Review: Sniper Elite V2

If you were to go up to the average shooter fan these days and ask them what they thought of titles set during World War II you’ll probably hear one of two answers: that they became oversaturated during the last decade or that nothing interesting can or could be told about them.  Yet, in this age in which I look around and see nothing but modern, “cutting edge” titles with the same evil Russian/Chinese/Islamic/whathaveyou plot that has been repeated time and time again, I can’t help but want to revisit the days in which our enemies really were evil and not just a matter of perspective and consequence.  These days in games victory is assured thanks to the technological might and tenacity of Western powers but during the first half of the 1940s victory wasn’t certain.  Given that the Second World War spanned nearly five years and two theaters there is definitely plenty of room to explore new fiction.

To answer the other question though we have games like Brothers in Arms and, most recently, Sniper Elite V2, a remake of a 2005 title that saw you sneaking through the Battle of Berlin as a deadly sniper.  Seven years on and many new gameplay conventions learned, does Sniper Elite V2 prove that a setting doesn’t have to be the end-all reason to not go back to World War II?

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The Waning War
Despite the American and British’s best efforts it was the Soviet Union that charged into Berlin first and ended the five year struggle to rid Europe of Hitler’s fascist regime.  With the war in Europe in sight Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt met in February of 1945 at what became known as the Yalta Conference to discuss the post-war reconstruction and reorganization of Germany and its conquered nations.  What followed however was a behind-the-scenes scramble to gain control of Nazi Germany’s technologies and scientists as well as attempts by both sides to place socialistic or democratic influence on the soon-to-be rebuilt countries.  Europe was about to become center stage for a drama of ideologies that would engulf the world for the next fifty years and in Sniper Elite V2 you, the player, are at the heart of it.

You play as OSS officer Karl Fairborne inserted into Berlin in April of 1945.  As the Germans fight a losing war of attrition against an overwhelming Soviet army, you are tasked with capturing or killing key German scientists attached to the V-2 rocket program that continuously struck Antwerp, London and Paris during the preceding years.  With the war almost certainly won, you must do your best to prevent the Soviets from gaining these personnel at all costs.  Without any Allied backup and both the German and Soviet forces considering you hostile you are alone in the middle of one of the biggest battles in military history hoping to shape the future of a war that hasn’t even officially begun.

The campaign of Sniper Elite V2 has you (and a buddy if playing cooperatively) playing through nine different levels located in and around Berlin.  Across the roughly six to eight hour campaign you will stalk your prey as the city falls around you in mostly linear missions as you complete objective dictated to you in a pre-mission briefing.  Other than a scant few cutscenes to be had and the briefings Sniper Elite is decidedly a lonely experience with little to no story narration or emotional pull to be had.  All you know is that you have a rifle, targets you need to use it on and an objective to accomplish.  This harkens back to a time in which shooters could be emotionally closed off and didn’t try to pull on your heartstrings and, for a title like this, this is all but necessary.  Sometimes it’s just better to choose to give the player the tools to complete his mission and not much else and, at least in the case of Sniper Elite, this is the right call.

What isn’t the right call however is the game’s length and ending.  An experienced shooter fan can complete the campaign in a good afternoon’s worth of dedication and, other than replaying the campaign cooperatively or completing challenges, there’s really not much left to do with the game.  The ending is also very abrupt and leaves the player wanting more.  Developer Rebellion looks to be adding DLC down the road but, as it stands right out of the box, V2 doesn’t offer much else.  Preorder content such as the ‘Kill Hitler’ level does offer a glimpse at a strong future for the game though.

Lining Up the Target
Most shooters these days are a run-and-gun, macho affair that has you playing as a supersoldier that can withstand pain as if bullets were instead pebbles being thrown at you by a five year old.  Sniper Elite V2 however is pretty much the antithesis of this gameplay formula as you are, decidedly, far more human than in most games.  To be fair, the game does feature the commonplace regenerative health scheme but, on any difficulty save for easy, a burst of machine gun fire will end you very quickly.

Going beyond the health scheme however, Sniper Elite is also a very much tactical shooter in comparison to the Call of Duties and other macho shooters seen nowadays.  The game’s gameplay is quite slow and methodical for the majority of your playtime and actively discourages you from playing in any other style than a tortoise-like advance through the battlefield.  The game incorporates a stealth gameplay mechanic very much like that used in Splinter Cell Conviction and, in some ways downright stealing from that game.  The stealth gameplay is a welcome feature to a game like this though it is all but a prerequisite for a game based entirely around sniping.

There are some issues with the stealth elements of the game however.  The game takes line-of-sight far more seriously than player illumination and discrepancies rear their ugly heads more often than not later in the game.  One later level set at night has the player running into an issue in which a machine gunner can see you from fifty meters away when an enemy ten meters away can’t.  Enemies can also discern the falling of a rock or the slightest bit of movement faster than tip-toeing while in the middle of an artillery strike, causing them to investigate the area when there should be little to no reason to do so.  I often found myself struggling through an area and facing a game over screen because an enemy sniper could somehow tell me apart from all the rubble around me just because the hair on my character stood half an inch higher than anything else.  More often than not an enemy sniper will see you long before you see them and firing eliminates any hope of getting the drop on the enemies directly in front of you. The stealth element of the game is manageable but the way it works currently it is something that takes some getting used to.

