Sniper Elite III Preview

Every sequel attempts to improve on the original. It doesn’t happen all the time but simply due to increasingly better technology, it occurs more often in the video game industry (as opposed to film). Developer Rebellion knows what they did wrong with Sniper Elite V2 and have resolved to fix any and all issues with the upcoming Sniper Elite 3 . Of course, they’re not aiming for a franchise overhaul or full-on reboot; they simply want to give the player a bigger, better snipe-happy experience. And that’s commendable.

The designers are striving to make everything better. The levels will be bigger, we’ll have more weapons with which to experiment, the multiplayer will be more robust – local co-op play, please! – and perhaps above all else, the AI will be very much improved. This was probably the biggest drawback of the previous entry, as the predictable yet magically brilliant AI made the game wildly frustrating for many players. In V2 , once you were spotted, every enemy on the map knew precisely where you were, which is an outdated form of opponent intelligence.

The AI should be much better in the third entry, as their response to your activity will be more dynamic and realistic. Furthermore, they won’t keep firing on a spot you left thirty seconds ago, so they’ll be smarter and yet, not omnipotent. Additionally, the extra weapons and larger levels will infuse a greater sense of freedom. The setting is intriguing: We’ll work our way through war-torn North Africa, a region that never gets a lot of attention in World War II-themed games. Large and airy, these areas will offer the player more opportunity to devise a personalized plan of attack and remember, each stage will be about three times the size of those in its predecessor.