If you’ve read our PC review of this game then you’re well aware it’s a good game. On most of the points Scott brings up, I agree, but I do have a few negatives. Before I get to that though, I will admit I did not play on the highest difficulty as he did, but instead dropped it to a custom setting where the enemy skill was Rookie, ballistic realism was set to Realistic and the tactile assistance was set to full. Since this game was already reviewed and the Xbox version is almost identical, I wanted to approach this from a “fun to play” aspect.
Coming off playing the Hitman Sniper Challenge, I was excited to dive into this game and boy did it deliver what I craved. I got to hide, aim, and get some brutal kills; all of which made me giggle like a little school girl. The story has an interesting premise: You are an American sniper sent to stop the construction of the V2 Rockets by taking out key members instrumental in its creation. You are placed smack dab in the middle of World War II while the Russians and the Germans battle it out. You’ll be sneaking by patrols, silently taking out infantry with your pistol or in a takedown move, and planting explosives for detonation by a bullet at long range. -Scott Ellison, PC Review of Sniper Elite V2
The story was, well, there but wasn’t anything too thrilling. The plot is presented as a voiceover with accompanying text during the setup screen of each mission. I would have liked to see some actual in game cutscenes to narate the story and keep my attention. I was just eager to get right into the action and with only a voiceover, I wanted to go go go. What really turned me off was actually traversing to the next sniping location. I’m sure somewhere out there someone enjoyed having to sneak around but not me. What I enjoyed was just sitting there and taking out my targets one by one trying not to cause too much attention. The moment I had to actually get up and move to progress the story, I groaned and my enthusiasm faded. I would have enjoyed this game a whole lot more if you were only sniping, occasionally moving to another position as to not be seen. I didn’t want to play Sam Fisher in WWII and sneak my way around.
Obviously the game looks incredible on the PC but the Xbox 360 version is no joke, it still looks pretty good. You do notice some muddy textures where they had to work within the hardware, especially when you look down the scope. Regardless, the kill cams are just as graphic and fun to watch; I just wish the kill cams held on for a little while longer. I would hit my target and not get to take in all the gore the bullet was causing. I would have liked to have the kill cam to continue until the target hit the ground, that was I could see an enjoy the bullet’s full destruction. I would have also loved to have been able to freeze frame the kill and fully rotate in 3D so I can fully examine the carnage. Maybe something for a future patch or add-on, wink wink nudge nudge . There is no competitive multiplayer on this version but you know what, the game doesn’t need it; if it were added, it would be a plus for those who wanted to rain down silent death from above on their friends, but not neccessary. There is co-op (online only, no split screen) but I was unable to test that at the time of this writing. There are four co-op modes to tackle where you can play the campaign co-op or in a survival mode. The most interesting sounding is Overwatch; this game has one player as a sniper and another as a soldier on foot that spots enemies. It sound’s like a neat idea but I can’t testify to how well it would work especially since I didn’t enjoy the on foot stuff from the campaign.
Overall I will match the PC score; even though the narative and sneaking turned me off, the actual meat of the game, the sniping, was fun and kept me coming back for more.
An Xbox 360 copy of the game was provided by 505 Games for review purposes
