![]() ![]() Some of these include an excessive x-ray view of the bullet shattering bones and ripping internal organs. It should be noted that the occasional "reward" for such a feat is a gruesome, somewhat fetishistic kill-cam that follows the bullet from the chamber to your target in slow motion, the view whizzing around it with cinematic flair and ending in a very graphic display of a human dying. ![]() This pseudo-mystery creates tension that can send your heart atwitter for even the most basic of shots. Gravity, wind speed, scope stability and your own heartbeat are variables that strip the guarantee of a true aim, adding excitement to each pull of the trigger as you can never quite tell where exactly the bullet will land. Playing on the easiest setting for ballistic realism isn't recommended, as it doesn't allow you to appreciate how Rebellion has totally nailed the mechanics of sniping. Want tough-as-nails enemies but point-and-shoot aiming? Do it up. Want dumb enemies, realistic ballistics and no tactical assistance like threat indicators or enemy tagging? Totally viable. While a grand swath of games allow you to choose a difficulty level, Sniper Elite V2's modular difficulty settings allow you to customize in which areas you'd like to be challenged. Just how difficult this mission will be is up to you. As the only American in the region, it's of course up to him to stop it. While on a mission to assassinate a scientist defecting to the Soviets, Fairburne learns of a plot to fire V2 rockets filled with nerve gas on London. ![]() Mostly told through slides between missions, the story follows OSS officer and sniper extraordinaire Karl Fairburne, who is involved with Operation Paperclip, a program intended to recruit scientists of Nazi Germany over to America and keep them out of, amongst others, the hands of the Soviet Union. But Sniper Elite V2 isn’t without merit, with some clever set pieces and polished sniping mechanics that elevate the game beyond its rather dull presentation. The campaign is super linear and relatively brief, and the game’s derivative art style does it no favours in standing out from any WWII shooter from the past 10 years. What you do get with the Wii U version is a seven-hour campaign and three maps of Kill Tally, a score-based wave mode where you try to hold out for as long as possible against increasingly powerful platoons of Nazis. If Sniper Elite V2 wants to be treated as a full-priced game, then it’ll have to do better than this. The problem is that this sucker is parading around as a full-blown retail release with a price tag to match, which is a ridiculous proposition for a year-old game missing half its feature set and not even bothering to bridge the gap by, say, offering split-screen multiplayer or throwing the single-player downloadable content on the disc (no Hitler assassination for you, Wii U owners). And for a bargain price, you really can’t go wrong: running around a bombed-out Germany in World War II picking off Nazis big and small from the shadows is a non-caloric pleasure. So says the cynic in us, and our realist chimes in with a “yup.” With online multiplayer and DLC support yanked, Rebellion and 505 Games seem comfortable with letting their year-old game linger in the $20 wasteland on this platform. Were it a movie then this edition would be one of those bare-bones, dithery full-screen DVDs that advertises its interactive menu and scene selection as "features". Let’s just get this out of the way: Sniper Elite V2 on Wii U seems built for the bargain bin. ![]()
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