If I had played this game alone, my rating would have probably been a bit lower. I played the game with a friend in coop though with "Axis Invasions" enabled the whole time. My goodness, what a fun feature this invasion system is. Those invasions resulted in many tense and really funny moments. That is about the only improvement compared to the previous series entry though. We played the game from start to finish on authentic (the highest) difficulty, but the simulated wind in this game nearly never mattered at all. That was different in Sniper Elite 4 as the wind was a much bigger factor to consider and thus made hitting the target over long distances a lot more difficult but also a lot more fun. The levels are rather impressive as they are highly detailed and often very expansive. We liked about half of the maps quite a lot, the other half was only fine. The gore system seems to be exactly the same as in the previous game, which is a shame as there are still a lot of janky and unrealistic looking killcams. We mostly ignored the story part of the game and we do not regret it. It would be interesting if the next sniper elite took place in a whole different time period, maybe the modern day, maybe in the future or maybe even in medieval times using bows, crossbows and slingshots. All in all I would say we had a lot of fun with the game, with the best feature by far being the addition of the invasion system.

Endlich Teil 5 nachgeholt, nachdem es mir bei Release zu verbuggt war um weiterspielen zu wollen.

Ich bin weiterhin zwiegespalten was das Spiel angeht. Sniper Elite ist eine Reihe die sich, zumindest nach Teil 2, mit jedem Nachfolger kontinuierlich weiterentwickelt hat. Und zwar so sehr, dass es den Vorgänger jedes mal quasi obsolet und schwer spielbar machte.
Teil 2 war fast ein durchgehendes Actionspiel, das wollte Teil 3 fixen, wurde dann aber viel zu Stealth-Fokussiert, das wollte 4 fixen und 4 funktionierte dann endlich, aber du warst offensiv viel zu stark, das wollte Teil 5 fixen indem der Nahkampfmove nun nicht mehr bei jedem Gegner klappt.
Aber es ist auch das vierte Spiel (das siebte wenn wir die Zombie-Spin-Offs mitzählen) mit beinahe identischen Mechaniken, die aber auch schon 2012 etwas hinterherhinkten.

Und irgendwann hört leider auch son bisschen das Interesse auf das selbe Spiel in leicht besserer Form und in hübscher zu spielen. Außerdem ist der Qualitätssprung diesmal so marginal, dass es sich zum ersten mal nicht anfühlt wie "Der Vorgänger, aber in besser", sondern "der Vorgänger... aber mit neuen Maps".

Was ich seltsam fand, war dieser neue Fokus darauf mir anzuzeigen wie laut, leise, tödlich oder non-lethal ich war. Zum ersten mal in der Reihe haben wir nicht tödliche Knockouts, Sprengstoff der Feinde bewusstlos macht, Holzgeschosse... aus Holz. Ähnlich wie in Teil 3 sind wir wieder mehr in kleineren Orten und Close Quarters Gebieten unterwegs, gleichzeitig wurde aber auch die Effektivität der Welrod massivst generft.
Geräuschsmaskierung ist nun an mehr Orten möglich, wurde aber auch gefährlicher, da Feinde nun über eine höhere Reichweite nachgucken wollen was da denn so rattert.
Gleichzeitig sind Schalldämpfer für Scharfschützengewehre viel häufiger, was aber auch gar nicht mehr so wichtig ist, da Schüsse sowieso nicht mehr auf so eine hohe Reichweite hörbar sind.
Das Spiel ist weiterhin verwirrt wie sehr es in irgendeine bestimmte Richtung abdriften möchte. Und ich versteh den Konflikt: Wie soll man ein Scharfschützen-Stealth-Shooter machen, ohne, dass es zu sehr Action oder zu sehr Stealth wird und trotzdem noch irgendwas mit Scharfschützengewehren zutun hat? Sniper Elite hat keine Lösung dafür, Sniper Ghost Warrior hat keine Lösung dafür und mir persönlich fällt auch keine ein.
Deshalb remixte man son bisschen den Fokus vom letzten Spiel und streute so ein bisschen Hitman rein, ohne, dass es sonderlich viel ausmacht.
Das Ergebnis ist ein Spiel bei dem ich immer noch nicht den gewünschten Flow gefunden habe und ein Big Deal daraus gemacht wurde wie tödlich ich bin, obwohl es ja andere Möglichkeiten geben würde... in einem Spiel mit Nazis.

Ich kann mir vorstellen es bald nochmal zu spielen, weil es noch einiges zu erledigen gibt.
Es ist aber der erste Teil der Reihe der mich weder im Fortschritt den er machte, noch im Kontrast zum restlichen Shootermarkt in irgendeiner Weise ge-wow't hat. Es ist einfach ein weiteres Sniper Elite.

Y’know what, I kinda love it.

I think I've played all 5 of the Sniper Elite games, and I have some fond memories of the earliest ones (even if I can't differentiate them), but it would really be pushing it to consider it amongst my favourite video game series. The games were always kind of mediocre, relying on the x-ray killshots to draw attention to them; and yet they had this kind of baseline enjoyability that kept me coming back (as a WW2 FPS fan), and so when I heard the fifth one might actually be a legitimately good game, well, colour me intrigued.

