Game: The Sniper 2
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Best Media
Release Date: 5th March 2004
Introducing The Sniper 2, a budget title so bad that it's not even worth anywhere near the £14.99 launch price. As the title might suggest, the player takes the role of a Sniper, progressing through the levels by taking out mafia who are pursuing them and ridding the world of anyone deemed important enough to the loose plot to be a threat.
The game begins with a cutscene detailing events in "The Sniper" for Playstation, the previous installment in the series before moving onto the opening movie, with horrible voice acting as well as strange moments which don't quite make sense, including unexplained changes of clothing and references to events which we haven't witnessed. It's also far too long and features many bad half-jokes.
The first mission comprises of three (needlessly) seperate parts, where you have to pick off mafia members one by one, even though they can be seen on screen at the same time and could easily have been shot in sequence. A cutscene plays to indicate the fact they've moved, even though the player could've clearly seen that fact, had they done so inside of the mission. Once all three members have been shot, a terribly animated grenade is thrown at the protagonist's girlfriend, and then the credits roll.
The game isn't over however, the credits play at the end of every "chapter" (although really these should be single missions, as previously mentioned). The following missions aren't at all challenging, feature ridiculous situations such as criminal targets walking down the street in broad daylight, and are sandwiched between increasingly boring and long cutscenes. There are 10 stages in all, making for a short game, especially gameplaywise (most of the game is cutscenes which tell the story in the least straightforward way possible).
For a lot of the missions there's a choice of vantage point, or time of day although it's almost exactly the same point at a slightly different angle, or a slight difference in shading, rather than something which the player might care about deciding. There's no choice of gun or strategy for instance, a simple choice such as this might make the game more engaging. The sniping is made difficult by the fact you can't tell how far away you are from the target and so many a shot travels for longer than anticipated.
Graphically the game is pretty poor, the buildings and cars are blocky and the people are poorly detailed and hard to differentiate from a distance, not exactly what you'd want in a sniper game. The music sounds like poorly composed elevator music, that someone recorded from a keyboard, on a shoestring budget (as I imagine they were). Sound effects are equally poor with a stomach rumble in a early cutscene sounding more like nothing I've ever heard in my life before.
This game is as bad as it sounds, what little gameplay there is looks terrible, plays terribly, isn't at all fun and isn't explained well at all by the hours of cutscenes which are poorly acted, scripted and voiced. It's hard to find or even identify your target and the controls and programming make it difficult to shoot them even when you do. There's no redeeming features to this game, its best feature is that its short, to save you from any further torture.
Rating: 6/100
Grade: F
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