The old adage about never judging a book by its cover normally holds its weight when put to the test, and it’s a saying that can be applied to movies and video games as well. A game like Ico is one such title-- a terrible cover hid an outstanding game. However, sometimes a game advertises in full what’s inside through the cover alone, as can be seen in Namco’s Sniper Elite.
One look at the cover will tell you everything you need to know about this game, which is great if you love sniping people in a war-torn urban landscape. However, there isn’t anything more to the game besides that, so if you’re expecting a more robust wartime experience, you’re better off looking elsewhere.
"Sniper Elite is exactly what it says it is: elite sniping."
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Sniper Elite is exactly what it says it is: elite sniping. If it sounds like that description is a cop-out, it’s only because that’s what this game is, and if it sounds boring, don’t bother picking it up because you’ll likely think it is. Close combat exists in this game, but it’s a total mess. It’s clumsy, awkward, and obviously there just because it needed to be.
While there is a lack of variety, I have to admit that developer Rebellion has crafted a complex engine for the sniping mechanics. You’ll have to account for bullet drop due to gravity, take the wind into consideration, and pay mind to your characters physical attributes will-- as little as an irregular heartbeat can drop the accuracy of your shot.
This makes every shot you take unique, though this can be both good and bad. If you haven’t been spotted and you’re able to take your time to line a shot up, you’ll be just fine. If you’re under pressure though, you’ll find a considerable challenge in firing an accurate shot. I appreciate the depth, but sometimes it works against you. Easier difficulties turn some of the variables that affect shots off, but it’s a little bit too easy then.
Lining up a perfect shot is probably the most rewarding part of this game though, because if you make a particularly difficult, distant, nasty, or damaging shot the game will reward you with a cut-scene of your bullet doing its damage. The camera zooms behind the bullet, and you follow it up to the enemy you hit, so if you shoot an enemy in the eye, you’ll get to see it in full 3D. If you shoot an enemy in his naughty bits... well, you get a devastating video of someone being shot in the privates.
"The story is probably the best part of the game, but it doesn’t really drive the game forward."
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So as I mentioned, you’ll spend most of the time in this game sneaking around trying to not get spotted, all the while trying to get a bead on the enemy soldiers who are peppered throughout the blown-out East Europe cities this game is set in. The AI isn’t overly intelligent, and does a good job of playing fair during combat, but there are problems with certain aspects.
It’s not good that sometimes enemies won’t attack you until you cross a certain part of a board. If the enemies were truly looking out for you, as they would be in a real war, they’d be ready at all times. If an enemy shoots you from on top of a building behind you, rest assured it’s because that enemy wasn’t there five seconds ago, or was hiding until you walked by.
Either way, enemy AI like that almost defeats the purpose of playing careful, or analyzing your environments to the fullest extent possible. Most of the time, enemies will be visible, but those few that aren’t will really irritate you. It also doesn’t help that the objectives aren’t usually very clear, or all that varied either.
"... if you shoot an enemy in the eye, you’ll get to see it in full 3D."
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Chances are you’ll have to save some guy, or deliver some hostages from point A to point B, and it just doesn’t provide that much of a reason to play. The story is probably the best part of the game, but it doesn’t really drive the game forward. Chances are the brutal death animations that accompany devastating shots will be the main reason to play.
The multiplayer modes are fun. Deathmatch, the only versus Mode is simply passable, but the co-op is maybe the most fun. You can keep sending one player out as bait, and the other player can sit back and pick the enemies off. Giving a dead player mouth-to-mouth will revive them, so you’ll be able to keep your friends alive so long as your masculinity holds out. The only problem I have with the co-op is that it requires the players to stay fairly close together, meaning wide flanking strategies are almost out of the question.
Spending your time laying around in rubble and broken glass might be fun for someone who enjoys sniping to the fullest extent, but the lack of gameplay variety and bland audio-visual components don’t do this game any favors for those who like more variety. I can’t stress enough that all you do is snipe, and while it’s well executed, more variety could only have helped make this game that much better.
