Furthermore, on each shot you will need to take into account the drop distance on your bullets and the direction and speed of the wind. On harder difficulties the HUD is removed and the tags that you make through your binoculars do not highlight for you. When scoping in on an enemy or other target a convenient reticle guides you as to whether you will make the shot or not, turning amber when you are close and red when you are guaranteed a hit. The difficulty on Normal verges on easy as most of the work is done for you, and the AI is laughably dumb. The campaign has eight stages to it, and depending on how much you wish to complete in each level can take you anywhere from forty minutes to two hours to complete.
Nearly every kill you make with the sniper ends in this way and perhaps worryingly it never gets old seeing your hapless target’s innards or more satisfyingly, gonads, disintegrating to the chimes of XP markers: “TESTICLE SHOT” “LONG DISTANCE” “GHOST KILL”, flash up on screen providing a delightful feedback loop for your efforts. If it’s a hit you follow the bullet’s trajectory, burrowing its way through the air to land in your target, his blank unaware face staring out as his lower jaw disintegrates into pieces. The sexual parallels are further exemplified in the process to set up these gloriously violent kills you lie down, hold your breath, steady yourself, line up your shot then squeeze the trigger, your bullet erupting from the end with an explosive excitement.
The visceral X-Ray kills that are a staple of the series are again on display with slow motion close ups of bullets penetrating the body with bones splintering and organs deflating to the sounds of groans and squelching that are outrageous in their implications. The sniping is what Sniper Elite 4 is about, though, and it is violence porn in the extreme. You will spend much of your time sniping, but should your cover be blown there are ways to shoot yourself out of trouble which is very welcome. In addition you can take a small amount of consumable items with you, such as medkits, as well as grenades and mines and traps. It isn’t all about sniping, at the start of each mission you can select your loadout which includes a sniper, a secondary weapon that ranges from an SMG to a LMG, and a pistol. In some maps there are environmental factors that can assist you in this, for example in the first level planes are flying overhead that will drown out any shot you make for a short time, in other maps there is equipment that you can tamper with that will make a noise on a semi-regular basis that can mask your progress. As a sniper, your primary resource is stealth so planning shots is an important part of each level. They range from cliff-side rural areas with bivouac camps to explore, to small towns complete with narrow streets, to a huge monastery and castello, to huge military complexes with bunkers and missile silos. The maps are huge, complicated, and beautifully detailed. All you have to do is complete the primary objective to finish the level, but there are always secondary objectives that can keep you busy for some time and enable you to explore as much of the level map as possible.
You are entirely free to approach each level any way you wish. There are vehicles, gas canisters, flammable containers, even suspended objects precariously suspended above hapless soldiers ready to be dropped on top of them. Stealth is key, so each mission begins the same way: find a high point and spend some time scanning the area with your binoculars and tagging key enemies and other points on the map that can help you in your objectives. The campaign moves from Africa to Italy this time, and much like previous games you are dropped behind enemy lines to carry out objectives for the Allied Forces. Once again you are in the shoes of veteran sniper Karl Fairburne as he takes the Nazi’s down single handed, one nut shot at a time, and furthers the Allied forces efforts.
Rebellion’s World War II stealth sniping game returns and manages to build on the work of the third installment with a robust campaign that provides an enormous amount of freedom to the player, as well as a full co-operative experience and a number of multiplayer modes.