Rebellion has Enemy at the Gates in its sights

Long-range combat is a staple of the series, but this game often brings things closer.

© REBELLION DEVELOPMENTS

PRACTICALLY OUR FIRST SHOT in Sniper Elite 5 goes through a luckless enemy soldier’s testicles. We were aiming for his head, but that doesn’t really matter right now. The WWII stealth-action series has long been known for its gory X-ray camera, a ‘reward’ for a nicely placed shot that shows the bullet smashing its way through skin and bone on its way out the other side. But we didn’t expect so many all at once.

They were set up for it, of course. Those soldiers manning the searchlights that night didn’t stand a chance, and neither do their compatriots who stand on ledges just asking to be pulled over, or investigate strange whistles coming from tall grass with not a thought for their personal safety. Having taken us around northern Africa and Italy in the past two installments, Sniper Elite arrives in France just in time for D-Day.

Every game from Call of Duty to Company of Heroes has taken us through the Normandy invasion, but Sniper Elite returns to the overused setting to wring new perspectives and stories out of it. It’s successful in this endeavor, and the game finds a new confidence and inventiveness in levels that should be familiar to us all by now. Fields, the approaches to villages containing German high command, hedgerows surrounding bunkers and radar installations, they’re all here, but something’s different.