‘Sniper Elite 4’ is bigger, better, but not quite great
Gamers had to chuckle when an attack on white nationalist Richard Spencer raised the question: “Is it OK to punch a Nazi?” It stirred a debate on Twitter, but for those who have been playing the “Sniper Elite” series for years, punching members of the Third Reich is the tamest thing they can do.
Over the course of 12 years, fans have blown up Nazis with grenades, snapped their necks from behind and, of course, shot at them from afar. It’s all in a day’s work for game protagonist Karl Fairburne, an American OSS agent who has gone all over the world to battle the Nazi menace.
In the latest entry, “Sniper Elite 4,” Fairburne finds himself in Italy after destroying a German supertank prototype in North Africa. The OSS agent is investigating another Nazi superweapon — a remotecontrolled missile that could turn the tide of the war. Over eight missions, Fairburne will discover the details behind the projectile and the enigmatic mastermind behind the project.
The campaign will take players to diverse locales, including a Mediterranean island, wooded ravine, a harbor and several Nazi bases. At first glance, the developer, Rebellion Developments, doesn’t seem to change the formula too much, but as players delve into the missions, they’ll discover that the team leveraged the power of the current console generation to craft huge areas.
The maps dwarf the size of the ones in “Sniper Elite III,” and it opens up all manners of play. Players will discover multiple paths to an objective. They can often use the new climbing moves to scale walls and cliffs, or they can find subterranean paths and secret passages.
Missions don’t focus on a main structure — they cover several zones. Maps can go from a village to a monastery or span shipping zones and warehouses. Rebellion expertly designed these levels with sniping perches, kill zones, traps and escape routes so that players can take advantage of the tools at their disposal.
Fairburne can lure Nazis around the corner with a thrown rock, where he can shoot them from behind with a silenced pistol. Afterward, he can plant a mine underneath the dead body to kill the dead Nazi’s comrades. Elsewhere, players may discover pulleys holding up explosives, and a well-timed shot can drop the ordnance on a Panzer tank.
If Fairburne is spotted by Nazis, he has a short time to flee, and enemies will search for him in his last known position, giving him time to play cat-and-mouse with the Germans. The new moves and more open world are the best parts of “Sniper Elite 4,” but what makes fans happy is the X-ray kill cam, a hallmark of the franchise since “Sniper Elite V2.” When Karl fires a successful shot, the game sometimes goes into slow-motion, showing the bullet traveling from the rifle and penetrating the Nazi. The effect is overthe-top, gloriously gory and satisfying.
Rebellion has also tried to make strides with storytelling. But while “Sniper Elite 4” has more characters, none is memorable or noteworthy. And there isn’t much diversity in mission design. Fairburne is often tasked with killing a troublesome officer or sabotaging weapons. The one-note mission design reflects the flatness of the characters.
“Sniper Elite 4” gets the gameplay right, but still has flaws that hold it back from true greatness. If the team ever creates a compelling enough story paired with satisfying mission design, then the series could finally be on target.