Sniper Elite V2

[Jimboxy]

So I was really looking forward to this. All the vids pointed to awesome. But the end result is pretty hit and miss.


The good:

Realistic ballistics and holding your breath waiting for that perfect moment is excellent. Then the shots themselves are addictive and never a bore. Seeing exactly how well you did, bones shatter, lungs pop, balls burst. Realising you can shoot an enemies grenade hanging from their belt.

The bad:

Hate the AI in Far Cry 2? It's that times ten here. Setting up your first shot is always a pleasure but as soon as you've taken it all enemies on the map have a switch flipped on their head and know exactly where you are. But wait, it gets worse. Why be armed with a sniper if the AI (now knowing where you are) can hit you a mile away with a world war semi automatic?
The cut scenes are mostly awful too. A mixture of in game graphics and cgi. The final kill in the game is massively comical too, mostly because of a squishy noise and cut to black/credits.
Unfortunately a large part of my enjoyment of the first and reason for buying this was for online battles. Death match style multiplayer is not present on the console versions. Instead we are left with co-op only modes and I didn't find these enjoyable.

The result:

While not a complete failure it's hard to play this game as intended with the AI as it is. The first Sniper Elite was a perfect mix of stealth and mocking the enemy which would only have an idea of your location if they'd had a visual. I did have a lot of fun along the way to the unintentionally funny conclusion though (I played it in a weekend), it's a damn sight (rofl) beter than Ghost Warrior and it's well worth a punt at a budget price.

[Hendo]

After hearing TGK gush about the demo, I downloaded it and was really surprised how much I enjoyed it!

Might pick the full game up cheap but I have heard that it does have problems and has reviewed with only above average scores.

[TopGunKnacker]

it definitely has its problems hendo, but when it works it really works. its gratifying, fun, theres no other shooters quite like it at the moment and its pretty cheap already, so yeah i highly recommend it. i got sidetracked by minecraft but ill definitely be playing more of this this week. bummer about the deathmatches on the console, ive seen some vids online they look fun. dlc maybe?

[Hendo]

Started playing this on PC. Just got past where the demo ends.

Those slow-mo bullet cam deaths are really gruesomely satisfying. "In the face!", I say to my myself. Or as I got an achievement for one, "in the eye!".

[Hendo]

Hate the AI in Far Cry 2? It's that times ten here. Setting up your first shot is always a pleasure but as soon as you've taken it all enemies on the map have a switch flipped on their head and know exactly where you are. But wait, it gets worse. Why be armed with a sniper if the AI (now knowing where you are) can hit you a mile away with a world war semi automatic?

Absolutely this!

The AI are like fucking wizards! I'm completely hidden and kill someone from miles away but then all his mates know exactly where I am.

On the other hand if there's an explosion or thunder going off at the exact same time you kill someone then his mate right next to him won't even flinch.

I'd really like it if you could get through the game completely stealthily but it seems designed not to allow that, which is a shame.

Having said that, I am enjoying it though I am playing it in bursts. Some sections the checkpoints have loads of opportunities for death in them so I struggled to get past one particular bit as I'd always get near the next checkpoint but then die and put the game away for a few days.

I do like it though, worth the few quid I paid for it. Just for the slow-mo bullet cam stuff alone.

[Sly Reflex]

I started playing this in an attempt to clear some backlog and also get a bit better with mouse and keys.

 

I had no idea it was set in WWII. I actually thought it was set in modern day.

 

It's not aged very well. I feel I'm constantly getting snagged on the level and the AI is dumber than a bag of rocks. I don't know if I'll have any more to say about it, unless it suddenly gets a lot better or a lot worse. Depending on how I feel I might stream some of it on Wednesday night if anyone wants to have a laugh at my bad aim.

[Sly Reflex]

 

[Sly Reflex]

Well that's that completed. Is... Is that it? That's very disappointing.

 

When you think of a lone wolf game based around sniping, this isn't what I'd think of. There's maybe be a bit of sniping but most of it would revolve around staying in stealth and using silenced weapons to get to a nest before having an explosive ending sniping the fuck out of everything.

 

This is just all over the place. You never really get to use the pistol and SMG much. The level design is terrible. Early on in the game it teaches you to booby trap areas and dead bodies, but it's never really to your benefit to do so all that often because you're always going forwards. The times where you to retrace your path even if you set traps the mobs spawn in and bypass them. Either that or the time invested it's just easier to shoot them.

 

Speaking of enemy placement, here it seems they just do stuff to dick you over. You'll push up and suddenly windows will break open with the most annoying placed snipers ever. And some of them can cheat as well, there's loads of times where I've been shot through walls I can't retaliate through. There's times where the AI will talk to itself and make it sound like there's loads of them left even when there's only one left, but you're so scared of pushing up to find them because getting shot in the back or getting focussed down by stuff that spawns when you go across invisible lines or kill so many mobs happens a lot. It's not difficult in that I feel like I'm being challenged, it's difficult because it keeps taking cheap shots.

 

The AI is truly terrible as well. It flip flops from being godly to being borderline broken. It frequently zeros in on you when it shouldn't know where you are and sometimes it dumbly wanders about shouting for you to come out even though you're popping heads in front of it.

 

Shooting heads in is fun though. I just wish it was in a better built game.