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Snipe!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 30 / 31
Date: November 01, 2005
Author: Amazon User

True to it's name, this game is a fun sniper-based shooter. You start in 3rd person view following behind your character, you use your binoculars to spot the target, and then switch to the sniper rifle scope. You have to control your breathing, stance, adjust for wind correction, bullet drop, etc.-- everything is considered. You have a variety of tools, weapons, etc. to help you as well. (Place TNT down and then snipe it at a distance to destroy tanks for instance)

It is VERY satisfying to sight in on a sniper at long range and have it end in a great headshot.

Mostly you'll use stealth & sniping skills, but every once n' a while the enemy will close in on you for close-quarters combat.
Also note that this game is rated M.

A fresh take on action/stealth and World War II

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 24 / 25
Date: December 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Every year there's comes a sleeper hit that somehow seems to get overlooked by the gaming public. In 2003 it was Freedom Fighters. In 2004 it was Ubi Soft's Beyond Good & Evil. This year that award goes to Namco/Rebellion's Sniper Elite. With a fresh, new take on the World War II shooter, Sniper Elite looks to bring some new ideas to the action-shooter genre while creating a new one in the process.

In the waning days of World War II a lone sniper trained by the OSS has crossed into Berlin ahead of the allied push. His mission; to prevent the Soviets from obtaining the technology to build an atom bomb and giving them the upper hand in the arms race.

The first thing you notice about Sniper Elite are it's graphics. While not as advanced as games like God of War they portray Berlin as being a desolate, ravaged city torn apart by war. There's alot of very dull colors which gives the landscapes a very bleak and forboding look to them. It really gives the player a sensation that this is a city that has been abandoned. The environments are pretty large. There are several ways to approach your objective and sniping points are laid out through the cityscapes. There's also lots of cover. Burnt out vehicles and bunkers dot the streets. And you'll need it as you do your best to stay alive.

In Sniper Elite your best weapon isn't a gun. It's your brain. This is what can be called a "thinking man's stealth game". You have to constantly pay attention to your surroundings and plan out every move very methodically. What's the best route to your objective? That depends on the situation. How many guards? Thier patrol routes? Even the wind plays a factor. You also have a variety of other tools at your disposal. Such as grenades, time bombs, and trip wire mines which can be quite useful. The empty lung technique that was featured in Splinter Cell has found it's way into this game and is a welcome feature. The gameplay and controls are pretty easy to get a grasp on. The only complaint I have is that your movments aren't very fluid at times and slow stalking movment is difficult. You spend most of the game crawling which can be quite time consuming. I'd like to see more conventional stealth in future games (ala Splinter Cell, Metal Gear Solid) so that you don't have to spend most of the time on the ground. Moving is a key part of succss. If you stay in one place too long or fire too many shots from one location the A.I. is advanced enough that it will eventually seek you out and come down on your position. Sniper Elite also features online gameplay with 4 vs. 4 deathmatch modes. There are different deathmatch skins as well as customizable profiles. The only major complaint is that the memory card space is 1.4 megabytes. This takes up quite a bit of room and you almost need a second card to store the game on.

Sniper Elite is one of those games that might not be great but it more than satisfies you. It brings quite a few original ideas to the World War II shooter genre while feeling familiar at the same time. With other games like SOCOM 3 being released at the same time, I'd hate to think that this game might be overlooked like Freedom Fighters was. Sniper Elite is definitley the sleeper hit of 2005 and is well worth checking out.

Blood, sweat and a few tears...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 16 / 17
Date: December 24, 2005
Author: Amazon User

It's been 6 days since I entered Berlin. 6 days of looking down the scope of a Gehwehr 43, or just recently a Russian Tokarev SVT 40. I've blown up tanks, set traps, taken many an enemy out and still I'm a long way from going home. As I wipe the sweat off my brow before looking down the scope again, let me tell you about the world I've entered; The world of Sniper Elite.

