A war to end all wars they said, yet wars are still going on around the globe, from turf wars, religious, greed and so on. I can not kill a spider anymore and if there was an end of the world situation I can tell you now I could not take a life, just thinking of dying freaks me out, and just because it’s not me, does not make me feel any different, everything deserves to live. Now you might be thinking do I eat meat, and I do, but I am not doing the killing, maybe that a little two-faced, but hey that’s my choice.
Now back to the game, as I return to Berlin as Karl Fairburne and take on the Germans during their final stand in the Remastered version of Sniper Elite V2 originally released back in 2012. The game has been reworked a little and now comes with enhanced graphics, new playable characters, a much better multiplayer and a new photo mode.
Over the years Rebellion has improved upon the franchise and fixed many of its annoyances, with Sniper Elite 4, which sets new standards that I will always expect from the franchise going forward. Huge environments to navigate, set up that perfect shot and watch enemies go to town hunting you down. The Question for me is, can going backwards really make me want more or less, has the remastered really improved and fixed everything from its original outing?
When the game first came out shooting Nazis in the bollocks was a whole lot of fun, the slow-motion x-ray sniper cam was the bollocks and still is today, just more graphical. History has told us some horrifying accounts of what they did to many races and religions during the war and having a chance to inactive revenge virtually seems perfectly fine. The idea of sneaking around, finding that sweet spot, finding the target/targets, working out my route made for an excellent experience.
The problem we have is what we have with a lot of remasters, it is not a remake, with all new visuals, all new renders, an all-new engine, and better AI. What we have is some improvements in textures, better lighting, some effects, and somewhat better sound effects. Overall the improvements do not do much to improve upon the original game, so right now, if you own the original then there is no real point in grabbing this version for what has been improved upon, sorry to say.
So if you are new to the game is the game worth it, what is the game like, well its bloody good fun, if you have played no4 in the franchise you might not feel the same, it is a hard pill to swallow going back in time and playing a game so old. Set in Berlin, it feels dense, drab, dark, horrific, its war so what do you expect. AI is still not on par to what we expect of late, as you can sometimes kill a person standing right in front of another person and they do not flinch, its like they are somehow daydreaming of some wench they popped last night, sometimes you can make so much noise, they simply walk around like headless chickens, it is just not right and these sorts of issues should have been ironed out with this remastered.
The maps are smaller and more confined and do not offer as much scope as future games do when it comes to location, location, location, yet it does feel like war, even though I have never experienced a world war and never want to experience it or any war.
I got the game for the Nintendo Switch and you might be wondering how does it perform, well it is ok, textures do pop in from time to time, but loading times are fast. The addition of motion control makes being a sniper even easier, as I always find a control stick is never that accurate when it comes to aiming.
So why would you want to play V2, for me, being a sniper is fun, watching the slow-motion x-ray sniper cam hit its target is so satisfying, the AI is hilarious on times and the story is satisfying. If you have never played the game, grab it, if you have played the game and enjoyed it, maybe grab it, if you hated the game, then there is no point coming back.
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