And boy oh boy, it really is. Gone is the whiff of mediocrity when it comes to most of it, with the game sporting some truly fine FPS/TPS action, enjoyably semi-open maps, different ways of approaching objectives, beautiful visuals, and more tasty Nazi headshots than you can shake your cane at.

It's not all perfect of course. The story is as dumb and pointless as they come, even with the AAA level of sheen (though I did appreciate the tiny injections of diversity in the cast, even if I don't think I can differentiate any of the characters on anything but their appearance - where the diversity helps too, I guess). The upgrade mechanic is okay as a minor carrot for a while, but the upgrades are mostly boring and I didn't feel the need for half of them. The weapon upgrade system relies on finding workbenches so if you're looking for anything specific, good luck (ultimately I just googled where to get the sniper silencer). And there are so many options when it comes to attachments and such that I personally felt overwhelmed and mostly stuck with the first thing that worked for my style.

But it just goes to show how good the game is at what it's good at that those are just minor complaints. I ignored most of the writing, as you are anyway wont to do usually as an FPS fan, and took from the upgrades and weapons what I wanted and left the rest at that, because what I wanted the most was to already get into another map and enjoy the moment-to-moment action and gameplay.

Though even then, I played 4-5 maps, then felt it was getting a bit samey, and took a break. A few months later I returned, played 2 more maps, and took a break. And then some time after I returned, finished the game, and wanted more. Partly because I had expected the 9th map to be, y’know, a proper map, but it's such an anti-climatic joke that you can't help but feel like something’s missing. The DLCs are priced preposterously high (at least if you only care about the maps) so I can't imagine getting them without a sale.

Be that as it may though, leaving one wanting might be a good strategy because I sure am looking back at the game with rosier eyes than I had at first, and I feel an urge that the alternate gamemodes are unlikely to satisfy, even if I'm desperate to try (the Axis Invasion is pretty much dead, right?)

So as I said, I kinda loved it; and god, I hope the DLC goes on sale soon.

It's a great entry into the series. Sniping itself feels good, although the maps aren't too tailored to long range sniping unless you really force it. Lots of sneaking around and CQB. My main issue is with the Hitman-ification of Sniper Elite. Lots of levels are in massive buildings with lots of rooms and soldiers, and CQB seems to be a major focus, which is weird what with CQB being the worst aspect of a game series named "Sniper Elite". Hiding bodies etc all seemed pretty unnecessary. But some of the levels are great, like Levels 4, 5, 6 and 8, with 8 being my favourite of the lot. I particularly disliked the layout of level 3, as the central building of the map is massive with not many sniping opportunities inside. Played it on Gamepass so can't comment on DLC, but I've heard some of the DLC levels are quite good.

Quick note on Axis invasion: It's a nice idea and has potential, but in execution plays out pretty poorly.

I am personally not so into the series that I'd replay levels multiple times, but I played on Authentic difficulty throughout and got 3 stars on each mission, and it was reasonably challenging. Overall, a pretty good experience, but still doesn't recreate the magic of Sniper Elite V2 for me.

Was also weird to have all the stealth and lethality ratings. Why would I use non-lethal bullets? It's a game about killing Nazis, what gives?

So, I got to play the previous game from the franchise from a Ps Plus free game, and I had a lot of fun playing it, but it was one of those experiences where the gameplay stood out more than anything else. To come to the next game there was a lot that the game improved and then once coming out of it I felt mixed then the last game. The big focus was the world map and while it felt massive there seemed to be depth. The problem I felt was there wasn't really much enjoyment traveling this map, like I can see the many ways I can approach my task the point of getting to points A & B was annoying, and from a stealth game, trying not to get caught was an issue. Also, the enemy spotting you instantly at any moment you get caught was annoying, and instead of feeling like I could improvise and just approach the task a different way I had to restart my last auto-save. Overall, I think the game was fun but for me, there were some holes in the design whether it was me or the way the level was designed I felt like at some points I had fun and at some, I had to be picky and decide whether or not to restart.

5 adds xray melee kills and further expands the focus on the customization system but really there's not much different from 4 here. It's the best entry in the series yet, but Rebellion simply continues their tradition of barely improving the game while continuing to sell the same DLC redesigned (Hitler ) as well as cosmetic DLC that should be 100% unlockable.

The mission maps are significantly bigger than 4 and have lots of objectives and collectibles but that isn't always a good thing. Prepare for a lot of save scumming in missions like level 1 or level 4 due to their length. Also, there aren't really a lot of new weapons - if any - in SE5.

Still it's a fun experience. You can turn off the invasion - Dark Souls drop in pvp - and probably should if multiplayer isn't your thing.

SE5 is more of the same, more of the veeery same in fact. It's quite similar to its predecessor SE4 but at the sametime Rebellion somehow managed to take some missteps and downgraded some portion of the game while trying to improve it. I am not the biggest fan of those huge open areas. Mission designs are still incredibly primitive after 5 damn consecutive games. You can no longer carry the enemy arsenal with you, pick up and then drop only. Irritating checkpoints at times and crouch running getting removed... All combined, it was frustrating.