Introduction
The new Sniper Elite V2 is a tactical shooter developed by Rebellion Developments. It is a remake of Rebellion’s 2005 game Sniper Elite. The game takes place in the same time-frame and location- the Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945-but now the main character, is an American Office of Strategic Services officer, must capture or eliminate the scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket program.
| Developer | Rebellion Developments |
| Publishers | Microsoft Windows Rebellion Developments PlayStation 3 & Xbox 360 505 Games Ubisoft |
| Platforms | Microsoft Windows PLaystation 3 Xbox 360 |
| Genre | Tactical Shooter |
| Engine | Asura |
Story and Presentation
Here we again assume the role of Karl Fairburne. Sniper Elite V2 is not so much a sequel as it is a remake. You still play as Karl and you’re still stuck deep in war torn Germany but this time you’re racing to stop the launch of German V2 rockets, each loaded with a new chemical weapon that could alter the outcome of the war. It’s not a very creative stretch from the original story but fortunately the plot quickly takes the back seat and stays there.
Starting out in Berlin, the story quickly takes twists and turns to keep the player engaged at all times. The locations vary, meaning that most of the time the progression feels natural, though there are rarely examples where the narrative is fully fleshed out, most of the time the next level you’ll be in will be the place the previous level suggested you’d end up. Functional with some twists, the gameplay is the star but the story is most certainly engaging.
You’re given a moody monologue as a briefing before each mission and other than that there are only a few in games cut scenes that string the plot along. But I have to say in this case I didn’t really mind. I don’t know about you but I feel like I’ve played out almost every WW2 scenario possible in one game or another so I was happy just floating along this wafer thin storyline.
Gameplay
Sniper Elite is a stealth game at heart, but you have the option of going into every mission guns blazing Rambo style. You’ll be compelled to go to the silent rout though, shooting a bullet through the manhood of an unsuspecting Nazi never gets old. When you are spotted, you’ll see a silhouette of yourself, similar to Splinter Cell Conviction. The shooting mechanics work great for sniping, if you’re a hardcore player, you’ll want to play on the hardest mode. The submachine guns and pistol feel a little wonky in tight quarters but never hinders the game. Shooting down high ranking officials in the Nazi organization always feel satisfying, and never gets repetitive.
The game delights in coldly calculating tricks. Catch a soldier off guard and you can snap his neck, booby trap his body with landmines, and wait for a concerned squadmate to run over to him. Or you could surprise patrolling guards by laying trip mines in doorways and corridors. Chuck a rock at the other end and they’ll investigate the noise, their curiosity rewarded with explosions.
There’s no consistency to the levels; the distance between each checkpoint feels like a standalone vignette in a series of unconnected sequences. The best are large open courtyards where distant falling bombs mask the sound of your rifle fire, allowing you to move and shoot unseen and unheard. The worst involve tight corridors, or narrow paths through winding streets, where the uncanny vision of enemy soldiers allows them to discover you before you’re ready. In these moments the game devolves into a pop-up shooting gallery, punctuated only by the kill-cam animations every other shot.
A successful killing shot triggers the camera to follow your bullet on its slo-mo journey from gun to soft vulnerable body, showing the resultant splintering bones and collapsing organs in X-ray squeam-o-vision. Fortunately the sniping itself is a satisfying challenge. Adjusting for bullet-drop and wind strength becomes second nature, to the point that a missed shot feels like the consequence of your own stress in tight spots. Even in the weakest moments, shooting enemies from range is enjoyable enough to carry it. That the game so often falls back on this, however, shows some serious structural flaws with the level design. Ultimately Sniper Elite V2’s linearity gets in the way of the danger and tension that its campaign attempts to evoke.
There are some bugs in the game, with the A.I. especially. You’ll see some idiotic movements on their part, but when you see them picking up their fallen buddies and hauling them away to a safe place, well that just brings a smile to my face.
Graphics & Audio
Graphics
The graphics of Sniper Elite V2 is pretty good. The characters as well as the environments that host as hiding spots are very well deigned. Indoors are just excellent, it doesn’t fail to create the “tension at every corner” type feeling, with well placed enemy shadows and lighting
Most of us have seen the kill-cam, some are long, some are short, but for me atleast it never gets old. Its a sort of reward for every awesome shot. Do a headshot and you’ll see how gruesome it is but it sure feels rewarding. Then there are some more visual flairs when it comes to an enemy spotting you, leaving a ghostly image of where you were last spotted, which is very much similar to Splinter Cell Conviction.
Audio
The audio of this game is pretty intense. The soundtacks also adds to the tension at some points, whether it is the protagonist breathing heavily while aiming down the scope, or the chatter of the enemies. If an alarm is triggered due to some carelessness, all the enemies will look around to discover the problem.
The Soundtracks just add to the events of the game. You will not be hearing some blistering music through your speakers especially while taking aim. The game has more of a would-be battlefield type situation and you need to concentrate in killing shots especially when you want to time the shots to keep yourself hidden from the enemy.
PC Performance & Final Thoughts
It has been seen that there are some SLI problems with this game even though Nvidia included an SLI profile. It has been that the SLI scaling was only averaging at around 70% and at some occasions it also went to 50% which didn’t quite justify to anything that was on-screen. So this shows that the current SLI profile is bugged. I used a single GPU and i was easily maxing out the settings without any issues
Sniper Elite V2 works well on quad core CPU’s but doesn’t really take any advantage of it, moreover it runs pretty good on dual core processors as well so much so that the differences in performance between the quad core and dual core is very less. It seems that the game is more optimized for dual core CPU and doesn’t require a top of the line PC.
PROs
1. Decent length single player campaign
2. Good graphics and audio
3. Awesome gameplay especially the kill-cams make it more fun
Cons
1. Problematic AI’s.
2. Not many alternative routes to the target. It’s too linear, for me atleast.
3. SLI issues.
4. Didn’t find the story that interesting.
Review Rig:-
Core 2 Duo E7500 @ 2.94ghz
4GB Kingston @800Mhz
ASUS ENGTX550-Ti
MS WINDOWS 7 Ultimate x64