Earlier this year Rebellion released Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army, a Left 4 Dead styled shooter with a heavy focus on sniping. The game wasn’t particularly pretty and didn’t play particularly great but it was a blast to play, especially with friends, had the trademark Sniper Elite X-ray kill mechanic, and was budget priced, making for a game that was more fun than good. While it is not surprising that Rebellion would return to the well, the fact that they are releasing Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army 2 less than a year after the first game is.
Nazi Zombie Army 2 picks up directly after the events of the first title. After having escaped from Berlin, the rag-tag group of mute heroes are tasked with heading back into the belly of the beast to retrieve the three pieces of the Sagarmatha Relic, a device that could be the key to ending the zombie menace. Not that the story in these games is of any importance; this is a game about sniping headshots on zombies from 100 meters out.
Nazi Zombie Army 2 plays exactly like its predecessor. Sniping is still the most satisfying way to kill zombies and long distance shots are often given the special bullet-cam and X-ray shot treatment, which no matter how many times I ended up seeing them, they never got old. Shooting with any other gun is considerably less fun though as they are all less accurate at any range other than right on top of you. And being as the game rewards long distance shots with the X-ray treatment, other guns are just not as compelling.
That said, the level design, which is vastly improved over the first game, forced me into utilizing my whole arsenal more and more as the game progressed. Working down a trench or through a bunker towards a blind corner, where a zombie could be lying in wait, makes one rethink using the scoped rifle all the time, even if I really would prefer to. This wasn’t something that happened often in the first game and as such it ups the tension a bit, which is nice because outside of the occasional sniper battle, there isn’t much tension to be had.
The varied level design also works to make the game a better single player experience. In the original Nazi Zombie Army, the single player was clearly just a throw in option. The level design and structure of the sandbox encounters was designed around a co-op experience and the wide-open sandbox-like levels always made that fact abundantly clear. In this game, the levels seem more natural and the balancing seems more appropriate for single player play. Make no mistake though: the game is still at its best when playing with others. But, at the very least, it no longer feels like playing it solo is playing it wrong and seeing as how the multiplayer community is nearly non-existent, that is a huge bonus.
While the level design and single player experience are much improved, the game does not really improve on its performance issues. The game has random frame rate drops and when it happens, sniping becomes far more challenging than it ever should be in a game about sniping. More damning though was that more than a few times I was forced to reload a checkpoint because scripting had broken or failed to trigger. The worst of these instances actually forced a restart of the entire level before I could progress. These bugs are prevalent enough that at one point I weighed the pros and cons of quitting the game and saving my sanity verse the fun I was having blasting zombies with my rifle. Fun won out but just barely.
And that is where Nazi Zombie Army 2 lies: barely more fun than good. It is a slight improvement over the first title, retaining the fun factor for another run and its budget price certainly helps to stomach its issues. Rebellion can’t keep riding on the good will the title has generated them, if they want to continue this offshoot franchise, it needs to be more than just five more maps and a new zombie type next time.
About Author