On starting the game, I realised they drop you right in it from the start. Berlin, early 1945. The Germans are in retreat, the city in tatters. It's a race between the American's and the USSR to find the plans that Germany have for creating their own nuclear weapon. This is basically the start of the cold war. You are a lone sniper operating for the O.S.S (the precursor to the C.I.A), Your job is to stop anyone who gets in your way and to make sure the Russians don't end up with the plans.

It's almost overwhelming at the start of the game, and while it's the rule of the game, it's good to have a look around the place and get used to moving, changing stances, etc. Make good use of cover, the binocular view and the scope view before moving about, because in the wasteland that has become Berlin, you'll need your wits about you.

Bomb craters will open up as you're walking down the street with a huge explosion, the crack of bullets and the whine of projectiles whizzing past your ears are but a few of the ambient details in this game. You'll also be speaking fluent German or Russian as well, depending on how close you get to the enemy. One standout scene for me is the first level just as you move off, an aircraft trailing smoke and burning flies over head and crashes behind you somewhere in the city.

The shooting part of the game is extraordinary. I've never played a game where I have to take the distance or gravity or the wind into account.

In the guide book that comes with it, aptly named the "survival handbook" there are 3 rifles you can use. Each comes with a couple of tables to work out how to adjust the crosshairs to make a perfect shot. The target is 1.5 milldots high, so aim 3 mildots above his head and shoot. All going well, you've just got a cut scene of a bullet entering the body of an enemy.

The enemy don't just stand there and let you shoot them either. Though sometimes you have to wonder what they are thinking. You've taken a shot and wounded someone, they run off but they run somewhere in the open and stop. That's not something that happens every time however, some get down right devious, I've had them sneak around behind me, or jump out from behind walls and take me out.

Another well thought out part of the game is the fact that if the enemy do get too close you've got close range weapons, (machine guns, silenced pistols, panzershreks, etc) to help take them out. They are going to get close and often. One thing I've taken to doing is to place a trip wire grenade across the doorway of the room I'm in, so that while I'm sniping, if someone sneaks up on me as they invariably do, then I've got some protection. Makes for great fun watching them thrown into a wall. You'll find your weapon of choice being the Sniper rifle however, which is what this game is all about.

The 3 different guns have 3 different scopes on them. the Gehwehr only has a 2x scope, so when you finally get used to it, you appreciate the 4x scope that the SVT has. The Mosin Nagant is a difficult rifle to get the hang of, especially seeing as the scope allows you to see up someone's nose from quite a distance away. Because the Nagant has such a great range, it's a difficult gun to master compared to the other guns in the game due to a greater degree of wind and gravity becoming involved. There is at least one opportunity for a 1000 yard/meter shot with the Mosin Nagant.

The levels are mixes of "Get to this point and kill everyone you meet" to "be sneaky and you'll survive" to "take this bloke out, or else he'll get everyone onto you" or, "protect the bloke running from lots of Germans" which makes for a varied time. The going is slow, but it's very enjoyable. Especially when you've taken the time to adjust your shot to take someone out from a great distance and it's worked out.

There is great ambience in each level and some levels you actually use the sound of explosions to mask the sound of your shot, that way, others aren't aware of their comrade being taken out, nor where your position is. If you've only wounded a soldier, another soldier can actually try and revive him, or carry him to safety. I shot one man trying this and was surprised when he blew up, I'd shot a grenade on his tunic.

If you find yourself up against a tank , try shooting at it's fuel cap on the side, it'll put a fiery end to the bane of all infantry. It's honestly a game where they've thought about almost everything and included lots of detail.

This is the paragraph where I add the "but". It's only a small one, but I think it would have been better to include a pre game level where you are at Westpoint, still training to become a soldier, that way the player can learn all the moves before being thrown in the deep end. It also needed a firing range so you could test out the rates of bullet drop and distance. The only other thing is that in split screen multiplayer, it's hard to see the milldots on the scope, which makes working out a shot quite difficult. Multiplayer needed a bigger scope view. This game may convince me to go online and see how well I'd go against others.

In a nutshell, I'd have to say this war game is up there with call of duty and battlefield 1942. It's tense, makes you think and is an absolute blast. I haven't been able to stop playing it since I got it a very long 6 days ago.

