Sniper Elite 2 (demo)

[charlesr]

There's one mission: make your way towards a spot where a convoy will pass, and plant explosives, find a high point and shoot to detonate when the convoy arrives.

As in the original game, this is very tense, with enemy snipers making your life difficult and short. There are ground units on the way which you don't seem to be able to creep past (??? anyone found a way?) because it's quite linear, so no way to skirt around them. The enemy snipers are really hard to spot, so it's really tense trying to use the binoculars to look at every nook and cranny up high before approaching a new bit of road. I played on medium difficulty - there's a health meter and the enemy sniper shots don't do one-shot kills which makes it not quite so scary. Has anyone tried the sniper elite difficulty?

Controls seem tight but cover only works when it fancies.

You can grab bodies to stash them out of view, although isn't really necessary in the demo.

If you liked the original, you'll love this. If you like running around like a nutter shooting from the hip, stay well clear. If you like hanging around on the top of a crane hoping for 5 kills a round in BF3, you'll also love this.

Sometimes, you see a quick replay of the bullet path and the enemy body parts exploding. I thought I'd get tired of it, and I probably will evenutally, but you take so long setting up the kills that it's a nice reward.

[BIG EDD]

Never played the first one but really enjoyed the demo pre order time I think

[Uli]

is this supposed to be a sniper simulation? if so, this surely has to be a total failure. enemies can't be injured - one called for help after going down but i guess this was just scripted. most annoying is that most of the German standard infantry seem to be bulletproof. i had one taking 5 hits from my Springfield before finally going down. the version i downloaded from the US marketplace didn't even feature Nazi insignia - they replaced the Swastika with the Cross of Iron. pathetic.

[charlesr]

Are we playing the same game? If you shoot someone on target they aren't staying alive, with bodyparts exploding all over the place - it's mostly one shot kills. Even shooting someone in the leg will mess them up totally with the leg shattering completely. If you just graze them, their fellow soldiers try and rescue them.

[Team Andromeda]

Never played the first one but really enjoyed the demo pre order time I think

Same here , Played the demo was well impressed and found my self playing the demo over and over again. Its just great fun, sounds ace in 5.1 too

[prinnysquad]

Played this quite a bit this morning when vp was round.

It's great - right up my street. It is linear, and there's no way to avoid the clusters of soldiers, but I'm hoping this is just the demo showcasing the combat and forcing you down a route to do this. The original certainly had lots of ruins to crawl around.

Having said that, after three different tries, we found lots of little alleys and ways into buildings. Each go felt quite fresh. The enemies most certainly can be injured, one guy was staggering around while his comrades ran to help. These injuries are usually caused by poor shots. Like charles said, good shots usually result in death. The slo-mo bullet trail cam is brilliant to watch, and the odd x-ray moneyshot is wince-inducing. Visually, the game is grimy in art-style (yet quite clear - it's not a tangled mess of colours and textures), and average in quality. Plant pots in windows can cause a heart-jump, and the tell-tale glint of sunlight on polished sniper-barrel gets the otts flying round your bowels. There's a definite sense of tension, danger and mortality.

On a higher difficulty, the enemies are more accurate and the shooting is unforgiving. It ramps up the challenge and getting to grips with things like wind and distance can be the difference between life and death.

Pre-order, stat.

[nonny]

Sounds exactly like the original which was bloody brilliant. Some parts were linear but I do remember some levels with multiple objectives and various paths to them with different outcomes and enemies. I'd hope this is therefore similar and the demo is just a linear, focused taste.

I saw a few kill shot videos of this. You can shoot enemies grenades on their belts to blow them up!

[Uli]

Are we playing the same game? If you shoot someone on target they aren't staying alive, with bodyparts exploding all over the place - it's mostly one shot kills. Even shooting someone in the leg will mess them up totally with the leg shattering completely. If you just graze them, their fellow soldiers try and rescue them.

hm, sounds odd. i can't remember expolding body parts in my version. do you have Nazi insignia?

however, a sniper rifle shot in any body part from within 200m range should put any unprotected enemy out of action. that's clearly not the case here. enemies are sucking bullets like the Helghast in Killzone - a short stumble after taking a hit but still coming for you guns blazing. i played on the second highest difficulty though, but i thought this was supposed to affect only technical stuff and physics.

[charlesr]

Plant pots in windows can cause a heart-jump

One of those had me big time!

Also, you can throw stones to distract guards! Not tried it out for real yet.

One sniper was crawling around on a ledge causing me massive grief - the target was so small. The sniper problem really is great - they can be anywhere and change each time. Roof top, windows, destroyed building shadows. Tense stuff.

I looked for insignia, but I can't find any at all. No cross of iron or swastika. Uli, are you playing Xbox or PS version? Did you not get any bullet flight replays with x-ray pics of lungs and ribs getting ripped apart? Or headshots with the brain exploding out the back? Or femurs disintegrating? Or pelvis smashing with groin shot?

I played on medium and high difficulty.

Clicking the left stick enters focus time where you take a breath and breath out as your heartbeat rises - you need your HR to be low enough in the first place to enter this mode, so you can't use it all the time if you are running around and shooting like a nutter. Without it, shots are rarely on target.

[prinnysquad]

hm, sounds odd. i can't remember expolding body parts in my version. do you have Nazi insignia?

however, a sniper rifle shot in any body part from within 200m range should put any unprotected enemy out of action. that's clearly not the case here. enemies are sucking bullets like the Helghast in Killzone - a short stumble after taking a hit but still coming for you guns blazing. i played on the second highest difficulty though, but i thought this was supposed to affect only technical stuff and physics.

MOST shots to legs, or other peripheral areas, do instantly kill the enemy - in my experience ( a few hours of the demo) only poor shots that clip the enemy cause them to survive. It's still a game, over and above a 'sim', I think. It takes liberties with reality so that it retains some level of challenge. Poor shots may still kill in real life, but that would be a rank application to a game. It would mean that there's no challenge, or incentive to be pin-point, if every iffy shot still nailed the kill.

It DEFINITELY has body part whuppage, although maybe not in a Soldier of Fortune, whole limbs blown off way (maybe not in demo??). On one shot, the bullet went through the bloke's hand and into his stomach, causing three fingers to fly off, in x-ray mode.

[analog dog]

Wait until you blow someones plums away! AMAZE.

[Friction]

I downloaded this the other day because a mate suggested it. Really surprised to be honest and didn't expect it to be this good. I am however finding it quite hard and keep getting killed (on medium difficulty). I tried the whole sneak around trick but that didn't work and every time I got into a firefight I usually came off worse :-/

Guess I just need more practice!

Love the epic bone shattering shots, though I've only seen one the whole time I've played Presume they are random and I've just been unlucky and not seen many?!

[charlesr]

Weird. I get loads on each playthrough, although haven't worked out a pattern. They are normally on long shots though.

If you are finding it hard, are you searching for and picking off the snipers first? If don't and then get stuck in with the machine gunners on the ground, you are screwed.

[charlesr]

I got a cool replay taking out one of the coffee shop guys and the other one leaps up to get to cover.

I'm trying to get a double kill to see if it shows in a replay - not suceeded yet.

[Team Andromeda]

Wait until you blow someones plums away! AMAZE.

LOL. I was telling VanPeebles about that the other day. This game is just amazing fun