Sniper Elite 5 Preview – Going behind enemy lines with the French Resistance

Sniper Elite 5 is close to bringing Rebellion’s franchise full circle. From the bombed ruins of Berlin in the first game and its sequelised remake, Sniper Elite 3 stepped back to the conflict in North Africa, Sniper Elite 4 continued the Mediterranean campaign up through Italy, and now 5 sees Karl Fairburne sent into France in the days and weeks surrounding D-Day.

The precarious D-Day landings might feel like they should be the crux of the game’s narrative push, but the Sniper Elite series has always mixed a little fantasy in with its depictions of WW2. It’s nowhere near the alt history shenanigans of the Wolfenstein series, but Fairburne’s now on the trail of Obergruppenführer Moller and Operation Kraken, an audacious plan by the Nazi heirarchy that could change the face of the war – don’t worry, I’m sure it won’t…

For our hands-on time with the game, we were dropped into its second mission with Fairburne having hooked up with the French Resistance and a reconnaissance and intel gathering mission at a lavish French chateaux. It’s a sprawling open environment in a style that will feel familiar to players of Sniper Elite 4, which dramatically expanded the scope of what the series could do with its level design.

Right from the off, you have three clearly defined routes through to the mansion, whether that’s deciding to go right up the middle and the main, heavily defended gate, or sweeping through the more lightly guarded ancillary buildings off to the sides. Once inside, it’s a case of sneaking through the mansion’s hallways, ducking into rooms and trying to find a way into Moller’s office to get a peep at his plans.

While a frontal assault is an option, in truth you still want to play this as a stealth action game. Since the third game in the series, you’ve been able to use loud noises to mask your sniper shots, whether that’s something in the environment like regular planes flying overhead, or finding a motor to sabotage so that it constantly cracks and sputters to mask your sniper shots. Alternatively get up close and personal with a silenced pistol and melee takedowns.

That side of the game remains true to form, but Rebellion has found ways to add, expand and tweak the gameplay. In particular, there’s non-lethal options, which are oddly juxtaposed with the setting, I must say. You’re not taking out hapless chefs and waiters to get backstage, like in Hitman, Karl’s a commando and this is war. Either way, you have a non-lethal melee option, you can find wooden bullets that will incapacitate, and so on.

Rebellion has also changed the base loadout package, with the trusty Welrod sent back to the armoury, and the introduction of far more customisation with more rare and experimental equipment. Given that this is a stealth game, the fact that silencers can be applied to guns is a big deal – decidedly non-standard during WW2, but still a technology of the time – and you always have things like subsonic ammunition to let you fire without the telltale sonic boom that would give away your position.

The customisation goes far, far beyond that though, with the ability to swap out stocks, receivers, scopes and sights, all affecting the core handling of the weapon, its power, rate of fire and mobility while aiming. There’s new workbenches within the game world that you can visit, to change up your equipment on the fly and change your play style. Karl himself can be modified to your liking, with experience points to earn and skills to unlock through play, such as being able to revive yourself from a downed position with the use of a med kit.

There’s also plenty of weapons that you can pick up and find in the level, grabbing a different rifle in a sniper nest, or grabbing them off enemy soldiers. These now have limited ammo, so when you run out, you’re back to your regular guns. You can also pop into an ironsights aiming mode for guns without scopes on them, giving you a quick first person shooter view for pistols that could help you line up the perfect shot. Oh, and there’s a Gears of War-style active reload to help get you back to firing your gun quicker.

I’m looking forward to playing more of Sniper Elite 5. I’ve always had a soft spot for the series and it’s slightly campy WW2 action, and it’s been great to see how each game in the series has evolved and grown. This entry seemingly leans toward making many smaller, more iterative changes to the formula, refining the much broader changes that came in Sniper Elite 4.

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• Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/04/27/sniper-elite-5-preview-going-behind-enemy-lines-with-the-french-resistance/