Without further ado, let’s get started.

SNIPER ELITE V2 REMASTERED

Sniper Elite V2 was a solid entry in the stealth franchise back when it first launched, but with its subsequent instalments, it made plenty of improvements to better the quality of the experience. The remaster, released quite recently, had the opportunity to elevate the original title by introducing some of these changes, but sadly, it ends up showing how poorly Sniper Elite 2 has aged. It looks decent enough, sure, but if you’re looking for the definitive Sniper Elite experience, there are much better options out there.

"This is the first time players will be able to play V2’s campaign and the 4 DLC missions with the sniper of your choice."

What can you tell us about the new playable characters in V2 Remastered?

This is the first time players will be able to play V2’s campaign and the 4 DLC missions (in this edition they’re called “Challenge” missions) with the sniper of your choice.

You can play as one of 7 characters taken from our spin-off co-op horror series, Zombie Army Trilogy, which was a big hit for Rebellion in 2015. They mix from a disgraced Nazi scientist to a grumpy Red Army soldier and a French resistance fighter! It’s a really nice addition.

You can play as them in multiplayer too, meaning there are now 15 skins to choose from in the expanded multiplayer matches which are up from 8 players to 16 players on PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

How does the player count of 16 players help the game’s multiplayer component?

V2’s multiplayer was really unique and tense, and while that experience remains intact, we learned from Sniper Elite 3 and 4 that more rifles adds a really fun and frantic additional tension. No rock or corner is entirely safe!

Can you tell us how the 4 player local co-op on the Switch will function exactly? Is that a feature that’s exclusive to the Switch version?

Yes, this is an exclusive feature you might have seen in some other Switch games – if you and your friends have copies of the game you can sit next to each other and battle over your own local wireless network without needing to connect to the internet.

Not only can you play competitive multiplayer but you play co-op too, actually. It works exactly like online play where you have the ability to create and browse games. We think it will be popular with sharpshooters on the move!

Considering Sniper Elite V2 also made an appearance on the Wii U, and since the Switch version doesn’t support HDR and 4K for obvious reasons, would we be right in assuming that, at least on a purely visual level, the remaster on the Switch will be closer to the game’s Wii U version than, say, the remastered release on the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X?

No, this edition on Switch is far superior to the Wii U edition of Sniper Elite V2- not only do we handle higher resolutions, the texture resolution is higher along with revamped environments, lighting and shadows, plus all of the new features too. In summary, it’s definitely closer to the current consoles.

"This edition on Switch is far superior to the Wii U edition of Sniper Elite V2- not only do we handle higher resolutions, the texture resolution is higher along with revamped environments, lighting and shadows, plus all of the new features too."

How extensive of a toolset can we expect to see in the new Photo Mode?

Very extensive! We learned a lot from the photo mode we created for Strange Brigade. The key feature is that you can actually advance time and see your bullet move forward step-by-step through the air – and enemies – to get the perfect capture. There are three pre-sets and a custom one where you can adjust brightness, contrast, saturation and exposure, apply numerous filters, modify the camera and lens and change the frames. We can’t wait to see fans using it and sharing kill-cam images!

Can we take the expanded multiplayer, visual features, and the photo mode to be indications of what you guys are going to do with Sniper Elite 5?

Well it’s a bit early to be talking about the next Sniper Elite title! We haven’t even got a confirmed name yet, by the way! But as Jason (Kingsley, CEO and co-founder) said during our Sniper Elite Development Update in March, the project is a long way off, and actually we used all the press coverage and buzz from our four announcements to lure players back to our forums and quiz them on features they’d like to see in the next game!

Had Sniper Elite VR not been a separate project, is that something we could have seen in the remaster? Was that ever a consideration?

The VR Sniper Elite project is being developed in partnership with our friends at Just Add Water, so I’m not involved directly with the project. What I can say is that it’s a completely stand-alone game. We know from Battlezone and Arca’s Path that VR works best when we develop for it from the ground up rather than being retro-fitted or an added on for an older game.

Given all the recent announcements, I feel like I have to ask this: will we be seeing Sniper Elite 4 on the Switch at some point in the future?

To be honest that’s up to Chris, Jason, and the business. We’ve got to get Sniper Elite V2 Remastered out first, and then Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate Edition on Switch later in the year too, so Switch players won’t be short of Sniper Elite action in 2019.

"We’ve got to get Sniper Elite V2 Remastered out first, and then Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate Edition on Switch later in the year too, so Switch players won’t be short of Sniper Elite action in 2019."

