Sniper Elite 5....

Even if I got to play the games in reverse order Sniper Elite has been a franchise that has grown on me. (Sniper Elite 4: here, here and here; Sniper Elite 3 here, here and here & Sniper Elite v2 here).  

SE 4 is a great game. SE 3, good as it is let me see the upgrades, changes, tweaks and all the good things(including visuals) that any great iteration should have in going from 3 to 2 and more importantly 3 to 4. 3 to 4 set the bar high in my expectations for what 4 to 5 would bring. 

I've had SE 5 on my Steam wish list since it was announced but seeing it was going to be 'free' for anyone with an Xbox Ultimate subscription, I had to try it out first via it.

My immediate gut reaction was not of joy. The controls had changed (they were the same in 3 and 4) so it was jarring to play 5 and not be keyboard intuitive. It's all about the little things. 

There are small (at least for me) bugs, mainly with initial loading of the game(I presume due to the anti cheat software it comes with), some animations glitchyness. The worst for me is in reloading a manual save mid mission; Which can leave you not where you were before. E.g. From behind cover I save before taking on a patrol, I get killed and reload the save only to appear on top of the cover I was behind and the patrol kills me(a few times) because of that. 5th load and I was in a position that was OK to go on from(retreat and resave). 

The slowmo xray shots are there and the same, except for the brain wobble. Maybe it's just me but there's something diffident and off about it..... For me it seems to be the brain mushy wobble is lacking. That satisfying mush of brain isn't the same, so in turn the xray slow mo in all is less satisfying. One mission in an I'd turned it all down to the basics instead of all in with it all the time. 

Seeing SE 5 makes me consider it a return to 3's form, maybe even v2 in a lot of ways rather than a leap forward like going from 3 to 4 did. Not in size but in open freedom. Area's may be SE 4 sized but they're SE 3 broken up into small parcels. It may be accurate to the French countryside but it leaves a lot of area's filled with nothing; And a lot of restricted access. Yea it all looks good, a farm building looks great, lots of details inside etc etc.... But there's no real reason to be at it(not even for collectibles), no advantage to it other than fancy window dressing to fill a space thematically. 

It's also annoying to look at a wall in a field that's waist high and not be able to vault over it, never mind a knee height veg patch border. 

You can't hide in busses... Only long grass. Invisible walls are also very real and very numerous. Which compounds the AI problem of funneling through bottlenecks. Which is a downer as the AI(for the most part) is on par with trying to flank you; But they have the same rules as you and if that means going down a full field to go thought the only 'gate', then back up the field(opposite side of the wall) to where you are... It's easy to cause a fuss and then just sit and hammer them all when they come near. It feels 'off'. Funneling was always a thing in Sniper Elite but it's so very very obvious in 5 and so in turn makes the A.I. feel stupiderererer than in 4 or 3.

That's not to say it's all easy. The a.i.lay down good suppressive fire and can still flank you. They do squad tactics better when there's more space to do actual fire and maneuver.

That said for me that suppressive fire seems to turn from area of effect too pin point accurate to easily; As they fire on the wall your behind, crouch walking away (still in cover from the wall) a round suddenly kills you. It feels off. It feels like the A.I. cheating. Too aware, too accurate, too soon.

Speaking of crouching, crouch running is a no go now. If you run you automatically stand up. Which sucks.

The whole game feels like it's trying to be more simulation but not doing it in a convincing way. Same'ol same'ol works so much better than trying to rework what wasn't broken.

The game still has its essential mechanics. Sneaking and enemy take-downs. There's a lot of good but the little changes of advancement in 5 are making a big difference for my play experience. Can you tell I'm not liking them.

One thing I turned off straight away was the co-op where another player can hunt you on maps.

One thing I think I like are the skill points. Is it keyed to enhance co-op play more than solo, I think yes.

But it has the potential to make a play-style all your own, even solo.

Map design is (imho) sloppy in a lot of ways. Take the first map you start on... It may be a seaside map but the number of convenient scramble nets is jarring. I don't even recall one scramble net on the port map form the main campaign in SE 4. Yea yea SE 5 is what it is.

All that said and as much as the game is 'different' it is still enjoyable in parts. The main character is still the main character in every way. I'm just not all in on the game when I do play it; I'm not spending hours with it as I've done on 3 and 4. 

The gameplay quality of life improvements and improvements overall are overshadowed by all the variations from previous games in the series. As if previous iterations only had bad ideas on how to do things. SE 5 tries to reinvent the wheel. I'm not convinced by it but I'm plugging away at it. 

I'm glad I've not payed cash to buy it otherwise I'd say I'd be a bit disappointed. Time will tell if the game fades or grows on me.