Developer:Â Rebellion
Publisher:Â Rebellion
Platform(s):Â PS4, Xbox One, PC
Our 50 best games of 2017 countdown isn’t in any order, we’re just going through fifty of the finest the year has given us. Find out more here.
It’s quite apt really that a stealth shooter flew under the radar, but such was the case with Sniper Elite 4. Ordinarily, nothing turns me off more than the idea of stealth or sniping, unless your game is called Metal Gear Solid, yet Sniper Elite 4 reminded me so much of MGS V: The Phantom Pain that I couldn’t help but enjoy myself.
Like every game in the series, Sniper Elite 4 puts you in the veteran shoes of Karl Fairburne, OSS agent, elite sniper and Nazi murdering fanatic. It’s been four games and he’s still just as enthused about slaying fascists. Anyway, the Nazis have a new weapons program that could really fuck things up for the Allies, so it’s up to good old Fairburne to put an end to those shenanigans by infiltrating enemy installations and giving Jerry a right good clobbering.
Each level presents you with a massive, open ended area containing multiple objectives that can be completed in any order, in any way you see fit. Objectives typically have multiple entrances and exits, so there’s usually quite a few ways to get the job done, whether that be through stealth, sniping or reenacting every scene from the film Commando.
Anyone familiar with the series will be fully aware of one of the main attractions: cinematic sniper kills. Impressive kills with your sniper rifle are accompanied by some sweet slow motion bullet tracking followed by the gruesome results afterwards. There’s a sick appeal to treating the Nazis here as target practice, then being shown the results afterwards. The level of detail shown matches the likes of Mortal Kombat’s X-Ray moves and fatalities, with the same amount of sadistic satisfaction that comes with it.
If anything, Sniper Elite 4 proved to me that sometimes it’s good to be wrong about the things you thought you’d dislike. I walked into the game expecting to be offered a platform for my own stealth ineptitude, and whilst there was a lot of that, Sniper Elite 4 was ultimately a brilliant mix of quiet discretion and butchering Nazis with high calibre weaponry, making it a highlight of 2017.
READ MORE:
– The 50 Best Games of 2017
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