What resolution and frame rate does the game run on the Switch in handheld and docked mode?

We use a ”DRS” Dynamic Resolution Scaling system, so in handheld mode the game can achieve up to 720p, and then 918p in docked mode, though menus and user interface will be a crisp 1080p on top of this when docked.

Will the game will feature Xbox One X specific enhancements. What can players expect if they are playing the game on Xbox One X? Is 4K/60fps on the cards?

It runs at super smooth/crisp 60 fps in native 1080p, with the option to lock the game at 30 fps and deliver true 4K. Of course the game is remastered in true high-definition-range showing beautiful environments with extra detail.

And how will the PS4 Pro version turn out in terms of resolution and frame rate?

PS4 Pro gets the same treatment as Xbox One X when it comes to frame rate and resolution options.

How is the game running on the original Xbox One and PS4, frame rate and resolution wise?

The game plays great in native 1080p resolution at 30 fps, has updated weapons, characters and vehicles along revamped lighting, shadows and enhanced VFX.

The PS5 specs were recently revealed in an interview with Wired. What are your thoughts on that?

I think both our team – Rebellion North – and the other three Rebellion studios will be really excited to dig into Sony’s new machine. As a developer we’re known for building games on our own engine technology, so we can adapt to each platform as we know more.

Specs are one thing, but working with a console is just as much about how first parties support the developers making the games, and we have a great relationship with PlayStation and look forward to continuing to work with them.

"Specs are one thing, but working with a console is just as much about how first parties support the developers making the games, and we have a great relationship with PlayStation and look forward to continuing to work with them."

What is your take on Sony’s reluctant policy on cross-play with Xbox and Nintendo?

With Sniper Elite V2 Remastered we support cross-play between Steam and GOG players, but also Xbox and Windows 10 Store players. Rebellion generally wants to make games for multiple platforms and to reach as many gamers as possible. Cross-play could be important for games like ours that have a passionate audience but can’t compete with the Fortnites of this world, and I think as developers and gamers we all welcome the fact all the major players seem to be moving in this direction.

Rebellion Developments recently announced that Sniper Elite V2 would be getting the remastering treatment for the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Switch. Several enhancements and additions were detailed, from a photo mode to enhanced multiplayer to, of course, enhanced visuals. But exactly how enhanced are they going to be?

In an interview with GamingBolt, the developer confirmed that Sniper Elite V2 Remastered will have “revamped lighting, shadows, and enhanced VFX” on all systems. On the base PS4 and Xbox One, the game will run at 30 FPS and 1080p. On the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, it will offer two options to players- one that offers a resolution of 1080p with a 60 frames per second frame-rate, and another that lets you bump up the resolution to “true 4K”, but locks the frame rate at 30 frames per second.

Meanwhile, on the Switch, the game will use dynamic resolution scaling. In handheld mode, it will run at a maximum of 720p, while in docked mode, it will hit a resolution of 918p. However, menus and user interface can hit 1080p when the console is docked.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered launched today on the PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. There’s going to be plenty more Sniper Elite content beyond that in the foreseeable future though. Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate has also been confirmed for a Switch release, while Rebellion also having teased Sniper Elite 5 and Sniper Elite VR.

Our full interview with Rebellion about Sniper Elite V2 Remastered will be going live soon, so stay tuned.

Years later, a remaster no one asked for has arrived to bring the game to modern consoles, but not much has changed beyond some enhancements to the graphics. Sniper Elite V2 wasn’t very pretty to begin with, and although the upgrade to 4k and HDR is an improvement worth noting, it doesn’t magically improve the dated visuals in any drastic way. Dynamic lighting and improved particle effects are welcomed, and I noticed some hefty changes to the game’s character models. Still, the game is several years old, and it shows. Since the only other notable addition to the remastered version of Sniper Elite V2 is an average photo mode, it’s a shame the visuals aren’t more impressive to showcase players’ best moments.

"The game’s best feature is its primary one – sniping. There’s a lot of attention paid to this element of gameplay that works really well."

Beyond these traditional remaster improvements, Sniper Elite V2 is the exact same game it was seven years ago. Players are placed in the shoes of Lieutenant Karl Fairburne and given the task of running down and taking out German scientists before Russian operatives capture them. The setup is a run-of-the-mill WWII story switched up just enough to make the sniping gameplay logical, and our hero follows suit by being as generic as possible. Still, there’s enough intrigue here to propel players into the conflict and give them purpose for putting bullets through as many skulls as they can.

