Sniper Elite V2 is the direct sequel to the 2005 Sniper Elite. I rememeber the time when I played the first one in my PS2. Sniper Elite offered a lengthy single-player game full of tense and rewarding moments, but it required a lot of patience to truly enjoy. And with V2, Rebellion delivers the same experience.
The game takes place in the same timeframe and location - the Battle of Berlin in April 1945 .The main character is Karl Fairburne, an OSS officer who is inserted into Berlin in 1945, during the final days of World War II. . Fairburne comes up against both Nazi and Soviet opponents as he seeks to kill or capture key scientists involved in the V-2 rocket programme.
Sniper Elite V2 is a third-person shooter that stresses employing stealth, rather than using brute force. Fairburne uses several WWII-era weapons, including sniper rifles, a silenced Welrod pistol, machine guns and German and Soviet hand grenades which can be also used to make tripwire booby traps. But the main weapon you most use in the game is the sniper.
Developers promised realistic bullet physics and let me tell you that they really delivered. In the hardest difficulty, your bullet is affected by gravity and the wind. So when you take the shot you got to really concentrate and calculate where to place the crosshair so the bullet can hit the enemy. To do this you must be calm. The game has a hart rate meter. Running, shooting and being shooted by the enemies deplete this meter. Having it full and activating it, the game enters a slow motion that in lower difficulties can show you where the bullet is gonna land.
Sniper Elite V2 is a game for sadists, with some of the most gruesome kills I’ve ever enjoyed in a game. Firing a sniper has never been so much fun in a videogame in years. As you take the shot, 9 out of 10 ‘X-Ray Kill Cam’ activates. The camera follows the path of the bullet in slow motion before slowing further as it reaches its target, whereupon the target’s body is rendered as an anatomical cutaway to show the bullet’s passage through the body and the damage it causes to organs and bones. The X-ray is similar to the one featured in Mortal Kombat. Seeing as the bullet penetrates the skull or as it's breaks bones, pierce vital organs and exit from the body (while bits of bones and meat fly) is pretty epic. One time I fired a bullet and watched as it went through an enemy mandible (teeth flying everywhere) exit through his head and straight to another enemy eye leaving him dead. Yes a double epic headshot.
Other epic moments the game offers are destroying tanks and other vehicles in one hit. How? Play the game to find out. Another cool gimmick is that loud noises, like thunders or explosions, in the background cover the noise your sniper makes. It's like having a modern suppressor mounted on your sniper.
As a sniper oriented game, the ammunition for the other guns is scarce. One maybe two mags for your machine gun and 16 bullets for your silenced pistol feels right. But again who need those when you have mad skills with the sniper. I found myself killing large groups of enemies using the sniper cause I got caught by a enemy. The stealth mechanics, not to say that is broken, could have been a lot better. The enemies seems to have supervision (and sometimes X-ray vision) as they can see you from very long distances. Also at times the enemies become really stupid, as they show their backs to you while standing still ?!
The game offers co-op. The whole campaign is playable with a friend. Really fun experience, believe me. There are also some other modes like a horde mode and one objective based mode, where you must complete different tasks. Cool modes to keep you hooked for some time.
The game looks really good and the frame rate is really stable. The levels are really detailed. As you might have seen in WWII documentaries, the cities are completely destroyed, rubble and debris everywhere, buildings in ruin, flaming vehicles etc. Also the voice acting is good too. The animations are really good, but sometimes they get really strange really strange like moon-walking soldiers...
I was promised that Sniper Elite V2 would feature some of the best bullet physics and some of the most gruesome kills ever. Double check on that. Sure it has some problems, but the overall experience is really good. Definitely check this game out when it comes out on May 4th 2012 for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360
8.5/10
