Sniper Dan, a budget-priced indie title from former GTA veterans, reimagines long-range marksmanship as a cheerful hidden object game where your rifle is used solely to assist people, not harm them. The game, developed by Denki and published by PQube, is now available on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch 2, and PC for £9.99.
In Sniper Dan's primary-coloured world, drawing a bead on humans or animals only earns you a $10 fine. Your real job is to render all manner of unlikely long-range bullet-based assistance. Each level begins by climbing a sniper tower and surveying a chaotic scene where people go about their business while others are frozen mid-comedy-accident. Some are set dressing, but many require your intervention, based on a list of objectives hidden among the brightly coloured bedlam.
Using your zoomable scope, you infer what assistance is needed from scant clues. Tasks include blowing out candles on a birthday cake, milking a cow, freeing a boat lashed to a dock, or helping squeeze toothpaste onto a brush. Completing tasks within the suggested time limit earns a higher grade, which converts to reputation points. These points unlock new levels, buy hints, and unlock minigames.
Gameplay and progression
Cash earned from completing objectives can be spent on decorations for your sniper HQ, each conferring a bonus on future earnings, and on gun upgrades delivering faster reloads, more bullets per clip, and an extra zoom level. Beyond objectives, there are countless Easter eggs to uncover, including a stripy vested, bobble hat wearing boy resembling Where's Wally?.
The mix of object finding and humorous problem-solving works well through the crosshairs, your observations leading you towards assigned aid. However, given the brevity of mission instructions, it's not always obvious whether you've found the right object to shoot. The game signals success by drawing a small circle around the target.
Strengths and weaknesses
There's not much more to it, although phone calls flag emergency situations you must sort out with your gun. Those moments, along with time-based minigames, expose weaknesses in the gunplay, which is fine when taking your time but lacks the necessary feel and precision against the clock.
Like all hidden object games, it's great fun hunting for things until one or two items remain and you can't find them anywhere. That protracted, frustrating time tends to be the final few minutes of each level. Hints cost scarce reputation points and are in short supply.
Verdict
Sniper Dan is a budget-priced game, and expecting AAA quality would be unfair. Still, you can wish it lived up a little better to its wonderful premise, where every interaction—answering your office phone or choosing a level from the map—is performed by putting a bullet into something. It's generally a fun few hours and a rare sniper simulation suitable for children, but no more than that.
The game scores 6/10. Pros include the relentlessly cheerful slapstick humour, dozens of Easter eggs, and an amusingly non-lethal take on a genre usually associated with killing. Cons: early objectives are more entertaining than finding those final hard-to-spot goals, and gunplay doesn't hold up in time-limited minigames. Sniper Dan is rated 7 and releases on 17th September 2026.
