Sniper Elite VR Review
Preamble
World War 2 Shooters are one of the most prolific in the genre. For good reason too. Democracy stood against Autocracy. Freedom against Facism. A conflict that now is completely black and white. Nazis are bad, and so whenever you shoot a Nazi the joy of a shot well completed and a kill well scored is twice as sweet.
That is why it has been such a mystery that it has taken so long for a World War 2 Shooter like Sniper Elite: VR to appear on the Oculus Quest store. We’ve got a few modern shooters such as Contractors, which features an okay WW2 multiplayer mode, and Onward. Until now there has been no game completely set in and dedicated to this most classic of first person shooter subgenres. Of course now there is, and boy does VR, as always, put the “First” in First Person.
Sure, there’s the Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond too, but unless you’ve got a really good 5GHz router setup or want to chain your headset to an expensive computer, Sniper Elite:VR is what you’ve got now.
The Setup
You’re an old Italian man, an ex-Partisan. The frame for the story of the game is sitting at your father’s house, now yours, reminiscing on how hard you fought in the 1940s for the peace you now have in the 1980s. The player character’s voice is sweet and mellow with a charming accent. Get used to it, you’re going to hear it a lot.
In typical in medias res style, you are thrust into the first mission. You’re told how to pick up a rifle, how to load and chamber it. Shoot some targets though you’re supposedly in the middle of an active Partisan v. occupying Fascist force battle, and then go to the castle walls to get comfortable sniping the Wehrmacht. The controls are not the best, and sometimes you have to move your controllers uncomfortably close together to load or unload some weapons, like the first pistol you unlock, but time will get you used to them.
Between the missions you are brought back to the 1980s, watch your kids and grandkids play on a nice day, and go through your book of memories to access other missions. There’s more narration here as well. You’ll hear some every time to go back to the 1980s. Get used to it.
It’s a decent setup. There’s little emphasis on the actual strategy and goings-on of the war, though enough to provide some background. Mostly it’s just a series of scenarios with you, your weapons, and a lot of staring down scopes and popping the skulls off of the Wehrmacht. As mentioned, the narrator is talking almost constantly through all of this. Not even Morgan Freeman could pull off so much narration without getting a little annoying over time, but it’s not so bad.
The Controls
Controls are a huge sticking point in any VR title. Too floaty and it takes you out of the experience, too tight and you feel as though your arms are covered in molasses. Sniper Elite: VR definitely trends on the floaty side. Objects you hold, mostly weapons, don’t feel as if they have any weight when you move your hands. The slightest tremor can completely ruin your perfectly sighted shot. For a game as focused on precision shooting and sniping as Sniper Elite: VR this is often a problem. Sometimes even grabbing objects from the environment does not feel as responsive as it should. Future patches may fix this, but at the time of writing Sniper Elite: VR is barely passable in this respect.
There’s also some glitches with loading weapons as well. Often you need to pull a pin out of a grenade twice before it arms. These sorts of issues happen a lot with newly released VR titles, and when the patches come hopefully they will be fixed. Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister also had a lot of issues like this at launch, and now they are almost nonexistent.
If you’re not good at sniper rifles in VR, well now’s your chance to practice. As the name implies the use of sniper rifles is heavily encouraged by the mechanics of Sniper Elite: VR. You’re often placed far away from enemies and are always outnumbered, so anything with a scope and large caliber is naturally the best option. Also there’s uh… well there’s the kill cam. Let’s talk about the kill cam.
The Kill Cam
When Sniper Elite came out as a PC title, one of it’s greatest back-of-the-box selling points was the kill cam. For those that don’t want to just see the Fascist soldier simply fall back, lifeless, after a good shot, but want to see their organs burst and the high speed bullet rip the life out of them with x-ray vision. Sniper Elite is all about how precise and well-aimed your shots are, after all.
This doesn’t port so well to VR, a medium all about total immersion into a new space. It’s a very weird feeling to suddenly be ripped off of your battlement or tower or sniper’s nest. It feels as though you are thrust, physically, in front of the soon to be dead opponent to watch their skull shatter and eyeballs turn into mist. Then you’re back to your post, as the player character once more. It’s jarring, it’s a bad idea for VR, and it’s a bit much. Especially since it triggers very often, even on the minimal setting. Luckily it can be turned off completely.
The Arsenal
Oh, but there is still a lot of fun to be had. VR Singleplayer titles tend to lack a large variety of weaponry, well not in Sniper Elite:VR. Over the course of the game you can use every conceivable weapon that could be found in Italy at the time. From Panzerfausts to M1911 Pistols. There is a wide array of not only sniper rifles, but sub machine guns, pistols, shotguns, and even high explosives to put to use against the forces of the Wehrmacht. Though you’ll be using the sniper rifles most of all.
Your player character can carry a large amount of artillery on them at any given moment, all on a fairly well implemented, though sometimes frustrating set of body points for storage. Two on the back for the big guns. Two for grenades, two for pistols, and two pistols or explosives. You could carry four pistols if you want to be a real desperado.
