I love the Sniper Elite brand for two things: 1) the chance to stalk and set complicated tripwire, land mine, or grenade-based traps for my enemies, and 2) to destroy a man’s ability to procreate by vaporizing his testicles from 500 meters down range.
The franchise’s story, on the contrary, rarely matches the gameplay’s excitement, but that won’t prevent Rebellion from building on the studio’s narrative in Sniper Elite 4 ‒ the third sequel in a series that shipped ten million copies to date. Players reconvene at the height of World War II ‒ 1943 to be precise ‒ after the hero leaves Germany and the African sands behind.
This time, in the developer’s words:
Covert agent and elite marksman Karl Fairburne must fight alongside the brave men and women of the Italian Resistance to help free their country from the yoke of Fascism, and defeat a terrifying new threat with the potential to halt the Allied fightback in Europe before it’s even begun.
If his mission fails, there will be no Operation Overlord, no D-Day landings, and no Victory in Europe.
Okay, despite Karl’s marksman talents, that’s a lot of eggs to put in one basket.
That said, Sniper Elite 4 will also be the first entry not constrained by last-generation hardware. The PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions allegedly run in a native 1080p resolution, though I’m more concerned about the technical bugs. Guards, lifeless or breathing, often became one with the architecture in Sniper Elite 3, and frame rate/optimization issues mired methodical kill-shots.
That said, I doubt Sniper Elite 4 will look anything but sublime on a PC.
From sun-drenched Mediterranean coastal towns to colossal Nazi megastructures, daunting forests and giddying mountain monasteries inspired by Monte Cassino, Sniper Elite 4 will offer breathless emergent stealth action and unrivalled sniping freedom across maps many times the size of those seen in Sniper Elite 3.
How sprawling are the settings, exactly? Although we’ll await further details, keep a lookout for Sniper Elite 4 when it launches later this year.
