Sniper Elite III review

I’ve always been a fan of sniper games, and there are really two titles from two different publishers that cater to the more subtle first person shooter: Sniper Elite and Sniper: Ghost Warrior. This battle of the sniper FPS game is as important to me as the battle between FIFA and PES of yesteryear.

This is the third instalment of Rebellion’s offering and it’s by far the best one. Not only has Rebellion listened to the feedback regarding the levels - more of that later - but co-op has been released with it and offers some really interesting gameplay options. V2, the previous game set primarily in Germany, was very corridor-driven and the co-op wasn’t released until many months afar the game’s release. With the option now to start a campaign with a friend from the very beginning it changes the gameplay completely.

Couple this with the much more open sandbox levels and you’ve got yourself a much better game already. In addition this is set in Africa, a much more colourful environment than the grey, drab and dull European cities. With the bigger levels and multiple ways to achieve your objectives it makes for some interesting game play, and I’ve gone back and played through a few levels more than three times, with each time playing differently. And it’s not all sniping that will help you get through the levels either, you have to be clever and use some of the other tools and environment objects to make sure you stay hidden away and undetected. Try starting a fire to attract enemy patrols and then take them out with your silenced pistol. Or silently melee and kill an enemy and booby trap his body with a mine so when other soldiers find him, the blast will take them out. Not only that, it gives you time to get away from the scene of the crime. The enemies will be so distracted by the explosion that you’ll get a good head start getting away to a hiding spot. And don’t forget, you can shoot out red barrels (universal explosive barrels in any game) or munition dumps to also cause a distraction and noise while you pick of more distant targets. And speaking of noise, there’ll be a couple of places in game where you’ll be able to sabotage generators to mask your shots. Or planes will be flying overhead that also give you a window of opportunity to take out targets without being noticed…much. That’s not to say that if you shoot a nazi in the face in front of another nazi he won’t notice. So make sure you shoot the right person.

And I don’t buy into the argument that the AI is “stupid”. It’s not great on the lower difficulty levels, but if you whack that up you’ll find they really pose a challenge, being a lot more ruthless and being able to triangulate your position a lot quicker. They’re intelligent. And can be scary too.

But like all snipers, it’s about finding a good place to camp and watch your enemy's movements. You can’t go in guns blazing. And if you do, you’ll die. There are usually two or three sniper nests in each level and tagging your targets help you keep an eye on their movements. There is nothing more satisfying than taking out an enemy with a beautifully placed shot, whether it to be the head, organ or even testicles. You get bonus XP points, the currency for levelling up, the more accurate and silent you are. And make sure you cover your back, place trip wires and mines behind you so you don’t get ambushed. Any review that claims that there isn’t much sniping is a sign that the gamer isn’t playing the game right. You can get through every level (and I’ve done it) without being compromised and seen. You can play through a whole level by silently taking out every single person without alerting another patrol or soldier. Or, like the best snipers, you can only take out targets you need to. This, granted, is a lot more difficult to do, but you can do it. Just watch out for the snipers sitting on the hills and surrounding buildings. There isn’t a path to them necessarily, but you can take them out.

That’s not to say the game is flawless. Far from it. It’s a much better game than its predecessor, but you’ll still see enemies seemingly having extended epileptic seizures after you’ve killed them close range in a takedown. Or you’ll find they’re hovering in the environment. One enemy I killed was stuck on a stairwell. I shot around him to see if he’d move, threw a rock, started a fire, placed a dynamite stick and shot it, and he still didn’t move. So I walked up to him and shot him in the balls. Point blank. Ball point. However you want to read it. I then walked away with the Lonely Island song blasting in my head “Cool Guys Don’t Look at Explosions”.

But it’s not just that, it’s other niggles too, for example the game sometimes gets a bout of Alzheimer’s when it doesn’t remember that you’re actually in cover, so all of a sudden you’ll find yourself exposed when you should be well hidden.

And then there’s the vehicles. There aren’t many, thankfully, and if you’re smart you can take them out using mines and other explosives, saving yourself painful moments of frustration as you try to shoot the panels (which are exposed when you look through your binoculars). To be fair, the back panels aren’t hard to do, remember, you only need two bullets in the same panel in the rear. You don’t have to shoot all the panels. But don’t bother with the front panel. It took me literally the best part of an hour to figure out that you have to hit the panel somewhere specific, in the slit, so that it takes out the driver. It’s very satisfying when you do it, but frustrating as heck if you can’t. And it also exposes your position. Stick with the mines, that’s why you have them. It’s not as satisfying, but it does the job. However it’s a lot easier to distract the vehicles with a friend.

And another major niggle is that some of the achievements I should have got never popped! This is a huge issue and the game crashed a few times with me as I’d reached an achievement. In addition, make sure you’re saving your game all the time. Sometimes, and again on several occasions, the save data becomes corrupt. And it takes an age for it to sync. Sometimes it doesn’t sync at all. There were about four times where I had to unplug the Xbox completely from the mains and re-fire the game.

Despite these niggles the game is still great fun, if you know how to play it. This is a game that’s meant to be played from the shadows, observing your enemy and meticulously planning your every move. You’ll find some of the missions a bit repetitive, but not too repetitive.

Let’s be clear. The story is horse shit. It’s worse than horse shit and I have no empathy with the protagonist at all. In fact I still don’t know how an American ending up working for the British Secret Service. And I still have no idea how the hell he ended up in Africa. But he’s a twat. At least with Ghost Warrior you felt as though something was at stake.

But you can’t not love this game. It’s massive, there is a lot to explore and the variety of your loadouts can vary greatly. You have a load of weapons to choose from, each with their unlockable parts. Although all the unlockables are the same for each gun, each gun does differ from the other and choosing your weapon systems before a game is actually quite good fun.

There’s not much more to say about this really. It’s flawed, but not as flawed as most people will claim. Give this a chance and be patient. Observe, execute and relocate and you’ll be fine. Use your environment, use your tools and try to be the ghost that strikes fear into the enemy. Play like this, and I guarantee you’ll have a fantastic time.