Last week What Culture! got a chance to play Sniper Elite V2 and chat to Rebellion founder Jason Kingsley, as well as Senior Producer Steve Hurt. to ask what you can expect in from this so called “thinking man’s shooter”...
Sniper Elite V2 is the revision/reboot-cum-sequel to Rebellions 2005 release Sniper Elite. A game which is remembered by fans and immortalised on Youtube, for being a genuinely challenging, but ultimately rewarding mix of risk and reward gameplay. The premise was simple, youre a WWII era American sniper behind enemy lines, picking off Nazis from the other side of a scope. The challenge arose from the realistic ballistics, which demanded the player compensate for gravity, wind and other factors such as the characters breathing. -You know, like that mission in Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare where you sneak through the grass, get to a tower and shoot a nasty, leather wearing fellow in the arm. Well Sniper Elite was a game dedicated to that idea of infiltration and then elimination, it also gifted players who mastered the demanding gameplay with a visual orgasm (à la gory kill cams). Thats right, for every skilful headshot and long distance murder you achieved, time slowed and the camera clung to the emerging bullet as it traveled from trigger to cranium, as some poor NPC had his skull violently redecorated. So whats changed? Well last week What Culture! got a chance to play the game and chat to Rebellion founder Jason Kingsley, as well as Senior Producer Steve Hurt. to ask what you can expect in from this so called thinking mans shooter when the game is released for PC and consoles this May: WC: So guys its been a while since the release of the original game and in that time weve effectively seen the rise of the modern shooter as we now know it. With that in mind, what aspects of design did you have to especially consider when coming into Sniper 2? SC:Umm, pretty much everything!JK: Well we knew we had a really great game with the first one, and we knew we didnt want to throw any of these elements away, instead we just wanted to build on them. At its core its a game about distance combat, and so although other games do really well out of letting you kill wave after wave of enemies, we really wanted to move further away from that. WC: So the crowded market only help steel your convictions? JK:Yeah I think so and you need to have something unique in this market so you dont just find yourself saying to players hey, heres a pale imitation of someone elses game. We wanted to do something that would stand out -and the guys should be congratulated on maintaining -in fact, building on the atmosphere of the first game. You still encounter moments of tension where you find yourself in an open plaza thinking I havent got a clue where the threats are. One of the game's new features is binocular tagging, which allows players to utilise wide vision, variable zoom binoculars to mark and keep tabs on enemies as they move around the environment. This idea is certainly reminiscent of the 'mark and execute' feature in 2010s Splinter Cell: Conviction, though, unlike in that game, you cant trigger a canned animation to kill tagged NPCs. Instead the act of tagging is a purely optional aid for the players tactical awareness, useful when thing's get hectic. In fact, Sniper 2 borrows again from Splinter Cell: Conviction by implementing the last known position ghost in the UI, a new stealth game staple which essentially marks the point in the environment where AI think you are. You might scoff at Rebellion for plundering these features so directly, but the game is much more accessible and wieldy as a result. Also, for a studio that played a huge part in the popularisation of the the kill cam with the first game, only then to see it become ubiquitous in the years since, perhaps they can be forgiven for borrowing mechanics so directly, especially when they help streamline the game so much. WC: So another big feature thats become prevalent in the shooter genre since the first game is customisation and light RPG elements. Was there no temptation to modernise? To introduce hip fire, changeable scopes, melee, perks, UAVs or similar? JK:Having a mech suit and UFOs was discussed briefly in the pub once, but no, no not really.SH: Blind throwing grenades is supported in the game, as well as other elements which are deliberately clumsy in nature, and thats because there will be times when you get into a messy situation and you need to get out. Thats why the machine gun is there, because although at the ranges we want the players to engage at its useless, this is a sandbox game where we cant predict whats going to happen in a level. As well a huge graphical overhaul, the enemy AI in the game has undergone some serious reinvigoration too. Not only are the bullet physics in the game emergent and dynamic, so is enemy behaviour and its reactions to your presence. Having played the few levels on offer multiple times, there observable differences in the ways enemies will try and put a cork in your fun depending on your own approach. Head straight for them on at ground level and you're likely to be rushed, but hole up in a defensible tower and the AI will bunker down, draw your fire and keep your eye down the scope so as to leave you vulnerable to flanking (nothing well placed trip mines can't handle). There are also two opposing factions in the game, the Nazis and the Russian Army, and in levels where they are both present a valid strategy is also to sit back, let them thin each other's ranks and then pick off the stragglers. All in all the game does a very good job of using it's slower pacing to it's full advantage and couple these dynamic threats with the unpredictable nature of each bullets effect an NPC, levels do continually seem fresh and replayable. JK: I mean we didnt want to get away from the original. The big thing for us was the kill cam, some people dont believe this but we actually dialled it back. The two features on the minds of returning fans are kill cams and multiplayer. This time the kill cams are increasingly spectacular with NPCs having fully modelled bones and organs that shatter, tear and puncture as each bullet reaches its target. Nothing is canned, nothing can be planned, and it will blow your mind. The game operates on a point system that reward skilful kills over mindless firing. That's to say that a moving headshot is harder to achieve than grazing an arm and the game reflects it's appreciation with more points and increasingly extravagant kill cams. It's actual nigh on impossible to fully convey the sheer gratification of the kill cam. Even in a video, that jump-cut-disconnect from scope to kill cam is only second hand, being yanked from the trigger pull to the luxurious spinning bullet is an appropriately exhilarating experience that you will learn to salivate for. As for multiplayer there was none on offer this time around, but we will have more coverage in the coming weeks. SH: Im a big co-op fan as a lot of the team are. Weve introduced the co-op campaign so you can experience the story with a friend but weve also introduced three other modes. Theres Kill Tally which is like a Horde mode, in which we keep piling up the challenge. Think tanks, armoured cars and panzerfausts. It just mixes it up and keeps it fresh and different. Another notable addition for fans of the game is the day one DLC that comes with pre-orders. This exclusive mission breaks from the game's early cold war narrative to bring a stand alone treat in the form of a Hitler assassination mission. No one we spoke to on the day would tell us if Hitler actually has one ball (you can snipe an enemy in the goolies for added kill cam wincing) but they were all quick to point out that the game is a work of fiction and theyre not out to offend. Great . . . but does he have one ball? All in all Sniper Elite V2 is very much like the original. The developers have confused themselves slightly by setting it during the same time frame as the original game, whilst also using the same character as the games protagonist (thus the is it a reboot, is it a sequel? fumble), but the point remains that the actual act of sniping is incredibly rewarding. Fans can expect less of an open experience and more linear corridors this time around, and whether this adds or detracts from the experience as a whole is a question we'll have to answer come review time. Rest assured however, Sniper Elite V2 has the best sniping gameplay you've ever seen. Big words yes, and one's that aren't to be taken lightly, but ultimately they'll be justified once you line up you're own special and impossible kill: WC: I know youre not going to tell me what the most awesome kill in the game is, but any personal highlights? JK: I had a ricochet off somebodies gun. I was firing too rapidly and not concentrating but it shot his fingers off, hit his gun and bounced toward his mate who was holding a grenade and it blew them both up. It was brilliant. And If that hasnt piqued your interest nothing will. Sniper Elite V2 is set for release on the 4th of May 2012, check back to WhatCulture! for more coverage in the coming months.