Sniper Elite V2 wasn’t a bad game, but it suffered from some poorly designed mechanics and a rather annoying AI. Sniping wasn’t particularly satisfying when enemies seemed to know your exact location after firing off your first round, a frustrating an unrealistic aspect of the game that made in challenging not in a pleasant way. Developer Rebellion is well aware of this, and as a consequence, it’s main focus with Sniper Elite 3 lies in providing a better gameplay experience and more realistic AI behavior. Of course, being a sniper will always involve relocating and moving around to avoid detection and getting surrounded, but it’s something that has to be believable and enjoyable at the same time.
There are two aspects through which Sniper Elite 3, Rebellion’s upcoming sequel, will try to improve this experience. First, the AI is getting improved and redesigned. Enemies will naturally still be looking for the source of the shot, but they will act more realistically and won’t be able to pin-point the source location outright. In addition, officers will issue orders and send out search parties to find you, so taking out military leaders will influence how effective the remaining troops will be and how they organize.
The other major aspect of improvement comes through level design. Being an effective sniper in a game that doesn’t allow vast, opened up levels is nearly impossible. To ensure you have amble places to snipe from, Sniper Elite 3 will feature much larger open-space levels that will allow you to be mobile and approach each encounter differently and in your own way. Since the game takes place in Africa this time around, there will be plenty of sand dunes to hide behind, but level diversity won’t be limited to desert-like areas. We’ve seen images of varied environments, from rocky peaks to more lush areas with plenty of vegetation. We also know players will have ample tools at their disposals for properly relocating and setting up ambushes, from the ability to use the environment against your foes, to explosives you can set up to cover your own back.
The new, large open-space levels will be opened up for exploration, and you’ll have to find vantage points similarly to Assassin’s Creed games, from which to look around and carefully plan each and every move towards your targets. And speaking of targets, once you’re set and you have your sights on some unsuspecting victims, you’ll see a familiar feature returning, mainly the X-ray Kill-cam. Players had mixed feelings about the kill-cam before, some arguing for it by stating it adds a nice touch of brutality and gore, others being annoyed by its repetitiveness. In the previous game, there was no way around the kill-cam. In Sniper Elite 3 though, you will most likely be able to set how often these kill-cams appear. Additionally, the team at Rebellion has done a great job in improving bone-shattering and overall bullet impact effects, so we’re likely to see more detailed effects and more diversity in terms of how Nazis die.
There’s not much waiting to be done for Sniper Elite 3. The game will be released on the 1st of July this year, on the PC, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS 3 and PS4. It has the potential to become a successful hit, but Rebellion needs to get everything right this time. Let’s hope they deliver a quality game. Are you anxious about sniping some Nazis once again?