Check out our video review:
Sniper Elite seems to be a pretty popular franchise that I’ve heard some say is underrated. The main series features quite a few games now and even spawned a standalone spin-off series, the Zombie Army games. The second game, Sniper Elite V2, was my introduction to the series. Honestly, I never heard of the first game before that and even today, nobody seems to talk about it. I keep seeing these games pop-up on various storefronts and I enjoyed what I’ve played of V2 so I decided to jump into the series and that meant starting with the first game. Developed by Rebellion Developments and published by Namco Hometek, Sniper Elite was released for PC, PlayStation 2, and Xbox in October, 2005. It was also released for Wii in September, 2010. For this review, I played the PC version. I did consult the game’s PCGamingWiki page before playing to see what I may need to do to get it running properly on a modern system and I did apply ThirteenAG’s Widescreen Fix. I actually tried this game once before and got the impression it was a super slow-paced realistic sniper simulation experience and I just wasn’t in the mood for that at the time. Now that I’ve finally beaten it, I can honestly say first impressions can sometimes be misleading.
The story is set in 1945, towards the end of World War II and the protagonist is Karl Fairburne, an agent of the American OSS. He’s deployed to Berlin to prevent German nuclear weapons from falling into Soviet hands. In my opinion, the story is not one of the game’s highlights. It feels more like a backdrop and can easily be ignored. The campaign plays out in a series of missions with briefings and cut scenes to flesh things out. You can focus only on your objectives and progress without having any clue as to what’s actually going on and it should not take anything away from the gameplay. But I will say I like the tone and atmosphere Sniper Elite conveys. The campaign places you in a lot of destroyed urban environments and the game really nails the war torn look and feel.
I do consider Sniper Elite to be a stealth game and what makes it stand out from others in the genre and even other World War II games is the focus on sniping. The concept of being a sneaky sniper. The game does support online multiplayer, LAN, and even score logging but I was only able to experience the single player. The tutorial and hints that seemingly appear every ten seconds in the beginning of the campaign basically encourage you to stay quiet, out of sight, and sneak around which does make sense considering the protagonist is a sniper. But over time, I found that running and gunning is sometimes a viable option, at least on the lower difficulty levels. It’s not ideal which I’ll get into but I like that the game isn’t super punishing.
The missions or maps in Sniper Elite are basically small open sandboxes or playgrounds. You can often complete objectives in any order and some are optional. Sniper Elite can be a slow-paced and trial and error experience but once I got the hang of things and the controls, I found the experience to be quite fun and even immersive. The game is clearly designed with sneaking around in mind and aims for some realism. The main idea is to approach and engage enemies undetected. On appropriate surfaces or in shadow, your uniform will provide camouflage. Noise will attract attention so that means you’ll want to walk and crawl instead of run. You can pick up and move bodies, silently kill foes with a suppressed pistol, and certain sounds in the environments can mask the sounds of your shots. When sniping, you can hold your breath or empty your lung to steady your aim as long as your heart isn’t beating too fast and you do need to be mindful of wind and gravity when aiming. It’s often wise to stay low and flank enemies but sometimes outright evading them is better and you can throw rocks to lure or distract foes. The environments feature plenty of things to use as cover and it’s often best to snipe from concealed positions.
The campaign comes with many missions and in my opinion, the challenge does ramp up nicely as you progress. If you take the stealthy approach, Sniper Elite can be a very slow-paced game. For the most part, I would say Sniper Elite is a fair and fun experience. The controls took me some time to get used to and that was one of the bigger obstacles for me in the beginning. Once I got the hang of things, it was pretty much smooth sailing but I do have some minor gripes. Switching weapons and searching bodies, the actual detailed searches, take a little too long for my liking. Running and gunning is often not ideal and it quickly becomes apparent the game is designed around sneaking and sniping. If you try to play it like it’s Call of Duty, you’ll probably get frustrated. But sometimes you may end up in a situation where you need to run and gun or have to quickly blow away foes and if you’re outnumbered with enemies closing in, switching between weapons can lead to death because you’re vulnerable during that time. Sometimes running away or just relocating (a mechanic the game actually teaches you about) is the best course of action.
