Rebellion has already delivered the most satisfying VR shooter ever. There is a marker on the Rebellion stands at E3 2019, but it is not for killstreaks or speedruns. No, in the true style of Sniper Elite, this particular scorecard is recording who has achieved the most testicular shots in a single race through the Sniper Elite VR demonstration.
See the game in action in the debut trailer itself
As someone who is intensely competitive, seriously, I can make Scrabble a competitive sport, I needed my name to be the first in the table. So I channeled the deep aggression that I’ve been holding against any human man in my life, and I set it running through the VR demonstration of Sniper Elite.
But as soon as I put on the PSVR, the idea of competition and the residual male anger I carried with me faded away. Not because Sniper Elite VR is relaxing, but just the opposite. In typical Sniper Elite style, you are thrown headlong into a battle, and you must immediately climb the stairs and skirt a stone wall to find yourself in a good position to get your shot.
There are many enemies that try to open holes in your body, but fortunately, you are armed with your reliable sniper rifle and the best virtual reality shooting experience ever made.
Snipper Elite Scope and snipe
Sniper Elite VR really is that good. I’ve only played a part of the game for 15 minutes, but it’s clear that this is the same Sniper Elite experience we all know and love, but you’re the best fucking sniper instead of controlling one from afar.
I was playing with the PlayStation Aim controller, which of course helps with immersion, but it’s the little touches of the game that really helped to see how realistic the shots feel here.
When you raise the rifle to your eye, you are literally looking down on the enemies that are waiting for you. Although technically it does not help, I found myself closing an eye inside the VR headset because that’s exactly what it feels like.
There is a clarity and precision there that I have not found in any other RV shooter and, according to developer Rebellion, there is a trick to that:
“We literally inflate the scope as you raise it to your eye,” explains Steve Bristow, Assistant Head of Design at Rebellion, “so as you go into focus mode, the model of the scope actually blooms out. It’s not very noticeable, it just feels like you’re getting your face closer to it, but it prevents the thing that happens in other VR games where you lift the scope to your eye and you clip through the front plane.”
Sniper Elite VR takes the fantastic sniper precision that the series is known for and turns it into virtual reality.
And it really works. If Sniper Elite VR had to get something absolutely visible, it had to be the sensation of taking the rifle to the eyes and looking down before firing. It’s so realistic that I did not realize how much I was holding my breath before pulling the trigger, physically trying to stabilize myself in the real world for the time of the game.
The same types of considerations of the main series are also incorporated into the game of virtual reality, such as the fall of the bullet and the direction of the wind, depending on the difficulty you choose, increasing the initial bet on your shots of slow and bright death.
Final Words
Trust me, with this E3 demo being just a little taste of what the full game will offer – which is yet to gain a release date – you’re going to want to try this out. It’s the kind of mad, violent, and incredibly satisfying gunplay that you’d expect from a Sniper Elite game, but Rebellion has gone a step further and put you firmly in the gunner’s seat. And don’t worry folks. I got a hat-trick of testicle shots, just for you.
