Sniper Elite (2005) on Steam Deck.
The granddaddy of the series. Not terrible, not amazing—just a rough draft of what came later. The graphics? Yeah, they’ve aged about as well as milk in the sun.
And please, don’t touch that 16:9 switch. All it does is turn your sniper into Stretch Armstrong. Keep it classic 4:3 and you’ll thank me later.
That game had quite a bit of clunky-ness, but it also had some interesting ideas and a vibe that was lost later in the later entries. I like that the main character isn’t a generic gravely voiced action dude, and the camouflage system was actually pretty decent, it could get super tense on the harder difficulties if you were trying to ghost it.
The AI is perhaps one its greatest strengths and weaknesses. I recall that they were actually pretty smart in their movements in how they try to flush you out, but it was a bummer that the whole map pretty much knew where you were when you took your shot.
Also, probably not active at all nowadays, but back in the day, the online deathmatch mode of this game was weirdly a blast! It took a while to be able to make long shots instinctively, but when it clicked, there was just nothing else on the market like it. Had hours of fun with that.
Overall, despite its flaws, I think I still prefer this entry to the newer ones.
I bought the entire series when it was featured in a Humble Bundle. They never really got the hang of the AI. The original has omniscient AI where the whole map instantly knows exactly where you are if you mess up a kill. The enemies in later games are deaf, dumb, and blind. You can run up behind an enemy and stab them to death before they notice you. Nearby enemies will come investigate, find the dead body, duck down behind the nearest cover for 60 seconds, and then go back to their routine patrol like nothing happened. Even better in the assassinate Hitler missions because they’ll all go back to their routine patrols while the Führer’s body is just laying there.