Written by Patrick Orquia
Title: Sniper Elite 4
Developer: Rebellion Interact
Publisher: Rebellion
Genre: Tactical shooter, Stealth
Number of Players: up to 8 players
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Release date: November 17, 2020
Price: $39.99
I am not much a fan of tactical shooters, but I played a few, most of them Metal Gear titles. I like the idea of going through stealth missions and shoot at enemies from afar without their knowing and making my way to completing missions by outwitting everyone else. While Metal Gear titles are yet to appear on the Nintendo Switch, a game series of similar genre has found a home on the hybrid console, and that is the Sniper Elite franchise.
I’m not sure how successful the franchise has been so far on Switch but its fourth game has now been released, Sniper Elite 4. I did not expect to get my hands on this game but when I got the chance to review it, I immediately said yes, because I have been hearing praises for this game and I wanted to know if it was really good. To say the least, I had my hopes up, and I must say, it didn’t disappoint.
Since I am not very experienced with this gameplay, it took me quite some time to get my grips on the game during its opening mission. I had just been playing Hades a week ago and I would always go gung-ho on that game all the time. Switching to Sniper Elite 4 came out as quite a shock to me, since this game heavily relies on taking your time to plan ahead and avoid getting spotted and killed. Fortunately, the developers of the game made an effort to provide short but very informative explanations to different aspects of the game, from how to climb wooden poles to aiming guns to tagging enemies, etc. Once I learned most of what I will be doing for the rest of the game, it was a breeze. Well, not quite, since the game could be challenging at times, but it was the satisfying kind of challenging.
In this game, you play as Karl Fairburne, a member of the Special Operations Executive of the British military. The game is set in 1943, and you are an elite sniper sent to Italy to help the Allies stop the Nazis and their new secret weapon in the country by using your stealth expertise and your awesome sniping skills. You start at the island of San Celini for your first mission. This serves as the tutorial level, with most of the basics of the game gets introduced. The core gameplay revolves around stealth and positioning yourself where you can take the most advantage to perform some sweet long-distance kills. I like the aspect of having to empty your lungs to assist you in steadying your aim and really going for a pinpoint focus at your unlucky target. If you time it well enough, you get a slow-mo x-ray kill cam where it shows your unfortunate victim getting hit by your bullet, showing the body organs and bones that got punctured and destroyed. It looks really cool, humorous at times yet very satisfying, and never gets old. Aside from shooting at enemies, you can also set up traps and throw pipe bombs at them or shoot at nearby fuel canisters or even blow up trucks and fuel tanks or massive explosions that hopefully kill multiple enemies in one go. The more glorious the kills are, the more experience points you get. There are many different types of kills that you can go for, like a headshot, lung shot, stomach shot, or even a testicle shot. You can even shoot at the grenade that they have attached on their body to make them explode. The weapons that you equip get a level up if you meet certain shot types, so that is something to aim for.
Another feature of the game that I like is the use binoculars to tag enemies and different objects of interests, like trucks, explosives, and other stuff that you can shoot at. Once tagged, you can track them wherever you are in the map. This is great for tracking down enemy soldiers and see where they are at all times even if they are behind a wall or inside a building. You can use this feature to plan your next move with the high possibility of not getting detected or caught. Tagging enemies and objects also provide some additional info about them, like for soldiers, you get to know their name and a bit of background info about them. They may be rookie soldiers or new parents, and it is up to you have the heart to shoot at them. They may be enemies but at the end of the day, you and they are just humans caught in a war.
The enemy AI in this game is quite good: they will react realistically on your actions with good consistency. If you miss shooting at them, they will duck and try to hide away from the line of fire and will even alert the others. They will then actively search for you and shoot at you on sight. Unlike in the Metal Games, once the enemies are alerted, the alert status does not disappear right away. You have to completely leave the area or try to kill all enemies for everything to go back to normal. These enemy soldiers are usually accompanied by a high-ranking officer and it will be to your advantage if you kill them right away as it will cause the other lowly soldiers to get disorganized. Aside from the regular soldiers, you will also have to contend with tanks and other armored vehicles. You can blow them up with satchel bombs if you get near enough or plant mines on their path. You can also shoot at hanging objects that can crash down on enemies below them. It is up to you and your imagination on how to get rid of the enemies.