The game’s best feature is its primary one – sniping. There’s a lot of attention paid to this element of gameplay that works really well. My favorite detail is that the game ties your time-slowing ability to your heartrate. Running even short distances can raise it exceptionally high, and since slowing time is very important to lining up great shots, there’s a fun bit of risk and reward involved in managing the meter. Beyond that, you can expect to spend a lot of time adjusting for drop distance and wind as you line up perfect shots.

It can be a truly mathematical endeavor that makes you feel like a real sniper as you’re perched atop a crumbled building working out the specifics before taking pulling the trigger. And thanks to the aforementioned brutal and satisfying bullet cam, many of those shots will result in grotesque slow motion bullet entry. You don’t just get to watch the bullet penetrate and leave the body; the game will switch to x-ray vision to showcase the enemy’s insides and allow you to stare in awe as you explode various bone structures and organs. If you’ve got a weak stomach, Sniper Elite isn’t a franchise for you. But if you’re intrigued by watching a bullet enter a face and utterly decimate a person’s jaw bones into a thousand fragmented pieces, well, I think you may have found your game.

"You can take a shot and move to a new position to leave enemies searching for you, but because the AI is so irregular and varies from running right at you with reckless abandon to searching endlessly to no avail, there’s not much consistency to rely on."

The remainder of the game is a mixed bag of passable gameplay mechanics and downright awful ones. There’s the expected genre option of stealth killing via silenced pistols or melee, but Sniper Elite V2 gives you plenty of more unique ways to complete your objectives using various tools and a bit of creative thought. You can do things such as lay landmines and tripmines before luring your prey into them with a rock throw, take non-lethal shots at your enemies to lure others to their position, or shoot gas tanks on vehicles to leave chaos and death in your wake. And if all else fails, you’re given dynamite, grenades, and automatic weapons as backup for when things get hairy.

It’s a shame, however, that these backup mechanics undermine some of the best aspects of the sniper genre – true stealth. Sure, I understand that a sniper shot draws attention, but the loss of the element of surprise often turns the game into a traditional third-person shooter, especially during the second half of the game. Worse yet, the AI struggles to keep up with the game’s jump from deliberately-paced sniping experience to frantic shooting gallery. You can sometimes time your shots with background sounds, but the unpredictable enemy detection means that sometimes they hear them anyways and come charging at you. Hell, sometimes they just suddenly and randomly know precisely where you are without you so much as moving, making for some outrageously unfair and unexpected deaths by sheer numbers.

You can take a shot and move to a new position to leave enemies searching for you, but because the AI is so irregular and varies from running right at you with reckless abandon to searching endlessly to no avail, there’s not much consistency to rely on. More often than not, a few solid hits was all I’d get off before the enemies would begin to swarm me and prompt me to bring out my automatic weapon for a full on battle. These battles often hilariously devolved into me watching enemies stare directly at me as they shot a nearby wall over and over, and other times they’d run in literal circles searching for me as I stood in the wide open watching them. My favorite was how often they’d run to a spot and go prone facing a wall as I stood there in plain sight. Of course, when they weren’t being dumb, they came at me like bats out of hell and completely obliterated me.

"Solid sniping mechanics and gory bullet cam deaths are endlessly exciting, and I had a surprising amount of fun at times, but pushing through its 8-10 hour campaign comes with a lot of frustrations too."

This is made worse in the more straightforward corridor levels that basically demand you pull out that automatic gun and go in guns blazing against such capricious enemies. Don’t get me wrong – there’s nothing overtly bad about these segments, but in a game clearly designed to appeal to gamers who love sniping, it’s a bit of a letdown when you’re forced into small aisles and required to either use an SMG or use your sniper like a shotgun, even if the latter of is admittedly pretty cool and made me feel badass.

The various difficulties can sometimes make things even more frustrating. The easiest mode allows you to take quite a beating before going down, but the highest difficulty showcases the absolute worst in the AI and gameplay imbalances. If you’re unable to rapidly calculate for wind and drop distance precisely, you might as well be dead before you even fire a single bullet. Enemies will rain down on you and wipe the floor with your corpse before you can so much as think. It also removes some of the easier mode’s options like the very helpful aim assist and the ability to tag enemies to keep up with them. All of this adds up to unbalanced difficulty whichever way you swing things, further leaving Sniper Elite V2 feeling inadequate .

