Viper's Creed - Episode 5

After a couple of pretty weak instalments of Viper's Creed, we do at least know where the series is going now, focusing on the history and oddities of a different major character each episode. I wish it wouldn't tread such a clichéd path, but what can you do?

This time it's the "Grim Reaper" of the crew, Rudra, who gets the spotlight, in a story involving a rogue sniper who manages to assassinate the president before turning their attentions to the head of Arqon Global Security (the company that they all work for). Inevitably, it turns out that the sniper in question served with Rudra in the military in the past, leaving us with a face off between the two in which one of them simply has to die.


Unfortunately, it's made patently clear very early on who was going to be doing the dying, thus removing any kind of dramatic tension... but isn't the whole point of making the episode about snipers to heighten tension? Indeed, everything about this episode fits into the "seen it all before" category, either already in this series or elsewhere, from the major plot points through to the action sequences, and in both the characters and their reactions to the situations with which they were presented.

So yes, this episode is very much old hat, although despite that it does somehow manage to be an improvement over the past couple of episodes in terms of not feeling embarassingly trite and forced, and if nothing else having snipers roaming around (with exploding bullets, it seems) has a certain cool factor while also facilitating a few half-decent chunks of action. It still isn't enough to live up to that rip-roaring first episode which I keep harping on and on about though.