Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 Review (PC)

good
key review info
  • Game: Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2
  • Platform: PC
  • Show system requirements
  • Gamepad support: Yes  
  • Reviewed on:
Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 review on PC

Sniper Elite games delivered some pretty interesting first-person shooter experiences focusing, as their titles suggested, on snipers and their role in World War 2.

With the first Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, developer Rebellion branched off into another and quite intriguing direction, letting players control a sniper during an alternate history World War 2 in which Nazi forces have been turned into zombies.

Now, the studio is back with Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2, an evolution of the first experience that brings a new story as well as some fresh enemies and content.

While the first game was surprisingly decent, can this new one further improve on that hit or should we forget about the Nazi zombies? Let's find out.

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The four heroes are back ...
... and so are the zombies

While it looked like you escaped a zombie-infested Berlin in the first game, the second one takes protagonist Karl Fairburne and his three other buddies back, as they need to search for a mysterious artifact, which apparently caused the undead plague.

As such, you'll go through a brand new journey that takes place not just in Berlin but also in the surrounding area, culminating with a mission into Hitler's Fuhrerbunker. Like in the last game, you'll be treated to some fairly linear environments filled with waves of Nazi zombies, but also with a few new types of foes.

These range from pretty fast skeletons, to new Fire Demons or the Summoners, which can put up a challenging fight when encountered alone or as a team.

Of course, the skills of a player are really tested during the Siege moments, where a huge wave of zombies comes from all directions. These moments are usually marked and accompanied by both ammo and explosive caches, meaning you can set up defenses by placing land mines or trip wires.

In terms of arsenal, the new game doesn’t bring that many new things, featuring a wide array of sniper rifles, but also various assault rifles or hand guns, not to mention plenty of grenades. Of course, there are some turret sections, where you'll mow down even bigger waves of undead, although you need to look out for the kamikaze ones, who are quite fast and carry grenades.

While you can resupply and change weapons in safe houses, you can also choose to loot enemy corpses before they disintegrate, but the items you find on them aren't always what you need.

A trademark for the series – the X-ray killcam – returns, slowing down time and showing you just how much damage a shot did on the unfortunate target or, if you manage to line up the zombies, targets. These multi-kills are even more impressive, although they sometimes show glitches relating to bullet behavior or sound. If you just want to kill zombies without any cinematic interruption, you can choose to reduce the killcam's appearance or turn it off completely.

Zombies aren't particularly smart foes, but they do manage to spread out and come from multiple directions, making it harder to kill multiple enemies with one bullet. As such, make sure you know where to fall back and in what spots you can sit for longer periods of time.

While environments are relatively varied, most of them are quite linear. There are occasional alternate sections that house hidden collectibles like bars of gold, but they aren't that frequent.

You can play Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 alone but, like the first one, it's a bit more fun with friends, as the challenge increases. You'll also need to make sure that you cover different directions and targets, in order to avoid running out of bullets.

From my experience, the online system is pretty good and doesn’t have many issues concerning lag. Unfortunately, however, there aren't that many active players, so getting a full four-player team is a bit challenging.

In terms of graphics, Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 looks pretty good, managing to take advantage of quite a few impressive technologies, and has some pretty great textures. While the overall color pallet that focuses on blood red and darkness gets old pretty fast, there are a few moments that break it up.

The soundtrack isn't that impressive, unfortunately, but at least it doesn't pull you out of the experience. There isn't a lot of voice acting, so that also doesn't stand out.

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Choose your gear ...
... and explore new locations

Conclusion

Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 is a fun game that will surely satisfy the hunger for a great-looking four-player co-op shooter. It doesn't bring that many new things over its predecessor, but it still has a very low price tag and should provide plenty of great moments to those willing to try it out.

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story 7
gameplay 8
concept 7
graphics 9
audio 7
multiplayer 8
final rating 7.5
Editor's review
good
 
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