While Rebellion Development’s Sniper Elite series may not resonate on the same level as a Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty title, the title shows a great deal of potential, especially if the developers would ever allow players some open world freedom with their sniping. The knock against the Sniper Elite series is that it possesses some great gameplay features, but the scenarios surrounding them lack the imagination required to take the title to tentpole status. Words like “generic” and “unconnected” have been used in describing the second installment.
However, recent announcements may provide a reason for hope. According to their latest press release, the concept of an open world will be introduced into the third entry into the Sniper Elite series (not counting the Nazi Zombies spinoff):
“We’re very excited to be working with 505 Games again on a sequel that will build on the highly successful Sniper Elite V2. We”ve got some great ideas to improve on what we did before and feedback from fans has been invaluable. Sniper Elite V2 was just the beginning of what we want to do with the franchise, there are things we didn’t have time to do before that we can really look at featuring this time. We want to focus on making this latest incarnation of Sniper Elite more of a sandbox game but also build on the awesome X-Ray Kill Cam and the atmospheric World War II setting. We’re looking forward to seeing what Sniper Elite fans and gamers in general make of the latest chapter in the story,” said Jason Kingsley, CEO, Rebellion.
The idea of sneaking around in World War 2 Europe, hunting targets of interest while moving in and out of burnt out buildings across the European countryside isn’t a bad one at all. Here’s hoping Rebellion and 505 can pull it off. Because the announcement trailer is more of a tease and due to its cinematic nature, none of this open world is shown.
Sniper Elite 3 will be coming to gamers in 2014 for all current and next gen game systems.