Dial M for Mussolini.
The scorching sun and shifting sands of North Africa now a distant memory, the silent but deadly fight for freedom and liberty moves to the often-romanticized lands of Italy. On top of the Nazi regime, our grizzled hero, Karl, must deal with the fascists operating under Mussolini in this new, wildly expansive continuation of the series, Sniper Elite 4. Players now have larger opportunities and options to take down expansive armies with a sniper rifle on their backs and a few other tricks up their sleeves.
The demo I witnessed began at a beach town, somewhat resembling Naples, overtaken by soldiers. From a dev mode fly-through, Rebellion demonstrated just how large this map was, easily swallowing several stages from the previous game. The setting ran from the beaches into homes and part of the rocky terrain surrounding them, but more importantly, there was a huge sense of verticality. Players will now have lot of spots to hide while taking out enemies, and the map offers a variety of ways to shift around while being sought out by alert (i.e. not dead yet) soldiers.
Aside from the larger stages, I saw only a handful of the new features. Rebellion says they’ve worked hard on upgrading the enemy AI. First and foremost, soldiers are no longer stationed; instead, their AI’s interpretation of their duties will determine where they will hang out and patrol. This likely means that no two playthroughs should be exactly the same, keeping players on their toes and forcing them to really learn the map rather than enemy behavior. However, from what I saw, it wasn’t immediately apparent what improvements had been made to AI with regards to being alert and actively seeking Karl when he gets seen.
Although not new to the stealth genre, the fourth entry introduces a way to call enemies closer to Karl, using a whistle, as opposed to throwing rocks to distract them away. The Sniper Elite series has always had ways for Karl to leave traps, such as trip mines for soldiers but now the lure can be even more insidious. After taking out a soldier, replete with one of the many new x-ray kill animations added to the game, the body can be rigged with explosives. Utilizing this ability, some suspicious enemies won’t even be given a moment to seek you out before exploding.
Other new features include the ability to zero out the scope based on range, soldier hierarchy which affects behavior, more opportunities for environment kills beyond triggering explosives, and some mini-map improvements. The oculus Karl users to tag enemies on the map can also be used now to determine what weapons they are holding and sometimes other personal information about them. This kind of delves into psychic territory for a simple pair of binoculars, but Rebellion is hoping it’ll humanize the enemies a bit. With a high focus on extravagant murder, I found this feature extremely baffling, especially considering all the various letters and communications you can find, which serve a similar purpose more effectively.
Regardless, Sniper Elite 4 looks like it could be a definitive expansion of the gameplay fans love, and perhaps some of the improvements to AI and the maps could lure in new players. But of course, from a short demo in a noisy convention hall, it’s impossible to tell yet if the full length of the game will be worthwhile. Surely, I have some reservations about how the narrative and mission objectives will guide players. But for now, the murderous mayhem is refreshingly attractive again. We’ll see when it arrives on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and PC later this year.
