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Old 02-07-23, 04:43 AM   #4
Dowly
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Join Date: Apr 2005
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I bought Sniper Elite 5 over the weekend and have now played the first two missions and half of the third. There would be a lot to complain about, but I'll stick to the game's poor progression in this post.

I'm one of those for whom a "carrot" is important in games. It gives me a reason to keep playing and play missions again. The carrot in Sniper Elite 5 is one of those wilted, pathetic looking ones that gets left in the shop and thrown in the trash at the end of the day.

The game has two progression systems. One is XP which you get by doing missions, simple challenges (shoot someone from x meters away) etc. XP is used to unlock skills, of which there are 27 in total divided into three categories; Combat, Equipment and Body.

Sounds cool, doesn't it? Well, no. Out of the 27 skills, I've deliberately chosen only one that I know will help my style of play. The rest I've chosen just to use my skill points for something. There's even a setting in the game that if you turn on, the game automatically uses your skill points. Tells you something, in my opinion.

Well, that was XP. It's not (as far as I know) used for anything other than skills. Skills, of which 26/27 are useless for my taste.

Another progression system in the game is collecting new weapons and parts. The main way to collect these is to find workbenches in missions. Usually there seem to be three workbenches per mission, one per weapon type (pistol, smg, rifle). If you find a pistol bench, you unlock parts for the pistol, etc. Another way to get new gadgets is through the kill challenges in the missions. Kill a certain person in a certain way and you get a new weapon. Some parts seem to be locked behind specific weapon challenges. EDIT: Forgot to add that you also unlock stuff by simply completing a mission.

The progression of weapons and parts is also problematic. Usually, in games where sound is a big part, equipment like a suppressor isn't given until later. In Sniper Elite 5, you get the rifle suppressor as early as the second mission. By the third mission, every weapon you have is suppressed. In SE5, you don't have to agonize over the first missions with inferior equipment, and thus you don't return to those missions later to avenge the wrongs you've experienced with better weaponry.

So, to recap: XP is only used for skills and weapons/parts are obtained through challenges and exploration.

Let's get back to that carrot. I found all three workbenches in the first mission and did the kill challenge as required. For what reason would I like to play the mission again later? I've already gotten everything it has to give, except for playing on the hardest difficulty level.



Since SE5 borrows quite a lot from the Hitman series, let's compare the progression system between the two.

In Hitman, each map has its own XP progression system (location mastery) which is fulfilled by replaying the map and doing different challenges ( of which there are tons). Most maps have 20 levels of mastery and the levels unlock different things, like new starting locations or new equipment that you can use in other maps. Different challenges can also reward you with new gadgets. Also note that I use the word "map" instead of "mission". In Hitman, each map covers several missions/play modes, some of which give new challenges to complete.

And that's how easily the game gives the player a "carrot" to chase through for multiple playthroughs. That SE5 fails so utterly here is hard to fathom. Linking XP with weapon/parts unlocks would have gone a long way. Heck, even unlocking cosmetics with XP would have been tolerable compared to what's in the game.

SE5 is still an ok game. I just have a lot of disagreeable things to say about it. But I think that's enough (for now).

Last edited by Dowly; 02-07-23 at 05:44 AM.
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