Preview: Sniper Vs. Sniper Online

Posted on September 3rd, 2009. Written by Connor.

Com2Us (of Baseball Slugger fame) are at it again, with a new online sure-to-be-hit. I was lucky enough to be a beta tester for the upcoming online sniping game, thusly named Sniper Vs. Sniper Online. Now with testing over, I have been given the O.K. to tell you all about it.

In short, this game is awesome. If you like online shooters, and you normally play the role of the sniper, this may very well be your favourite game on the platform yet.

When you launch the game, you are greeted with a pretty sweet cinematic (which you can, of course, choose to skip, but it’s pretty cool to watch the first one or two times you play). Getting into the menu, you’ll see two options for gameplay; Single Mission, and Online Play (the big’un!)

Single Play is essentially a bunch of missions, played on all the maps that are available in the Online Play game modes. There are also “Special Missions” on all the maps that, when completed, allow you to unlock upgraded equipment, such as…

- Stronger bullets
- Better armor

It’s a nice way to give yourself an upper-edge, especially when playing online. You can also play “1 Vs. 1″ mode offline, allowing you to shoot against a bot player, with one objective: Kill him. It’s nice practice for online, and good fun when you don’t have a ‘net connection. But, all of this only prepares you for the one mode I keep mentioning: ONLINE! Where this game truly shines!

Screens

With online play, there are two game modes: 1 Vs. 1 Match, and Alliance Attack. Now, the way this game is played is unique, and the gameplay is what makes it a perfect fit for online play. Essentially, you are looking out over a vast area, whether it be a tall skyscraper or a green-laden forest. Your enemy is spawned in a random location in the area, and your job is to take them down.

You can use binoculars to get a closer look of things (and this is often necessary to even see your opponent), and then, when you see your target, you can switch to scope mode. From scope mode, you can… Well, take quick aim, and shoot! Be careful, though — even during the short beta testing period, a lot of the players got very experienced, and you had to act incredibly quickly to get a decent shot off before your brains were on the wall.

Now, your aiming in this game is done in the most natural way possible: the accelerometer. And Com2us has great experience with that technology (see Slugger), so you can imagine how fine-tuned and well this method of controlling a sniper rifle works. And, believe me — it works. Amazingly.

Speaking of brains on the wall, you get more points for headshots! Awesome, right? There are actually three point tiers; arms and legs, body, and headshot, scaling from lowest points to most points. And this game truly plays smoothly. I didn’t notice any lag whilst playing online, and it was always very competitive and had me on the edge of my seat. You can even send voice messages to your opponent! They’re all pre-recorded, and range from something like “What do you want written on your gravestone?” to “You’re pretty handy with a gun, I’ll give you that.”

Now, if your opponent takes a shot at you, but misses, you will instantly know where he is. Your camera will zoom right to his location, so all you’ve gotta do is zoom in and get a shot off before he can reload and pop a cap in your head, body, or arms and legs. This makes you really think hard before letting a bullet fly through your barrel — if you don’t hit them, you put yourself at a huge risk. Now, if you get killed, you get a bit of a handycap benefit. A large circle will appear in the level, telling you which vicinity your opponent is in.

It’s a nice way to balance the gameplay, and I’ve still been shot plenty of times when I had that advantage, so it’s not unfair.

Something that I love about this game, that I just thought of saying now (though it is pretty minor) is the fact that your aiming is incredibly precise when in scope mode. When you’re looking through the lenses of your binoculars, a slight movement might move you halfway across the level, but looking through your scope makes everything move very slowly and helps you get some great aim.

There is an online leaderboard, as is to be expected with a game like this. It’s been very competitive during the testing period (I got up to number four out of the 33 or so testers!), and it’s a great way to keep you coming back for more online play.

The Alliance Attack game mode is — well, just like it sounds. You team up with another online player (co-op modes FTW!) and shoot down enemy (bot player) targets. There are a bunch of targets, and if you shoot once, they all become alert and start shooting at you and your teammate, so time everything carefully.
The cool thing about this game mode is that you can tell you’re playing side-by-side with another sniper. You could be looking through your lens and see an enemy drop without you doing as much as dropping a shell, and it’s a very satisfying game mode.

See It In Action:

I can’t think of anything I’ve missed… If you’ve got any questions about this game, feel free to ask in the comments! Believe me, if you love sniping in video games, you will love this game! I played for a good three hours straight the night I got the first beta build installed, and it is truly amazing. Another great game from Com2us, coming your way.

I’m not going to give this game a score yet, as I’ve only played beta builds. Things will most likely be different by the time the game is released. Just let it be known: This game is amazing.