There The history of Sniper Elite It begins in 2005 with the first episode airing on PC, PS2, Xbox and later Wii. Developed by the English team rebelThe game tackles the mechanisms so far cleared by the shooter genre, but gives us a third-person experience characterized by stealth elements and precision shooting from afar.
It is no accident that the hero of the adventure is an infallible sniper of German origin. Karl FairburnePosing as an OSS agent and Nazi army sniper during World War II, he was tasked with roaming the streets of Berlin in the final stages of the conflict and going undercover to prevent Germany’s nuclear weapons from falling into the hands of the Russians.
A simple but not first attempt at the character created by Rebellion, the cliché of the determined and reckless soldier. The narrative of his career begins with the epilogue of the war, the battle for Berlin in 1945, but is reworked on the occasion of the second episode and then moves backwards.
In Sniper Elite 3 we actually see Fairburne battling the 1942 African campaign, in Sniper Elite 4 the sniper arrives in Italy in 1943 to fight alongside the partisans. The final installment in the series, Sniper Elite 5, tells instead. A mission to France in 1944 to prevent the Nazis from realizing the mysterious Project Kraken. In the middle is the alternate history of the spin-off Zombie Army, now in its fourth iteration.
origins
When Sniper Elite was first released, it offered a reasonable interpretation of the game.lone heroAble to make a difference in a world-class conflict thanks to his extraordinary shooting skills and ability to move silently on the battlefield, concealing the firing of his rifle in the tumult of bombing and camouflaging himself among naive enemies.
The level design of the first episode usually looks very open and Karl “dances” in it, moving very quickly from one place to another, thus almost betraying an FPS setting. those early years call of Duty, battlefield and, above all, the Half-Life 2: classics, which inevitably influenced Rebellion’s work, but still managed to give its product a different and alternative personality.
About this sniper rifle the protagonist never leaves, which allows him to hit targets even from a great distance, but his shots in this first part have not yet been evaluated, as we will see later: when the shot is fatal, the camera follows the trajectory of the bullets and is well placed, but the technologies introduced to Rebellion in 2005 are still immature .
Sniper Elite V2
As mentioned, on the occasion of the second part, the developers wanted to reinterpret the story of Karl Fairburne and the events that took place during the battle for Berlin, removing any references to the Russian army and even camouflage of the character among the German ranks. Thus, the adventure continues in the German capital in the final stages of the conflict, but sees the protagonist intent on eliminating a group of scientists responsible for the war. V-2 program: a missile capable of changing the fate of war at extremes.
It is a conspiracy in which the series will continue more than once, playing the card of mysterious background and situations that can distort the outcome of the war conflict, but an unknown hero whose exploits have not been reported in history. managed to cope with the books on time. Fairburne responds perfectly to this description and looks even more determined in Sniper Elite V2: a war machine that moves like a shadow through the streets of a devastated Berlin, firing spectacular shots from afar to weaken the ranks of the Nazis and reach its own strength. aim.
Released in 2012 and returning in 2019 with the remastered edition Sniper Elite V2 Remastered, the game undoubtedly has the right to give a renewed thickness to its shooting mechanics, thanks to concentration that allows you to make the target more precise at certain moments. and automatically adjusts the shot to the distance and incidence of the wind and the spectacular X-ray Kill Camerashowing the dramatic consequences of the impact of bullets on the bodies of our victims.
Intermezzo with zombie sauce
Many studies, including in the video game field, have sought to explore the esoteric ramifications that some rumors have linked to Adolf Hitler’s Third Reich. supernaturalFor example, look at the Führer’s obsession with the Holy Grail and the powers the trophy confers upon those who find it.
Boasting a solid and well-tested third-person shooter system, Rebellion therefore decided in 2013 to explore the horror narrative genre and the theme in particular. zombie, to create a disturbing spin-off of the series Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army. Set in an alternate timeline, the game sees Hitler resort to a cursed ritual to resurrect his slain soldiers, thereby creating an unstoppable army of undead.
