Sniper Elite V2 (Wii U) Review

Any of you who follow the podcast will know how I feel about third party efforts on the Wii U. On one hand, I feel like we shouldn’t really be that picky with what comes to the console as there is a dire shortage of games right now. On the other hand, I feel like that if you’re going to even bother putting a product out it should at least be comparable to anything you’d put out on another system. I think in the early stages of a console’s lifecycle it could be fair to forego poorer graphics as it’s a time for developers to find their footing. But when a sizeable chunk of the game is removed, that’s when things get problematic. Sniper Elite V2 is a twelve month late port to the Wii U and it’s missing a lot, unfortunately. But despite this – is it worth your time?

In Sniper Elite V2, you play Karl Fairburne – an OSS officer sent to Berlin during 1945 as World War 2 is about to end. Fairburne comes into contact with both Nazi and Soviet opponents while tracking those involved with the development of weapons of mass destruction. It’s an incredibly simplistic story that doesn’t really require your attention to enjoy it properly. It’s really just there to let the action plod along, and the situations the story gets the player into are nice and novel but are nothing overly amazing. It’s not bad, per se, just underwhelming.

In terms of gameplay, Sniper Elite V2 is actually a very competent game. A third person shooter at heart, the common features of the genre are here – approaches that utilise cover based shooting as well as level design and gameplay mechanics to facilitate stealth orientated gameplay.  It’s not as deep a choice as games like Deus Ex or Dishonored, but the ability to approach missions either guns blazing or stealthily is to be commended in a game that at first glance appears to be another generic military shooter. In addition to shooting, there are a range of secondary weapons to use to augment your approach to your assassinations – like distracting enemies, covering an exit or guarding a blind spot at your camping point. Throwing rocks and grenades feel quite imprecise, however, which is a bit disappointing too. Nonetheless, Sniper Elite V2 does give the player quite a few options with which to approach its assassinations and that’s definitely a good thing.

As you’d expect, the main focus of the game is in the sniping mechanics which are executed rather beautifully (in a transgressive kind of way). First off, the game uses physics to add realism to the way bullets travel – considering gravity, crosswinds, lung volume, heart rate and muzzle velocity is paramount to ensuring the perfect shot. These factors can be adjusted accordingly at the beginning of the game to suit players who want a more “game-like” experience or a more true to life experience. When attempting long distance shots, the game employs a fantastic killcam which follows the bullet from your gun to your enemy’s body, and if it hits a vital organ you can expect the game to show the bullet as it shreds through your opponent. It’s a fantastically visceral (yes, I used that buzz word) experience that I personally felt never got old. You can even shoot out knees to incapacitate enemies and line up a rewarding headshot. Whether it was the plate of a skull crunching or the flesh of a heart being torn, I was never really disappointed with these portrayals of violence. It’s something that had to be right with a game like this and thankfully, it is.

Unfortunately though, that’s where most of the praise I have for Sniper Elite V2 ends. In terms of longevity, the game is moderately paced clocking in at between seven and nine hours for most players. This is quite a good length for a game of this genre – but there are some glaring omissions from the Wii U version of Sniper Elite V2. First of all, the ability to play the game co-operatively is completely missing, as is the ENTIRE competitive multiplayer component. Both of these playing modes would add a lot more value to this package (which is being offered at a substantially higher price than the same game on other platforms) especially when compared to other ports of games that have been released more recently (Resident Evil Revelations comes to mind). There is a “Kill Tally” mode that allows you to tackle waves of enemies for points but it feels empty and boring as it is quite clearly designed to be approached with other players.

While it may seem unfair to compare this game to other versions on the market – looking at it on its own, a $79 dollar game that only lasts for eight hours with no online functionality, it’s still not pretty. It gets even worse when all the downloadable content released in the past year doesn’t come on the disc either, with no plans to release it.

There are some Wii U exclusive features that aren’t found in other versions, but these aren’t anything too groundbreaking. The inventory and mini-map of each level are displayed on the GamePad and weapons can be switched around with a simple tap. This is much easier than scrolling through the weapons with the D-Pad and is a good addition to the game. This view can be sacrificed for off-screen play as well, either by selecting “Screen Mirroring” in the game’s options or holding down the Plus button. A rather disappointing part of this port is the lacklustre Miiverse integration – we tried on several occasions to take screenshots of the game to post to Miiverse however couldn’t as the game would automatically pause and thus we could only take photos of either the pause screen or the GamePad map. Incredibly annoying and somewhat short sighted.

Graphically speaking, Sniper Elite V2 runs into the same problems as many games this generation and doesn’t employ much colour at all, making everything appear incredibly drab. To top this off, the game just isn’t all that good looking either, sporting some blurry textures and this general kind of “fuzziness” which makes it look incredibly outdated. This problem was mirrored in other versions of the game (besides PC) which is kind of encouraging in terms of parity between the Wii U and other versions of the game but also kind of disparaging – even in 2012 these visuals wouldn’t have been passable. The voice work is great, though the dialogue is a little bit cheesy. The sound design employed for weapons fire and wounds is absolutely fantastic though, making the game a little bit more believable.

All in all, I am glad that the Wii U got the superior sniper game that is currently on the market, but it’s at such an exorbitant cost that I have to wonder why the developer even bothered. It’s a rather anaemic package that’s missing almost two thirds of the content and functionality presented in the original game without any proper explanation. It’s great that it’s graphically up to par to other versions (despite the game not looking that great anyway) and that the fantastic sniper mechanics made the transition well. It’s just not great that most of the game’s replay value has been ripped straight out of the package. The only thing saving Sniper Elite V2 on the Wii U is the fact that the game underlying it isn’t that bad – and even then I find it a hard sell on any player at a price like $79AU. Give it a rent, maybe. Or wait for a price drop.