Rebellion Is Putting Players Back Behind Enemy Lines in Remastered ‘Sniper Elite V2’
Only seven years after the original “Sniper Elite V2” came out, Rebellion is developing a remastered version of the game for modern platforms. While the new version includes some new features and technical improvements, the gameplay will remain mostly the same.
“We’re not trying to alter the gameplay to much since it holds up really well” Rebellion representative Sinan Kubba tells Variety. “We feel the gameplay stands up today, even though some things have changed in the series.”
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The decision not to revamp some of the games dated mechanics is clearly a fan-motivated one. As “Sniper Elite V2” had a mixed reception back in 2012 with reviews citing problems with the linear level structure, enemy AI, and a lackluster checkpoint system. Despite those issues, the Sniper Elite series has garnered a passionate fan base that’s carried over to each new release. Rebellion is hoping to expand V2’s fanbase by releasing the remaster on Xbox One, PC, PS4, and Nintendo Switch.
The sniping mechanics felt tight in a demo of the remastered version that I played at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, but some of those other issues were still present. Stealth-focused play, the designer intended way to play Sniper Elite, was difficult to pull off with how easily enemies could spot you from across the map. That made it difficult to enjoy and lead to me taking a trigger-happy approach. The sniper rifles, however, felt great.
“Sniper Elite V2’s” story also remains the same. It puts you in the shoes of Karl Fairburne, an allied sniper that’s deep behind enemy lines during the Battle of Berlin. Fairburne has to track down scientists involved with the development of the V-2 ballistic missile while taking out German and Russian soldiers.
The remastered will feature a new photo mode that helps players highlight Rebellion’s infamous kill cam shot x-rays that show bones and body parts getting demolished by sniper rounds. It’ll also feature all the original games DLC, enhanced graphics with 4K and HDR support, sixteen-player multiplayer, new playable characters, and a mission to assassinate Hitler that wasn’t in the original game. The Nintendo Switch version will be feature complete, although it will only have eight-player multiplayer, won’t support 4K and HDR, and it’ll have less graphical fidelity.
“We wanted to focus on the visual aspect and really put the work in there,” Kubba said. “We wanted to make sure it could look as great on modern consoles, especially now that 20 million players have played our series with the addition of Sniper Elite 3 and 4.”
The remastered version of “Sniper Elite V2” is being handled by Rebellion North, the rebranded TickTock Games that Rebellion acquired earlier this year. Kubba didn’t cite a specific reason why Rebellion chose to remaster this Sniper Elite game, but did say the studio was at a point where it’s grown enough to handle more projects.
“We want to bring it to new audiences. It’s just one of those things about bringing our games to new people now that our list of games has grown,” Kubba said. “It’s something that we can do as a company since we’ve grown over the past years. We couldn’t do this in the past even though fans have been asking for it and now we have the resources so we went for it.”
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