Want to shoot Nazis' balls off? Play Sniper Elite V2

Ever had one of those long days at the office (or school, or whatever), then you get home and just want to blow off some steam? Sure, some people like to hit the gym, eat a nice dinner, or just lounge in front of the boob-tube. But I guarantee you that nothing will lift your spirits more than firing a supersonic projectile through an X-rayed sack of nuts. Yup, like the title of this article suggests, shooting the gonads off a Nazi soldier is entirely possible in Sniper Elite V2, and that's by far the coolest thing you can do in the game. But enough about Nazis and balls; Sniper Elite V2 is totally a game that you should play.

With all of the shooters out on the market, it wouldn't surprise if you said that you've never heard of Rebellion's Sniper Elite V2. So here's the deal: It's World War II, and you're an American sniper on a solo mission behind enemy lines, assigned to eliminate the German scientists behind the creation of the V2 rockets. Sniper Elite doesn't deliver the same cover-to-cover, third-person shooting you'd expect from others in the genre. This game is more deliberate, planned, and careful.

You're a sniper, so you're going to have to act like a sniper. You're also all by your lonesome, meaning there's no backup, you're outnumbered, and you'll have to play smart if you want to stay alive. Luckily, you have more than just a sniper rifle in hand to stick it to the Nazis. You've got access to silenced pistols, machine guns, explosive traps, sticks of TNT, and your own wits. When combined, these items let you do things like scout out a nice spot overlooking a guard post, lay a few tripwire grenades on the path leading to your lookout, cap a few skulls through the scope, and watch your pursuers fall into all those deadly traps.

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The act of sniping itself is a joy. Pulling off ridiculously difficult shots is rewarded with a slow-mo camera following the bullet from muzzle to flesh. If you get a particularly lethal bulls-eye, you're treated to a full, X-ray vision perspective of the bullet passing through the skin, bone, and organs of your target. Nothing's more satisfying than carefully lining up a long-range shot and watching your bullet swirl through the air to hit its target--especially since you have to compensate for outside ballistics factors like bullet drop, weapon sway, wind speed, and travel time. You feel a genuine sense of accomplishment with every successful trigger pull.

The challenge of getting to your perfect sniper nest is also half the fun. Sniper Elite V2 forces you to take it slow, observe your surroundings, and be patient--not the typical requirements of a shooter. Not only will there be camouflaged enemy snipers waiting in bombed-out buildings and on rooftops; sometimes you have to listen to the environment's background noise to get off a stealth shot. Some areas have a church bell ringing in the distance, or there are artillery shells landing nearby. Timing your shots with the explosion (or bell toll) conceals the sound of gunfire from enemy soldiers, making for one of the more unique ways to sneak through a level.

Sniper Elite V2 is no Call of Duty. You're not going to be running through sinking ships, staggering through a burning building, or breaking down doors with machine guns blazing. V2 is the shooter to play when you want to get away from all those overused genre cliches. If you're looking for something different in a shooter, Sniper Elite V2 has all of the awesomeness you could ever want in a WWII game. Or, you can just use the game as a Nazi testical vaporization simulator.

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