Author：Sniper Elite 5 Analysis and Improvement Scenarios

Contents

1. Highlights Design

As I expected, Sniper Elite 5 redoes the character skill system, and equipment system, and adjusts the mechanics of infinite stones based on the 4th generation. If you are interested in these improvements, you can read my previous article on Sniper Elite 4.

1.1 Plot & Mission

In Sniper Elite 4, the player’s main missions are issued by our superiors. In this game, each of our mission objectives is provided by the local resistance, and our mode of action has changed from passive acceptance of orders to proactive attacks. It is because of the player’s initiative to destroy the “sea monster operation” in time to protect the people of Washington and New York. I understand that this is designed to contrast with the rigidity of the American officer “acting on orders only”, but it also seems to negate the way the player acts in Sniper Elite 4. But on second thought, this is a cool game of personal heroism, we do not need to care too much, it is good enough.

Each chapter’s overworld animation is a telegram sent by the player to his superiors, as well as information from intercepted enemy telegrams. It serves to highlight the player’s heroic deeds, advance the plot, and clarify the objectives of subsequent missions.

Many side missions are also not collected through NPCs before the start of the level but are revealed only when they reach a specific location during the battle or collect certain valuable information. The missions are designed to better suit the player’s perilous situation of being deep behind enemy lines and lacking information.

1.2 Weapons & Craft Table

The equipment system has received a significant redo: guns can be unlocked by raiding levels and completing specific kill challenges. Each accessory can be unlocked by finding a craft table on the map. Players are free to modify their weapons to deal with a variety of different combat situations.

Each weapon and accessory displays information about the item’s strengths and weaknesses, making it easier for players to get started.

1.3 Level Design

Sniper Elite 5’s maps are even better than the 4th generation: in addition to higher quality art, setting up semi-body bunkers, corpse storage cabinets, and climbable vines in appropriate locations provides enough ways to kill and battle routes for players who prefer to sneak around, significantly enhancing the sneaking experience.

1.4 Functional Props

There are a variety of functional props to pick up on the map: crowbars, wire cutters, and dynamite kits. Crowbars and wire cutters can open specific containers, cut through barbed wire, and alarm wires; dynamite kits can blow open locked safes and doors to obtain useful information and props.

Unlike Sniper Elite 4, the number of explosive kits is much smaller, and many places need to use explosive kits (destroy artillery, tanks, blow up door locks, safes, etc.), which requires players to plan wisely and find and kill enemies carrying door lock keys and safe codes as much as possible to conserve the use of explosive kits.

1.5 Enemy Helmet

Sniper Elite 5 places more emphasis on sneaking, so all of a player’s firearms can be fitted with silencers for sneaking. This also means that the player’s percentage of sneak kills will continue to rise, increasing the chances of hitting the back and side. If the silencer can kill the enemy in one hit every time, it will significantly reduce the game difficulty and combat strategy. Therefore, the designers strengthened the soldier’s helmet so that it can resist a less powerful bullet or a sniper bullet (ricochet) that has been shot off. This can reduce the player’s margin of error, so that submachine guns and pistols can not easily kill the enemy in seconds, to be foolproof must be close to killing, increasing the risk of players sneaking.

1.6 Marking

In Sniper Elite 4, the player simply clicks on the observed enemy to mark it successfully and continuously get the real-time location of that enemy, which is overpowered: we may just see enemies’ helmet, but because the player’s hand speed is very fast to successfully mark the enemy, it becomes a system that examines the player’s hand speed. Sniper Elite 5, on the other hand, requires the player’s aim to be continuously placed on that enemy model for a short period to complete the mark, which is more in line with player expectations: I need to observe the enemy for a while to see his soldier type, the weapon he carries, and his current behavior. If the sniper rifle is open, the target will take longer to mark the enemy, because it’s too easy for the player to fire during the aiming process.

2. Improvement Scenarios

2.1 Tank

The tank in Sniper Elite 5 is too powerful: players can not kill the enemy inside the tank through the gap, and can only use anti-tank weapons such as armor-piercing ammunition and rocket launchers to attack the tank. If you want to successfully destroy the tank you need to detonate the tank and engine inside the tank, and these weak spots are generally located in the rear of the tank, if you can not clear the surrounding enemy troops will be difficult to reach. Tanks can patrol 360° and expose the player’s position, and after locating the player will fire a wall penetrating anti-personnel shells, which is a very big threat.

I think it is a very good improvement to improve the strength of the tank, but the player’s means to deal with the tank is too convergent: look for anti-tank weapons, if there happen to be anti-tank weapons around (usually, there will be anti-tank weapons where there are tanks), the player still needs to target the weak parts of the tank to attack to ensure damage to the tank; if there happen to be no anti-tank weapons around, then the player needs to first use armor-piercing bullets If there are no anti-tank weapons around, players need to break the tracks on both sides of the tank, then clear the other enemy troops around the tank, go around the back of the tank to attack the engine or detonate the explosive package; if players do not have armor piercing ammunition, they can only sneak around the tank.

