Sniper Elite V2

Sniper Elite V2 is a 2012 tactical video game developed by Rebellion Developments for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is a remake of Rebellion's 2005 game Sniper Elite. The game takes place in the same timeframe and location—the Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945—but now the main character, an American Office of Strategic Services officer, must capture scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket programme.
==Plot==
The main character is Karl Fairburne, an OSS officer who is inserted into Berlin in 1945, during the final days of World War II. It references Operation Paperclip and its predecessor Operation Overcast, the plan by the USA to recruit the scientists of Nazi Germany.
Fairburne comes up against both Nazi and Soviet opponents as he seeks to capture key scientists involved in the V-2 rocket program. The campaign begins with a tutorial mission where the player must assassinate German Major-General Hans von Eisenberg who is attempting to defect to the Soviets. The next mission is a slightly altered version of the demo, where the player is sent to capture Dr. Gunther Kreidl, a Nazi scientist and search escape with his documents. Next, Fairburne infiltrates a V2 rocket production facility in search of another scientist, Dr. Schwaiger, who is willing to defect to the United States, but Fairburne is discovered and must fight his way out of the facility. Fairburne decides to steal a cache of explosives and destroy a bridge to distract the Soviets and Germans while he slips behind them and rescues Schwaiger. The plan works and Fairburne heads off to a place called Opernplatz, where he finds Schwaiger and is forced to hold off waves of Soviet troops who have discovered their position. Schwaiger is shot in the process, and before he dies, he says "tabun". Fairburne, clueless, goes to find Dr. Müller, whom he assassinates from his command tower. With no location of V2 launching site, he goes to a Soviet HQ, where he finds that tabun is a nerve gas inside the V2 rockets that are about to launch on London. With only information that location is somewhere outside Berlin, Fairburne goes to Berlin's office of Dr. Wolff's, the mastermind behind the project, to find clues. The office has been already destroyed, but Fairburne finds a ripped notebook and he finds that Wolff is about to escape from an airfield. Fairburne arrives at the ministry building with a map that is thrown in a fireplace, he barely puts out the fire and the location of the V2 rockets are found. He sets out to destroy them, which he successfully does. With only Wolff left, Fairburne goes back to the Brandenburg Gate, where he had assassinated von Eisenberg few days earlier. Fairburne climbs on top of the Gate and, as Wolff is about to escape in a car, he shoots, making the car run off the road and crash, killing Wolff instantly. Fairburne remarks that WWII is over but the Cold War begins, of which he was the first American soldier.
==Gameplay==
Sniper Elite V2 is a third-person shooter that stresses employing stealth, rather than using brute force. Fairburne uses several WWII-era weapons, including sniper rifles, a silenced Welrod pistol, sub-machine guns and German and Soviet hand grenades (which can be also used to make tripwire booby traps). One of the main features of the title is the realistic ballistics, involving factors such as bullet drop, wind strength, and the effect of holding one's breath when attempting a shot. Sniping gameplay is from a first person scope view, whereas movement and use of all other weapons is in third person view.
A major difference from the first game is the introduction of a controversial ‘X-Ray Kill Cam’, which activates when the player makes a particularly extreme shot. The view then follows the path of the bullet in slow motion before slowing further as it reaches its target, whereupon the target’s body is rendered as an anatomical cutaway to show the bullet’s passage through the body and the damage it causes to organs and bones. Other new elements include being able to mark enemy fighters to highlight their position along with target information, and a white-outlined figure which marks the point where enemy soldiers last spotted the player so that players can make their escape.
==Development==
In 2011, Rebellion announced that it was co-publishing the title with 505 Games. Due for release in May 2012, the game has been described as a "reboot" of the original Sniper Elite, rather than a sequel. The initial announcement only referred to a release on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, though in response to calls from fans, Rebellion announced it was to self-publish a PC version through shops and via the Steam online games retailer at the same time as the console version.
==Reception==
Sniper Elite V2 gained mixed to positive reviews. It has a a score of 65 on Metacritic. IGN gave the game an 8/10 praising the X-Ray Killcam. Gamespot gave the game a 6/10 on account of the "dumb AI". Game Informer gave the game an 8.25/10.
==Links==
*Official website
*Official forum
*Twitter account
*Facebook account
Category:2012 video games
Category:Pc Games