The sniping itself varies hugely depending on what difficulty you choose from the get go. Sounds daft, right? Sure, but that patrol will find the body along with the mine you’ve planted on the corpse too, taking them all out and saving you the time and effort of shooting them. Draw one away from the pack with this distraction technique, end his life, then put his body right in the middle of a patrol. Most of these items are limited, but you can always throw rocks to distract the patrolling guards. However, there’s so much more than just a simple tripwire. So, you plant a tripwire on the door frame that leads to your location, meaning that you’ve stopped the enemy finding you – by killing them – but also created an alarm system to ensure you aren’t caught on the job, it’s a brilliant feeling. Say you find a vantage point from which to snipe from, you want to be sure that nobody discovers you while you are stealthily killing the enemy. It’s with that in mind that the toys come into play. You can make your way in, but you need to be mindful of your escape route. You see, whilst stealth is a key part of how the game is played, it’s not done with the simplicity of so many other titles. Sure, you could – if you so choose – just stay far away and aim down the scope, taking out each enemy one at a time, but you’re missing out on so many tactical advantages you can possess and it’d be a crime to do so. GAMEPLAY: On the surface of things, it could be forgiveable to think that Sniper Elite V2 is a simple third person sniping stealth game with first person aiming, but where it truly excels is the amount of customisable ways you can take down the enemies. You won’t hear blistering music blasting through your speakers when taking aim, Sniper Elite V2 just isn’t about bombast in that sense, you are alone on a would-be battlefield and you need to concentrate to make the shots, especially when trying to time a shot so that it is disguised. The soundtrack throughout adds to the events of the game. If you trigger an alert state through carelessness, the rest of the enemies will run around trying to discover the problem, the panic is palpable and transfers to the player, causing alarm and meaning you’ll need a calm hand to save the situation, it really does feel excellent. The soundtrack enhances the tension no end, whether it be through the now-traditional use of hearing the protagonist breathing heavily as he aims down the sniper scope, or the chatter of the enemies. SOUND: Sniper Elite V2 is a tense game, that much is definite. There is yet more visual flair when it comes to the enemy spotting you, leaving a ghostly white image of where you were last spotted similar to other games in the stealth genre such as Splinter Cell: Conviction. Get the headshot and you’ll see it, it’s gruesome as hell, but oh so rewarding. The kill cam is almost a reward for an excellent shot. Of course, most will have seen the kill cams by now, some of which are long, some are short, but somehow it never gets old. Indoor areas are excellent too, creating tension at every corner with well placed enemy shadows and lighting. Character models are realistically done, environments that play host to Karl’s hiding spots are well designed and suitably rough around the edges to match the situation. GRAPHICS: On the whole, Sniper Elite V2 is a good looking game. Functional with some twists, the gameplay is the star but the story is most certainly engaging. The locations vary, meaning that most of the time the progression feels natural, though there are rarely examples where the narrative is fully fleshed out, most of the time the next level you’ll be in will be the place the previous level suggested you’d end up. Starting out in Berlin, the story quickly takes twists and turns to keep the player engaged at all times. STORY: Set during World War II, the player is cast as Karl Fairburne on his mission to apprehend, or kill, key Nazi scientists. It’s an interesting idea, rather than make a full-on sequel, they’ve remade the original game but added so much to it that it’s barely recognisable, but is it worth the discerning public’s hard earned cash? The gaming world has moved on quite a bit since then so Rebellion have decided to revisit their original title, bringing it back up to date with V2. The original Sniper Elite was released way back in 2005 and was reasonably well received. Available on: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Windows PC (Reviewed on PlayStation 3)
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