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Developer Rebellion certainly can't be faulted for its ambition with the new Sniper Elite 4 - the title represents a big step forward for its Asura engine, offering up improved visuals and environments up to three times larger than the last game. On the one hand, this offers up much more freedom in tackling objectives how we like, but on the other, it does demand a lot more from console hardware, with variable results. And just like its predecessor, it's Xbox One that struggles most in delivering consistent performance.From a visual perspective, Sniper Elite 4 operates at a native 1080p on Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and even PS4 Pro. At first glance, all console versions of the game look very similar, but a closer look sees three distinct levels of visual quality. At the bottom of the pile, Xbox One features less impressive texture and shadow filtering, while object rendering takes a small hit too compared to the base PlayStation 4 release. However, everything else looks fine on Xbox One, matching PS4 down to the grass draw distance, up-close shadow resolution and ambient occlusion quality. There may be a fine margin of difference elsewhere, but the standard PS4 isn't getting too much more as a bonus here - it's more about additional layers of visual refinement, easily missed in the heat of the action.
And the same can be said as we move from PlayStation 4 onto PS4 Pro. In thie case, Rebellion decided not to boost resolution - Sniper Elite 4 resolves native 1080p, even with the Pro set to output a 4K image. The idea here is that the developer uses the machine's extra GPU and CPU horsepower to render out higher quality effects, closer to PC's higher-end settings. According to Rebellion, PS4 Pro enjoys increased draw distances, geometric detail, lighting, shadows and reflections - not to mention improved performance, something we'll address shortly.
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