Sniper Elite 3 Review

Sniper Elite 3 kicks off where Sniper Elite V2 ended: namely, with a Nazi waiting for the high-speed bullet lobotomy he’s always wanted.

As ever you’ll get to enjoy the kill in all its gory glory, thanks to the returning X-ray kill cam, showing you every breaking bone and tearing organ of anyone who comes into your sights. To try and take this idea step further, X-ray kills on vehicles, such as tanks and truck, have also been thrown into the mix.

These vehicles play a large part in the story that sees you tracking down General Vahlen and his secret project: The Ratte, a massive tank. During missions you may be sent to destroy anti-aircraft turrets, or rescue a prisoner from a hilltop fort, and most, for some reason, always seem to end by asking you to duke it out with a(nother) giant tank.

Unfortunately, the structure of the missions always seems to be off. Most of your time will be spent sneaking around executing takedowns, and you spend very little time doing much sniping. This is down to the new large, open areas that are supposed to allow you to approach a situation the way that you want. Instead, the objectives still have you crossing the area in a linear fashion. The only reasons to explore the environment are the collectibles on offer. Collectibles…

Where multiplayer is concerned, the modes are all various forms of deathmatch. You have the standard team and free-for-all, but the most interesting ones are based around the Sniper Elite gameplay. Campaign co-op is included, which makes better use of the large areas as you can attack from different locations, but this is held back by the lack of local split-screen.

Sniper Elite 3 has its moments, but they are too few and far between. Every so often you’ll find yourself enjoying it, but that soon fades as you enter a pattern of shooting hundreds of dudes until you can move forward and snipe again.

Version Tested: Xbox One.