IF ONLY IT WAS BLACK AND WHITE
BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Co-op and multiplayer modes have not been tested and therefore will not be explored within the review.
DISCOVERING HISTORY:
Sniper Elite, as the firstborn of the long Saga that lives on to this day, left the seeds from which great titles such as Sniper Elite 4 were born. Unfortunately, whether due to technical and monetary problems orIF ONLY IT WAS BLACK AND WHITE
BEFORE WE BEGIN:
Co-op and multiplayer modes have not been tested and therefore will not be explored within the review.
DISCOVERING HISTORY:
Sniper Elite, as the firstborn of the long Saga that lives on to this day, left the seeds from which great titles such as Sniper Elite 4 were born. Unfortunately, whether due to technical and monetary problems or a lack of experience on the part of the then-young team, this first title did not excel in many respects, but it certainly gave birth to mechanics unknown to the video game world of its time. The early stages of the game, as usual, are a series of actual recordings, dating back to the Second World War, that set the tone of the game and explain, partly through a handy task letter, the ultimate goal of the protagonist Karl Fairburne, a young German sniper who switched to the American faction. The game has no real tutorial but explains the basic mechanics to the player with extremely intrusive messages; fortunately these can be disabled from the settings, since they will tend to appear at critical stages of the game, breaking the atmosphere and often leading to unjust deaths.
ICE SKATING:
Explaining the gameplay of one of the latest Sniper Elite games would be redundant, but as this is the first occasion where some of the saga's iconic mechanics are introduced, it seems fair to go into them in detail. The two basic mechanics of the game are, or at least they should be, sniping and stealth; sniping is focused on a bullet decay system based on the range of the target (this is only in difficulties above beginner), a system of scoop oscillation based on the character's breathing, which increases with certain actions such as running, and a bullet travel system when making a particularly spectacular kill, built on a camera attached to the bullet that makes the player see exactly the path of the bullet before hitting the enemy. The famous X-rays, a focal point of later titles, have not yet been added. Of course, numerous other weapons are also present, but they can only be used in hipfire, that is, without aiming, and therefore the shots will go randomly; this was obviously done specifically to avoid the abuse of these weapons, which, even with these devices, are quite strong. The stealth mechanics, on the other hand, revolve all around moving while lying down and using the silenced gun; the problem with all this is that the game was rarely developed to be approached in silent mode, and doing so by running and being discovered always results in a more efficient as well as fun approach. As for the story and the various missions, they turn out to be very long-winded and well-structured, with missions divided by micro-quests and various optional ones. The story also turns out to be quite long, offering around 10 hours of gameplay. Story-wise, on the other hand, it comes down to the plot of a typical American action B movie.
I FEEL LIKE I’VE ALREADY BEEN THERE:
Graphically the original Sniper Elite does not turn out to be a top in any aspect except for the HUD, like the map. Comparing it to great games released in the same year such as Call of Duty 2 or Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory, the graphics, art side, and level design come across as poorly detailed, poorly structured, and decidedly repetitive; the variation in aesthetics between missions is mainly about changing coloration and lighting of environments, giving a sense of fatigue and boredom when playing multiple missions consecutively. On the animation side, the game also fails to hold a candle to works published several years before its release, with clunky and extremely unnatural animations.
HEARING TANK TRACKS:
On the audio side, Sniper Elite has neither great merits nor flaws, settling on average. The only major flaw lies in the dubbing, which, at least for the Italian one, is extremely desyncato and qualitatively poor.
BUT WHY 5?
CONS:
The cons of this game are varied and are mostly already mentioned in the part above. The slowness of the game, the unengaging shooting feel, the story not at all appealing, the repetitive and tiresome aesthetics, and the extremely clunky movements do not result in a positive mix. An unmentioned detail is that of running, which gives the impression of constantly being on a frozen surface, leading any movement to be slippery and increasing the difficulty in climbing stairs or making turns. Finally, the game's AI is rather silly, making certain missions completable extremely quickly.
PROS:
The pros of this title are mainly based on the main roots for this saga, since aside from the shooting which can be fun, the rest remains below the standard of games of that era, and even some games released even earlier.
RATING
Gameplay: 6
Music: 4
Story: 4
Shooting: 7
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