Sniper Elite V2 Review

Posted By Yousif A. about 1 year, 1 month ago

Sniper Elite V2 Review

I’ve been waiting and hoping for Sniper Elite 2 for quite some time. Back in 2005, a friend and I stumbled upon the original title and fell in love with the flawed, but deeply enjoyable experience to be found within. It was refreshing at the time to play a long range stealth game when at the time the close-ranged combat of MGS and Splinter Cell were all the rage. After 7 years of hoping for a sequel, Rebellion Developments has released a new Sniper Elite. However, according to the developer, this is a reboot rather than a follow on, hence the suffix V2. A reboot after one game seems a little odd, but it worked for the Evil Dead films, so hey, why not?

If I can say one great thing for Sniper Elite V2, it’s that the game contains an original plot based in WWII. With the second Great War having been used in gaming more times than a $3 hooker, the setting is, unsurprisingly, practically out of stories to tell. Rebellion Developments however have looked to the future and spotted the Cold War on the horizon. With this in mind, players take control of Karl Fairburne, a sniper sent into Berlin in 1945 to eliminate German scientists before they can defect to the Soviet Union.

Enough with the story though, you’ll forget about it when your firing .30 rounds through Nazi body parts at 200ft. The main draw of Sniper Elite V2 is the realistic sniping experience it brings. As with the first game, players can choose their difficulty and settings, but for the real experience go into the game with every setting on. In this situation players have to take into account gravity, distance, wind speed, and heart rate when lining up a shot. Firing and missing is not only poor professionally, but will raise Karl’s heart rate and make subsequent shots more difficult.

Also returning from the original game is the dramatic bullet cam that follows long range shots into the target, helping players feel that little bit more awesome. This time though we also get to see what it does to them on the inside. Practically stealing from Neatherealm Studios’ MK9, Sniper Elite V2 often shows an x-ray view of your target, revealing in gruesome detail what that cone shaped piece of metal you fired does to the inside of a person. While damn cool (in a morbid kind of way) at first glance, the slow motion shot is actually slightly too fast, often making it difficult to witness exactly what the bullet did. Suffice to say, if you see a skeleton, you can be pretty sure the receiver of your attention is no longer among the living.

This is what happens when a Nazi tries to think happy thoughts.

With this said, style owes substance an apology when it comes to this game. It would appear that by focusing on the way people die, Rebellion Developments forgot to make it enjoyable to do. Unlike the original title, carefully selecting your path through a level is not really a possibility with 90% of the game being set on a linear path and the other 10% consisting of dead ends. This means if you come across a group of soldiers, shooting your way through is most likely the only option. While this could be enjoyable from time to time, Sniper Elite V2 really just consists of gunfights with long walks in between.

If you’re expecting to carefully plan your route, take out a couple of sentries using the sounds of warfare to mask your gunfire, finding the perfect spot and eliminating your target, think again. This is nothing of the sort. Essentially, Sniper Elite V2 is a third person shooter, with cover, at range. It’s a test of how quickly you can drop several moving targets and very little else.

Sneaky shots are rewarded with every opponent in the section knowing your exact location no matter how many times you move out of sight and reposition. There is a vague hint that the enemy can lose sight of you with the inclusion of a Splinter Cell Conviction white outline left where you were last spotted, but expect the enemy to spot you in your newly acquired position the second you flinch.

Oh, excuse me, there was a level where firing during announcements results in your shots being disguised, resembling somewhat of an enjoyable experience. Even this is section was horrifically broken though. During one such noisy disturbance, I spotted two guards talking to each other, deciding to forgo stealth and drop one quickly, I removed the better part of one of the soldiers skulls, only to discover that his friends was quite happy to continue the conversation with no reaction at all. A game about outsmarting the enemy this is not.

For a healthy change, Russians are also on your hit list

Thank god for that too. The AI in Sniper Elite V2, while spookily omniscient when it comes to your location, are thicker than an Elder Scrolls strategy guide. They will quite happily funnel down a tight corridor no matter how many body’s line the halls. They will endeavor to stand exactly where the last enemy was, despite his comrade in arms now missing his genitalia. They will quite happily stand in the open if it means they can get a slightly better view of the guy 400ft away with a long ranged weapon. A dead hamster could outsmart these enemies.

In the looks department, I wouldn’t call Sniper Elite V2 ugly; I’d just need a few drinks first. It’s as if all the shine was taken off the UT3 engine and thrown into a very distant bin. It works for the setting, but there is nothing to write home about. Expect to see the same bombed streets and suspiciously similar derelict buildings through-out this adventure. The same can be said for the sound effects and musical score. Very little changes as the game progresses and the sniper rifles, at the end of the day, sound exactly the same. Like most WWII games, the Germans will repeat lines often and loudly, obviously in this case hoping to scare the sniper into forgetting their location, which seems to work with the surround sound for the game being exceptionally bad and making it impossible to discern location from sound alone.

You could be forgiven for thinking that Karl fought WWII alone while playing the game, with Berlin sounding like a deserted wasteland, Allied troops being oddly missing and Nazi soldiers standing around doing very little until you open fire. Sniper Elite V2 produces a very hollow-feeling environment, distancing the player so much from what should really be going on in Berlin at this time, that the fact there is a war on almost slipped from my mind while playing. While games like Call of Duty and Medal of Honor may have overused the setting, they always tried to expose the true frantic and destructive nature of the conflict, at least since the PS2 era. Sniper Elite V2 just feels odd instead, and I wonder how much better the game could have been with some thought placed into the setting.

On second thoughts, "come at me Bro" was perhaps not the best thing to shout

The online modes are exactly what you would expect, the same thing but with a second person. This does make the game slightly more fun, with timed takedowns a far more rewarding task than shooting alone, despite the fact the gameplay will devolve into the same constant routines as the single player. We all know that any shooter with another person is more fun, so expect the same of Sniper Elite V2. The only serious disappointment is the lack of split-screen local co-op. To this day nothing beats playing a multiplayer game with someone in the same room and it’s a shame to see the mode I buried more hours than I can count into on the original missing from the reboot.

On the standard difficulty level Sniper Elite will not take you long at all. Expect to march your way through the game with ease in under 10 hours. On high difficulty settings, environmental effects and lower health combined with a god awful checkpoint system will see you taking a significantly longer amount of time to reach the finish line. In my own case, I simply gave up on the higher difficulty, not due to “difficulty” but the structure of the game driving my willpower into the dirt.

Sniper Elite V2 is not the kind of game I can recommend. It’s disappointingly average on the standard settings and horrifically broken on the more realistic ones. The game is actually quite enjoyable for the first few hours with the kill-cam providing plenty of awesome moments, but is soon overshadowed by the game’s flaws. I’m deeply disappointed with this title and can only hope if Rebellion Developments do decide to do a sequel, they keep their eyes on the target next time.

This game was purchased by the reviewer on Xbox 360. The game was played for roughly 12 hours and was completed. The game has both offline single player and online multiplayer. Around an hour was spent online and the rest of the time was spent in the single player campaign.

Sniper Elite V2 Review

By Yousif A.

Sniping's a good job, mate.