I wonder if Hitler is like Paul McCartney or Avril Lavigne, you know, those people that the conspiratorial rumor is constantly spiraling that they died and were replaced. That’s the only explanation I’ve got for the number of times Karl Fairburne has castrated dein führer. Of course, I’m talking about methodically removing/harming body parts of Germans from the 1940s, so Sniper Elite 5 must-have released the other week. While Mike gave the initial review for PS5 on the embargo, I’m here to go into the details and tedious stuff such as texture quality and how Rebellion has made it run on a PS4 while also giving my take on it.

Off the bat, I will say that performance-wise, Sniper Elite 5 isn’t going to knock your socks off. A majority of the time, I’ve gone without significant problems. The most significant issue was a crystal clear drop in the second level as you take the stealth path towards your main goal. Visuals dropped to about 15-20 frames per second for a moment. With further testing, this single pronounced decline in performance was fixed in a later patch. Though it isn’t ideal if you care about performance, the PS4 offers something closer to 30 frames per second than it does 20 a majority of the time.

As the technical limitations halt the frame rate, someone put in an order to stop some textures for inspection before being sent to the western front. Texture pop-in is something disturbingly frequent behind the German line of France. While it isn’t majorly off-putting, it is something that will make you stop your mad dash away from German fire to ask why a cobble wall looks a little more chunky and smooth around the edges. It is common enough on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One that you’ll find something you’ll say in a Russian accent asking: “what was that just now?” though it is irregular enough that you may find it from time to time in a level. Or shall I say small country?

Similar to its predecessor, Sniper Elite 5 places you on one side of a map with you having to kill, stealth, and often discover documents as you make your way to the other side. You’ll traverse huge expanses of fields littered with trenches, an entire mansion and surrounding grounds in “Occupied Residence,” a dam and train yard, and the third level “Spy Academy” is a cathedral on a hill that felt like I was ascending a castle to fight a Dark Souls boss. Despite feeling like you are trudging yourself across a World War II film set or museum, the way you’re hemmed in both makes the maps feel larger and smaller at the same time. With the inability to shortcut your way through a field or across an ocean, you end up walking or rather crawling your way past snipers, tanks, and infantrymen for miles.

Performance isn’t the only change to come to the German front of Occupied France and the Channel Islands, Sniper Elite 5 also brings a few changes to scouting. No longer featuring the loud “he’s tagged!” sound, the small and ineffectual click and tiny icon above everyone’s soon-to-be irrigated head do very little to help me while still using the binoculars. This change doesn’t seem of any use to anyone. The great bombastic sting in Sniper Elite 4 meant I was sure I’d got someone and could move on. In France or Guernsey, I take an extra few moments to make sure I’ve tracked down every Nazi for miles.

I’ll keep saying that, despite the fact that you are periodically (with psychotic fascination) watching 130-ish German men (most of whom were conscripted) die in horrific ways. The second they put on the armbands and start wearing the little hats, that’s the point history said: “Them! They’re your free pass to spit on for the rest of time.” Yet for all that the Sniper Elite series make the Nazi idealogy the Tom to our Jerry (ok, bad named analogy), there is quite a bit of reverence put behind defining the Nazis as horrid people with despicable beliefs.

The story this time around, as Karl one-by-one removes another disgusting idealogue from the beautiful landscape of France, is a secret super weapon that combines Von Bruan’s V2s with a stealth submarine. This is redundant, given a submarine (or U-boat) is supposed to be a bit stealthy at the very least, but I’ll let it pass. I’ll let it slide simply because it is an 80s action-flick or Saturday morning cartoon of a plot, with clear and defined lines of who we root for and why we do it. I honestly don’t need the stealth U-boats to be aiming their V2 bombs, the basis of America’s space program, at Britain or the U.S.

Nazis are free-range opportunities to put one bullet through one ear and out the other. It is nice to give a bit of context, something to establish the people we understand to be diabolical are, in fact, those for whom you can castrate so they don’t multiply. What is done well is the characterization of Karl and those surrounding him. He is a man completing an objective with reasonable efficiency regardless of approval, surrounded by partisans and a bloke that’s Frank Burns before he heads to Korea. It is simple but effective.

I say all of this because I want to transition into the voice acting for a moment, which usually wouldn’t be such an issue. Karl is fine, every German with new earrings is fine, but the cut scenes feel off. I first noticed this with Charlie, played by Lois Chimimba who I’ve only seen in Doctor Who and Sex Education. The reason I highlight her, in particular, is just how unnatural something sounds, reverb. While Karl sounds the same in-game and in cut scenes, Charlie and a couple of others sound like they are recorded in different countries from the microphone. Though it attempts to be made up for with gain and compression. This issue made me ignore the actual cutscene to question the mixing and design.

It is a minimal issue, one that should have been addressed long before release, but it stands out. In a game so lacking in major flaws other than those small cases of console performance, something so small becomes the thing that comes to mind. Sniper Elite 5 isn’t a sequel that I often enjoy, as it refines a majority of those details from prior games. There are changes, but the core stays the same and on the surface, those that are more “casual” wouldn’t be able to tell the difference at a quick glance. Ignoring PC elitists, Sniper Elite 5 will run well enough for those that just want to play a fun and silly game about castrating Nazis at 600-paces.

That’s what Sniper Elite 5 is, a fun game. Away from the linear environments of V2, 5 seems to aim towards the sandbox more so than any other Sniper Elite game I’ve played. While Mike does say there is replay value and there is indeed more guff to find after the fact, I think the levels are just too big for that kind of replayability we all think of. Cities: Skylines, Stardew Valley, FTL, and The Binding of Isaac, are often those said to be the most replayable. While this is true, a lot of them I think of as “continue playing” not “replaying”. Stardew, FTL, and Isaac are the only ones with stories you’ll be replaying. They are replayable because the story is both entirely out of the picture if you don’t care and also part of the gameplay.

As much as the story this time around is an 80s popcorn flick of stomping on Nazis, I don’t want to repeat it several times to get a worthless achievement. I’ve never cared for those. As much as Sniper Elite 5 is carried on the gameplay or psychotically watching organs of a Nazi burst like water balloons, I’ve done it and I’ve piled the corpses a mile high on the German border as a warning to the idiot with a mustache. So is there replayability? Sure, if you are still in that phase of playing open worlds and shooting men, you’ll probably shoot yourself blind late into the night. However, for me, it is time to move on.

Ultimately, I do love Sniper Elite 5, and as I said in the video review, the hiccups of textures loading in and frame rate don’t bother me so much as it would a pickier person as a result of years of playing this type of game on the PS2. That’s what Sniper Elite 5 is, much like Just Cause 4. It takes the fun, colorful, and ridiculous nature of the PS2-era and updates the mechanics to work with modern sensibilities. There is no need to bog me down with bloated cutscenes telling me how Karl feels bad for putting a bit of tape on a grenade and watching something resembling flying mince go overhead. I did that on purpose. Any pretense of morals or struggles is out the window, they are Nazis.

A PS4 copy of Sniper Elite 5 was provided by Rebellion Developments for the purposes of this review.

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Sniper Elite 5 (PS4)

$49.99

8

Score

8.0/10

Pros

• And pop goes the Nazi.
• A plethora of options to kill or stealth.
• A half decent photo mode.

Cons

• Minor performance and graphical issues.
• Sometimes levels go on forever.
• A lack of a difficulty that is crushing.
• Slightly buggy.