STACK February 2017 Issue 148

52 / 95

When is the only time you wink at a Nazi?When
you’re aiming through the telescopic sight of your
Springfield M1903 rifle in Sniper Elite 4. Words Paul Jones
Shunning trends in the shooter market, UK-
based Rebellion Games has always kept
the Sniper Elite franchise firmly ensconced
in World War Two. While the big triple-A studios
are now seemingly circling back for a place
in history, Rebellion are set to write the next
chapter of theirs in a series that is now some 12
years old.
“Rebellion is full of history nuts
but our owners, Chris and Jason
Kingsley, have always been
passionate about their World
War Two history, and believe
firmly there are many great
stories left to tell from that
conflict. Italy in 1943 is a
particularly interesting part of
the war that’s rarely explored,”
says head of creative at Rebellion,
Tim Jones, when we ask him why
the studio remains fixated on the 20th
century conflict.
We had limited exposure with the title at E3
last year and played through a level
that required the destruction of a
heavily defended viaduct. One of
the features that appealed to us at
the time was the versatility that the
level offered. Jones is quick to point
out that we can expect to see this
level of freedom of choice,
and differing options to
approach objectives,
throughout the
game.
“Viaduct is a
perfect example
of what Sniper
Elite 4 brings to
the table. The new
traversal options
such as climbing,
shimmying and jumping
open up the maps on a
vertical level. And we have tons
of intriguing side missions full of
subplots to explore as you’re
making your way across these
huge environments.”
Sniper Elite 4 will ship
with a host of new features
including a revamped kill cam
(a personal series’ favourite)
that will now highlight
melee and shrapnel
slow-mo kills too, and
dedicated four-player
co-op missions for the
View To
A Kill
first time. Behind the scenes, Jones gives us a
little insight into the lengths that the studio goes
to bring authenticity to the title;
this even involves putting team
members through ‘live’ shooting
exercises.
“We were given training in
how to handle and fire genuine
World War Two rifles, though we
were shooting at much shorter
range than you get to in the game
though,” he says.
“Some of our staff have even
served in the Armed Forces. It also
helps that Jason is Trustee of Her
Majesty’s Royal Armouries. They
have an extraordinary collection of
guns from every era.”
Although some weapon sounds
were recorded on the shooting
range visits, the final audio was
augmented in order to achieve the
requisite quality.
“Using various microphones
at various distances is still never
enough to bring a weapon sound up
to the standard expected in video
games and movies,” explains Jones.
“Certain additional content has
to be layered into them to really
plump them up, be it kick-drums or
thundercracks for more 'thud' and
'boom', or various latches and locks
and other unrelated metallic objects
to emphasise the mechanisms and
inner-workings of a gun.”
Finally, has the team at Rebellion
ever sought feedback or asked
advice from any practicing snipers?
“Yes, we have consulted with
snipers who have been on active
duty in modern conflicts and
they were genuinely impressed,
particularly when it comes to having
to pay attention to your own heart
rate, breathing, and the way bullets
drop because of the curvature of
the earth.
“We’re not a full blown
simulation of course," adds Jones.
"We take the core principles of
real-world sniping and make them
into something engaging to play
with a gamepad, or mouse and
keyboard!”
visit GAMES FEATURE
Did You
Know?
The second Baron
Brooke, Robert Greville
is the first documented
victim of ‘sniping’. He
was shot and killed by
a concealed riflemen
besieging Lichfield
Cathedral during the
English Civil War.
The term sniper is
derived from the ‘verb’
snipe, coined by British
soldiers based in India
in the 1770s for locals
who had the requisite
skill to shoot a broad
species of bird in flight,
known as a snipe.
Before the word sniper
entered the vernacular,
soldiers trained in the
art of using ‘rifled’
muskets for greater
accuracy were called
sharpshooters.
During the American
War of Independence,
the unruly frontier
soldiers brought their
long rifled weapons to
the battlefield and it
was said that no British
soldier within 400 yards
was safe.
Billy Sing, a member of
the Australian Imperial
Force, who fought as
a sniper at Gallipoli in
1915, clocked up over
150 confirmed kills.
• Sniper Elite 4
is out Feb 14
...we have tons
of intriguing side
missions full of
subplots to
explore...
52 FEBRUARY 2017