Reviews VideoGame / Sniper Elite V 2

Snipers were never supposed to be CQC fighters, but bad combat systems are bad combat systems.

Well, just because millions of Soviets died fighting the Nazis doesn't mean they're good people. Communists were often just as bad, if not worse, than the Nazis. I speak this as a Chinese guy who knows what Communism is like.

And you're apparently as bad as one yourself if you can't have the empathy to treat them as if they were actual human beings that wanted the same things as anyone else. They may have used methods western powers didn't approve of, but western powers don't exactly have spotless histories themselves.

Anyway, I'm not saying we should excuse the purges or the nuclear aggression or anything else the Soviet Union did. I'm saying that I agree with the reviewer in that during WW2, Soviet troops were fighting for their lives and their freedom, and against racial discrimination and genocide, which I'd say is commendable. Suggesting that they worked with the Nazis just spits in the face of all the sacrifices they made

Nevertheless, this game is still about the transition from WW2 to the Cold War. The Soviets were already against us and they were hardly just fighting for their lives and freedom, considering how the Soviets basically took over Eastern Europe and imposed a lot of the same repressive systems that the Nazis did. To the vast majority of people in Europe, the Soviets were basically the new boss, same as the old boss. I'm sorry, but asking me to show empathy to the governments that slaughtered millions of its own people just because they were opposed to another government that slaughtered millions of its own people just ain't gonna be happening. I loathe them both.

@maninahat

A fair review, and one worth addressing.

To be honest, while I found V2's gameplay, graphics, and acting far better I will admit that I preferred the first one's plot. It covers similar terrain, but (in spite of it featuring nuclear secrets rather than V2 engineering), I honestly felt it had more of the feeling of "authenticity." You still shot both sides, and you still were trying to prevent the Soviets from accessing German secrets, but there was nothing quite as outlandish or open as the "collaboration to nuke the West" plan. It was more or less plausible for what you could believe- if you twisted things a biiiit- was going on in the back rooms among the major players at the end of a war where the rank in file of both sides hated each other with a profound and well placed hatred.

The threat of the Soviets gaining access to Hitler's old scientific notes was real enough without the threat of the NKVD trying to launch a nuke mid battle against the West. And I think it did more justice to people like Wallenberg who foudn themselves in at least vaguely similar situations.

That said, of all my caveats disrespect to the Soviets is about the last thing I would be concerned with. i say this as someone who will go to the floor to try and give them their due in WWII and the absolutely massive role they played in the Eastern Front and the less prominant but important role they had ending the Sino-Japanese War. But I also know the even more staggering ingratitude the Soviets gave us by accusing us of being Fascists, and trying to portray it as if they had won the war themselves.

The different Allied camps trying to secure Nazi science, materials, and people is a fact of history. And considering how many, many, many more were killed by the collaboration between the Nazis and Soviets I am not too broken up over a portrayal- however over the top- of at least some limited reflection of it.

But to each their own. I'm sorry you didn't like it as well, in which case you might prefer Nazi Zombie Army or Sniper Elite III.

@Devious Recital

I'm sorry, but are you serious?

"And you're apparently as bad as one yourself"

No, sorry. Unless you are prepared to claim that he was party to the mass murder of millions of people, he was not as bad as one himself. And it is remarkably immature to claim it.

https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/NOTE4.HTM

"if you can't have the empathy to treat them as if they were actual human beings that wanted the same things as anyone else. "

The average person did not want the same things as Vladimir Lenin, Lev Trotsky, or Joseph Stalin.

I am pretty sure nobody on this thread wants to glorify in the intentional mass murder and enslavement of tens of millions of people, the erasure of Ukrainian or Kazakh culture, or the partition of Eastern Europe in order to advance an apocalyptic utopian vision.

The average trigger puller, bureaucrat, soldier, or low level officer might have been the same as their counterparts else where but that just emphasizes the monstrosity of it. People like Stalin forced people- both relatively normal and otherwise- to take part in horrible acts of evil or face death themselves.

That does not mean that Joseph Stalin was not human and did not want things like other people (he certainly had an appetite for food, wine, and $ex). In many ways it makes him all too human. But the difference between me recognizing his humanity and goals and me empathizing with him because of them is a vast gulf.

"hey may have used methods western powers didn't approve of, but western powers don't exactly have spotless histories themselves. "

That just underlines it. Because for all of the monstrosity in Western history- and even most of Russian history- the Soviet Union *well exceeded* it. By at least an order of magnitude. The comparison between it and Nazi Germany even in comparison to the Second and First Reichs is apt.

And it wasn't just the Western powers who were abjectly disgusted by the methods the Soviets used. We have reports of suicides by party members over the decision to use famine for genocide in the South, for instance.

"Soviet troops were fighting for their lives and their freedom,"

Soviet troops had no freedom to speak of, much like Soviet subjects and their German counterparts.

At most, I would say they were fighting for their- and their loved ones'- lives when the Japanese crossed the frontier at Nomohan and Barbarossa started. But one can't even say that when talking about their invasions of Poland and Romania (either in 1939-40 or in 1919).

"and against racial discrimination and genocide,"

Agreed with caveats' the Soviet regime was already guilty of genocide and racial discrimination on a vast scale (and it drove Ukrainians to unite around Bandera- basically the terrorist outcast of pre war Polish Ukrainian politics- to fight for survival). It just didn't extend to "all Slavs" like the Nazis intended.

Naturally millions of Soviets were not monstrous, or evil, or even particularly nasty. But we can say the same for many Nazis like the rank in file of the party (or people like Rabe). It does not change the fact that they were involved- willingly or unwillingly- in furthering the agendas of a monstrously evil regime.

"Suggesting that they worked with the Nazis just spits in the face of all the sacrifices they made "

I'm sorry, but what?

Do you think the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact never happened?

Or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Alsos ?

If portraying the Soviet Union as working with the Nazis in a way that the West never did (in the case of the former) is spitting in their faces, then I say that IT SHOULD be done more.

One cannot wish away facts. Including that a lot of their sacrifices were made in allegiance with Nazi Germany, or were made worse because of the highly predictable fallout from that alliance.

I am with gameragodzilla with this one.