Developer(s): Rebellion Developments
Publisher(s): Rebellion Developments, 505 Games, Ubisoft (Japan)
Platform(s): Playstation 3, XBox 360, Microsoft Windows
Release Date: April 30, 2012
Big explosions, whizzing bullets, screaming comrades, and frantic
shootouts are your typical ingredients to most military shooters. It’s a rare treat when we take the battlefield
backdoor and examine stealthier means to combat. War torn Germany proves to be the perfect playground for
sneaking around and lining up headshots.
It’s not to say that being a sniper is short of spectacles. The newly introduced X-Ray cam shows
the sniper’s .50 caliber bullet shred the targets’ insides in glorious slow
motion. The sniper’s approach
might be subtle, but his executions are gruesome. The Sniper Elite franchise returns with a reboot, rather
than a sequel, and brings surprisingly addictive gameplay, unique enough to
hold its ground when facing veterans of the genre.
The Good
X-Ray Cam never gets old
Addictive gameplay
Be stealthy or shoot everything in sight
The Bad
AI has superhuman vision
Outside the sniping, controls can be clunky
Enemy AI can be frustratingly dumb
You play as OSS officer Karl Fairburne who’s sent to Berlin
in 1945 to track key figures involved in the V-2 ballistic missile
development. The campaign
references USA’s plan (Operation Paperclip) to recruit Nazi-German Scientists
for employment in the aftermath of World War II. Trite story elements bring nothing new to the table, but
varied mission objectives provide plenty of sneaking and sniping opportunities: infiltrating heavily guarded
facilities, assassinating Nazi targets, and disabling military weaponry. You can take the silent route or pick a
hiding spot and let hell break loose.
The levels follow your typical point A to point B format,
but they provide several paths to flanking your opponents. You’re equipped with a silenced pistol,
a machine gun, trip wires, grenades, land mines, rocks (for distracting guards),
and of course your deadly sniper rifle.
Your varied arsenal is a catalyst for creative bloodshed, but it’s a
shame that stealth feels unrefined
and clumsy. Before making your
first move, you can examine the environment with your binoculars and tag
enemies for easier kills.
Unfortunately, regardless of your position, every soldier seems to know
your exact location once the first shot is fired. This oftentimes takes away from your careful planning and you’re
left with a game of whack-a-mole.
The enemy AI is aggravatingly inconsistent. You’ll see enemies welcome your bullets
with open arms while others have super human vision, spotting you from a mile
away. Sneaking though buildings is
where stealth suffers the most.
Take a room with three guards for example, where one is looking out the
window. You can easily shoot two krauts without the third guy ever reacting.
Other times, you’ll hear enemies storming at you from the distance, even though
you’re quietly prone on the floor.
This isn’t to say that stealth is entirely broken or useless. You can certainly crawl your way
thought the majority of levels undetected, but it’s a shame that random AI
spasms break the gameplay tempo.
Sniper Elite V2 is a blast to play. Critical shots are highlighted with a
slow motion X-Ray Cam that showcases what happens when a bullet tears though an
enemy’s body. Teeth shatter,
organs explode, limbs fly - it’s a blood bath. The shooting feels precise and the realism of bullet
ballistics is determined by the game’s difficulty setting. Playing on casual removes environmental effects on the bullet. Your bullet
will land exactly where your reticle points, so this is a welcome setting for
newcomers to sniper simulations. Raising
the difficulty brings a whole new level of authenticity to the gameplay. Taking gravity, velocity, bullet
penetration, wind, and aim stability into account is quite challenging when you
have a gang of Nazis breathing down your neck. Furthermore, several levels have tanks and enemy vehicles
patrolling the area. They can be
taken out by shooting their gas tanks, killing everyone in the blast radius.
As fun as the sniping is, using your machine gun for close-range
combat feels gawky and buggy. I know
the sniper is all about, well, sniping, but you think he’d grasp the basics of using
other firearms - sometimes it feels like he’s shooting with his feet. Luckily, these encounters are seldom
and you mainly rely on your sharpshooter skills.
Visually, the game has nicely rendered, authentic
environments. The streets of
Berlin are filled with rubble and you get a detailed area overview when the
camera shifts to slow motion as it follows the bullet to its target. Character models look decent enough, but
it’s the death animations that steal the show. Depending on where you hit the target, the enemy reacts
distinctively. It’s reminiscent of
the recent Max Payne game - bravo!
The audio is superb!
The high-pitched sound of your bullet catching speed and the grotesque
shattering of Nazi skulls is thrilling.
Sound also plays a substantial role in how you navigate the levels. Unless you are crouching, the echoing
of your footsteps attracts nearby soldiers and can blow your cover. When sneaking through a building, enemy
chatter can reveal their location and give you the upper hand. These are great little touches that
complement the gameplay.
Sniper Elite V2 is a rare gem in the military shooter
genre. The single player mode is solid, clocking in at about 7+ hours, and you even have a multiplayer component
that allows for co-op play. Replay
value depends on how much you enjoy the first playthrough, but considering that
every mission gives you numerous ways to make your enemies’ brains explode, I’d
say you have plenty of reasons to revisit the campaign.
Review by Tin Salamunic
Review by Tin Salamunic
FINAL SCORE
|
“Superb Shooter”
|
8.5
|
GRAPHICS
|
Authentic environments and fantastic death animations, but
there isn’t too much variety in the scenery.
|
7.5
|
GAMEPLAY
|
One of the biggest surprises of the year. The game is an
absolute blast to play and the shooting mechanics are spot on.
|
8.5
|
VALUE
|
While it’s only seven hours long, the different approaches to
missions and the many, brutal ways to kill your enemies are more than enough
reasons to come back for more.
|
8.5
|
SOUND
|
The sound of bones shattering is spectacular. It’s an
otherwise quite game, but you have to rely on sound to navigate the environment
stealthily.
|
8.5
|
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