooting, melee, traps, or by utilizing the environment. Explosive objects can often be found everywhere and there’s often weak points you can shoot that will result in environmental kills. Even little things like generators and safes come with options. Generators can be sabotaged to create a sound mask, rigged to explode, or destroyed, and safes can be opened with a code or blown open with satchel charges. Options. It’s one of the best things about the game.
The map design is phenomenal in my opinion. Not only does each map feel different, they are all designed in a way that offers freedom, much like those in the last game. Freedom to tackle situations however you see fit. They are large and open-ended with plenty of areas to explore, places to hide, things to find, and ways to accomplish things. The game never forces you to play a specific way and I never felt stuck or cornered. There’s always a way to escape danger, too. For example, whenever my cover was blown, I found relocating to be pretty easy because there always seemed to be a safe route, somewhere safe to hide. And once things cooled down, I was able to try again or even try a different approach. Missions come with primary and optional objectives to complete and you can complete most in any order. You’ll have to kill people, retrieve items, and destroy things – nothing out of the ordinary for the series. The objectives are things to keep you focused because the maps are basically large playgrounds ripe for experimentation and exploration and if you really take your time, you can spend hours in a single mission. With all the enemies to deal with, collectibles to find, objectives to complete, and the sheer size of the maps – each playthrough will be different.
Sniper Elite 4 showcases a colorful presentation, detailed environments, and some nice looking visual effects. Every map is set in a different location and feels distinct and some showcase really gorgeous backdrops. X-Ray kills look just as brutal and gory as ever and make the sniping feel extremely satisfying. Even the X-Ray kills that accompany stealth and melee takedowns look awesome. Despite some pop-in here and there, I think the game looks great, overall. As for the audio, the sound work is good with powerful sounding weapons, booming explosions, and X-Ray kills are accompanied by the cracking of bones and squishy sounds of internal organs getting destroyed, driving home the feeling you’re really fucking people up. In fact, some sounds can help you determine what the situation is. For example, being spotted by a sniper comes with its own sound. The gameplay is backed by a pretty good soundtrack with a nice mix of dramatic and intense sounding tunes that help elevate tension no matter what the situation is. On the technical side, the game ran great and I encountered no major issues.
I fell in love with Sniper Elite 4 very quickly and never got bored. This is a game with consistent quality from beginning to end. Every mission and map feels well crafted and the gameplay is addictive. If you’re into what the series offers, especially the last game, then Sniper Elite 4 will undoubtedly impress. It’s like the developers really got it with Sniper Elite III, decided to continue in the same direction with Sniper Elite 4 and, in my opinion, this is the best game in the main series up to this point. Sniper Elite 4 may be more of the same in many respects and I can’t say it offers much of anything that we haven’t seen before, but what it does offer works and works really well. My only real gripe is with the lack of weapon customization, similar to what was present in Sniper Elite III. Other than that, I feel it’s an overall improvement and I welcome the refinements and new features like being able to climb around the environments and use suppressed ammo for example. Sniper Elite 4 has become one of my favorite games in the stealth genre and I think it’s one of the best of its generation.
I absolutely recommend Sniper Elite 4. The game gives you so many ways to approach situations and kill enemies that sniping is not the only draw here, despite the title. Sniper Elite III seems to have taken the series in a more open-ended direction, being more than just a stealth game with a cool gimmick. Sniper Elite 4 continues in this direction and offers even more resulting in one of the most enjoyable stealth games I’ve ever played. Definitely check it out.