Since the last time I've posted I've been playing the game and trying hard to 'like' it. More accurately(sniper pun?) trying to understand it. It has some good elements, it's 'just' the implementation that's disappointingly lacking; Bad and broken in ways that remind me so much of Ghost Recon Breakpoint's early days.... At least in my view.
In doing so I keep reflecting on my SE 3 and 4 experiences and they all seem superior in retrospect. 'Flaws' in them I thought at the time now pale when seeings SE 5's current 'state'. Even if SE 5 is your first SE game..... if you see what I've seen you'll not be 'happy'. I'm sure time and patches will 'help'. But for now.....
While my gameplay can be mainly influenced by mood, mood can only get you so far in playing a game when it's 'not at its best'. Either it's enjoyable or not and SE 5 does not make me want to play it.
Like I said before if I'd not gotten access to it via Xbox ultimate and had payed my cash for it I'd have been disappointed, more massively disappointed.
The graphics in SE 5 are great but the gameplay is lacking. The music is apt and adapts to whats going on and the overall ambiance engrossing. But those 'bugs' and overall 'jank', kills the game and any immersion for me.
Yes SE 5 'feels' and is janky a.f. The gif's above show the 'barriers'....
But there's also the 'getting stuck in the scenery ' issues. Which is more annoying if there hasn't been a recent manual or autosave done.
And as if invisible walls weren't bad enough a missing NPC target(had not spawned or had despawned)stole the show and sealed the deal and an uninstall from me. An enemy that isn't there(even if the map distance is saying yes) etc etc. Isn't a great thing...
Map 3 is the very epitome of what is wrong with sniping in the game. A large open area..... You can snipe all you want as far as you want with no real repercussions. All alerts and rushing guards... Just sniping idiot lemmings. Alerted npc's running towards you from 2 km away... Snipe Snipe, where's the fun in that... I mean where's the fun in that longterm. It's fun the first time but it gets old fast.
Of note as well are some audio lines your character speaks. Odd and out of place at times. Like killing and exploding halfway though a mission and when crossing a field for the 5th time triggers a line about how he should hide in the grass...
I love the way enemies will get hurt and limp. Or if they have an arm injury they will cradle it and use a pistol instead of their rifle. I really like the way enemy npc's react to their comrades being hit or injured, those reactions are immersive. There is gameplay, there's some good gameplay moments but it all gets overshadowd by the jank.
Trying hard to be stealthy is a challenge but it's one that grants the same end result as going full rambo; So I kept asking why bother. That stealthy effort does't feel like it's rewarded. Granted it's all in the players prerogative, mood and playstyles are a personal take on each map within the game mechanics. It's all doable how you like.
That said, the path of least resistance happens and more often than not it's easier to progress by brute force.
Nothings perfect and for this game I have no time to take each map perfectly. Besides the cost of going full Rambo getting hunted or triggering reinforcements that are supposed to make it harder.... It barley feels like there's any repercussions! Just more lemmings to shoot.
Besides after being sniped, shot, machine gunned and exploded the enemy looks around for 30 seconds and then calls ALL CLEAR. It may have been similar in the previous iterations but it's more pronounced in SE5 and it's noticeable as being a.i. stupid; And so your almost given the go ahead to blast away regardless. All clear as they walk back to patrol over the 10 bodies you gunned down.
Hidden and Dangerous 2 from back in the day could teach a huge lesson on alerted guards staying alerted and altering their ongoing behaviors never mind the previous SE games.
SE 5 is less about sniping and more about being a dedicated marksman(at a push). A subtle and yet massive difference of distinction for a game and it's playstyles under the banner Sniper.
SE 5 from what I've seen has lacked distance to be a sniper in an undetectable meaningful way. It's lacked subsonic sniper rounds; And wtf is with the wooden rounds to knock out enemies....
This is the first WW2 game I've seen that you can play a sniper and are given the tools to not kill any npc! I like that you have options but it seems that those options have taken away from the main reason for the games name. Or are wooden rounds a multiplayer thing. I count the invasion mode as multiplayer.
I've dome more 'sniping' with the silenced pistol than anything else!
Anyway, enemies in the game are lemmings regardless of difficulty. Yes they try to do some minor outflanking tactics and suppressive fire but it's not that great. I thought they were on map 1 but I guess it's very map and pathing on the map dependent. It's not 'real' a.i. they're just following the shortest route to you; And like your character they can't vault over small walls..... So up a field, through a gate, down a field they go, straight into your wall of bullets. A better call back to enemy a.i. environment tactics can also be given to the Brothers in Arms games(they were tricky).
The number of times I've been crouched in a room aiming through the doorway in this game..... The lemming factor is super real. At least in previous SE games the enemy tried to flush you out with grenades... Not in SE5 that I've seen!
Map 2 has a lot of road traffic(actual vehicles) and they are easy to ambush(they explode well with all the barrels they transport). Fun enough, but it's not enough for long-term meaningful gameplay.
NPC enemies are lemmings as I said; They all charge forward and soon enough with a good position they bottleneck into you. That is only so much fun for so long. Even changing up the 'difficulty'. But not even medium' feels balanced.
The gameplay balance is a delicate thing. Too easy a setting and it's too braindead easy, overly so; Too hard a setting and it's too punishing; Shoot you thought the scenery kind of punishing. The a.i. does not know the difference between cover and concealment. Mix in a players own playstyle and it's a blended generalized non specific WW2 shooter with some quirky mechanics(and that's being generous).
I don't know what this game is trying to be. The more I play the more I'm questioning why they did things, changed and designed mechanics as they did. All I'm seeing are the flaws. It's not a diamond in the rough it's a rough cut stone that should be rejected(or at least sent back for more work). Your mileage may vary. Maybe I'm being unlucky with the mechanics and in turn am judging it overly harsh.
Maybe my expectations were too high.
As for the multiplayer side I've no idea if that was done for longevity. Getting a human sniper to snipe you will become very tiresome once the maps are well known and a 'spot' becomes the goto place to essentially gank a player trying to do a mission(no wonder the balance is all over the place). I turned that option off from the start. If your into it then fair enough. I'd rather have a more playable single player game than have it be tuned to potential multiplayer elements(no wonder parts of the maps have no meaning to the solo campaign).
As usual with the PC vision played via Xbox Ultimate, the Xbox achievements are linked and the percentages are interesting.
33% of players finished the first map; 24% finished the second.....
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