Third Person, Tactical Shooter
Consoles: PC, PS3, PS4, X1, Xb360
Sniper Elite III is the first next generation title for the series. Still fighting the Nazis, this time in Africa (or Afrika if you prefer), we have our hero, Karl Fairburne, a sniper for the OSS or Office of Strategic Services, the precursor to the CIA where he learns of a super weapon the Nazi's are developing to turn the tide of the war.
Gameplay
The shooting mechanics are very similar to the controls found in Sniper Elite V2 only slightly improved. The most noticeable improvements are in the size of the maps. The majority of the maps are huge and allow the player to choose various ways to reach their objectives.
The stealth mechanics use a eye icon where a fully opened eye means you are out in the open and a squint is used when you are undetectable. While it is a nice feature, I found myself mainly using the awareness icon above the soldiers head. Yellow meant that they can see you but don't know what or who you are and are moving to investigate and as they become more alert it will start to turn to the color red, a full red circle means you have been identified and engaged. This system gave me enough information to move into the shadows or behind an obstacle, which would make them check the last place they saw you and allowing you to ambush them.
Loud sounds are still used to mask your shots and I found that the majority of the soldiers could be taken out using this method. In the later levels the machines you can interact with become less and less making you try to maneuver around and taking the enemies out by silenced pistol or with a takedown to clear a path to the objective.
The high point of Sniper III is the kill cam. Sniper III improves the kill cam by adding the cardiovascular and muscular system. As you take your shot the kill cam shows the bullet traveling to the target and if a soldier, just where the bullet enters the body and the damage it does. Vehicles can also be targeted but the majority of vehicles require two shots on the same panel/weakpoint in order to destroy it.
There is one mission where you and a spotter go out and look for the enemy. Not sure if it was a fluke in how I approached taking out the soldiers or a flaw in the level design but after he spotted the first soldier my spotter became completely useless. I would have loved to have had more levels where your spot points out more enemy scouts and you have to take them out but it was not to be. Perhaps in future games we will see more use of this feature. I would love to see Sniper Elite move on to the Korean War, a war that has yet to be used in video games.
Sniper III also has a new feature where you can start a small fire in order to gain the attention of patrolling guards. I used it a few times but just like the option to throw a rock to gain their attention, it had mixed results. You have a few other items at your disposal: grenades, trip wire explosives, and pop up explosives. They work once you have recognized the patterns that the soldiers walk and they can help take out a few people here and there. I used them sparingly and only used the vehicle mine to disable them and then pick them off from afar.
Graphics
The graphics are a huge improvement now that the game is on the next gen consoles. the kill cam looks sharper and the maps are bigger than previous versions of the game. Overall it isn't much different than Sniper Elite V2 but it does look impressive.
Audio
The game sounds great, the bullets coming out you ping and shriek by and while there isn't a lot of talking in the game the characters feel authentic.
Verdict
Sniper Elite III is a great addition to the franchise that continues to improve with each new iteration. I happened to pick up the Collectors Edition, which included a deck of playing cards, a cabaret poster, range target and bullet pen, dog tags and a few blueprints, as well as some DLC. For the additional ten dollars it isn't a bad deal.
As for the game itself, the campaign is shorter than I would like and once you reach the end of the game finally eliminating your adversary is not as satisfying as it should have been since the whole story is chasing him down. Had the campaign been a little longer and the final confrontation been a little more emotional, I would have given the game a higher score. That said, it is a lot of fun and I look forward to the next one in the series.
Overall 7.5/10
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