WBG Score: 8.5
Player Count: 1-4
You’ll like this if you like: SAS Rogue Regiment, Fury of Dracula, Whitechapel
Published by: Rebellion Unplugged
Designed by: Roger Tankersley, David Thompson (I)
This is the reviewer’s copy. See our review policy here
I'm going to kick things off and say straight up front that I've barely played a couple of hours of Sniper Elite and, well, let's just say that I've not quite reached that "elite" level that the game boasts. I'm more on the level of "sniper who uses a Nerf gun because he can't be trusted with a real one."
How to snipe defenders
One player is going to be the sniper, and the other player(s) are going to take on the role of the defenders. The sniper wins by completing two objectives, and the defenders win if they either wound the sniper twice or start their turn on the 1 space of the turn track before the sniper can complete both of their objectives.
During setup, the sniper draws two objective cards. These will have numbered spaces on them that will be located in different sections of the map. If both cards are in the same section, then discard one and keep drawing objectives until both are in different sections.
The sniper plays all of their moves on their own dry erase map of the board, and on their turn, they can, in any combination and as many times as they want, move, play a loadout card, and take an action. When you first enter the board, you must enter in one of the colored areas that doesn't match where your objectives are. The sniper can move 0-1 space with no repercussions, or they can move 2-3 spaces, but they have to alert any defender that they move adjacent to in the process. Shooting will see you drawing a number of tokens from a bag and trying to draw a number of hits equal to or above the range between you and your target. Beware, though, because if you draw two noise tokens, then you have to reveal your position. Also, if you draw 5 non-hit tokens, then you automatically miss. A hit will see the defender removed from the board, potentially moving them out of your way but also adding a hit token into your bag. If you're on an objective space (that you don’t hold), then you can take a new loadout card (but this will give a clue as to your whereabouts). If you're in an objective space that matches one of your cards, then you can play it to complete that objective. This will also reveal your position on the board. When you do this, the defenders will reset their action markers back to the ten space of the track, putting them further away from that particular win condition and giving you some much-needed time.
For the defenders' turn, they will be able to take two actions per squad. A squad is made up of two soldiers and a commander. Every time you take an action, you move one of the squad's cubes one space down the track. You can have just one figure in the squad take both actions, but they can’t take the same action twice. As for actions, you can move, sweep by picking two adjacent spaces and the one you're in to look for the sniper, but these have to be the same type (interior or exterior). Spotting means you can search one adjacent space, but it doesn't have to be the same type. Punching in the space you're in will wound the sniper if they're in the same space. You can bring a defender back on the board, or you can dismiss one from the board. Each commander has their own special ability, which you can pick before the game starts, and this can be used twice per game. The last thing is to gather intel. If your commander is in their starting area, you can burn both of that squad's actions to ask the sniper if they’re in that colored area.
What’s going to work? Teamwork
As with any hidden movement game, the experience you get will depend on which role you're taking in a given game, and in the hidden movement games I’ve played, this could be a bit of a mixed bag. With Sniper Elite, both roles are a ton of fun.
As the defenders, you get to play a tense (I’ll be using this word a lot, so best not start any drinking games on it) game of deduction as you use every tool in your arsenal to try and hunt down your sneaky foe. It can start off feeling like you're looking for a needle in a haystack with literally nothing to go on except someone telling you that there's a needle in that haystack and you have to find it. This is where the ‘gather intel’ action comes into its own early doors as you try to get that first sniff of where the stealthy so-and-so is. Whether it be from an intel action or a slip-up from the sniper, eventually you’ll get a clue, and before you know it, the hunt is very much on. An excitement will wash over you as you pore over what said clue could mean, and it’s here you’ll realize that two actions per squad are frustratingly limiting, but also the perfect amount to keep the game exciting. It means that as you close the gap, each action you choose to take is massively important, and each square you choose to sweep/spot could be the difference between finding your prey and them slipping away by the narrowest of narrow margins. You'll find that a lot of your discussion will involve you debating between two or three possible routes or which specific spots you're going to be sweeping. At first, it would easily seem like a lot of back and forth over a couple of spaces, but when you factor in the above point about that small space between catching them or them getting away, then they actually become important points. Now, at the time, you won’t know exactly how close you were until the end of the game and the sniper reveals their path, and this reveal makes that end game discussion just as much a part of the game as anything else, and seeing just how agonizingly close you were at points will keep that discussion going long after the game's over.
