Sniper Elite V2

[Guest Marney-1]

Having been looking out for a good WW2 espionage type game for some time I finally found one that offered everything I was looking for - Sniper Elite V2.

You play as Karl Fairburne an elite US sniper sent behind enemy lines into Berlin during the final moments of the second world war. With the Russians tightening their grip around the city (what's left of it) several top figures in the German V2 rocket program look likely to fall into their hands. Your mission is to aid those figures keen to defect to the Allies, and to whack those thought likely to defect to the Russians.

For my first playthrough I opted to use the Custom Difficulty setting (knew exactly what I wanted after hammering the demo on PS3) rather than go with the usual Easy, Medium or Hard (Cadet, Marksman, Sniper Elite). You can choose between 3 difficulty settings for Enemy Skill, Ballistic Realism and Tactical Assistance - in a nutshell I chose to have an alert enemy, no scope interference such as bullet drop, wind etc and turned off all the Tactical Assistance such as enemy markers and onscreen pointers which tell you which direction bullets are coming from etc.

Although the story is predictable the action isn't, far from it. If you decide to play with the settings I chose then be prepared to die, a lot! The place is being overrun with ruskies knocking out the last remnants of the German army and you'll often find yourself in the middle of their street battles. You've got a pair of binoculars for scanning your suroundings and they can be a life saver because enemy snipers and machinegunnners can sometimes be a bastard to spot until it's too late, about 3 bullets in your torso in quick succession means you're going back to the last checkpoint and that can be a pisser if you've been crawling on your belly for the last half hour. There's no loading screen or anything when you press 'Retry' - it puts you immediately back in the action.

There are the usual weapons you'd expect to find in a WW2 game which you can swap and change either by finding caches or stealing from the dead. To use your sniper rifle effectively you need to watch your heart rate so you have a better chance of getting off a steady shot. If you find yourself running for cover when the shit suddenly hits the fan your heart will be pounding and take longer to calm down than if you were creeping/crouching around.

The silenced pistol obviously allows you to whack people without attracting attention but if you drop him and his body is spotted by one of his mates he'll grass you up to the rest and then you've got a problem so try to throw the stiff over your shoulder and hide it in a corner somewhere, that way Klaus and Boris will just scratch their heads wondering where the fuck he went. You can also do the old sneak attack by grabbing them from behind and snapping their necks - if you've done a good job of sneaking up on them while they're having a doze you can also do it from the front. If you're sitting off observing the enemy while deciding how to advance it's always a good idea to cover your arse by laying down land mines or tripwires so you can hear (with a bang) anyone sneaking up on you.

The killcam which follows your on-target sniper rounds (but not all) through the air is awesome and I can honestly say I thought it might get old after a while but I've played over 24 hours so far and I'm still loving it. It's possible to get some really long shots off and with the killcam following your spinning lump of lead through the air giving you some great views of your surroundings it's really satisfying to see the damage you inflict on the victim. There's a trophy for shooting someone through the eye which funnily enough I got with my very first shot.

You can also ricochet bullets off solid objects and it's sometimes possible to bounce one off a wall into some unlucky bastard hiding round a corner.

Anyway, if you liked the original Call Of Duty, Metal Gear Solid, The Saboteur and Black then you'll probably enjoy this, it's kind of like all those titles rolled into one - to me anyway. Took me over 14 hours to complete the main story but I was absolutely milking the fact you could take as long as you wanted and how you wanted. There are so many different ways to do the same mission plus online multiplayer co-op (which I tried earlier - best with a mic) and challenges. There's a

available now plus more DLC on the way apparently so there's lots of replay value in it if this is your thing. If you're in any doubt, try the demo on either PS3. Xbox 360 or PC.

[Brian 972]

Very good game, easy to beat though, did it in less then 2 hours. Next time I pick up a Microsoft points card, I'll be buying the DLC.

[Guest Marney-1]

Very good game, easy to beat though, did it in less then 2 hours. Next time I pick up a Microsoft points card, I'll be buying the DLC.

Less than 2 hours? Fuck that, I made my first playthrough last over 14 hours by more or less playing it in real time. I would observe patterns in the way they patrolled and planned (through trial and error) ways around things without attracting attention or killing half of them. I even managed to do one of the museum levels by silently taking everyone out without myself or any bodies being discovered. Depends how you want to play it though I suppose, that's what I like about it - run through it like you're playing a rented copy of Modern Warfare 3 or take your time like in the old Metal Gear Solid.

[evan466 20]

Holy sheets this game looks awesome, how have I never heard of it?

[Guest Marney-1]

Rebellion didn't exactly go all out to advertise it which I think is a shame really. A few trailers and that's it I think.

Here's a Co-op demo:

Oh yeah, you can also shoot their fingers off. And their bollocks:

Edited August 10, 2012 by Marney-1

[evan466 20]

I'm downloading the demo on steam right now. I probably won't buy it though as it's still pretty expensive.

[Edgecrusher 91]

I had the PS3 demo of this when it came out, it's pretty good. I plan to get the Steam version at some point, but will probably wait until it is on offer.