The later games in the Sniper Elite franchise have elevated the franchise to above average and made significant quality-of-life improvements to its core gameplay loop, so I’m let down that the developers didn’t take any of that into account when remastering the game that brought the series more mainstream. Plenty could have been done to make Sniper Elite V2 stand out, but all we’ve got here is the same clunky entry that we had in 2012. Solid sniping mechanics and gory bullet cam deaths are endlessly exciting, and I had a surprising amount of fun at times, but pushing through its 8-10 hour campaign comes with a lot of frustrations too.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

Though the PlayStation 5 hasn’t formally been revealed yet, Sony recently pulled back the curtain on the next gen console, talking about various things that we can expect to see it bring with its launch. From impressive specs to backward compatibility, from VR support to the inclusion of an SSD (which, Sony says, will make loading screens “a thing of the past”), there’s plenty to get excited about.

And of course, a lot of people are very excited- including Rebellion Developments, best known for their Sniper Elite series. Recently, in an interview with GamingBolt, Rebellion’s senior producer Jon Seymour was asked about the PS5, and what he feels about what Sony have revealed about the console so far, and Seymour’s reaction was a very positive one. Rebellion’s development teams, he says, are “really excited to dig into Sony’s new machine”, which he feels is compounded by the fact that the developer shares “a great relationship with PlayStation.”

“I think both, our team – Rebellion North – and the other three Rebellion studios will be really excited to dig into Sony’s new machine,” Seymour told GamingBolt. “As a developer we’re known for building games on our own engine technology, so we can adapt to each platform as we know more.”

“Specs are one thing,” he continued, “but working with a console is just as much about how first parties support the developers making the games, and we have a great relationship with PlayStation and look forward to continuing to work with them.”

When that will be exactly is something that’s still up in the air. Reports have suggested that the PS5 will be out in 2020, but Sony themselves have made it clear that an early 2020 release date is out of the question.

Meanwhile, Rebellion Developments’ Sniper Elite V2 Remastered will be out on the PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch on May 14. Our full interview with Seymour will be going live soon, so stay tuned.

Rebellion Developments recently announced that Sniper Elite V2 would be getting a remastered release on current consoles soon, and now, they’ve released a new trailer that gives a brief lowdown of all the enhancements and new features that are being added to the game, and lists seven reasons why players should upgrade to the remastered version.

These include enhanced visual and updates visuals tech including the likes of new post-processing effects, improved textures and geometry, and new lighting systems. There’s also eight new characters added to the game, while multiplayer modes also support up to 16 players per match (barring on the Switch, where the cap remains at 8). There’s also support for HDR, 60 frames per second frame rates, and 4K visuals (on the platforms that can support it).

There’s also a new photo mode, while all the content the game released following its original launch by way of DLC is also included in the remaster. Check out the video below to get more details on all this stuff.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered is out on May 14 for the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. There’s a lot more to come barring this remaster though, with Sniper Elite 3 Ultimate also having been confirmed for a Switch release, and Rebellion also having teased Sniper Elite 5 and Sniper Elite VR.

Developer Rebellion recently released a new comparison trailer for the upcoming Sniper Elite V2 Remastered, pitting its visuals against the game’s original release. The trailer, notably, also confirms the game’s exact release date.

The original game, released in 2012 across various platforms, sees you take the role of an American Office of Strategic Solider (OSS) as he looks to capture or kill scientists involved in the German’s V-2 Rocket program during World War II. The third person stealth shooter puts you in a sniper’s shoes, therefore emphasizing a less direct approach to combat in favor of sniping and various other stealth methods, giving players multiple options for how to tackle certain areas and objectives.

You can see how the remastered version stacks up to the original in the trailer below. It will support 4K resolution and HDR on platforms that support them, and includes a new photo mode, seven new playable characters, and multiplayer expanded up to 16 players (8 on the Switch version). The game will release May 14^th of this year for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC.

Sniper Elite V2, the first game in the series that broke out and achieved mainstream popularity, will be getting a remaster for current generation systems, Rebellion confirmed today in a press release. The remaster will be hitting PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered features enhanced graphics with support for 4K and HDR on all platforms (1080p on Nintendo Switch), new playable characters, a brand new photo mode, and an expanded online mode with support for up to 16 players (8 players for the Switch version of the game). All the DLC for the base game will also be included in the remaster out of the box.

A statement made by Rebellion to DualShockers further confirms support for up to 4 players locally on the Switch version of the game. The concessions seem fair, and I imagine many series fans will just be glad to be able to play the unique stealth shooter on the go; others, who want the cutting edge version of it, can always pick it up on one of the other consoles or on PC, obviously.

Sniper Elite V2 Remastered launches some time in 2019.