If you get enough experience points, you level up, climbing up the ranks, starting from being a private. Each time you level up, you get a point that you can accumulate to buy new weapons and accessories to make you even more of an efficient killing machine on the battle fields. As you progress into the game, the levels get more and more elaborately complex, with multiple side missions on top of the main one.
The missions in the game each has a primary objectives. If you speak to NPCs before the start of a mission, they give you more tasks to do, which are completely optional. You can go straight to accomplishing the primary objective if you so please, but the side objectives are part of the fun. You have more enemies to kill, and more opportunities to see those x-ray kill cams, and of course, more XP to get to level you up. The levels also have a number of optional collectibles to get, like soldier letters or sniper reports. Each mission can be replayed, either to 100% accomplish all goals or try them at a higher difficulty. The missions have a huge map that you can explore, with multiply paths around the objectives. If one way does not work, you can try a different path.
The game has four difficulty options, and you can switch between them on the fly even while you are already playing the level. The higher the difficulty, the more aggressive and deadly the enemies will be, and the harder to snipe at them. The harder difficulties involve more precise handling and aiming with your rifle, with wind velocity and bullet trajectory to consider. Since I’m not hardcore, I just stuck with the normal difficulty, and I had a blast playing the game with it with ample challenge to keep me on my toes. This game can really be as challenging as you want it to be, and you have all the customization options to suit your play style and skill level.
Playing this game alone is great, but if you don’t want to do it alone, the game has multiple multiplayer options for you. You can go online to play with other people, or if you have your friends with you, you can do local co-op play. The entire campaign is fully playable in co-op mode, and once you have completed the campaign, you and your friends can still try the different multiplayer modes, either on co-op or against each other.
Overall, Sniper Elite 4 on the Nintendo Switch is a great port of the beloved game. It plays amazingly well and looks and sound excellent as well. There are some visual downgrades, and they are very much apparent during cutscenes, but for the most part, the developers of the game really did a great job in bringing the same quality in gameplay and production value. For fans of the genre, this game is a must-buy and now, you can play it anywhere. So go give this game a try and shoot some Nazi scums in the face.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
I’m not sure how successful the franchise has been so far on Switch but its fourth game has now been released, Sniper Elite 4. I did not expect to get my hands on this game but when I got the chance to review it, I immediately said yes, because I have been hearing praises for this game and I wanted to know if it was really good. To say the least, I had my hopes up, and I must say, it didn’t disappoint.
Since I am not very experienced with this gameplay, it took me quite some time to get my grips on the game during its opening mission. I had just been playing Hades a week ago and I would always go gung-ho on that game all the time. Switching to Sniper Elite 4 came out as quite a shock to me, since this game heavily relies on taking your time to plan ahead and avoid getting spotted and killed. Fortunately, the developers of the game made an effort to provide short but very informative explanations to different aspects of the game, from how to climb wooden poles to aiming guns to tagging enemies, etc. Once I learned most of what I will be doing for the rest of the game, it was a breeze. Well, not quite, since the game could be challenging at times, but it was the satisfying kind of challenging.
In this game, you play as Karl Fairburne, a member of the Special Operations Executive of the British military. The game is set in 1943, and you are an elite sniper sent to Italy to help the Allies stop the Nazis and their new secret weapon in the country by using your stealth expertise and your awesome sniping skills. You start at the island of San Celini for your first mission. This serves as the tutorial level, with most of the basics of the game gets introduced. The core gameplay revolves around stealth and positioning yourself where you can take the most advantage to perform some sweet long-distance kills. I like the aspect of having to empty your lungs to assist you in steadying your aim and really going for a pinpoint focus at your unlucky target. If you time it well enough, you get a slow-mo x-ray kill cam where it shows your unfortunate victim getting hit by your bullet, showing the body organs and bones that got punctured and destroyed. It looks really cool, humorous at times yet very satisfying, and never gets old. Aside from shooting at enemies, you can also set up traps and throw pipe bombs at them or shoot at nearby fuel canisters or even blow up trucks and fuel tanks or massive explosions that hopefully kill multiple enemies in one go. The more glorious the kills are, the more experience points you get. There are many different types of kills that you can go for, like a headshot, lung shot, stomach shot, or even a testicle shot. You can even shoot at the grenade that they have attached on their body to make them explode. The weapons that you equip get a level up if you meet certain shot types, so that is something to aim for.