Paul M

Has a few flaws, but overall superb

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: June 11, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Good points:

1. Lots of missions. 28 in all so the replay factor is great. The missions are surprisingly varied too, considering your trapped in bombed out Berlin the entire game. Obviously a lot of thought went into the missions by the designers. I appreciate that.

2. Four levels of difficulty. The highest level is very challenging. Even the 2nd highest level is tough.

3. Great focus on sniping and strategy. This is not a run and gun game for your 9 year old. It is slow moving, you have to think and plan your way through the objectives. Kids probably won't care much for this game.

4. There are many moments in the game when fast action is required. It isn't all belly-crawling through rubble by any means (although I admit there is a lot of belly-crawling).

5. MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL is that you can save your progress at any point in the game up to 7 times per mission. This keeps the frustration factor low. I hate those games with long missions where you get killed near the end and you have to start all over from the beginning over and over again. Some games increase difficulty levels by simply decreasing the number of saves per mission. Not in Sniper Elite. Difficulty is increased by better AI(artifical intelligence) in each level.

Flaws:

1. Your movements inside buildings, especially going up and down stairs are jerky and glitchy.

2. Berlin is completely deserted except for soldiers. There are no civilians at all. Any human you see is a target, except for a very few German resistance forces on a couple missions.

3. Completely unrealistic arsenal that you carry around. What sniper carries a pistol, an MG-42 (which actually weigh about 25 pounds), 10 hand grenades, 7 trip wire grenades, 4 bundles of TNT, 3 timebombs, a binoculars, and a sniper rifle with hundreds of rounds of ammunition? No way.

4. Blurry graphics. Things get clear when looking through the binoculars and rifle scope though.

I like video games and this is my favorite so far.

worth the time and money

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: November 02, 2006
Author: Amazon User

being an army sniper i originally bought this game with some skepticism, but after playing the first mission...i was amazed at this game (and hooked). the plot is very interesting and there are plenty of missions to keep you working. the graphics arent what they could be and judging range is a task you have to get use to. i was disappointed however in the fact that you cant jump! whats up with that? you could jump in medal of honor! i was pleasantly suprised with the extent of detail in real life characteristics of sniper employment. throughout the game you'll find yourself constantly adjusting for wind, range, elevation, concealment, fatigue, and the surrounding environment to make each shot count. you also have a variety of sniper rifles and secondary weapons you'll use during each mission so dont worry about having to run around with just a bolt action or semiauto sniper rifle. there are a choice of difficulty settings which are nice to get use to gameplay. a really cool trick to this game is bullet time. when you make a long range one shot one kill the camera follows the bullets flight to the target (my spotter got a real kick out of that). its a third person shooter which was a big change for me being a die hard first person shooter fan (but the instant you engage a target with the sniper rifle it goes to first person). with a (very)larger screen you'll be able to enjoy 2 player mode (due to the split screen). i'm pretty sure everyone in my squad has borrowed this game... some of which had a hard time returning it. other than not being able to jump i wasnt disappointed at all with this game the graphics could be better but its a video game for petes sake. i highly suggest renting any game before buying it if you havent played it, but take my word that this game is no waste. i'm hoping there will be a sequel.

Smart Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: October 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I have say I love this game. I am not a fan of Rambo type games and with the exception of 1 of the missions, brain beats braun. The AI is pretty well done. Your opponents will circle back on you.

The shooting is very well done. The rifles feel real. I have found that gravity is a bit exaggerated though. At 100 yards with a 7.62 round,I would not have to compensate at all. I shoot HP rifle and I found it difficult to gauge distances in the game. That is my only real complaint.

The setting of the game is very well done. You "feel" alone. Taking the time to mask the sound of your shots and finding positions to remain undetected is rewarded in the game.

One las thing, I played this game non stop for four months. It is with out a doubt my favorite.

