And when you factor in handfuls of enjoyable optional tasks, like blowing up a German motor pool or stealing top-secret plans, and the many deaths you're likely to die, finishing a single level can take as long as a couple of hours. Each one is enormous and has multiple objectives meant to give you a clear progression through the map, but how you reach and tackle those objectives is up to you.

The campaign consists of just eight stages, but theyвЂ™re a blast to creep through. ThatвЂ™s what gives Sniper Elite III its edge - and not its story, which is awash in clichГ©s and occasionally laughable dialogue.

Centering on Karl, a gravel-voiced American sniper, who seems to almost singlehandedly dismantle the German Afrika Korps, you are taken to a lot of interesting settings in a theater of the war that's rarely explored in games, and given semi-free rein to explore and murder Nazi occupiers in whatever way you deem fit. The kill-cam moments never got old enough for me to opt to skip them, but they might have if the rest of Sniper Elite III weren't so competently designed. Provided your reaction to the resulting gore is a sick thrill and not actual sickness, this is so immensely satisfying that it renders every other weapon at your disposal anticlimactic by comparison. Tight close-ups of the bullet in flight are accompanied by a steadily swelling roar, giving your shot a sense of impending destiny. When aiming, you can hold your breath, slowing time so you can watch that red dot shrink in on your target. Every effort was made to milk them for dramatic tension. These slow-motion, long-range kills are what keep Sniper Elite III from being just another generic-looking World War II shooter.

Sniper elite 3 rating