As it relates to the stealth elements, there’s not much here we haven’t seen before. Sniping is what makes it stand out and is easily one of the best things about the game. Sniping foes actually feels great. Infiltrating areas undetected and finding a vantage point or concealed position and dropping foes with well placed shots is quite satisfying as is watching the slow motion shot of your bullet travelling and hitting your target. You can also pull off some cool kills like taking down multiple enemies with one shot and you are scored based on your performance in a mission. The gunplay outside of the sniping feels okay and the game comes with typical World War II weaponry. In addition to guns, you’ll get your hands on grenades, TNT, time bombs, and tripwire grenades.
It’s wise to scope out an area before moving, especially if you need to move out into the open and you want to keep an eye out for enemies in windows and on rooftops. Most of the enemies you’ll face are soldiers but you will encounter tanks every so often. Enemies will sometimes drive vehicles like trucks and you can destroy them and tanks by various means. You can lob or lay down TNT and when vehicles are near, shoot it to blow them up. You can also shoot fuel caps and even shoot out a vehicle’s tires forcing the driver to come out. The enemy AI is decent. Soldiers will shoot at you and take cover and even go to wounded allies to pick them up and carry them away and this can work to your advantage. I did notice foes would sometimes move around oddly like turning back and forth for no reason or would seemingly be unable to follow their intended path. According to the game’s PCGamingWiki page, high frame rates can cause issues with movement physics but I’m not sure if that applies to enemies and their pathfinding. Nevertheless, I did force vsync through the Nvidia Control Panel but only after installing the dgVoodoo 2 wrapper did the enemy pathfinding issue seem to stop.
I really like the map or level design. As I said before, the maps are like open sandboxes or playgrounds. They’re not so huge that getting from one end to another is a tedious trek but they are big enough to allow for multiple ways to approach situations. There’s often multiple routes to your objectives and all kinds of places to hide. Furthermore, many missions allow you to complete objectives in any order. You’re basically given the freedom to go anywhere within a map to do whatever you need to do. Objectives will include infiltrating areas, eliminating certain targets, rescuing people, assisting friendlies, and destroying things. You can reference a map at any time which will show you objective locations and even known vantage points among other things. The compass on your HUD also doubles as a clock and some objectives do utilize time. For example, one mission requires you to eliminate couriers which all leave or appear at different times. Depending on how you tackle certain objectives, patience will sometimes be required, especially if you decide to take the stealthy approach and want to remain undetected. That may mean waiting for the right time or perfect moment to take your shot.
Sniper Elite does showcase a desaturated or washed out presentation but does successfully convey that World War II feel. At least I think so. The game does show its age but doesn’t look bad by any means. The environments are well detailed, the character models look good, and the visual effects get the job done. I do the like audio work and feel it helped immerse me into the gameplay and atmosphere. You’ll often hear sounds of screaming and distant gunfire as you navigate the battlefields and music seems to kick in when enemies are near, adding some tension to the situation. Furthermore, explosions and shots, especially from rifles, sound powerful. On the technical side, I did not encounter any noticeable issues but the game did crash on me once.
I enjoyed my time with Sniper Elite but I think the sequel is better. The X-Ray Kill Cam in V2 is quite awesome. Nevertheless, I do like Sniper Elite’s open-ended maps and freedom they offer. In my opinion, the story is pretty forgettable but the game throws you into some cool playgrounds and provides a good amount of replay value. With multiple difficulty levels, numerous ways to approach situations, multiplayer, and scoring system, there’s plenty of reasons to return. Plus, actually dropping foes with well placed shots can be very satisfying and even addictive. I’m happy to say it’s not as challenging or realistic as I initially thought it would be. I really don’t know what I expected in that regard but I had a feeling the game would be more frustrating than it actually is. Granted, higher difficulties do offer more of a challenge but, overall, I would say the game is pretty accessible and welcoming. The sniping is what differentiates Sniper Elite from others in the stealth genre and that is what carries the game. Whether you’re aiming for specific body parts or trying to drop foes from as far as possible or blow up the TNT or bomb you laid down, whatever you’re trying to do, a well placed shot is always satisfying and I was always chasing that feeling.
I absolutely recommend Sniper Elite. If you’re a fan of the sequels and haven’t played this, I would recommend giving it a shot. While Sniper Elite does look and feel dated in some respects, I felt it still offers a good time. Considering the time it released, I think it’s a solid stealth game and the focus on sniping is what makes it stand out. It’s not my favorite game in the genre but it is a well made one and the actual sniping is a lot of fun. Definitely check it out.