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Sniper Elite - Hands On Preview
Jon Wilcox
08/09/2005
TVG heads off to Berlin in the latter days of the war with the patience of Job and steady aim...
Ubisoft's Sniper Elite, set for release on September 23rd across Xbox, PlayStation2 and PC, places gamers in control of an American WWII sniper during the last days of the war in Europe when the Soviet Army started to make inroads through the ruinous streets of Berlin. At the time the US and the Soviets were supposed to be on the same side, but in Sniper Elite players have to stop the Red Army from finding German research into the Atomic bomb and using it as means to dominate a post-war Europe. Working for the OSS (the pre-cursor to the CIA) and dressed as a German sniper for covert reasons, players have to stealthily move around the streets and shoot accurately and precisely in order to survive and accomplsh the mission objectives.
The preview code covered five missions from April 16th 1945 to April 21st 1945 across several of Berlin's suburbs that featured city landmarks such as the Brandenburg Gate, with each mission containing several primary and secondary objectives, although the final game will have 28 levels of sniping to progress through. Whilst the prospect of playing a repetitive title of crawling around and shooting as many Russian soldiers as possible across several levels would soon have dulled any interest in continuing with the game, thankfully there does seem to be a certain amount of variety in the objectives such as finding and rescuing captured soldiers and hunting down an enemy taking down as many opponents as possible before the target is notified of the situation and flees.
Even through just playing the preview build of the game it's easy to describe the gameplay as slow-paced and tense. Forget mindless running around and pulling on the trigger until the finger joints seize, this is one title where taking your time to check the surrounding environment for soldiers and enemy snipers is imperative; the player's character very much a sniper, although the use of hand grenades, pistols, and sub-machines are also available to use in an emergency or when enemy soldiers get a little bit too close for comfort.
Since the game does market itself as a sniper simulation, emphasis is placed strongly on using the sniper rifle as the main weapon, although as has been mentioned already, a smattering of other weapons including sub-machineguns and pistols are included in the game. In order to stress this, Sniper Elite features a 'bullet cam' point of view whenever a head shot or a new longest-range shot is fired, which follows the trajectory of the bullet as it finds and hits its target with a fountain of blood. Bring the gun up a few notches above a target will also compensate for any drop in the trajectory due to gravity - told you this was a sniper action sim. Not only does distance have to be taken into account but also wind speed, posture, breathing and heart rate; does it also ratchet up the intensity to know that the game is said to feature exact rifle and bullet ballistics for what is described by Ubisoft as, "â¦the most realistic and authentic sniping simulation to date."
Compounding the fact that this is very much a slow-paced title is the fact that for the most part of the game, the character's movement is ideally restricted to crawling or crouching around the piles of rubble dotting the streets of the German Capital. There is the possibility that this style of gameplay may alienate fans of other WWII action titles such as the FPS series Brothers in Arms or even the painfully generic Medal of Honor franchise thanks to such a tangent. Even though the game isn't a solely first-person experience like the two aforementioned titles, indeed movement is probably best handled in the third person perspective, the fact is that most of the players does seem to take place in the first-person, either via the binoculars or the sight on the rifle.
Controlling the character and the weapons is a fairly straightforward and intuitive affair with most of the button choices standard fare in many action/FPS titles such as clicking in the right thumbstick to engage the rifle sight (although Sniper Elite require that the stick be held in for a slit second rather than just clicked - a possible angle for criticism to land.) Binoculars, part of the essential kit of any self-respecting sniper are easily accessed with another button, and weapons/health selections made with the D-pad. Aside from having to hold the thumbstick that little bit longer than usual, the control system appears to be robust and solid.
Besides the Single-Player options, Sniper Elite will also feature three other gameplay modes including a confrontational two-player offline mode and online support. Sniper Elite also features a two-player co-operative mode, which basically allows two players to experience the same campaign as in the Single-Player mode. Further to that, the developers have created the co-op mode so that player's characters have to be insight of each other at all times; failure to do so means that an 'invisible wall' is placed in front of the two snipers until one character moves within closer proximity to the other.
There's a grainy look to the game, which seems to add to the authenticity of the situation and coupled with the dingy and depressive buildings really helps to create an atmosphere that can be best described claustrophobia - especially when a Russian sniper starts taking pot shots at you. Whilst the general animation is more than adequate, the animation of the main player crawling along on his belly does seem to be a tad disjointed, and does lack that extra detail to make it seem more realistic and flowing. During certain times of the game bombs are dropped from planes flying overhead, which as you'd expect, leave craters behind. It's a really good way of bringing the gameworld to life and reinforces the experience of fighting in such conditions. However the preview build did on occasion have a tendency to 'pop' the craters into the location as if magically appearing - something that hopefully developers Rebellion have now rectified.
Anonymous
Date Added:Wed 27th Dec 2006 03:37
Spaceghost
Date Added:Sun 10th Dec 2006 21:05
Anonymous
Date Added:Mon 13th Nov 2006 16:09