If you are a male, age not important, then you have at one time in your life heard your father say “Son, I’m disappointed.” I’m sure I’ve had more than the average but that shouldn’t exactly be surprising to many due to my ridiculous nature. Thing is, that is exactly how I feel about Sniper Elite V2. I honestly had high expectations for this, as a I enjoyed the previous entry, Sniper Elite, on my OG Xbox. I told myself that a current-gen model of a slightly overlooked portion of the FPS genre should work great with plenty of time to develop it. I was wrong and honestly, I shouldn’t have been completely surprised. I suppose I totally set myself up for this one. It’s not that I think Sniper Elite is a terrible game, I just convinced myself that this could be a summer sleeper in terms of gameplay and enjoyment. So let’s break it all down, in the typical Squid “style” of Dig it or Dog it.
Here, let me hide behind the dilapidated wall
I usually start with the bad but I think a positive beginning could help this game out. So let’s “Dig It” first. (This was originally supposed to be a video review but I am suffering from some technical difficulties)
Dig It:
- Mechanically the gun-play is pretty solid. It does a great job of adding as much “realism” to the players perspective as possible. I liked that it actually stuck true to the sniping mechanic and didn’t give you some cheap way around it. The bullet drop and adjustments you must make as the marksmen is pretty impressive.
- I think we can agree the Kill-Cam’s are pretty outrageous but add a nice flair to the game and how it is played. I think it would have been nice to have different scenarios for this, rather than just the same slo-mo but it’s a gimmick that works well regardless.
- Overall, the graphics were pretty good. I thought the environment was very detailed on most levels and the dynamics of each played will into the vibe of a catastrophic war. By no means is this the Crysis series, Uncharted or Gears for the console but it’s much better than the average release within the past couple years. That is saying a lot with the current consoles at the end of their “life cycles”.
- There are some nice set pieces in the game and creative ways to handle situations that a sniper could possibly encounter during a mid-20th century global war. There was a nice range, between masking shots with loud speakers or weather to a more guerrilla warfare take on the “aggressive recon”.
This unfortunately ends what was done “well”….
Dog It:
- Man is the AI bad in Sniper Elite V2. I mean really bad. I don’t understand the motive to charge the location of said sniper just because the guy next to you had his “man-hood” demolished in real-time. This almost reminds me of 18th century warfare where everyone just stands in a line, fires and marches to their inevitable doom. This game is too new to have late-90s AI issues. I mean how is it that a random stooge for the Wehrmacht goes John Rambo the minute he hears sniper fire? Wouldn’t Herr Rambo dive for cover and stay there until he knew exactly what was going on? Maybe I am asking too much but this just makes the game feel like a bad summer action flick. No real purpose behind the characters, just mindless fools getting a pay check…or in the case a heavy jacket bullet to the groin.
Everyone run towards the guy with better line of sight!
- Geez the audio is pretty….bad. I was expecting some great sound bites to come out of my surround sound and my Trittons but all I got was muffled this and half-assed that. It really feels like a majority of the audio used in this game was recycled from some Call of Duty in the early turn of the century. It’s old and half-baked. Audio is important to me, it really adds a new dynamic to the gameplay. Expecting the German opposition to say more than 5 lines is asking a lot it seems. Maybe this isn’t as important to others but it adds to the experience for me.
- Don’t put multiplayer into a game if you don’t play to think it through. Much like FEAR did with its last entry to the franchise, Sniper Elite V2 just tacks on multiplayer to add some replay value to an already wavering experience. It’s co-op based, with competitive basis to it. None of the modes are memorable, since they revolve around who can get the most kills in set time or who can complete these objectives in this order but it’s all old news. It’s sad that the console versions were stripped of the PvP potential that this game had and instead given some back-up plan. I think this game could have done much better by adding that portion of multiplayer. Here’s to hoping the PC folks are enjoying their multiplayer and free maps.
- I can’t even remember a portion of the story and its only be a week since I played last. Some random American hero set to change the tide of the war. Remember that? Probably because 40 other titles have used it in the past 5 years alone. It’s totally forgettable, as you can see. Some of the set pieces, like I mentioned earlier, add excitement to the story but it doesn’t last beyond that because I don’t care about the “stereotypical” WW2 mock hero, nor the “Joes” he is hunting. Really disappointing.
Honestly, I could keep griping about what I wanted this game to be and how it failed to deliver. To sum this up, I was extremely disappointed. I was warned that I shouldn’t get my hopes up for this game but it’s hard not to when I enjoyed the first entry. For console players, this a rent/redbox/gamefly worthy game…if that. That could be a stretch for some. I’m sure plenty of PC gamers are enjoying the franchise and will enjoy it for months to come but man…I was really hoping this would be something. Maybe 505 Games can figure out what went wrong and try again at a later date. Until then, avoid this game until it drops drastically in price.
Squid
