Sniper Elite 5 - coming May 25/26th, 2022

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:25 pm

Ha! I thought the same thing about the PaK36, but there's actually an AA gun right near that area you need to take out. I know exactly where you are - just finished that map last night. When I arrived, I was like - that's not an AA gun! And then I poked around a bit and was like, "ohhh...I see you now, sneaky bastards!"

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:32 pm

Smoove_B wrote: Wed Jun 08, 2022 10:25 pm Ha! I thought the same thing about the PaK36, but there's actually an AA gun right near that area you need to take out. I know exactly where you are - just finished that map last night. When I arrived, I was like - that's not an AA gun! And then I poked around a bit and was like, "ohhh...I see you now, sneaky bastards!"

I know, I just deleted what I wrote up about the PaK 36 because I didn't want to sound like more of a dummkopf than I already am

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 9:32 am

If you're on map 3, or planning on playing map 3 again at some point, and you haven't already done this, spend some time

Spoiler:

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 10:50 am

Finished mission 6 last night, that's the landing zone one. Was very impressed by... (spoiler if you haven't played that mission)

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 11:07 am

hepcat wrote: Thu Jun 09, 2022 9:32 am If you're on map 3, or planning on playing map 3 again at some point, and you haven't already done this, spend some time

Spoiler:
outside the spy training school. there's some hilarious dialogue between the German soldiers trying to sound American that's worth listening in on.

Spoiler:

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 1:42 pm

Nice catch. I must have missed that one!

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 8:19 pm

I mean, did I need to hunt down all three snipers guarding the bridge and slip my knife into them? No. Did I enjoy it? Every second.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Thu Jun 09, 2022 9:10 pm

I hear ya. I do the same thing when playing Barbie’s Adventure Island.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:11 pm

Do the collectibles actually unlock anything worthwhile? Or does running around searching for them just burn time?

coopasonic · Post by **coopasonic** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 7:48 am

I am pretty sure they just unlock a feeling of pride and completeness. Not 100% because I haven't unlocked that feeling personally. Also achievements.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 8:14 am

Do they give you experience points? I thought they did.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:11 am

They may, but I don't see that I'm going to be running all that short on XP.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sun Jun 12, 2022 10:46 am

I think the benches are the only collectibles that provide a direct benefit. But yes, they do also provide XP (which can unlock more guns and more gun options).

Also, there is no way anyone is finding any of the Stone Eagles on M7 without a guide. That was the first time I actually yelled at my monitor in this game.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:48 pm

jztemple2 · Post by **jztemple2** » Tue Jun 14, 2022 11:51 pm

Oops, that reminds me, I have one more results screen to post as well:

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Wed Jun 15, 2022 10:25 am

When I go back to this (I made a return to Elden Ring as I'm now only about 80 hours from finishing it), I'm going to tweak the difficulty settings some more. The game has a fantastic array of switches you can enable/disable. I tried it without the focus (which seems kind a bit too powerful after a while), but it was way too hard for me without it at the time. But I may try it again turned off as stealth is just too easy in this game even with the sharpshooter elite difficulty selected.

I also need to see if there's an iron mode type mode in the settings as I think I also abuse the save/load option too.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Thu Jun 16, 2022 9:32 pm

Holy crap. I just went back and re-played the first mission using the SREM-1 and only an iron sight. It's like playing a completely different game. Reminded me more of Band of Brothers (the video game). Very few insta-kills on my end so the enemies would get wounded and stagger. Or they'd be incapacitated and their friends would try to come in and save them. Much closer combat. Would recommend trying it after finishing a level on a more traditional path. I wasn't even using scout binoculars first. Just sorta rolling in and seeing what would happen.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:48 pm

I'm about halfway through the game, and I think I'm starting to get a little burned out. I am going to continue, but I'm going to give up on collectibles and on achieving 'perfect' stealth.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 7:52 pm

I forget which map it was (#7?) where I was legitimately impressed with anyone that could stealth it. Things escalated...quickly.

But yeah, I re-did the second map with iron sight only and it really does feel like a different game. As it turns out, when you don't one-shot kill Nazi's the AI responds in unexpected ways. Also, with the iron sights, I am king of the stomach/intestine/testicle shot. Trying to guess bullet drop without all the helpers on is much harder.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:01 pm

I finished mission 5 going with effective stealth rather than perfect stealth. By perfect stealth I mean finding a room with three people and taking all three out without any of them noticing that something is going on - no open combat, no 'Player Sighted', no bodies seen. By effective stealth I mean taking all three out without any of them being able to react meaningfully - none shoot me, raise an alarm, or do anything to alert others. It's so much faster and less fiddly.

hepcat · Post by **hepcat** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:18 pm

One thing I’ve noticed is that any time I use whistle and try to lure a soldier to my hiding spot for a stealth kill, it will only ever pull one. That makes it a little too easy to just whittle down groups. I hope they address this when I get back to Sniper 5….if they haven’t already, that is.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 10:22 pm

I've been doing a lot more baiting and trap setting. When I toss bottles, it seems to attract more than one. I've never used the whistle, but I guess I can try.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:44 pm

I've never used it, and only used bottles a couple of times. It's rare that more than two are in the same place without one walking off after a minute.

Isgrimnur · Post by **Isgrimnur** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:58 am

You can cold cock a helmetless enemy with a bottle to the head.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 9:16 am

That I have done - mostly as a side activity trying to get one of each ribbon.

