Sniper Elite 5 is a brilliant stealth-action sniping sim. In fact, is it one of the best games I’ve played this year. And when new content releases for a beloved game, I tend to be first in line to gobble it up. So when I saw the trailer for the recently released Concealed Target Weapon and Skin Pack, I was keen to check out exactly what was on offer.
And I gotta say, it feels like a bit of a mixed bag, at least for my tastes. This is especially true considering the $9.99 price tag, although it’s included if you purchased the Sniper Elite 5 Season One Pass for $35.
So what do you get for the extra moolah? Well, the pack includes the following items:
- HS.22 silenced pistol with no recoil (Pistol + Attachments; 3x Magazines, 3x Barrels)
- Pea Dot Camo Weapon Skin
- Ghillie Suit Elite Character Skin (Karl and Monika Variants)
I was initially actually kind of excited for the Ghillie Suit. Honestly, this is what Karl should’ve been wearing this whole time while infiltrating some of the more countryside-centric levels, what with him skulking around in the bushes and all. So it’s nice to see that extra level of realism taken into consideration, although he would certainly want to shed the shrubby suit once he actually managed to gain access to the interior portions of a level — unless he plans on pretending to be a house plant to avoid detection.
But considering this is a skin variant for Karl and Monika, I’m assuming you are kind of stuck with it throughout the entirety of a mission without the ability to change it on the fly, à la Hitman‘s various suits. If that is in fact the way this works, that definitely lessens the appeal, at least for my tastes.
The silent pistol is nice, but the limited recoil isn’t necessarily much of a game-changer; it’s not as if the handful of silenced pistols already in the game are so unwieldly that having no recoil with this new HS.22 will even be all that noticeable. But maybe I’m wrong; I haven’t yet used it to speak definitively, but it seems unlikely.
And I’ve never been one for emblazoning my weaponry with with gaudy paint jobs, which looks especially silly in the context of this game and its setting. So the Pea Dot Camo skins are not going to entice me to purchase this pack.
If you’re fan of the Survival Mode, there’s also a new map. At first glance, I thought this map looked really cool. It reminded me of the first level of the original Sniper Elite, something I was hoping to see more of in Sniper Elite 5. But I am here for the stealth, and the idea of Survival Mode, which is basically a horde mode, just doesn’t appeal to my style of gameplay. But if you enjoy this mode, then this new mapshould be right up your alley.
I should point out that the map is actually free, whether you buy the DLC or not.
And look, if this pack looks exciting to you, I’m not going to pooh-pooh all over your enjoyment. For me, I don’t see enough here to warrant the $10 buy-in, and since I didn’t see fit to buy the also-pricey season pass (of which I’m assuming there will be multiple, hence the “Season One” qualifier), I’ll be sitting this round out. The base game already offers enough content to keep me happy, and perhaps the next round of DLC will be a little more my speed.
Still on the fence? You can check out the trailer for the Sniper Elite 5: Concealed Target Weapon and Skin Pack below.
