Sniper Elite 4 Review

Sniper Elite is back with the fourth installment of the serious (here is to hoping it’s not the last), Italy, World War II. A Nazi super weapon with the power to change the course of history. A sniper willing to do whatever it takes to save Europe. Welcome to the most advanced sniping game ever made. And yes, it does deliver.

For those who have played the previous Sniper Elite games and have followed the saga, you take control once again of Karl Fairburne, the series protagonist and hero. You are thrown right into the action from the first mission and from there, things just intensify. The Sniper Elite series is known for it’s X-ray kill cam. This is what set the game apart from all others, watching your bullet tear throw or showing shrapnel impaling victims. No matter what you may think, this x-ray kill shots never get old and it’s just one of the funniest things to do in a game.

As you progress in the story you learn of a Sofia Di Rocco that leads the resistance. Because a majority of Karl and Sofia’s interests are aligned, She aids you in your missions as well as some of your secondary missions you can complete to help with Sofia’s cause. As just stated, each mission has tons of optional side missions you can choose to complete or ignore. Each has it’s on benefit or consequence. You even get the chance to do “favors” for the Mafia. Now tell me that isn’t a little fun to be able to do some killing for the mob?

The basics are back, with some new touches and something’s have been improved and new changes. The sniping is back with holding your breath to steady your weapon. You can use your binoculars to mark enemies, points of interests and items that can explode. When killing, in stealth or going all-out Rambo mode you earn XP and can make more XP with double kills, setting trips, using sound cover and such. All these XP add to rank up Karl.

A nice new addition to the gameplay is that you can now shoot out support beams or ropes holding crates or walls to fall on top of enemies killing them making for environment kills and giving you that XP boost. Another new feature is being able to climb and shimmy on roofs, cliffs and such to be able to move around to get the target with the best line of sight. With this added climbing, you can now perform stealth kills while hanging on ledges. The maps have been well done and very detailed with many of hiding places, ways to go through out the missions and what order to do it in.

One of our favorite things that has been added to Sniper Elite 4 is the co-op. this makes the game from good, to great! Being able to share your game with a friend makes it a whole new game. Have a friend draw an enemy while you sneak up from behind and go for the stealth melee kill, and yes, you will get X-ray kill cam for these. The online is a part of the game I feel it can do without. It’s something that now games feel they have to have multiplayer too be a great game. But I disagree. The story and unique aspects is what makes this game, and co-op is fine.

Sniper Elite 4 is worth the time and money. The length of the game feels as if they took the previous 3 games and triple the length of it. It has so much more that was put into this game and so many optional missions that can make one mission last as long as 4 hours. And you always have to option to go back and replay missions to improve what you may have missed. We loved it.

Game 2 Gamer’s Final Score – 4.5/5

Frustration Level

Replay Value – Medium