Take Aim At "Sniper Elite" Redux
It was a surprise when I discovered this game two months before it came out. I loved the original Sniper Elite, but didn't hear a bloody thing about anything new about it, whether it be a sequel or a spin-off. Then out of left field came Sniper Elite V2, which really upped the ante on the bullet time mechanics!
This game is just all-around hardcore sniping. It's the way it should be, seeing the fact that most people don't know what it takes to become a sniper of the Elite caliber. The game's mottos are "Observe, Plan, Execute" and "One bullet can change history", which is what the snipers of today do. I know what you're thinking: "Damn, am I sick of the World War II games blah blah blah!" Well this one is done so well you'll actually not care about it being another game based in WWII. (I have to say it's always fun to kill the evil Nazi bastards where they stand with a bullet.)
GAMEPLAY:
Sniper Elite V2 is a third-person to first-person based shooting game. You're name is Karl Fairburne, who gets dropped into the thick of it in 1945, when the war has gotten to the turning point. A lot rides on him killing the correct people in order to stop the Nazis from advancing, but next to that you've got to deal with the Russians. If you haven't beaten the game -- let alone played it -- by its end you become the first soldier of the Cold War. You're now probably wondering why is that. The truth of the matter is that the Russians are trying to get the edge because of the fact that Stalin was thinking that he could've worked on taking on more land for mother Russia. Not only that the Russians were trying to get there hands on the A-Bomb to become a superpower, which ends up happening anyways, sadly (hence the Cold War).
The game has four different setups to work with. First is Cadet, basically a point and shoot style. You put the cross hairs on it and 95 percent of the time you will put the target down. When someone is running you still have to compensate to get the moving target. Next is Marksman, which gives you a bit of the realism of sniping. Depending on your stance it will effect the steadiness of your scope and the bullet drop. If you are standing up your scope is going to bounce around, if you're in a crouch position it won't move too badly, and when you are in prone/laying down position you will be able to have bare to no movement on the scope. For the bullet drop, toss in the gravity that pulls down on the bullet. The farther away the target is the more you have to compensate for the drop.
Then there is Sniper Elite, which holds nothing back. You have to account for windage in this mode, meaning if the wind blows from right to left then you have shoot a bit left of the target (including the bullet drop). Don't worry: there is a little windage gauge that tells you where the wind will blow the bullet. The sniper elite section also takes into factor of the heart rate, so when you slow it down it helps you place shots easier than if your heart is pumping really fast. Finally there's Custom, where you can have all three rolled up into one. You can even have tactical assistance, where when you go into the breathing mode it will put the red dot at where the bullet is going to go (so you can line up your target and put the enemy down).
Silly Nazi, trip mines are for dummies!!!
WEAPONS:
The guns they have available in the game are the Springfield M1903 (American), Mosin Nagant 1891/30 (Russian), and the Gewehr 43 (German). The submachine guns you deal with are the Thompson, MP 40, and the PPSH 41. These machine guns are great for the close combat when it has to get to that, but if you'r good at being sneaky and can take people out at a distance with the sound covers then you won't have to really need to use them. Pistols in the game include the British-made Welrod (supressed pistol), Colt 1911, and Luger P08. You would also obtain other weapons such things as Land Mines, Trip Mines, Grenades, and Dynamite. Other fun guns (if you pre-ordered the game) were the KAR98K, and the SVT-40. If you download the "Assassinate the Fuhrer" DLC, though, you will obtain both of those guns.
MULTIPLAYER:
This was a bit of a disappointment. The first part of the multiplayer you can do is the campaign in co-op with a friend, who has their own separate Xbox and copy of the game. Next is Kill Tally, where you are put into parts of the actual mission while you and your friend take on ten waves of Nazis to win it all. Then there's Bombing Run, a challenge within itself. Here a bombing run will be coming down on your location shortly. (You'll have a getaway vehicle such as a car or plane, or whatever else.) Your main part is to repair the vehicle before the bombs drop. Of course the parts are well-guarded by Nazis, so you have to either do it quietly or go in guns blazing and hope you hit all the enemies while getting all the equipment back to your getaway vehicle. This one has to be the most exciting out of the multiplayer, but I warn you that you need a real good partner or your going to be restarting or rage quitting before you know it. Last, but not least, is Overwatch, where one member will be the sniper and the other will be the operative carrying an S.M.G. (Sub Machine gun for you noobs) and binoculars used to spot enemies for the sniper to take out. The sniper has to also take care of the objects while the operative watches his back.
Here comes the bad part: there are no sniping missions against one another. It is only co-op-based multiplayer. Sadly I wish they could've done a bit more where they had two snipers from each group (Americans, Nazis, and Russians), where they all have certain objectives to take care of in order to win the round. Sadly they didn't put in the effort for something along those lines.It would've been awesome, too, if they put the co-op for the "Assassinate the Fuhrer" DLC.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Sniper Elite V2 is exactly what Rebellion wanted the game to become. The x-ray camera for kills is one of the sickest setups that they could've done with this title. From being a fan of the original one done by Rebellion and Namco, this game really outdoes the predecessor. I popped in the original one just to give me a remembrance of what it was like. Oh boy, were the graphics bad, and its kill cam was hideously done. The only parts you would see is blood spray, or if you hit the enemy in the middle of the for head it breaks the piece off and the guy gives an ugly face. With V2 when you see the x-ray mode you can see everything like the jugular vain, the skeleton, lungs, heart, intestines, and even the testicles. If you're a man, and you see the testicle shot in the game, you will definitely feel the pain of that poor Nazi bastard. (Oh wait, I forgot: he deserves it!) All in all, with the minor setbacks on a few things, I'll still rate Sniper Elite V2 highly.
FINAL GRADE: 9.8 (out of ten)
Game: Sniper Elite V2
Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Rebellion, 505 Games, Ubisoft (Japan)
Platforms: PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3
Genre: Third-person/first-person shooter
P.S.: This is a great video about becoming a Marine Scout Sniper. Trust me: this stuff is no joke!
P.S.S.: I really hope that sometime that they could make a Sniper Elite for Vassili Zaitsev, who was a great Russian sniper. Jude Law played him in the great war movie Enemy at the Gates. Here's the trailer below to check it out if you haven't seen it:
Just to let you know how much it sucked to be on the Russian side of it, they took all able-bodied young men and paired them together. One would get a rifle, and the other would get clip of bullets. When the one with the rifle got killed the one with the rounds of bullets would grab that gun and shoot at the Nazis. Just be glad that isn't you!