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Sniper Elite 5 gets first trailer and is launching next year

On Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Following its blink-and-you'll-miss it debut during this year's Game Awards, developer Rebellion has officially revealed Sniper Elite 5, which will be making its way to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC some time next year.

As you'd expect, Sniper Elite 5 will deliver more of the series' "unparalleled tactical sniping", as Rebellion puts it, alongside an enhanced version of the iconic kill cam, said to be "more realistic and grisly than ever". All that comes with a shift in location, with Sniper Elite 5's WW2 yarn taking the series away from Italy circa 1943, as seen in the previous game, to the France of 1944.

"As part of a covert US Rangers operation to weaken the Atlantikwall fortifications along the coast of Brittany," explains Rebellion, "Karl makes contact with the French Resistance. Soon they uncover a secret Nazi project that threatens to end the war before the Allies can even invade Europe: Operation Kraken. It's Karl's mission to take out the high ranking Nazi officers and end Operation Kraken once and for all."

Sniper Elite 5 reveal trailer.Watch on YouTube

Rebellion says Sniper Elite 5 will feature the "largest and most immersive" maps yet seen in the franchise, captured using photogrammetry and featuring multiple infiltration and extraction points, as well as expanded gunplay physics and traversal.

"Use ziplines, slide down slopes and shimmy along ledges to reach the perfect vantage point," it explains in its press release, "or to sneak past a sharp-eyed lookout.

Elsewhere, there's talk of enhanced co-op play - enabling players to share items, given orders, and heal each other - plus a wave-based Survival mode for up to four friends. PvP fans, meanwhile, can infiltrate your campaign game in Invasion mode, taking on the role of an Axis sniper to bring your adventure to a premature end, and there are 16-player battles, giving participants the chance to earn XP, medals, and ribbons.

There's no release date for Sniper Elite 5 just yet, but it'll be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC - and as a day one Game Pass release - when it launches next year.