Then it hit me, “you’ve got 3 types of guns Peter, what’s the point of having these available if you’re just running around trying to find a spot where you can pick off your enemies” that completely changed my perspective on the game and I really started to enjoy it. Despite the stunning location of the “Spy academy” mission, I felt like I was playing a Metal Gear game, sneaking through the tight and narrow streets, shooting off my silenced pistol trying to not get seen whilst moving their bodies around so they wouldn’t be found and potentially give me away. I was a bit worried as the next 2 levels were very “anti-sniper”. Which is fine, that’s how it should be, but if you go fully prone laying on the floor then they just walk over you without batting an eyelid. Your view is blocked by a bush yet they can spot you, but then it goes to the other extreme as well as with most stealth games you can hide in “tall grass” to stop you from blowing your cover, however if they walk next to you, they spot you.

I mentioned earlier about enemies being able to spot you from impossible angles, which can be incredibly frustrating. At one point I almost put the controller down as I couldn’t hide behind a rock as it was behind one of those damn walls in the water which was ankle deep at most, so I thought, “Ok fine, they don’t want you going into water”, but then in a later level you walk under a bridge where the water is almost knee high! There are many ways to complete and traverse a level, but it can still feel like a very linear experience. Unfortunately, I ran into the same jumpy cutscene, (there was also another one later on) as well as those damn invisible walls. I also tried to play more stealthily as anyone who has played a multiplayer game with Ian with attest to how gun-ho he is! I re-did the first mission as I wanted to see if the difficulty changed or scaled down now that I was on my own it hadn’t, which isn’t a bad thing, just more of a challenge. The following night I went to start the single player campaign and found that single player and co-op are not separated, you can just jump in when you wish so long as the host has completed the level you want to tackle. There was also the fact that when one of us was spotted the AI seemed to instantly know where the other one of us were, so one mission down and I was a little worried I might be writing a negative review. I jumped straight into some co-op with fellow Xbox Tavern contributor Ian and was greeted with a few bugs, glitches, jumpy cutscenes and invisible walls (more on those in a bit) as well as the AI’s seemingly uncanny ability to be able to spot you from impossible angles.

I’ll be honest, it didn’t get off to a great start. I enjoyed the previous instalment in the series, Sniper Elite 4, so much it made it onto my honourable mentions list for games of the last generation, so suffice to say I was very looking forward to SE5. When I was given the chance to review Sniper Elite 5, there was no way I was saying no.

Sniper elite 5 review