Rebellion revealed Sniper Elite 5 last year, during the ID@Xbox event on Twitch and while the news that it was launching on most platforms, including into Game Pass later in the year was good, the news today is even better, check out the cinematic trailer below.

If the trailer didn’t clue you in, Sniper Elite 5 will offer up an invasion mode, allowing another player to enter the game and track down yourself and stop you from completing your mission, modes like this have appeared in other games before, Deathloop being one example from last year, but this marks the debut for this previously single player series.

The invading Axis Sniper will have the sole aim to eliminate the player while the Allied Sniper will gain an extra objective: take out the invader. Invasion Mode will also be available in co-operative play increasing the challenge for the Axis invader as they now have two Allies to track down, but offering greater rewards.

“Invasion Mode is a fantastic addition to the gameplay experience of Sniper Elite 5. A human controlled invader can act in ways that are so diverse and unpredictable, which adds to the challenge and ramps up the tension even further. The player will be informed that an invading Axis Sniper has joined their game and from that point on it becomes an extremely intense, high stakes game of cat and mouse.” said Chris Kingsley, CTO at Rebellion

“For those players who just want a solo gameplay experience there will be the option to switch Invasion Mode off, but we recommend that everyone gives it a try at some point. We have been having a lot of fun with it in the studio, jumping into each other’s games and finding innovative, stealthy ways to take each other out.”

Invasion Mode will enable some unique skills for both players. The Axis invader can use of the AI Axis forces to help locate the Allied player. Tagging an Axis soldier will enable ‘Eagle Eyes’ which means that if that soldier spots the Allied Sniper then their last known location will be displayed on the map. The Axis Sniper can also instruct nearby soldiers to ‘Stay Sharp’, increasing their awareness. For the Allied Sniper, each level has invasion phones scattered around the map which the player can use to discover the last known location of their opponent. But beware, as not only can these phones be booby trapped, but overuse will raise suspicions and reveal the player’s location.

Successful Axis Snipers will be rewarded with weapons, items and skin unlocks while Allied Snipers can earn weapon and character skins by killing their opponent. You will also be awarded with additional XP for having Invasion Mode enabled.

There is no release date for the game yet, outside of it will release sometime this year, but when it does it will come to Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5 and PC, via Steam, Epic and Windows. As mentioned above, the game will also launch on day one into Xbox Game Pass, so members there can enjoy it as part of their membership.