Originally designed only for the PC platform, but later making its way to consoles with Zombie Army Trilogy and later Zombie Army 4: Dead War, the saga reinterprets the Sniper Elite formula by including multiple cases in terms of style. tower defenseAccompanied by a synth-based soundtrack that pays homage to the horror classics of the 70s and 80s, where you must defend yourself from endless hordes of the undead using a variety of weapons and explosives.
Sniper Elite 3
Consuming the narrative space associated with the final stages of WWII with the first two episodes, Sniper Elite III rewinds the tape of Karl Fairburne’s exploits and takes us to 1942 with the American sniper joining the British troops to stop us. German commander Erwin Rommel and as part of Afrika Korps african countryside.
In this case, too, there is a mysterious plan that could change the balance of power, but game structure becomes more airy, in kind of anticipation of the open maps that we will see from chapter four. Therefore, various purposes in scenarios, mechanisms to be used to mask rifle shots, sections where you can move silently, knives in hand, etc.
Spectacular X-ray Kill Cams, finding more space more realistic and scaryThe game enjoys a greater sense of freedom than in the past, while allowing you to take different approaches and therefore eliminate enemies without ever being spotted, dive into a more lively lineup, or advance with leveled weapons by showing their side. The mechanisms are somewhat unclear in this respect.
Sniper Elite 4
The narrative of the Nazi secret plot is revived in Sniper Elite 4, but in this case the setting isItaly 1943 and sees Karl Fairburne collaborating with the partisans to obtain documents on a very powerful German guided missile, thereby preventing it from being launched against allied troops.
If the series is not making significant progress on the narrative front, the discourse on the mechanics that finds full expression in itself is different. much larger and more open scenariosAlternative approaches to missions, in particular the stealth item, that change different situations and therefore allow you to make the most of the mechanics of long-range shooting.
From this perspective, while introducing new features related to climbing and knife handling, some thought-provoking looks form the background of the action sequences, and there is further development of a truly distinctive trademark, X-ray Kill Cams. for a series that manages to take advantage of its full potential when it stays on the path that suits it best.
Between awkward teams and virtual realities
Before releasing the final installment of Sniper Elite, Rebellion enriched the series’ narrative universe with two new ones. spin offin this case Strange Brigade and Sniper Elite VR.
In the first case, the experience is a classic third-person shooter experience, so it lacks the precision shooting that made the saga famous, but it has elements of adventure and environmental puzzles to solve. Among the protagonists of the game set in the 1930s, we find Frank Fairburne, Karl’s father and also a shotgun ace.
As for Sniper Elite VR, this is the first experiment. virtual reality For the series developed by Just Add Water, which has a different character: an old partisan who remembers the wars against the Nazis to save our country during the Second World War.
Sniper Elite 5
Finally, a few days ago PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X | Let’s move on to recent history with Sniper Elite 5, the last chapter of the saga published for S and Xbox One. the script is there France Coming back to talking about 1944 and Nazi secret weapons, in this case Project Kraken: Karl Fairburne is tasked with figuring out what it is and thwarting the new threat, but he will have to face nine particularly complex missions to succeed in the venture. .
The idea is to further enrich the explicit formula of chapter four so that larger maps and with optional targets that we can define by exploring the levels far and wide, eliminating enemies from a great distance using normal tricks, or shortening the distances to use the silenced pistol, knife or, at worst, the machine gun.
Beyond the new surfaces and ziplines to climb over to access buildings defended by the Nazis, the most relevant innovations of this latest adventure are structural: from co-op mode to the possibility of invading other players’ games by impersonating a German officer. , survival and renewed competitive multiplayer challenges to face alone or with friends.
Variations on the theme that do not revolutionize the brand, but are of indisputable value in enriching the experience and the degree of replayability … await the next mission.
Source: Multiplayer
