Sniper Elite 5 Review

I have spent the last couple of days playing some campaign and multiplayer matches, but what has really had me locked in is the new invasion mode. Basically when you are playing your campaign and you have not disabled the ability to be invaded, an opponent will drop into your campaign with the single goal of killing you and your teammate if you are playing coop. Both you and the invader will have enhanced skills added revolving around finding each other and it is quite balanced.

Even during my stream you will find that as the invader you are not just dropping in to get an easy kill. You have to work for it for sure! You will start somewhere in the map, it may be right into the action or you might be halfway across the map. Either way you are going to have to do a little searching to find your target to take them out. I found that the best way to find your target is follow the trail of bodies. Once disadvantage I had was not having completed the campaign, I did not know the path progression on some of the maps, meaning the route the campaign would take the player. If you have completed the campaign, you will have an advantage because you will be able to anticipate the direction your target will be coming from.

Now with that being said there are a few features to note, you cannot just pick a spot and camp. If you sit still too long you will get a warning that you are camping and if you do not move, your location will be reviled to your opponent. Through out the maps you will find phones that you can pick up and get your opponent's last location. Do not depend on this as a pinpoint, but more as a guide. It is not a fluid tracker, it is a point on the map with a timer showing the last time seen at that location. If your opponent is moving through the map quickly, you will find yourself chasing them with the phones which have a 4 minute cooldown.

You can also use your fellow soldiers (NPCs) to help notify you when they have found the player. Each NPC has a status of not alerted, searching and alerted. Pay attention to the direction they are running or facing, this can indicate the direction to go to find your target. I will say when the alarm has been set off, unless there is a fire fight going on, you only benefit on finding the general area the opponent is in.

Once you have finally tracked down your target, the same rules apply for all snipers, your scope will give you away! Close combat will get you a chance at melee or a good pistol shot to the head. If your opponents are playing coop, you have to eliminate both, but the second player only has a couple of minutes to find you before they loose the round.

Finally do not take injuring your target as an easy follow up kill, you and your opponent are able to self heal and return to battle. If you are quick enough you can however run up on your target and get a satisfying melee as final action on your target.

Now lets talk a bit about multiplayer, there are a few different modes to choose from including free for all, team match, squad match and no cross. To be honest I spent all of my time playing no cross in multiplayer to get a feel for the game at a slower pace. It truly a no cross map, there is no way to get to the other side physically if you try. While I can be a pretty good sniper, you have to be extremely strategic when you are looking for opponents. Using your scope will give up your location with a bright reflection that your opponent can see from space. So I spent most of the time using my binoculars to find my targets. Even better if you are marking your opponents, other shooters can kill them getting you the assist.

My BIGGEST complaint for multiplayer is the lack of maps. In team match, squad match and free for all, you have 4 maps to choose from, but in no cross there are only 2 maps... come on Rebellion we need more maps, after a few hours, the no cross matches become very stale!

With that out of the way, I am very happy to see a kind of lobby system for multiplayer. You cannot edit the title of the room it is based on your gamer id, but you can create private or public matches and you can even provide invite codes to get everyone in the right match together for competitive play.

The customization for game rules is almost endless with the exception of the lack of turning off respawn. it has already been suggested to the dev team to add that as an option. But there is a wide variety of presets as well as the ability to completely customize your match.

We are defiantly going to start working on some tournaments for this game very soon and look forward to seeing what we can do with this game, stay tuned!