Gameplay: 3 (starts off poor then drops to pathetic / AI is a joke)
Graphics: 3 (for a 2008 game, it's just ugly)
Sounds: 4 (crap however the music is quite decent)
Value: 3 (eight missions / should be giving out for free...maybe not)
Tilt: 2 (blah)
Actual score: 2.8
I've made a promise to myself time and time again not to play any dodgy games and time and time again, I'm attracted to it. Why I cannot say however this time, I was in the mood to snipe people hardcore style. Not too hardcore to cause frustrations however good enough for me to learn about this art (if you can call it an art). I'm no sniper and I cannot snipe for the life of me when it comes to video games (or real life) as I prefer big guns and melee. So when I saw 'Sniper – Art of Victory', a game that simulates 'real sniping' like wind factor etc, how can I resist?
Well I should have resisted as this game caused me more aggravation than I can imagine. This game, whilst trying to simulate sniping actions like wind factor, stamina and all that fun stuff, is busted to the total max and the worst thing is that there are no tutorials / manuals to speak of. How can a 'simulator' have no tutorials or even a 'training ground' is beyond comprehension. I stand corrected though that there is a tutorial and it's in a form of a screenshot. Yes I meant quite literally a screenshot with a couple of arrows pointing to various sections of the HUD. Well, as mentioned before, I'm no sniper however I do know what the health bar means without some arrow telling me what it is. How about explaining wind effects, stamina and bleeding when sniping?
Because there are two difficultly levels being 'recruit' and 'veteran', it would be an insult to my pride to play it on 'recruit' so I hopped straight into veteran. Yes I understand I'm being hypocritical here however can't the developers place three levels of difficulty? Seriously, playing as a 'recruit' is really an insult to a player who has played many FPS before; well to me anyways. However I have learn my lesson here that playing under veteran, you are shooting 'blind' so there goes my pride. So I played it under 'recruit', only for a couple of missions though.
Why I have done this is because recruit has another 'cursor' to show me the 'true' aim – meaning takes into account of all those other elements like breathing, wind and etc. As mentioned before, why can't they do this as a tutorial is beyond me however (and to save my ego), playing recruit is a tutorial of sorts (so I keep telling myself). And after some trial and error, I finally understand the how to take aim whilst taking into account all the elements.
To 'visualise' your true aim (other words, playing it on veteran won't show this), the sway of your aim is dictated by your breath. How 'steady' is your aim is dictated by how much you are wounded (as indicated by how much red you see on the screen) and / or if you running low on stamina. Stamina is dictated by whether you just sprinted then aim (as you can only sprint for a limited time) or when 'holding your breath' to aim. To hold your breath (default key left shift) acts like a 'slow mo' (similar to FEAR) so aiming is a lot easier. Yet you can only hold for a limited time and no, there's is no 'stamina bar' to gauge this so again, it's a matter of trial and error. And allow some time to recover your breath (again time factor unknown).
Now to govern your 'true aim' is dictated by the wind factor. Thankfully you can see this at the top of the screen. Yet the dumb thing is that the wind factor changes every second during a set pattern. So there's nothing random about the wind once you are in 'aiming' mode. So if the red bar is full, the wind is very heavy so the true aim is not at the centre.
So if you want the 'perfect shot', wait till the wind is 'zero' (it will) then press the default 'shift key' to hold your breath and fire away. Why can't they friggin tell you this is beyond any comprehension however there you go. I'm not sure if this is 'typical' for any 'sniping simulations' however it doesn't hurt to explain this to the player in either printed form or in an in game tutorial.
About the plot, don't worry about it as there isn't any. Yet I think it goes like this: you are a WW2 sniper fighting for the Russians whose plane got shot down. Mother Russia still wants you to fight the war and so you do, going through Ukraine then the dusty bowls of Italy. Yes, you read right...dusty bowls of Italy that reminds me of Mid West America. And staying true to Russia, you speak in a heavily drawn out American accent who barely can string two words together without sounding like an idiot.
Powered by the Chrome engine, the game looks woefully out of date for a 2008 game. I'm no graphics whore however its butt ugly to say the least as it looks like they only used two colours being butt and ugly. Clipping issues galore and the maps have very little imagination put into it. Granted that in the early goings are quite decent however it goes downhill extremely fast. And the dude in the cover of this game looks nothing like the guy you are playing – unless the front cover guy is someone else.
And the bugs, well there's more than the Marauders faced in Starship Troopers. In the early goings, I couldn't find any as it pretty much acts like a typical shooter – you aim, you shoot, you kill (or get killed). However, later on when there are scripted events, the chance that the script breaks is extremely high. For instance: the scripted event tells you to snipe a couple of guys then the tank rolls in. However, me being a shrewd sniper and wanted to save some ammo (as ammo count in this game is extremely low), sneaked up behind the enemies and knifed them. I broke the scripted event because I shouldn't be there as that's where the tank supposes to roll in. So the game confuses itself and broke. And trust me I have plenty more examples for which I don't want to delve upon.
And if that wasn't bad enough, the AI is nothing short of a joke. Keeping in mind that this is a sniping simulation, almost every German will stand their ground and shoot. Yes there are times they will run back and forth doing nothing however they will stand in broad daylight and with no cover and shoot at you. You think its easy pickings right? No as they all can shoot like you at great distances, no matter what weapon they use. I'm not sure if this applies to 'recruit' however in veteran, they are all crack shots and some can even shoot through brick walls.
And coming back to ammo count, your guy is incapable of unloading a clip from a dropped weapon. So when he see one lying about, he picks up the weapon as a 'swap' so whatever ammo is in the 'new' weapon (even though it's the same weapon), that's all you going to have. So try shooting using a machine gun with eight bullets is beyond a joke. Luckily for you, if you encounter a sniper, you can pick up his clips however there's a caveat here – a vast majority of them are located at a distance where it's impossible for you to get there, unless you are willing to break another scripted event.
Sniper – Art of Victory is a very short game. Why that did surprise me I don't know however it encompasses of eight missions and depending upon your sniping skills...ah forget it. It shouldn't take any longer than thirty minutes for each mission. Some are amazingly short yet some you just die many times due to the terrific AI aiming. There are also some you wonder 'What on earth do I do next?' only to realise you broke another scripted event thus starting the mission again. And if you think you can restart the game from the last saved point, that doesn't work sometimes.
So in a nutshell, this game is a basket case - end of story.