Sniper Elite

Sniper Elite

Xbox cover art
Developer(s) Rebellion Developments
Raylight Studios (Wii)
Publisher(s) MC2 France
Reef Entertainment (Wii)
Distributor(s) Atari, Namco, Ubisoft
Creative Distribution (Wii)
Designer(s) Jason Kingsley (director)
Composer(s) Tom Bible
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
PlayStation 2
Xbox
Wii
Release date(s)
  • NA October 18, 2005
  • PAL September 30, 2005
Genre(s) Tactical shooter
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
Rating(s)
Media/distribution DVD ROM, digital download
System requirements

Pentium III, 256 MB RAM, 4GB HD space (PC)

Sniper Elite, also known as Sniper Elite: Berlin 1945, is a 2005 tactical shooter created by UK video game developer Rebellion Developments.

The main character is Karl Fairburne, an American OSS secret agent disguised as a German sniper. He is inserted into Battle of Berlin in 1945, during the final days of World War II, with the critical objective of obtaining German nuclear technology before the Soviet Union does.

Contents

Story

The game follows protagonist Karl Fairburne as he attempts to prevent the Soviet Union taking control of Germany's nuclear secrets in and around Berlin, April 1945. Very little information is known about his background, other than he was raised in Berlin as the son of a U.S. ambassador to Germany before the war broke out, that he studied at West Point shortly after America's entrance into the war, and the fact that he was chosen for this mission because the city was his childhood home.

There are several factions contending for supremacy in the city, including the German resistance, who wish to aid Karl, the Soviet NKVD, and the Nazi forces. Martin Bormann, an extremely powerful figure within the Third Reich, is one of Karl's targets for assassination as he plans to meet up with an NKVD contact at the Brandenburg Gate to defect to the Soviet Union; the fate of the real Bormann was for a long time shrouded in mystery (turns out that he committed suicide during a breakout attempt). The rest of the characters (such as Dr. Max Lohmann, a key German scientist who Fairburne is assigned to help capture and escort out of Berlin to America in order to prevent him from falling into the hands of the NKVD) are fictional with exception of General Patton who has sent Fairburne on his mission.

Gameplay

Sniper Elite is a third-person shooter that involves stealth. To reinforce the stealth aspect, there is a camouflage index measured in percentage that displays the visibility of the protagonist. Fairburne uses several WWII-era weapons, including sniper rifles, a silenced pistol, submachine guns, machine guns, an anti-tank weapon, and German and Soviet hand grenades (which can be also used to make tripwire booby traps).[1]

One of the main features of the game is the option of realistic ballistics, involving factors such as bullet drop, wind strength, and breathing when attempting a shot. Sniping gameplay is in first person scope view, whereas movement and use of all other weapons is in third person view. When the player makes an extreme sniper shot, the view follows the path of the bullet in slow motion, while the camera rotates around the bullet.

Wii version

The Wii version of the game was released by Reef Entertainment in North America in September 2010.[2] It is compatible with the Wii Remote and Wii Zapper and contains a bonus new level. The game was also released in Europe later the same year.[3]

Reception

Sniper Elite was awarded "Best PC/Console Game" in the TIGA Awards of 2005.[4] As of 2010 the game holds an average GameRankings scores of 73.44% for the PC version,[5] 76.65% for the PlayStation 2,[6] and 76.97% for the Xbox.[7]

Novel

Rebellion's book imprint Abaddon Books released a novel inspired by the game, Sniper Elite: The Spear of Destiny (Jaspre Bark, Abaddon Books, August 2006, ISBN 1-905437-04-8). In this book, Karl Fairburne's mission is to stop the renegade SS general Helmstadt from selling a working atomic bomb to the Soviets.

References

External links