You're sitting there waiting. Waiting. Holding steady, because one slight movement and they’ll hear. Then, one of them, in drab green uniform, holding a submachine gun, moves into the line of your scope. You squeeze the trigger gently, and...relax. They’ve ducked away, looking for something. Wait...They’ve stopped. They’re getting out a cigarette...click... The sound of a rifle echoes around the cavernous chamber and the soldier drops to the floor. The path is clear, but the sound has raised the alarm, and you’ll have to move quickly.
Sniper Elite, which revels in this moment of immersion, is one of a growing realm of immersive video games that have been given the board game treatment. And I’ll raise this caveat now; I am sceptical, in general, of transition in this direction. The big question for me is why? Take Darkest Dungeon, a perfectly fine video game that Mythic Games decided to make as a board game. The result? To my mind, a dreadfully dull abstraction of a great game that took so long to set up that I could have finished the campaign on my iPad version by the time we started. Like books that are not meant to be made into films, some video games are not meant to be made as board games. There are exceptions, of course. Perhaps Rebellion Unplugged's Sniper Elite might be one of them...
My hesitation was reassured a little by the presence of David Thompson, joining Roger Tankersley as co-designer; David Thompson's Undaunted series for Osprey Games has helped reshape tactical warfare games through the medium of deck-building. However, in terms of core mechanics, Sniper Elite is, essentially, a reskin of Scotland Yard (Ravensburger); the classic hidden movement game that was first published in 1983. Understandable perhaps – take an established classic, add some new elements and everyone’s happy. However, can it reprise the immersion of what the video game offers?
The basics of Sniper Elite: The Board Game are as follows: one player takes the role of an Allied soldier who has to complete two randomly drawn objectives on a map within a particular timeframe; the other player(s) control a squad of an officer and two other soldiers who have to spot and then stop him from doing so. The protagonist has a sniper rifle that allows him to dispatch soldiers and he can also fit himself out with a variety of objects to help him, such as a shotgun or antipersonnel mines. The objectives are loaded in a way so that the player has to move through at least two of the three zones on the board to complete his mission. Thus, it is necessary for this player to carefully plan their route ahead, but also be able to adapt quickly. The opposing players are able to choose a number of special abilities to boost their own squads, including their own sniper, guard dogs and so on.
As in Scotland Yard, the game revolves around hidden movement, and as such, the protagonist is given their own version of the map on which they plot their movement. The game’s movement mechanics are pleasingly simple; the more you move, the more noise you are likely to make. If noise is made, the sniper has to make the opposing player aware in a vague sense. Opposing players win if the cubes on the turn tracker get to zero, so the sniper needs to complete one objective before these are reset. Therefore, there are a variety of strategies available in which the sniper can play; with my son we both found that trying to complete objectives that were located on the edge of the board were often problematic if completed early on, so it was better to aim for central ones first, when the opposing player was more likely to be searching for the sniper on the periphery.
The sniper mechanic is suitably exciting, as it should be. Tokens, which include noise, recoil and suppression, are added to a bag and they must announce the number drawn first. This adds a lot of tension, and if you are aiming to try to take out soldiers from some distance it does become quite difficult. In my experience, it is likely that you will be able to take out perhaps one or two soldiers at most before your position is revealed, so choose those targets carefully. This was perhaps the game’s high point, particularly if you dispatch an officer, which cannot be replaced: the German player(s) need to be very careful in the use of their officers.
However, there are issues to a certain extent with the opposing player and their game. I found that this became somewhat mechanical once the sniper inevitably revealed their position. It would then become a simple case of moving figures to close down the sniper and box him in. When the sniper was hidden, there was an element of excitement, but in the five or six games we played, the excitement wore off and there was a sense of the game being played out. In two games, the sniper’s position was revealed very early on and it was all over for them in about four or five turns, which felt unsatisfactory.
Thematically and artistically the game is well made. The boards are double-sided, giving extra challenge to the second map, with the addition of height. The minis add an element of visual pleasure and the rulebook is written well. We found very little in terms of issues that were not laid out early on and there was no need to return to it after our second game. However, despite the sheen there was a sense that Sniper Elite was not a game we would continue to return to after an initial exploration. Whilst it has some interesting aspects and will interest those who have enjoyed the video game, I did not really sense an element of magic in this recreation that would make me recommend it. There are better hidden movements game out there; for example, Fantasy Flight Games' Star Wars Rebellion and Fury of Dracula. And for those interested in the Second World War theme, David Thompson’s Undaunted series is well worth your money and time. That said, I must confess that I have yet to try the solo rules for Sniper Elite created by David Turczi...
(Review by Toby Frith)