Another feature of the game that I like is the use binoculars to tag enemies and different objects of interests, like trucks, explosives, and other stuff that you can shoot at. Once tagged, you can track them wherever you are in the map. This is great for tracking down enemy soldiers and see where they are at all times even if they are behind a wall or inside a building. You can use this feature to plan your next move with the high possibility of not getting detected or caught. Tagging enemies and objects also provide some additional info about them, like for soldiers, you get to know their name and a bit of background info about them. They may be rookie soldiers or new parents, and it is up to you have the heart to shoot at them. They may be enemies but at the end of the day, you and they are just humans caught in a war.
If you get enough experience points, you level up, climbing up the ranks, starting from being a private. Each time you level up, you get a point that you can accumulate to buy new weapons and accessories to make you even more of an efficient killing machine on the battle fields. As you progress into the game, the levels get more and more elaborately complex, with multiple side missions on top of the main one.
The missions in the game each has a primary objectives. If you speak to NPCs before the start of a mission, they give you more tasks to do, which are completely optional. You can go straight to accomplishing the primary objective if you so please, but the side objectives are part of the fun. You have more enemies to kill, and more opportunities to see those x-ray kill cams, and of course, more XP to get to level you up. The levels also have a number of optional collectibles to get, like soldier letters or sniper reports. Each mission can be replayed, either to 100% accomplish all goals or try them at a higher difficulty. The missions have a huge map that you can explore, with multiply paths around the objectives. If one way does not work, you can try a different path.
The game has four difficulty options, and you can switch between them on the fly even while you are already playing the level. The higher the difficulty, the more aggressive and deadly the enemies will be, and the harder to snipe at them. The harder difficulties involve more precise handling and aiming with your rifle, with wind velocity and bullet trajectory to consider. Since I’m not hardcore, I just stuck with the normal difficulty, and I had a blast playing the game with it with ample challenge to keep me on my toes. This game can really be as challenging as you want it to be, and you have all the customization options to suit your play style and skill level.
Playing this game alone is great, but if you don’t want to do it alone, the game has multiple multiplayer options for you. You can go online to play with other people, or if you have your friends with you, you can do local co-op play. The entire campaign is fully playable in co-op mode, and once you have completed the campaign, you and your friends can still try the different multiplayer modes, either on co-op or against each other.
Overall, Sniper Elite 4 on the Nintendo Switch is a great port of the beloved game. It plays amazingly well and looks and sound excellent as well. There are some visual downgrades, and they are very much apparent during cutscenes, but for the most part, the developers of the game really did a great job in bringing the same quality in gameplay and production value. For fans of the genre, this game is a must-buy and now, you can play it anywhere. So go give this game a try and shoot some Nazi scums in the face.
REPLAY VALUE: High
PROS
- Excellent visuals, music, and game design
- Superb gameplay
- Epic x-ray kill cam system on long-distance kills provide great satisfaction that never gets old
- Enemy AI is really good and will react quite realistically to your actions most of the time
- Wide customization options
- Multiple difficulty modes that you can switch between on the fly
- Solid performance both on docked and handheld mode
- Lots of system in place but they are easily learned and manage
- Mission objectives are clearly marked on the mapped
- Very good use of HD Rumble
- The gyro controls work very well
- CONS
- Downgraded visuals very much apparent on facial animation during cutscenes
- The story is bland and forgettable
- Voice acting for all characters is a bit wooden
- The expansion pass is not part of the game; this is a 3-year old game already, the publisher should have included all the DLCs in the package
- Small variety of guns to choose from, most of them having not much advantage from one another, plus a good number of them are locked as DLCs
RATING: 4.5/5 Bullets to the face
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