Sniper Elite V2 Remastered

TL;DR: Sniper Elite V2 has aged in plenty of obvious ways, especially in its movement, close-range combat, stealth and AI, but the core sniping remains incredibly satisfying. Accounting for distance and wind, hitting tiny weak points and watching the X-ray killcam never stopped being fun. Nostalgia definitely helps, but there is still a genuinely good game underneath it. 7/10. I played the original version many years ago, so there is definitely some nostalgia doing work here. But even coming back to it now, the core of the game is still just so satisfying. Sniping feels great. You can use assists if you want, but the fun really comes from learning to account for distance, wind, bullet drop and the different muzzle velocities of each weapon. Landing a long-range headshot after making the adjustment yourself feels fantastic. And then, of course, there is the X-ray killcam. I had forgot just how clever this mechanic is. It takes something that would already feel rewarding and turns it into a little celebration every single time. Skull, lung, spine, whatever unfortunate organ happens to be in the way. I never got tired of it. There are other nice touches too. Using loud environmental sounds to mask your shots is a cool mechanic. Destroying vehicles by hitting tiny weak points is also ridiculously satisfying. Hitting that microscopic fuel tank cover from distance never gets old. The game around the sniping is definitely showing its age, though. Movement feels clunky, especially in tight spaces. Close-range shooting is imprecise and awkward and the traditional stealth is probably the weakest part of the whole package. The game just never feels particularly comfortable outside of the sniper scope. Enemy AI is also fairly basic. On Normal difficulty, once you understand the sniping mechanics, things tend toward the easier side. Higher difficulties make the actual shooting much more demanding, which is where the challenge becomes interesting, but the enemies themselves do not suddenly become geniuses. The mission design is mostly linear as well, although there are usually a few ways to approach encounters. I don't really see that as a negative. It is very much how games like this were designed at the time, and the structure works well enough. The story is simple and does exactly what it needs to do. It gives the missions context, keeps things moving and never gets in the way. This was my first Sniper Elite many years ago, and I have since played the entire series. Coming back to V2 made it very obvious how much the franchise has evolved, but it also reminded me why I loved it in the first place.