The Game

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 5 / 8
Date: February 26, 2006
Author: Amazon User

This game is fun. You get to kuill people like any other shooter but on this, wind, gravity, lung capacity apply. You can even shoot somone on the head and if far enough a little cutscene will pop up showing the bullett peirce the enemy. You can even leave these nasty bulet hole things in the enemy, if they are shot on the head. Miollions of ways and paths to beat a level. You can even get a souldier wounded by shooting his arm, then he will run to cover holding his arm and not shooting you. Or bably wound them, they fall to the ground screaming, if there is another guy nearby he will help the wounded guy and bring him to cover. So cool/fun. You even search th bodys of people you just killed to get stuff.

The best shooting game on PS2

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: May 18, 2007
Author: Amazon User

This game is the best single and two player shooting game I have played. There was only glich in the two player co-op one of the characters got stuck on a wall, but this has happened in other games before. You just have to start over at your last save. I like this game because something in the situation always changes.

Patience is the key to this game...

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: August 26, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Being an advid fan of snipers and having always enjoyed the little bits of sniping on FPS games, the first time I saw the review for this game on t.v. I wanted it. Despite its expensive price (yes, copies on Amazon run usually from $38+) if you enjoy sniping this is a game for you. The second you pick it up you start to practice, and PATIENCE is the key to the game. Your skills will improve by about the third or so level, so if you want to restart your game to get back to those early enemies who gave you hell because you knew nothing about sniping when you first started, you might as well. The graphics are pretty good, although a bit choppy at times, I have nothing to complain about, the enemies' AI is awesome, they'll actually go after you if you sit for too long in a spot, so you have to be constantly moving. The controller takes a bit to get used to, and the sniping techniques a bit more so, or maybe this happened to me because I started on Sniper Elite difficulty right away. I repeat...patience is the key to this game, you will die a lot, yes, A LOT, of times, so why is this game so good? There's nothing better than lining up a perfect shot, executing it and watch the bullet cam follow your shot as it hits your enemy right in the face...I've shot people in the mouth, that's how realistic it gets, or maybe getting a two for one, or three for one shot might be better, or how about blowing up a tank with a shot and watch people catch on fire and run for their lives? Or how about just doing that outstading shot from Saving Private Ryan (eye might be a keyword). Awesome game.

Patience, stealth, and skill!!!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: January 07, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I just recently discovered this game, and what a find it is! Just so you know, I am 49 years old, a WWII buff, and I thank God for games like this, which didn't exist when I was a kid. When I am 79, I'll still probably be playing whatever it is they have then!

I am used to FPS games such as Medal of Honor, the Call of Duty series, Brothers in Arms series, Black, Kill Zone, etc, and for me, Sniper Elite beats them all. It is a third person shooter, which changes to first person when you are looking through the scope. A game like Black is a shoot em up, blow em up game, while Sniper Elite takes far more time, patience, strategy, and stealth.

While the PS2 graphics are average, it was not a hindrance to the game and not at all disappointing for me, I actually like the scenery of a bombed out Berlin.

Many shooter games I've played are too easy and too predictable and once you've been through it, your bored with it. There's one way in and one way out and you meet the same enemies at the same spot every single time.

Sniper elite is way different because it offers many variables. Let's say you get shot and die. You reload your last save or restart your mission......you expect your enemy to be in the same location, right? Well, in many levels the enemy(ies) that killed you may not be in the same place as before. They may be hiding somewhere else or may attack from another postion. The sniper that got you from atop that building? Well, after reloading he (or she) may be atop a different building on another street.

Sometimes, after failure after failure after failure to stubbornly try and reach my objective from the obvious approach, I would finally realize I should take a totally different route. This too keep game from getting boring and predictable.

There are 4 levels, rookie, cadet, marksman, and sniper elite. As you get to the more difficult levels, you'll also find the route you took in an easier level, will be impossible at the Elite level, forcing you to take a different route and a different strategy. So many variables keep this game interesting.

Another variable is that some approaches require time, patience, stealth, and a silenced pistol, another time you may be running like hell hoping you dont get shot and killed, and sometimes you don't want to shoot at all because you'll alert all nearby enemies to your position and they'll soon be after you! And you may find yourself crawling ever so slowly so as to avoid alerting a nearby guard....because if you are on foot, he may hear your footsteps and come after you!!

