Although you get a selection of sidearms and equipment to help you survive, when push comes to shove it’s the sniper rifle that’ll help you complete your mission. The third-person approach encourages the use of stealth and distance, but the game allows you to choose your preferred vantage points and routes between them in open-world style. Set in 1945 Berlin, Sniper Elite V2 follows a capture-or-kill mission on the trail of the Nazi scientists who built the V2 rocket. It’s not much use long-term, its condition deteriorating quickly, but sometimes the best weapon is the right one for that particular job. The game even gives snipers a second choice of weapon, with the Dart Rifle – a silent, neurotoxin-delivering flechette gives a guaranteed one-shot kill wherever you hit your enemy. Or take out an entire encampment at long range by plugging a few rounds into one of those conveniently-placed fuel tanks that only exist in computer games.
Injure one man, wait for his friends to investigate, and then finish them both off before they even get the chance to see what happened.
Of course, it helped that the enemy AI allowed snipers to toy with their prey. Shoot where they’re going, not where they are. Far Cry 2įar Cry 2 was another game that used a level of accuracy to make its sniping fun, realistically modelling the bullet’s travel time so that sniping wasn’t just about lining up someone’s head and firing, but about taking into account some real-world conditions like distance and momentum. There are even some special unique rifles to be found in the game – the Victory Rifle, which is more durable and can knock down targets, and the Reservist’s Rifle, which can be fired faster and has less recoil. But they all give you the chance to dispatch your enemies with nothing more than a single, well-placed bullet before disappearing into the shadows – and in the end, isn’t that what being a sniper is really about?Įven though the game is geared for all sorts of combat types, there’s a subtlety to Fallout 3‘s sniper mechanic, with scopes that sway if you’re unskilled in firearms combat or sporting an injured limb, and shots that do more damage if you remain unseen before firing. Others allow you to choose to become one. So, to mark the release of Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2, we’ve picked out some of our favourite videogame sniper experiences. The sniper rifle didn’t just represent another weapons option in a game, it represented a whole new way of playing it. But as gaming AI became more sophisticated, video resolutions higher and simulations more accurate, the ability to snipe became more and more nuanced. Early FPS games like Doom and Quake concentrated more on fostering a quick-paced arcade atmosphere than rewarding stealth and accuracy. Sniping is a skill that many videogames do, but which few do well.
Yes, the closest most of us can get to actual sniping is nipping in on an eBay auction at the last second – but thanks to videogames, there’s a way we can all experience the same thrill of long-range power over life and death that air traffic controllers must feel every day. And then, when you’re done, put in the PayPal details and wait for the post to arrive.