About an hour in to the mission I discovered that Nazis are actually kinda dumb and you don't really have to be very careful at medium difficulty.
Also, i don't understand why there are non-lethal options in this game, but I suspect there may be liberalism afoot.
I should note - If I did knock a Nazi out I specifically went back and shot them in the head. Those ten guys were accidents. Would have gotten them if I could.
Sniper elite introduced non-lethal options because it's always been a knock off shooter, and the stealth shooters in 2014 during Sniper 3's release all had non-lethal. Back when V2 came out, Nazi zombies were a huge deal so they made a Nazi zombies mode. To my knowledge there isn't really any effect on the game other than making it harder, it's a difficulty challenge.
Idk, the sniper elite guys make really fun gameplay loops but can't seem to make anything else. The levels and AI have always been kinda designed like shit.
I think that there were some great levels in Sniper elite 5 actually. The one based on the Mont Saint Michel was really fantastic.
I haven't played 5, so I would be surprised if they've gotten better throughout the years. However, the level design of Rebellion games consistently lets down the good gameplay loops. Sniper 2-4 designed all their maps around 1 or 2 really cool looking long x-ray shots and kinda just drop the ball for the in between sections from these shots.
Honestly, I thought the design of this map was nearly wasted on a game like sniper elite 5, it was so intricate that it could be used for an adventure game or a hitman game as it presented tons of approaches and possibilities. Not all the maps of SE5 are at this level but there are some great ones in this game. Of course some are a bit basic and flat like the old games but you should watch some gameplay videos because I thought it was far better than the older games. (And we nearly had no bugs in the coop campaign, contrary to older games)
No bugs in co-op? Woah, that's pretty insane. I played SEV2 with my dad as a kid and we loved the co-op. It was buggy as shit but it was so much fun.
I'm definitely gonna look up gameplay of that level, because I'd love to get a better SE experience. I felt like 4 was kind of incremental upgrades from 3 so I thought 5 would be more of the same. Maybe I was wrong!
The first mission of 5 has been good. there's lots of sightlines from 100-400ish meters. You can shoot nazis in the leg then cap their buddies when they come to help. Lots of sitting in church towers sniping at people.