As the game’s title implies and demands, V2’s primary gameplay has you focusing on sniping targets from afar while trying to be as well hidden as possible.  Over time you will earn new sniper rifles to get the job done that offer enhancements such as increased ammunition capacity and enhanced magnification on weapon scopes.  Players are unable to customize their primary weapon though so you don’t get the feeling of being a professional sniper.  Given that the weapon selection in 1945 was decidedly limited though this is but a minor issue in my eyes.

When sniping, players playing on anything other than easy have to account for real-world problems that plague sharpshooters today.  Issues such as bullet drop over distance, lead time, stance, heart rate and even wind speeds in and around the target must be accounted for when taking an accurate shot at your target and, with only the indicators on your rifle’s scope and an estimated distance to target to work with, higher difficulties in the game can be decidedly harder.  One particular mechanic however aids the player significantly: the game’s Focus Time mechanic.  Similar to that of your typical bullet time effect, players can activate this ability based on how low their heart rate is, causing the world around you to slow down and also activating a targeting reticle in your scope indicating exactly where the bullet will strike.  The result is a mightily useful tool, especially when you have already been spotted by the enemy and are under fire.

The ‘V2’ portion of the game’s full title is a perfect moniker for Rebellion’s latest title as, beyond the game’s story implications, it serves as a proper reference to the 2012 title being a version 2.0 remake of the 2005 sleeper hit.  Many of the game’s core mechanics have been refined rather than reworked but nothing solidifies this version 2.0 gameplay than the introduction of the game’s notorious kill cams.  At random, the game will take control just after a bullet is fired at an enemy and follow it along the bullet’s flight path.  Some will stop there and show the impact of the round but many kill cams will go further and show off the actual damage the bullet inflicts, showing an anatomic cutaway of the victim and the destruction the round wreaks upon him as it tears through the body.  The result is both grotesque and awe-inspiring, easily making it one of the most memorable and enjoyable features Sniper Elite has to offer.  The effect also applies to moment like the destruction of a vehicle by shooting its fuel cap but, regardless how and in reference to what it occurs, the kill cam never gets old.  It definitely makes V2 a game that’s not for the faint of heart but, as the developer has implied in the past that the kill cam mechanic was actually toned down for the game’s release, one can only imagine what could have been.

The Sniper’s Playground
Sniper Elite’s visual presentation, much like most shooters seen today, is a muddled one filled to the brim with browns and greys throughout most of the game.  Since the game takes place in the remains of a once mighty city near the middle of the 20^th century though this is a necessity, though a little green and some more lively colors would have been a welcome sight.  The game’s design really sells the player on being on site at the fall of Berlin as many locations feel quite authentic, capturing what one can imagine it must have felt like at times as the Soviet army stormed into the city.  To date, few games have really shown what Berlin was like at the fall so for those looking for an architectural reference to the scene in April 1945 there are few better ones than Sniper Elite V2.

The game’s level design is mostly a linear affair, though as the game goes on the levels get progressively more sandbox in nature.  One particularly memorable level has you infiltrating a Soviet base next to a bombed-out and rubble-filled neighborhood that you can fully explore.  Other, however, have you sneaking through destroyed churches and other standard war game tour locations like a flak tower and government buildings.  The balance is fair at times but, overall, it leaves you wanting more open, sandbox levels to trudge through with multiple ways to complete objectives and kills.

One unfortunate part of the game’s presentation comes in the form of the audio mix.  Surround sound only rarely has a better mix than that of basic stereo in Sniper Elite as you can easily hear enemy voice far, far off from where you are.  Sounds that should be indistinguishable such as a rock hitting the ground while a large explosion is going off can clearly be heard.  By contrast, enemy weapons fire at times can be very quiet despite happening almost right next to the player.  The game’s voice acting includes authentic German and Russian voice work which is nice but Fairborne’s work is very monotone and unemotional.  Sniper Ellite’s soundtrack is also decidedly generic and lacks any sort of distinction from other war games which, given how unique it is in comparison to most of its competitors, it deserves a good musical allotment.

One other minor complaint to be had is the game’s control scheme.  While for the most part Sniper Elite adopts the standard Call of Duty control scheme, some of the game’s design choices contrast’s the game’s tactical nature.  Player movement while in a crouched state only has one speed as the game doesn’t make full use of procedural character movement and the game’s camera is stuck to the player, shifting their position as the camera pans.  An unlocked camera plays better to third person gameplay like what Sniper Elite utilizes but it simply isn’t implemented.  The player character is also locked to the left third of the screen and cannot be shifted to the right unless in cover which is almost a prerequisite of most tactical shooters like Ghost Recon these days.  This makes it quite difficult to see around corners in enclosed environments and can be especially annoying at times.

One in the Chamber
Sniper Elite V2 is an example of what can be done right when trying to make a shooter really different.  While it ends up having some minor issues and game design choices that don’t align with what you think a game based around sniping should be, they come off as minor inconveniences in an already good game.  While Rebellion’s remake of the sleeper hit from 2005 hasn’t exactly cornered the market on sniper games it has demonstrated that they can be just as fun and smart as today’s big-box, triple-A releases.

What’s more important however is that Sniper Elite V2 shows that a World War II game isn’t an undesirable thing anymore.  In fact, a return to more constrained fiction may be what needs to happen in a genre that has been steadily becoming more boring with its fiction and game design.  Unique fun can still be found within the confines of a game set during one of the most important times in human history and Sniper Elite V2 is a testament to that fact.