The game really ramps up as those action markers tick down the track and you seemingly come ever closer to winning. That is until you ask yourself the question, are we about to win? ... or are they about to finish an objective and knock those markers back to the start? It's really nerve-wracking and, yes, tense.
One is the loneliest number
An issue with the hidden movement games that I've played is that being ‘the one’ can sometimes fall a little flat, and you can often find that your turns are over in mere seconds in comparison to the other players' lengthier turns that are full of discussion and some fun back and forth. Sniper Elite does, at times, fall into this trap as well, with some turns being literally as quick as it takes you to draw a line on a board. But that line also represents a lot, as it can hold your entire game in its inky fingers. It represents your entire plan, the clever plays you made, and the risky moves you put into practice. Most of all, it makes for a great post-game roundup as you relay to your friends how close or how far away they were from you at each step. It's this extra part of the game that you don't get in the rulebook but is absolutely part of the experience. Even shooting has its own devious edge to it. When you shoot, you declare how many tokens you're pulling from the bag. It doesn’t have to match the number of spaces to your target. Choosing to pull more comes with greater risk, but if you pull four hit tokens and you're standing next to your victim, it could be a great way to send your opponents running off in the wrong direction.
If you thought turns as the defenders were tense, then welcome to life as the sniper. You know when you used to play hide and seek as a kid, and the seeker would walk within a hair's breadth of your hiding spot, and your whole body would freeze in the hope that they wouldn’t find you? Well, that's what you get as the sniper in this game, only you personally are out in the open, and you can't give anything away. It's like hide and seek coupled with poker because anything could give away a clue to the other players. An intake of breath, a twitch as they point to your space, even a small smirk as they fall into your trap. It’s all there for them to see, so you have to keep your cool and try not to let anything slip by. It's edge-of-your-seat stuff as they deliberate on sweeping spaces, one of which you're in, and you just hope they pick the other spot. Every time they point to that space or edge ever closer to where you are, you practically scream inside, but on the outside, you know you have to present an air of calm. I don’t just mean on the defender's turn either; it can sometimes be really hard not to let something slip as you set up a devilishly clever little move that would normally have you rubbing your hands with glee.
With two different maps, random setup of the objectives, different loadout cards, and different abilities for the defenders to choose from, there is a ton of replayability in this box, including a solo mode. Here, you’ll take up the role of the sniper against the defenders. I’ve played this a couple of times, and the actual mechanics aren’t too hard to get your head around (roll a die and play out the card). The way the defenders moved didn’t necessarily feel all that intuitive to me, and that could easily have been me misinterpreting it, but on the flip side, there was a definite sense of them closing in at times and me having to change my plans to fit the situation, so there’s definitely enough of a challenge there for those who like to play solo.
Sniping is a waiting game
As much as I think that being the sniper is still a great role in the grand scheme of hidden movement games, it still has the potential of coming with a bit of downtime. It’s understandable that the defenders' discussions can get quite in-depth at times, although that depends on player count and the players themselves. It can be great to listen to these conversations, but even good things have the potential to go on for a bit too long. If this does become an ongoing issue, then potentially using some kind of timer to keep people in check could be an idea, especially if the deliberations are constantly “it could be this spot, but it could also be this spot” back and forth for a long time.
On the flip side, the defender's role has the potential to have empty turns. Getting those clues is wonderful, but it could take a few turns until something presents itself. Gathering intel is great, but a clever sniper will know how to sidestep that for at least the first round, and as the defenders, using it constantly can feel like you're just treading water until you get a clue, at which point the sneaker could already be halfway to an objective, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
As I said earlier, I don't know enough to be able to tell you how fans of the video game are going to feel about this version. But I also think that ultimately it doesn’t matter if you come in from this with a love of the video game or if you didn’t even know that this was a spin-off of something because, I.P. or not, it’s just a really great hidden movement game and a great addition to the genre.
I'm off to clean the walls and floors of my house. I may have gotten a bit carried away and marked lines everywhere depicting every route I took. It's fine on the wooden floors, but the carpet needs a really good scrubbing.
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