Sniper Elite V2 Review

Played on PC

Developed by Rebellion Developments

Released 2nd May 2012 (Remastered 14th May 2019)

Continuing with Rebellion's star franchise was the inevitable sequel, or to phrase it better, the "reboot". As it was described on the announcement, 'V2' serves to be a soft reboot of the original, more than a full-fledged continuation of what the 2005 game offered. Now, why did it take them 7 years to return to the IP that had once won the TIGA award for Best PC/Console Game? Well, in the 2000s, Rebellion was more concerned with expanding as a business rather than developing icon-status games. This growth was centred around acquiring many studios such as Fleetway Publications which acted as a way of getting their foot into the comic book industry, or other game development studios like Elixir Studios or Core Design, before capping off the 2000s decade with a greater focus on their publishing sector by purchasing Blackfish Publishing and a couple of Activision's IPs like 'Ground Control' and 'Lords of Magic'. It's not to say that they didn't do their fair share of development themselves, but every game they did end up making ranged from being a forgotten shooter that showed middling results or games that are remembered for being disappointingly bad, like 'Rogue Warrior' or 'Aliens vs Predator: Requiem'.

All of these ups and downs for the company preceded their controversial closure of their studio branch in Derby, and mass layoffs that would follow, all due to the failures that the aforementioned 'Rogue Warrior' and 'AvP: Requiem' caused. These oversights into their growth were looked back upon and streamlined into a focus where they'd prioritise smaller titles in the event of these changes. With now an equal split between their publishing and developing wings, Rebellion would be able to put itself back on its feet in the mid-2010s thanks to the goldmine that the reinvigorated 'Sniper Elite' franchise produced. While they did release 'Aliens vs Predators (2010)', 'Neverdead' and a couple more titles that were found to be equally mediocre as this brand new reboot, 'V2's success came from the fact that it capitalised on that World War 2 aesthetic at a time when every other shooter was transitioning out of it. The additional heavy marketing, showcasing that series' iconic yet controversial slo-mo x-ray animation and more, managed to bring it enough attraction, with it selling 1 million units across various platforms by 2015, and holding the number one spot in UK charts for multiple weeks after its initial release. A commercial success always results in sequels, unlike critical reception, so it's no surprise this game nurtured what would be Rebellion's proudest household name.

Story

Honestly, going into a reimagining of the first game's already dull narrative, only this time amplified and even more deadset on focusing on its bloody mayhem, and expecting anything but a story that barely serves as a backdrop would be completely stupid. This being a reboot, the narrative follows similar steps as before, with you playing as sniper Karl Fairburne in the final days of World War 2 in Berlin. You're tasked with stopping a scientific Nazi plan that could do the bog-standard dramatic elements like "destroy the world" and "make Nazis win the war", while the Soviets interfere with your interference. There isn't much here to experience, let alone enjoy, and the scarcity of a cohesive narrative goes to show that the team was nowhere near interested in the development of the campaign. At least in the 2005 game, it had the slightly corny yet equally entertaining voice acting, and, between the mission debriefs and in-level cutscenes, there was at least something to latch on to, even if the WW2 aesthetic wasn't as appealing due to how oversaturated it was. Here, the void is the biggest detriment. If they knew they weren't going to put effort into building a proper campaign, why bother making it in the first place? They instead should've gone the 'Black Ops 4' approach and stuck strictly to its multiplayer to showcase the gameplay they're so clearly proud of. I'm not going to have the lacklustre quality of the campaign affect my verdict too greatly, as even I understand that the driving point of this game is to hardscope military fascists, but since my experience with it is primarily rooted in the campaign, it's hard to be anything but disappointed with what was on offer.

Gameplay

Despite being the primary focus, the gameplay is also what had lost me the most during my 5-hour playtime. Now, my whole experience was within the campaign, and while there is a multiplayer mode, I didn't flock to it, so maybe my issues with the game here get reverted when playing against others, so take my word with as much salt as you want.

'V2' advocates itself as a third-person, stealth action game where you crawl around the rubble-strewn streets of Berlin, aligning your sniper scope to enemies' faces in hopes of discreetly and efficiently wiping out enemy platoons from a distance. The main mechanics that return here are your expanded arsenal of equipment with grenades, mines, tripwires and more to assist your way forward, a semi-realistic interpretation of bullet drop that (if you turned up the difficulty) could also factor in wind speeds, and the ability to mask your loud shots with the noisy environment to continue that "stealth" component. Overall, there was just genuine good quality of life improvements that I didn't realise I missed having from the first game: you can't die to your self-placed mines, holding in your breath not only stabilises your aim but also indicates the bullet drop, and there's an indicator that finally shows you when the sound masking feature is active. It overall holds your hand a bit more compared to the gritty survivalism of the first game, which forces you to learn and adapt. While some people would love this attunement, I know others would be hardcore purists who think that the game babying you isn't a worthwhile experience, which is why custom difficulties that help you adjust the enemy AI behaviour, bullet physics and HUD assistance being here is quite a great deal, all things considered. While the option was available to me, I just stuck with the standard "Sniper Elite" (Normal) difficulty settings, and even with all of these changes available at your fingertips, it doesn't redeem the overall design of the game.

