“One shot can change history.” These simple words instantly give you a preview of what Sniper Elite 3‘s like. Sniper Elite 3‘s celebration of the exuberant carnage of its predecessor’s linear and stiff gameplay and replaced with an open-ended stealth shooter that inspires creativity in every step you take. The phenomenal aspect is, of course, the X-ray vision that triggers as you shoot an enemy, this vision shows the bullet impact point and how it tears through the victim.
The long-range kills and slow-motion bullet time’s what sets Sniper Elite apart from the other World War II shooter games on Xbox. Set in North Africa in 1942, the heat is on as Germany’s building a weapon of mass destruction powerful enough to crush any force in its path. The Afrika Korps, including a division of Tiger Tanks, stands in your way. Your mission? To sabotage their plans, and should you fail, the Allied resistance is over.
Every action you take, and every life you take creates a sense of urgency as you cannot use your silenced pistol unless you’re up close; you have to use your loud attention seeking sniper rifle, and then relocate to throw the enemies off. The good news is when enemies hear the first rifle shot they immediately take cover, on your second shot they have a vague idea of your location and will slowly work their way towards the suspected location, but as soon as you fire the third shot your location is revealed and enemies will rush at you gun blazing.
At this point, you can either run and hide, or test your shooting skills on moving targets combined with effective covering. A daunting task to be sure, but a skilled player can clear the entire map without raising a single alarm. In the end, it all comes down to how you approach the mission.
Using the environment to your advantage is the key here. Every map presents you with great hiding spots, and sniping locations. As Karl, you have to slowly progress through the map, analyze the terrain before you, marking the enemies present along the way, and find the perfect place to take down multiple enemies giving them little to no time to react. Every building you encounter is accessible, with multiple entry and exit ways, so you can use multiple rooftops in a short amount of time to pick enemies off one by one, while keeping them confused of your whereabouts.
The kill-cam moment never gets old for me; as you aim down the scope you can empty your lungs for a focused shot, time slows down, the scope zooms in more than normal, and a red dot shows the impact point of the bullet. This particular ability of Karl’s what makes this game such a hit – focused shots are perfect for picking off targets that are constantly moving or in a situation where you have a very small window in which you have to take a target down, without raising an alarm.
The Sniper Elite 3 campaign includes eight missions, each one of them perfectly orchestrated and all of them at least a couple hours long. Each stage is massive, and involves objectives that adapt according to the overall direction the war is taking. How you choose to complete those objectives is entirely up to you. The fun secondary objectives and the optional tasks is one hell of time, but at the very least, it sure beats a night out playing wsop online poker!