Sniper Anger

Now I will be the first say I am the last person to effectively review a FPS game. I may play them and I may enjoy them or not, but really they are not my cup of tea. Now for those who didn't know Sniper Elite 3 came out on Tuesday and was a game many people have been looking forward to. In general terms the series has had great reviews balancing a challenge and fun. Upon release though you knew there was going to be problems. Why you may ask? Well the install size of the game was said to be 20GB but the day one patch for the release was replacing 14GB of it. If you can get your mind over that insanity I have the Reader Post of the week from Tomhorn giving his thoughts on the game. So have a read if you are interested in the series or the game in general.

OK, this is not a knee jerk reaction. I have been playing SE3 for a good few hours now and resisted the temptation to wade in with first impressions that could be deemed unfair.

As a long term player of the franchise from day 1 I'm mostly disappointed with this 3rd installment so far :(

Single player can be fun and engrossing, multiplayer is pants full stop.

My moans, in order of priority....

1) Why change the game mechanic/character control that was very nearly perfect in SEv2 to this? It's immersion breaking, awkward, clumsy and downright annoying most of the time. After getting used to the motion sickness we then have to fight to keep the character under a modicum of control and not become disorientated with that camera swinging wildly (yes, I do have my sensitivity carefully set). The inability to finely adjust positioning is also very bad....trying to pick an enemy off between a narrow gap is impossible. The slightest sideways movement always sends him too far.

2) Please, please bring back the 'get in cover' action key! I hate this auto cover crap because a>...it doesn't always work (by far) and b>...there's little if any feedback from the game to confirm that you're actually in cover (apart from looking for that text 'mouse 2 to emerge')...surely it adds a helluva lot to a sniper game to make a deliberate, conscious decision/action to hide by hugging a wall etc.?

3) AI are incredibly stupid, deaf and blind apart from when they're hyper alert and sensitive to the slightest noise.

4) The game, in the spirit of stealth, encourages the hiding of bodies in order to avoid detection however, he makes a helluva racket whilst carrying anyone thereby attracting attention from any npc within 50 meters!...I've lost count of the number of times I've been detected this way. I don't bother trying to hide them now.

There's more but I'm depressing myself writing this.....for me, it needs fixing badly.

There you have it. Have you played it? What do you think? Could this messing going on ruin the series? I want to thank Tomhorn for his contribution and everyone else who sent something in. As always this couldn't be done without you.

Now you can all enjoy your weekend in peace!