Sniping the spots off a leopard, cleaning poop off a shoe, using a rifle to fend off a kaiju-sized prawn — these are just a few of the bonkers jobs you’ll be tasked with in Sniper Dan. This comedic hidden-object game feels like a bizarre mix of Where’s Wally?, Sniper Elite, and Looney Tunes — and bizarrely, it kind of works.
Dan the Man
You’re Dan, a friendly neighbourhood sniper, starting a new business doing odd jobs for the community… With a bolt-action rifle! Each level has a theme and a list of tasks for you to accomplish with nothing but your gun.
You might need to fire at a swing set to push it higher for the rider, snipe off chunks of fleece from an overgrown sheep, or clean barnacles of the hull of a ship with well placed bullets!
It’s ACME levels of silly, you can blow out candles on a cake in front of a man’s face and I guess the bullet gets stopped by the flame? But miss by a centimetre and you go from do-gooder to assassin real quick! Luckily the penalty for shooting someone in the face is just a small fine, plus they’re technically just dazed, not dead.
There’s a timer counting up for each level and your performance gets ranked at the end, taking into account speed and amount of successful missions. Each level has three stages where things change slightly, with a new list of tasks to complete. The third stage of each level also has a boss battle or some sort of timed challenge to tackle.
Between levels, you can spend your coins on new outfits for Dan, upgrades for your gun, and decorations for your office, among other things. There’s also minigames to collect and play, plus other game modes for a bit of added variety.
Half-cocked
Each level starts out as a blast as you take in the silliness before you and complete your list of wacky tasks. But without fail, there’s always something super tedious to find that will burn through your timer as you rake your eyes over the level. Some objects move around between attempts, which does add to the replayability… But also the tedium.
While I wasn’t expecting a story with this type of game, I assumed SOMETHING would happen after I completed every level, but there was nothing. Even after getting the top rank on each level and finishing a bunch of side-quests, there wasn’t so much as a ‘congratulations’ splash screen. It feels like a game without an ending.
Weapon Malfunction
With Sniper Dan, the bigger your TV the better. You need the extra screen space for spotting all those elusive little items. I tried a bit on my PlayStation Portal, but my eyesight just wasn’t keen enough to find everything on the smaller screen.
Unfortunately, it’s a game that doesn’t fully shine on console. Some challenges can feel next to impossible using a controller, as thumbsticks just don’t have the speed and accuracy that a mouse does, and those challenges don’t feel like they’ve been balanced properly for controller. The touchscreen controls on the Nintendo Switch version might help with that, but the small screen would pose a different issue. PC is likely the best way to play.
Should you play Sniper Dan?
Sniper Dan is a silly little hidden-object game with a unique point of difference that left me grinning more often than not. The colourful, cartoonish levels and wonderfully weird scenarios make your first run at each level a joy to experience, though the frustration of racing the clock to find that last missing item can get pretty frustrating.
Fans of the genre will get a kick out of the first-person shooter twist, though experiencing it on controller probably isn’t the best way to play. While the game lacks any sort of ending, I still had plenty of fun with my time behind the rifle.
Sniper Dan releases on PlayStation on the 18th of September, for $15.95 AUD. The game will also be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and XBOX Series X|S.
Quest Daily scores Sniper Dan:
7.5/10
Early access to Sniper Dan was supplied by the publisher.