In return for these accessibility improvements, the game becomes this action-fest shooter slop, losing that fragility and caution that came with sniping in the first game. Levels and sections are clearly designed for firefights rather than sneaking around, as enemies sometimes begin alerted to you or are positioned in a way that enforces instant alerting. The player character can seemingly tank more hits with the bonus of regeneration over time, and sniping showdowns appear far less frequently. This would be fine if the gunplay felt refreshing and refined, but besides the basic spray'n'pray mechanics and the same-old feel of every gun, the non-sniping shooting comes across as more of an afterthought than a core mechanic. All of those peak stealth moments from the first game where you had to manage your medkits, tripwires and sniper positioning for the best outcome get traded in for lacklustre spurs of action that aim for that quick burst of dopamine, and being grounded into a WW2 setting, makes the game come across as a 'Call Of Duty' rip-off rather than something unique and special.

This trade-off continues even more for far worse results, as everything here is simplified beyond redemption. Enemy AI no longer feels intelligent; where they once would approach their wounded allies carefully, they are now mindless run'n'gun puppets. Stealth is such a fraction of what it once was that the camouflage feature doesn't receive an overhaul, but instead, gets completely scrapped, and levels continue that linear design of empty boxes filled with pure action, rather than nicely-thought-out layouts that propose a silent approach. Mission structure becomes somewhat more basic, and almost everything great about the first game is wiped out for yet another generic WW2 shooter.

This really is a shame, given how good the sniping feels here. The cool X-ray moments you have when you land a critical hit are so brutally satisfying that, unfortunately, it becomes overplayed with how many firefights are packed into the campaign's short duration. The previously mentioned HUD upgrades, like the sound masking indicator, enemy pinging markers, a minimap, an arc to show bullet drop and more, do make the sniping more efficient and welcoming, with the added benefit of having the ability to be turned off if wanted for a more streamlined time.

World War 2 games are so plentiful that every era of gaming has too many of them to begin with. What separated 'Sniper Elite' for me was just how careful and methodical it felt when it came to its action. While it did have its fair share of these moments, it didn't prioritise the excessive explosions or chaotic mayhem unfolding, but rather, the slower sequences in between, which is something I oddly gravitated towards more. With 'V2', every promise made in 2005 gets thrown out of the window. It becomes a hollow version of itself with no worthwhile characteristics that make me want to play it instead of the other 100,000 WW2 shooters on the market. Fundamentally, it's not broken or overwhelmingly jank, but it lacks the soul needed to be entertaining.

Characters

Once again, the characters get as much attention as the story did, and that is absolutely zilch. That being said, 'V2's character portrayals feel significantly worse than the 2005 title despite receiving the same level of care. Karl Fairburne loses that edgy-hero personality that granted, was greatly attributed to the 2000s angst every piece of media had, but here he becomes a bigger blank slate of boredom than any protagonist pre-character-creation-process in RPGs. The allies you have are so forgettable that I was half-convinced that I didn't have any upon completion, and the only name that I remembered was Dr Hans von Eisenberg. Not for his antagonistic presence, not because his name is repeated hundreds of times during the campaign, but because it rhymes with the funny bald guy from 'Breaking Bad'.

Atmosphere

The main thing that I can vouch for with this game was its atmosphere. 'V2' bolsters a massive visual and audible improvement over its predecessor, so the differences feel like night and day. While the original perfectly captured that wartime grittiness and stuck to the aesthetic greatly, the ageing models, textures and effects disrupted that flow of immersion. Now, like with the rest of the game, while 'V2' does lose a lot of the essentials that make the 'Sniper Elite' formula so charming, it does recover parts of it with refinement in its own. The soundtrack illustrates greatly that haunting yet triumph-inducing energy you'd come to expect from a war-themed OST, and with the addition of the cleaner sound effects, it's almost like you're listening to an exhilarating documentary about the battles.

As for the visuals, I did play the remastered version of the game, so a lot of what made the game look great mostly came from those lighting and texturing boosts the game received 7 years post-release. Yes, graphically it holds up fantastically with the sun's glare or the lighting coming from the flames of the ruined building, enhancing the journey, but much of this gloss feels like an inadequate substitute for the alluring rust the 2005 game had. If the first game suffered from a monotony of other World War games looking like it, this game suffers from the monotony of many action games sharing its visual identity of both the rubble outdoors and interiors in disarray. The atmosphere, more specifically the visuals, has been enhanced, but at the cost of looking unoriginal.

Story - 4/10

Gameplay - 4.5/10

Characters - 4/10

Atmosphere - 6/10

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