I Only Need One…

Sniper games are, in some ways, the purest form of the shooting game. After all, anybody can hold down the trigger of an assault rifle and point it in the vague direction of an enemy but very few have the composure, timing and skill to quickly get their crosshairs centered on their target’s head and bring them down with a single, well-placed shot. There is just something authoritative about a sniper rifle kill that nothing else can really come close to.

Snipers — Why We Love to Hate Them

If you’re the kind of player that loves to snipe, then you’re probably used to hearing the complaints from other players that you kill! A lot of players feel that sniping is somehow “unfair” or too easy, despite being unable to do it themselves! Actually, they have a point — snipers in most shooter games are the class of player that needs the most management from the game development team. That’s because all sniper rifles in a shooter game have to be able to kill with a single shot at almost all ranges. If the developers don’t build some sort of major close range disadvantage into the design of the sniper rifle in the game, then it becomes the Swiss army knife of the gun world, able to one-shot players anywhere on the map, including at shotgun ranges!

Even a well-balanced and implemented sniper rifle can lead to a lot of complaining. That’s because getting killed by a sniper in a game, as in real life, often feels very one-sided. The player getting killed may never even see the sniper, which hardly feels like your usual definition of a fair fight!

In reality, of course, most snipers undergo extensive training in camouflage and concealment, so it’s very unlikely that they will be detected at all by the people they’re shooting at. It’s such a demoralizing way to be attacked that most snipers accept that they will be treated very badly if they’re ever captured by the enemy. Officially, the Geneva convention applies to every captured soldier, regardless of their role. In practice, snipers may find that fact is easily forgotten!

Sniper Games and The Appeal of Long-Range Combat

Any game featuring a sniper rifle somewhere could be called a sniper game. Certainly any shooter that has sniper rifles in it can very quickly become a sniper-focused game because of the game balancing points above. Making sure the snipers in the game don’t have too much of an advantage boils down to good level design in the end. Even then, some games can just feel “snipey”, like every player you come up against has the perfectly balanced weapon needed to quick-scope you and finish the fight before you’ve even had a chance to pull the trigger.

Sniping games can come in a variety of genres from arcades like the fast and difficult Silent Scope series, to classic first-person shooters like Sniper Elite. Most RPGs also offer you the chance to play as something of a sniper build. A sniper, after all, is very similar to the classic balance of the DPS character in an RPG — very effective at range and able to dispatch foes easily with huge damage, dealt from a distance but unable to stand toe-to-toe with enemies because of a slower fire rate and relatively low armor or hit-points. Playing as such a character will make you play more as a sniper, checking your targets and positioning yourself carefully before taking your first shot.

Half Sniper Half Not

Of course many modern shooters have a bewildering number of guns for you to choose from. It’s no longer the simple SMG/ assault rifle/ shotgun/ sniper rifle choice of games back in the earlier days of home consoles. Now there are a great many categories, and it’s only natural that some of those categories let you blur the distinction between sniper and non-sniper.

In “realistic” shooters that often means weapons in the DMR — designated marksman rifle — or battle rifle category. These are scoped firearms that can deal damage out to ranges that are impossible with an assault rifle but which handle quickly enough to deal with enemies at much closer ranges, with a rate of fire to match.

In real life such weapons began their history with the resurgence of military marksmanship during the Cold War. The Russian military was one of the first to field a weapon specifically for this role — the legendary Dragunov, a gun still often seen in shooters to this day. It allowed a rifleman to move with the squad, cover-to-cover and take quick advantage of new positions, but still be able to engage enemies with accurate fire out to medium-long range.

If you’re new to sniping in games, the DMR class of weapons could be a great place to start, as they are a little more forgiving than true sniper rifles.

Sniper Games Here on GamePix

The sniper genre is one that feels at home on either a smartphone or desktop computer, as the controls can be very simple, often simply being a case of using your mouse or finger to aim and click or tap to fire. It might seem like a simple idea but it’s one with almost limitless potential.

The list of completely free sniper games to be found here on Gamepix range from the silly and inventive to the serious and graphic. Whether you’re sniping pieces of fruit or enemy combatants, however, all of the games are completely free-to-play, meaning the whole game is right there for you to enjoy for absolutely nothing. Additionally, all of our browser-based sniper games will run perfectly on any device and any browser, with no downloads or installations needed. If you want sniper games, we have you covered! Whether you want to snipe Nazis, zombies, or even Nazi zombies, we have a free online sniper game for you!

FAQs

What is a sniper game?

The thing about snipers in any game is that they can make it a sniper game if they get out of control. If you look at it like that, a sniper game is any game in which you can use a sniper rifle. There are, however, a lot of games that focus specifically on the sniper rifle as a weapons platform. These are games where long-range, painstakingly placed shots are the only way to succeed instead of just one option among many. These are the true sniper games.

What are some free sniper games?

Any of the browser sniper games here in the sniper games section of the GamePix site are absolutely free! You can play any one of our huge range of fantastic online sniper games for as long as you want and there will never be any charge. Better still, all of our sniper browser games work on any device and with any browser with no installs or downloads needed.

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