Sniper Elite V2 (2012)

This title is a third-person tactical shooter set in the final days of World War II, where you take the role of an American sniper operating in war-torn Berlin. The game’s highlight is its sniping system, bullet drop, wind resistance, and breath control all factor into each shot, creating a rewarding and tense experience. The X-Ray Kill Cam, showing bullets tearing through enemy bodies in slow motion, adds a unique cinematic flair that became the series’ signature.

However, the game shows its age in several areas, levels are mostly linear, limiting your freedom, and the AI can feel inconsistent, sometimes spotting you unrealistically or failing to react at all. Stealth sections outside of sniping scenarios tend to be clunky, and the visuals, while atmospheric, are dated compared to other 2012 releases. Though I still recommend going stealth on this title since this is really how this game was planned to be played in the first place, not to mention it is more fun using this approach.

Despite its flaws, this game remains enjoyable for those who appreciate patience and precision over fast-paced action. It’s a solid niche experience, not a technical masterpiece, but a satisfying sniping simulator that rewards methodical play. This was the first title of many when it comes to this franchise, despite it having released titles previous to this one. I recommend playing this if you are a fan, otherwise, the more recent entries have a higher quality than this one.

Thoroughly enjoyed this one. Having tried to play Sniper Elite (v1?) a few years ago and giving up because it was so frustrating to play, I was hoping this one improved on it. Oh boy did it. The story is fairly bland - kill this guy, stop this thing, kill this other guy, etc. But the shooting is just so much fun. I tend to play games as ranged/snipers anyhow, and this played into my strengths perfectly. The combination of stealth and action was pretty well done, and I occasionally would restart a mission to see if I could get more stealth kills before they figured out I was there. Although there were a few explosive types in the game, I rarely used them. Only towards the very end did the bullet cam get a bit tedious. Every other time, triggering the bullet cam gave me a rush of "ooooh I got 'em"!

Excellent game, very much looking forward to playing 3, 4, and 5.

I bought this on sale as a whim, and while I enjoy picking up every now and then, the more I play it the more I find the idea of pushing through to beat it exhausting.

At its core there is a lot to like. The environments are rich with details, various paths, and look outs. Your character has a lot of options on how to interact with enemies, lay traps, ect. The blown out ruins of Berlin is extremely well done.

However, the story is SO bland. The map flow is SO repetitive and bland.

In some segments you are supposed to climb up rubble; however, in nearly all the maps, you can't climb anything. This makes climbing segments exceedingly easy to miss, and very frustrating when you do.

The game seems to want you to stealth around, plan, and lay out traps. There are so many options to do this.

However, rarely is it worth actually slowing down and trap the bodies or do other cool shit, as the AI just doesn't frequently pass over these traps. Its quicker, and safer to sling grenades, fire with your machine gun, and then just snipe stuff.

You also have no real silenced weapons, except for a stupidly weak pistol which is inaccurate AF. I understand there are limitations based on the time period, but maybe shooting someone on a roof top shouldn't activate every enemy in that section of the map!

You can get stealth kills from behind, but have no melee weapon, meaning if they turn around, you are screwed and need to shoot or die.

The cover system is janky and there are many times I died from weirdly half crouching or moving totally out of cover when trying to shoot.

I think back when I loved FPS I would have enjoyed this game as something different. Even when it came out initially (2012), I think I would have liked it. But in 2020, its a bland implementation of some really cool concepts.

Cutting bullshit aside, V2 is a generic TPS on steroids, though its fun, and while maps look good they feel generic, but the game has a great gimmick and a great engine (It really is a great engine and a great gimmick). and there are some fun scenarios. Sequels would seem to be far better from what I experienced in NZA Trilogy.

This very much reminds me of the movie Enemy At The Gates. The game (series) basically capitalizes on Max Payne bullet chase cam for the sniper rifle and it would seem that effect inspired this entire series of games. I personally love the gimmick this thing has going. I found it a lot more visually cool than Fallout 3's VATS. It also translates really well into a game and not just eye popping candy.

(warning gory/NSFW/offensive/anti-semitic/etc)

You also have a bullet time that slows time down and provides increasingly accurate bullet drop compensation the longer you hold it down. It's one of the very few games that can merge simulation and arcade like effects into a format that both feels realistic and is satisfying. For a FPS (it more or less IS an FPS since most of the business is done viewing through a scope) this is a novelty. The later engines do more to provide bullet deformation and exit characters. In V2 its more basic. While you do get helmet penetration and hits (whats most interesting to see is when the bullet goes clean in then hits a helmet on the way out) you dont get the frangible stuff. You also dont get some of the gore I recall in NZA 2 ( I Remember NZA being more gory).

A lot of the game game feels like a turkey shoot, shooting at tanks and vehicles or even explosives on enemy soldiers is fun, but they could have done more with it. Your helath recharges and ammmunition is quite plentiful. Cranking up the AI difficulty doesnt necessarily make this feel more challenging or engaging in the way one would like. There are no 'puzzles' (like hitman) though you can lay traps and other things if you so wish (for whatever reason) While it's lacking in some bits it more than makes up for it with the perfect execution of it's novelty, which is the strong point. What's odd is there are no gibs in this game. (This may be the most violent-est game lacking gibs ever made!)

One of the creative bits in mechanics here was the approach to maintaining silence. Typically games will force you to use silenced weapons that nobody can hear in the next room, or melee kills, or everyone goes rambo, in V2 they came up with an idea of timing your shots when air raids, thunderstorms passing trains or other 'noise events' offer opportunities to fire shots and conceal presence. It doesnt seem like much but I found it makes for a lot of immersion. And while it isn't really a stealther, and doesnt hold you to it really, while you play it you can't help but want to see how long you can go anyway.

This is one of the few games (maybe the only?) that uses blur video card effect in a way I like. As you look at something down your scope or binocs and then swing around to something further away (a further away building) your focus goes in and out. It actually works well. There are also cutscenes and other bits where it actually looks alright as too. (One of the most memorable things in NZA Trilogy was also the wide use of video effects)

Despite em not really feeling that robust, DLC is arguably a must have were one to play this between the additional sniper weapons and the kill hitler scenario.