Preview - My Time With Sniper Elite 3

Last week, I snagged some hands on time with the latest entry to Rebellion's Sniper Elite series. In Sniper Elite 3, the series takes the fight to 1940s North Africa, an original setting which I have yet to see explored in the medium. I can say without doubt that I was thoroughly impressed with the game on every front, and I see no reason why I won't be snapping this title off the shelf when it launches this June!

I'd hate to sound like the average hype-building over emotional gamer, but Rebellion's project really does have a lot going for it, from sprawling open environments, to well thought out, yet not overly complex stealth mechanics. I feel as though this is the first linear third-person shooter which I could really sink some time into since playing "The Last of Us" last June.

For existing Sniper Elite fans, the game remains provides the same staple diet of sniping and stealth. However, this time round, it feels as though staying covert in your attempts to thwart the Nazi regime are much more satisfying. This transformation is most comparable to last year's Splinter Cell: Blacklist. Following a rather explosive predecessor, Blacklist took a more diverse approach, giving players the option to play the game the way which suited them best. Sniper Elite 3 has taken the same approach, allowing players to choose their own path through each scenario.

As a self-confessed nut for stealth games, Sniper Elite 3 was a catalyst for fun, the "Welrod", a silenced pistol of sorts felt like an extremely satisfying tool of the trade; deadly, fast, quiet. Surprisingly, close quarters take-downs felt equally as entertaining, in rather a large (albeit fun) divergence from the usual role of a sniper.  

Rummaging through your inventory, you’ll find a handful of traps and diversions. They function in a pretty similar way to in the previous game, whereby you place a mine or trap of other sorts, lure an enemy to them and pull the trigger. Pulling off a pre-meditated attack like this awards the player with extra experience points and gives you a sense of achievement, comparable to killing a target in Hitman (then again, in a not quite as complex manner).

Setting had to be the pinnacle moment of innovation in the game, because I cannot say that it is a setting which I've experienced in the medium before! You're now probably thinking I'm crazy for suggesting I've never seen a videogame set on the backdrop of the Nazi regime before, and rightly so! However not once have I delved into the North African campaign of the Second World War. We've all been infantry on the beaches of Normandy, or the eastern front, or the final push into Germany by allied forces. Yet the lush vistas of greens and yellows on the backdrop of North Africa, have remained camouflaged. I've yet to mention that I'm also a fan of modern history, so if the violence doesn't appeal, there's still fun to be found in discovering an otherwise untouched treasure trove of History in the game’s setting. 

From what I’ve played, there wasn't that much insight into real events, and the only name I snatched from my demo turned out to be fictitious. In a sense, I'm worried that this is a game which could go so far beyond being another monotonous story about killing Nazis, and instead we could actually seize some insight into the history of the world which surrounds the game. I’m not certain of their historical accuracy, however I can remember Medal of Honor games giving some "historical" oversight of the following level on the loading screen. Snippets like this would make my day, because after all, it would be great to see something more than just another piece of world war fiction...

Graphically speaking, the game looks great! I wouldn't call it a photorealistic marvel or a boundary pushing blockbuster, they're just; great. By all means the game looks fine, it looks like a next gen game, but I can't help but think that being an intergenerational release will have hindered the team's ability to provide a product which feels like its raising the bar for new consoles. Nevertheless, this isn't a major concern of mine- graphical fidelity is meaningless in the face of great gameplay!

Finally, I'd like to discuss the series' signature feature; the explosively brutal kill cam which accompanies kills. Traced through the air, your bullet hits the target, they explode, blood and bone fly off into the near distance, the world stops in the wake of your destruction, revealing in an x-ray themed killcam every innard of the NPC is revealed in a flurry of gore. This feature has been enhanced over its predecessor, adding not just an x-ray skeleton of the character to the killcam, but also layers of muscle and organs. Who would have ever known that watching a bullet charging its way through a Nazi's graphically next-generation testicle could be so entertaining? 

...Well it’s fun for the first 20 minutes anyway. I felt as though the killcam was fun, and offered a sense of surgical precision to my kills, yet it was too frequent. If you've ever wondered what goes through a Nazi's head (other than a bullet) there's probably enough time allotted in killcams, to include in each a two hour back story of the character, ultimately making you feel like your hero is more of an antagonist to the story than the protagonist! Basically, they feel dragged out and boring after a while, however cinematically, they look amazing.

In conclusion, I enjoyed my time with Sniper Elite 3, despite its small setbacks. It still remains to be seen, what the game plays like outside of the small snapshot of content which I've played, more of the same hopefully! Also, it remains to be seen how well the story functions. Obviously, I'm a fan of the historical side, yet with good writing I'm convinced that the game still has the potential to give players a half decent story, yet without the historical context I feel like the setting will be a wasted wonder.

Sniper Elite 3 is developed by Rebellion and published by 505 games. It is due to be released on PS3, XBOX 360, PS4, XBOX ONE and PC on June 27th 2013 in all territories, except for North America, where it will be released on July 1st.