I think we should still keep the settings of driver and gunner, and increase the damage factor of tank parts on this basis: players can use focus mode to see the position of driver and gunner in different tanks when using anti-tank weapons to bombard the tank, they will also cause damage to the tank crew, if the driver and gunner are injured, they will temporarily reduce the tank’s ability to move and attack, and the tank will recover after a short bandage; if the driver and gunner die, they will permanently reduce the tank’s ability to move and attack. If the driver and gunner die, the tank’s ability to move and attack will be permanently reduced; players can also use armor-piercing ammunition to burst the tank’s oil barrel, which will cause a fire inside the tank and cause continuous damage to the tank’s occupants, who can put out the fire, but if they are unable to do so within a limited time (injured occupants are less efficient, and dead occupants cannot put out the fire), the tank will be detonated.

The flare gun should also be adjusted: players can “throw” the flare like a bazooka, but the flare should be launched into the air, so the bomber knows the location of the enemy, which led to a funny scene in the course of the game, the player launched a flare to the ground can also attract air raids. Designers who want to retain this mechanism (after all, the world view of this work has come to 1944, the United States has entered the war, air raids on Germany in the plot is reasonable), you can adjust the launch mechanism of the flare: when the first pick up the flare gun, should pop up the tutorial of this prop: right click to enter the waist shot perspective, while the object inside the star to increase the dotted line directly above, representing the vertical height line of the target to be shot to strike The player will then connect the solid line arrow between the muzzle of the player’s gun and the target’s launch point, representing the direction of the firing. By clicking on the launch, the player will fire a flare towards the target launch point in the air to summon an air strike. When the player successfully fires, all enemy forces around the player will determine the player’s current position as the enemy’s position (marked in red) - because firing a flare is too much of an eye-catcher.

2.2 Determination of Bullet Change

The bullet change determination is a new mechanic added to Sniper Elite 5, which allows players to make one determination when changing bullets for their weapon, and if they successfully click within the prescribed area, they will significantly shorten the time for this bullet change and thus get into combat faster.

I’ve always had my doubts about this mechanic, and I still think it’s a redundant design: the new bullet change mechanic didn’t improve my game experience at all, but became an eyesore that drew my attention. The bullet change mechanism is suitable for PVE zombie games that require frequent firing or PVP games that examine players' reaction speed, while Sniper Elite 5 is a cool game that offers a sneaky, sniping experience. I will not encounter the swarm of enemies trying to fight me in close quarters, I encounter more snipers who shoot with me from a hundred meters away; I will not encounter the Phoenix Warrior clad in heavy armor and need to take advantage of the time to change bullets from machine guns to kill the enemy first. We are snipers, we will always use as few bullets as possible, and as little sound as possible to solve the difficult enemy. Even players who like to raid do not encounter hundreds of enemies: because our enemies are soldiers using long-range weapons, not unconscious zombies.

While changing bullets, I often plan which enemy to kill next, observe the enemy’s movement or watch for undetected enemies. I had a lot of information to gather during the bullet change process to improve my mission success rate. With the new bullet change mechanism, I was distracted by the UI popping up repeatedly, so much so that sometimes I was killed by an overlooked grenade for the sake of completing the decision.

2.3 AI

2.3.1 AI Behavior Optimization

The AI of the new elite snipers is not ideal: when the player makes a sound, if the elite sniper is not watching this direction, he does not turn his gun to find the player; if the player is standing below the elite sniper, he does not pull out his sidearm to fight in melee. The AI of the elite snipers should be optimized to make these enemies a real threat to the player. You can also try to make these snipers wear ghillie suits and lie down in the grass to snipe players instead of standing stupidly at a high point waiting to be found by players.

Another thing that disappointed me was that when an enemy standing guard was killed by the player and moved the corpse, the other enemies did not go on alert due to the disappearance of that companion. I don’t know if it was because I was not playing on a high difficulty (the game’s default difficulty) that this mechanic was not triggered. If the mechanic has indeed been removed, I hope to re-experience it in the next generation of the game. The disappearance of a soldier triggering an alert is an excellent experience.

2.3.2 AI Observable Range Optimization

The mechanics of AI detection are not optimized, and enemies in Sniper Elite 5 are still able to trigger alerts by looking at the player’s hair. The player can also be seen behind some cover (stone walls and firewood stacks). These are designs that do not conform to common sense. The rate of alert triggered by seeing small parts should be reduced appropriately, and the rate of alert triggered by seeing larger parts should be capped.

2.4 Rat Bombs

Mouse bombs are only allowed on one level: they can be placed at the bottom of a shelf and explode when an enemy notices them. This prop and “place a bomb on the enemy corpse, when the enemy observing the corpse close to blowing up the enemy” way of killing highly overlapping and does not match the world view, rather than the new “use poison to kill the enemy” way of killing design, so it is recommended to delete.