Aim for the heart... and try not to miss

Unsurprisingly, the sequel to the 2005 tactical shooter Sniper Elite, Sniper Elite V2 sees you ripping your way through Berlin, and anyone who looks at you slightly odd. The campaign co-op plays as you would expect – both players are identical in gameplay terms. You’ll look different, and you can choose different weapon loadouts atthe start of each mission, but that’s about as far as your individuality gets.

That being said, the co-op playthrough of the game with the people in the Felix office couldn’t exactly be called ‘stealthy’, so it seems like quite a different game, when compared to the solo campaign. We found it much easier just to run around and snipe everyone, with no care being put into hiding bodies. There’s no reward for being unnoticed, so we never really bothered.

As a team, your goal is to halt the work on the V2 rocket project, by placing bullets in the heads of those who helped create the weapons. The levels feel open at times, with large areas to make your way through, yet at other points, it just feels like you’re being bottlenecked, ready for the next trap. We tried to have one player act as a runner, and another one providing covering fire, but it’s not long till you reach a point where you need both players together, so that plan falls apart quickly. Use Overwatch for that.

With hidden Nazi gold and well... wine bottles, there’s a bit of replayability, but the sole attraction of this game is not just the co-op campaign. There is a variety of non-storyline modes that are great for you and your plus-one. There are three extra modes – Overwatch, Bombing Run and Kill Tally. Overwatch sees two different roles for the players – one player is a sniper, and the other is a rifle-less runner, who has to make their way through the piles of bodies to get plans/set bombs/mark targets – you get the idea. This is the one-and-only game mode where you can’t revive the other player, which actually makes you depend on your partner a lot more. Secondly, Bombing Run has the two of you running through ruins trying to repair an escape vehicle, before your timer runs out and you are blown to pieces in a bombing run. The third and final mode – Kill Tally, is your run of the mill horde mode.

I would say the main gimmick of the game is the slew of slow-motion videos you get when you head-shot an enemy, (even slower motion when you hit the fuel cap of a tank, or a wine bottle), but that kinda implies that it gets boring after a while, and I don’t think it does. Thankfully, both players only share slow-motion kills when it’s something big, so your partner can continue covering the walls of Berlin with knee-originating blood-spatter, whilst you enjoy getting those sweet, sweet headshots.

You don’t have to aim for body parts either, to get the most bang-per-bullet. Aiming at the grenades on your target’s belts always leads to a satisfying explosion, and can save ammo if it’s scarce. The graphics are great (and don’t seem taxing on average computer hardware) as is the audio and music, so I’ve no quibbles there. One thing I will question, however, is the choice of the overused over-the-shoulder camera view. I think we would prefer to play this as an FPS, as the controls can feel a little ‘clunky’ as they current are.

The game is currently out on Steam (£29.99), PS3 and 360, so if you fancy a night in, taking people out, then I’d highly recommend this game.