The various methods of loading, chambering, aiming, and firing each of these weapons is intuitive and highly varied. They are introduced at a good pace to keep things interesting. After you discover a weapon your favorites can be put into one of three loadouts to use your missions ahead. Though you’ll be using the sniper rifles more than anything else. There’s not much difference between those, though there are a lot of them. Sometimes it feels that the variety of weapons is a little wasted, but boy they are still fun.
Your enemies also vary their weapons, though not as much as you. You wouldn’t see a Nazi sniper using a Russian Mosin-Nagant after all, or a Fascist shocktrooper using a British Sten gun. They use german weapons, though their ammunition is compatible for the same weapon type. Over the course of the game you will see more and more elite enemies, which can absorb multiple shots before they are killed. Unless you aim for the face of course, the face is always the best place.
Pretty standard stuff, though what’s more interesting is their AI. Rather, what's more interesting is how uninteresting their AI is. Nazi troopers will generally spawn in, run to a predefined point, and shoot at you from the same spot. Maybe they’ll move around a little bit, or patrol the same path over and over. They’re not very smart, but there’s a lot of them.
Also, you are fragile, and the Nazis are pretty accurate at short range. Getting close to the Fascist Occupiers is hazardous to your health. You can die very quickly from a couple of bursts of an SMG. So you must take cover, which is fantastic in VR. No other type of game feels better to take cover in, physically crouching behind a wall, listening to bullets chip the rock as you steady your hands for the next time you pop out and take a shot. Sniper Elite: VR does this well, and it helps with its reliance on ranged combat.
Though if you would rather be throwing grenades and clearing trenches run and gun style, this game may not have enough of that for you. Like it says in the title, Sniper Elite: VR wants you to spend most of your time well… sniping.
Precision is Key
Some enemies can survive a sniper round to the body, head, legs, arms, but not the face. The face is where the points are, and where the satisfying instant kills are. Especially satisfying if you like the kill cam a lot. Sniper Elite: VR helpfully provides you the ability to “focus” your shots. Doing so gives you a little more zoom to your scope or iron sights, and highlights where you will hit. Also it slows down time, giving you plenty of time to line up the perfect kill. If you take your time, it’s pretty satisfying.
You get points for shooting certain organs or body parts, lungs, brains, et cetera. You get points for blowing up enemies. You get more points for killing enemies from stealth. If you like to see a nicer playthrough give you a bigger number, Sniper Elite: VR has that for you. There are also collectables hidden throughout the maps as well for any treasure hunters, and challenges to complete for every mission. Usually they are something like “Get so many points” or “Get X kills with X weapon.” Make sure you complete these, as a certain amount of objectives are needed to progress to later missions. Also there’s an experience bar for each weapon, though they don’t get you anything for filling it. Maybe if you collect all of them you’ll get… a golden gun? Please leave a comment if you’ve filled all of them.
While not as satisfying as getting a perfect playthrough on a game like Hitman, dispatching enemies in the most quiet and efficient way is definitely a form of satisfaction to be had here. The numbers will tell you how well you did so.
You can go back to previously completed missions at any time, so if you feel the need to perfect your playthrough, go nuts.
Stealth
Stealth is optional in Sniper Elite: VR, and that’s a good thing. Enemies spot you from very far away, which makes sense. You rarely have a chance to get into melee range. You’re meant to shoot them from afar with the silenced single shot pistol or sniper rifle. Unless you’re using the silenced rifle, found much later in the game. To shoot a Nazi guard stealthily with most sniper rifles you will need to wait for something to mask the sound of the shot. So you always know when you’re in a “stealth” section of the game, because some loud sound will constantly fill the top part of your screen with “Sound Masked”. If the “Sound Masked” icon is at the top of your screen, your gunshot can still be heard if the sound is not loud enough. You need to shoot at the very apex of the noise.
Other than not being heard, you also need to avoid being seen. This system is a little frustrating in VR, as you need to press the crouch button, rather than physically crouch, to enter stealth mode. Leave a comment if you’ve found a way around this, but physically crouching offers no stealth benefits. There is no hybrid method like in The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners, which allows you to physically crouch or press the button if you prefer to take it easy on your knees. Pressing the crouch button makes avoiding detection a lot easier. It’s also immersion breaking if you don’t prefer to use it.
The guards either seem to be completely oblivious or able to spot you from miles away. In general the stealth is alright, and not strictly necessary. If you’re looking for a Thief: Deadly Shadows VR this is not quite the game you’re looking for, but there’s some good sneaky gameplay to be had in some missions.
To Conclude/TLDR
The VR aspect of Sniper Elite: VR is not very new or revolutionary. Though for the Quest, which is starved for even decent Singleplayer shooters, it is a good addition. The mechanics are all about shooting accurately and carefully from range, though the VR physics are subpar and make this a bit more difficult than it needs to be. There are bugs, but only enough to annoy and frustrate occasionally.
If you like World War 2 Shooters, definitely get this game. There’s plenty of good Nazi killing to be had here. Shooting Nazis always makes for feel-good fun.