I maxed out all of my skills during mission 5, BTW. There is plenty of XP, especially if you're going for the harder playstyles (and doubly so if it's a playstyle that requires quickloading a lot.)

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:03 pm

From mission 5. It's funny that being less stealthy got me a stealthier score (although I was only being less careful for the second half.) I have since bumped up the difficulty to Sniper Elite (Hard) across the board. /edit - and all of my kill cams are now at minimal. I want a surprise now and then, not a show with every shot.

One thing I have noted - an extra observation on my earlier comments about stealthy sniping being less effective this time - is that there is fewer natural sound masks than in the past. A couple of missions have had artillery pieces that gave a very periodic map-wide sound mask, but that sort of thing - passing planes, thunder, explosions, etc. used to be a lot more common.

I have found more opportunities for sniping as I've gotten access to subsonic ammo, but to be fair, you only get that - and only 15 rounds - halfway through the game.

I also dislike that they've removed manual tagging (hold to tag), and with it, the ability to remove tags you no longer need. The result is a screen cluttered with disabled trucks and accidentally tagged resources by the end of each level.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:30 pm

Blackhawk wrote: Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:03 pm
I have found more opportunities for sniping as I've gotten access to subsonic ammo, but to be fair, you only get that - and only 15 rounds - halfway through the game.

That's not my experience? I'm still only on the first map, and I've found subsonic rifle and smg ammo already.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 1:54 pm

Subsonic pistol has been fairly common, SMG has been hit-or-miss, but subsonic rifle ammo has been really, really rare (and I had every collectible on the first four maps, so I'm pretty sure I looked around pretty well.) Not non-existent, but there were at least a couple of maps where I found zero, or didn't find any until the very end. They really want you to use suppressors + subsonic ammo for your stealth sniping this time around, but you don't have reliable access to both until you're halfway through.

I know that I'm coming off as complaining a lot about the game, but it's more... disappointment in its gameplay shift than real dissatisfaction with it in and of itself. I am really enjoying the game. It's still a good game. It's a lot of fun, and while the levels aren't idea gameplay wise, they're a nice change from the predictability of modern level design, and have tons of detail and atmosphere. In fact, I really enjoyed mission 5, with the rain and mud, the sea, and especially the Kraken... location. But these days I'd lump Sniper Elite in with the myriad stealth/action titles rather than with the much more limited 'sniper' genre it used to be in (and to be fair, SE 4 was halfway there already from what I remember - the sniping was best in SE 3.)

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:09 pm

It's definitely different but the map design has been so enjoyable I have no complaints. And at the risk of repeating myself too much, switching to iron-sight only for a while (now I am using all secondary weapons) has completely changed maps for me. More specifically, changing how I move through the maps and deal with the enemies - which makes the maps feel very different because I'm in the same areas but doing things different. For example, on M3 (arguably my favorite in the whole game), I spent the first 30+ minutes on my original play through shooting from the starting area and clearing 30+ soldiers. This last time I only was able to hit about 10 from my secluded spot + iron sight and needed to move in much closer, which changed how I had to then move through the next area as it was filled with soldiers. I finished all the original SE games and that was that - never went back. I finished this one and immediately went back to the first mission and did it again with a different approach. That's highly unusual for me!

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:39 pm

I do love how he will slide down any ladder - including ancient, splintery wooden ladders, and ladders that are just iron rungs embedded in concrete with no side rails.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:50 pm

I do enjoy the random 'oh shit' moments. I had no idea that this guy was even on the map until right... about...

Now. You can almost hear the panicked sneaking.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:57 pm

Yeah, that same one surprised me too.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:04 pm

Speaking of which, I love how how German soldiers can't hear their friend shrieking in agony, burbling, and collapsing to the ground six feet behind them. But they can easily hear - and distinguish - my footsteps from inside a running Tiger tank while flak is exploding overhead.

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:14 pm

Some of that has definitely changed as I've switched to a more assault based approach. They definitely notice when I incapacitate a fellow solider with a gut shot and rush over to help him out. But yes, some of the close quarters stealth is (and has always been weird). Today I was surprised by a solider that came around a corner and then ran right through me (he was trying to get to cover behind me). He should have absolutely cleaned my clock (he truly caught me by surprise) but all I needed to do was pivot around the sandbags I was nestled in and shoot at him hiding behind the fence he was using as cover.

I continue to think of SE as tilting more action movie WW2 than anything else.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 3:14 pm

While I'm at it, I'm always amazed at just how resilient the German soldiers are.

Also...

Spoiler:

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 10:00 pm

Really, Sniper Elite 5? I mean, really?

Spoiler:

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 10:34 pm

Finally. Not only did I get my extra meter, the way it went down gave me sweet revenge for all of those missed shots. His buddy completely flipped his lid!

Smoove_B · Post by **Smoove_B** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:01 pm

Wow, that was a great shot!

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Sat Jun 18, 2022 11:42 pm

Not seen: the two dozen misses and reloads getting it.

Blackhawk · Post by **Blackhawk** » Mon Jun 20, 2022 10:25 pm

6 and 7. I'm not being as stealthy as before, and it shows. It's still almost all ghost kills, but I'm not as concerned about the occasional 'player seen' or 'body found' as long as the witness is the next body found.