Sniper Elite 3 Review

Do you have the urge to cover yourself in camouflage and lie in the bushes for days on end? Well if you do then this may just be the game for you. Sniper Elite 3 is the third offering in an on-going series developed by the British developers Rebellion Developments, and published by 505 Games. This third game in the series again is set in the Second World War. Unlike the last one that was set during the final days of the war in Berlin 1945, this time we are placed in 1942 during the Battle of Gazala (a famous battle of the Western Desert Campaign). You have been sent to assassinate Gernaral Franz Vahlen and uncover his top secret project.

After loading up the game you have a few game modes on offer. You have the main campaign which you can play through on your own; however you can also play the missions with a friend in Cooperative mode. I can imagine this could be good fun, but I was unable to try this mode out as I didn’t have any friends who own this game at the time of writing this review. Another mode on offer is challenges. Here you have Solo Survival, Survival (you play with a friend) and finally a mode called Overwatch where you have some sniper and spotter missions to play. Finally there is a multiplayer mode thrown in for good measure. This did not seem too popular however as while searching for people to play with the servers seemed empty. There are plenty of game modes to keep you busy. So let’s jump into the main campaign and see if they have improved the game since Sniper Elite 2.

As you begin to play through the game you are taught the controls. You have the option to either use the keyboard and mouse or use a gamepad, like an Xbox 360 controller. I chose to use the latter. The controls at first can be a bit fiddly but after about half an hour you soon become accustomed to them and you will soon find you are running around shooting enemy’s with ease.

Like in the last game, you can press a button and you get a red marker that makes it easy to get a headshot that gives you an instant kill. You also get a lovely slow motion matrix style camera view that follows your bullet then see’s it penetrating the enemy in a slow motion x-ray sort of view. This is very satisfying and does not grow old. There are a lot of improvements over the last game in Sniper Elite 3. You get to do a lot of sneaking around, setting various traps and using stealth to complete each mission objectives. You will often come to an area that at first seems impossible as you are outnumbered.

However with a little bit of thought it is possible to complete the objective. I also like the way you are taught to make use of noise to mask the sound of your gun shots, by using things like generators. You have to get the timing just right, but it’s very satisfying and really makes you feel like a sniper. If you are discovered you have a bar that shows how much the enemy know about your position. Red means they know where you are and will more than likely be showering a whole load of gunfire down on you. Yellow means they heard you and are looking around.

And finally no colours mean they don’t have a clue you are there, leaving you safe to carry on. So far so good, it sounds like the perfect game doesn’t it. However I must point out that there are times where you are left in a close quarter’s gun fight; where you will make use of your machine gun. This does seem to happen far too often. It could just be because I am a rubbish sniper, but it did seem to happen far too often. This really drew the idea away that you are a sniper and make you feel more like an infantry solder trained for close combat gun fights. There were also a number of graphical glitches I came across during my play through. At times it felt like the game had not been through the Quality Assurance process and did somewhat ruin the experience.

Overall, this game is pretty good fun. I did really enjoy it despite the shortfalls. There have been a number of improvements since the last game. It has a great story to follow and really does show how much fun sniping people’s heads of in games can be. Having things like blowing up trucks by shooting the fuel tank is great fun. Working out the best way to take out a target enemy is also a lot of fun. I would defiantly recommend you pick this one up. If you enjoyed Sniper Elite 2 then this is a good sequel, and if you have never played a sniper Elite game then this will most likely appeal to your sniping dreams. It is safer to play out those fantasies in a game than real life I guess. This is one to run out and buy.

REVIEW CODE: A complimentary PC code was provided to Bonus Stage for this review. Please send all review code enquiries to press@4gn.co.uk.