And another time you may be hiding in a building a hundred and fifty yards away and need to take out a guard with one sniper round.

As I said before, all of these many variables keep the game from getting boring and predictable. I play this game over and over and over and over and over and I have not gotten bored of it because of all the different ways to play and accomplish your missions.

Weapons? It may be a silenced pistol as you sneak up behind a guard. There are german potato masher and american pineapple grenades to take out multiple or hidden soldiers. Depending on what mission you're on, you may have an automatic weapon such as an MG34, a panzerschrek, bundles of TNT or a timed bomb. You can even throw a rock to lure your enemy while you sneak by.

My favorite is the trip-wire mine. You've got a couple of minutes to set the mine and then run and hide, knowing the enemy is nearby or on his way. You've also gotta hope you set it up the right way in the right place, a smart enemy will just walk over or get around the trip wire. He may not even go the route where you set the mine. I've even been running from the enemy and ended up tripping my own mine! Other times you may be hundreds of yards away and can hear a distant explosion as he trips the mine and takes out 2 or 3 others with him!

Low on grenades, health, or bullets? Search the guy you just shot and take whatever he's got. But be warned...you can get shot from a sniper while you're out in the open searching! On some missions, you've got to pick up the guy you shot and move him out of the open, lest another soldier sees his fallen comrade and searches for his killer.....you!

There are some minor downsides which dont hinder the gameplay. One is the perception of the yardage of your shots. What seemed like a shot from 300 yards would only be credited for maybe 100 yards. This could be my own misconception rather than the gameplay. Another downside (which is also an upside) is the bullet drop. It is a positive since bullet drop from gravity is real because and most games don't allow for that. What I think is a downside is the drop seems like a wee bit too much for the distance fired. Though, I am not a rifle expert and again it could be my own misconception. But over all, adjusting for both bullet drop and wind requires more skill and patience and adds to the reality of the game.

Something else I enjoyed, is the bullet cam. When you have fired the killing shot, the cam follows the round through the air all the way to your target....this is an awesome feature that you can turn on or off.

The game often made me nervous and jumpy. While approaching ever so quietly, slowly, and stealthily, I found myself getting edgy. An enemy may jump out from where I least expected, shoot me from behind, or I may hear enemy footsteps as he creeps up on me. In one of the levels you have to destroy tanks which are also hunting and stalking you. As it searches, I often felt I was actually being hunted, which added to the suspense and drama. But you can also kill the tank from a distance.......some tanks have an external fuel tank, and you need to shoot the 4" gas cap to blow up the tank. If you're closer you can use a grenade, or from a distant hidden location you can shoot a bundle of TNT you planted on the road to blow open the tank.

Once you've been through your missions a few times and are getting familiar with the game, you can focus on maximizing your skills, kills, and points. 800 points for a long range headshot (over 30 yards), 800 for a moving target shot. Credit for both (1600) if you shoot a running enemy in the head. Theres 2 for 1, 3 for 1, and 4 for 1 kills, and credit for the 'longest shot' in a mission, 1200 for each kill from a remote detonation (trip wire or timed bomb), and up to 4000 for a multiple covert kill. If you're not far enough away from the mine or TNT, you won't get credit, so make sure you are well over 30 yards away. 30 seems to be the minimum distance to score points.

Sniper Elite can also be set for a coordinated 2 player game...one as the spotter and the other as the sniper; and then there is the online deathmatch, both of which I have not played yet.

I absolutely love this game and it is by far the best shooter I have played on PS2. Many levels, many many missions, so many variables, difficult enemies, and very simply, it is a great stealth game. You wont go wrong unless you lack patience and fortitude and are afraid of failure. Take your time, be persistent, and be determined to win, regardless of how many times you fail.

Remember, you are a sniper, not Rambo, and you can't run around blowing the hell out of everything. If that is you, don't waste your money on Sniper Elite......get Black instead. Sniper Elite requires time, skill, patience, and the determination to figure out how to complete your missions. And you may even need to choose to NOT kill one or more of the enemy, all for the greater purpose of accomplishing your mission!

Have fun.............

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