Is there any video game series better suited to the Playing with History treatment than the Sniper Elite franchise? Rebellion Developments’ finest has been encouraging players to crotch-shot Nazis for two decades now, ever since the first Sniper Elite was released way back in 2005 for the humble PlayStation 2 and original Xbox generation. It’s a series that has enabled players to fight alongside the French Resistance, explore the battlefields of North Africa, and infiltrate a multitude of supposedly impregnable German fortresses. This third-person stealth game has had a darn impressive run, and, with the success of this year’s Sniper Elite: Resistance, that trend shows no signs of abating anytime soon.
So, considering all that, it’s no surprise I sought out the creative minds behind Sniper Elite to ask questions and find out more about the real-life history that helped bring the fictional adventures of Karl Fairburn to life. Questions like, across the Sniper Elite series, what informs the set-up and content of the missions that the player undertakes? Are they based on real missions that took place in WW2? Entirely invented? Or a combination of the two? I didn’t know the answers to any of these quandaries. Fortunately, Beck Shaw – Lead Level Designer, did:
“Early in the process of any Sniper Elite entry, we try to set the overall narrative of the game” explained Beck. “Within this, we look at location (country), enemies (who is the big baddie going to be?), when during the war does the game take place? etc. Once we have this foundation, we continue to refine it further and scout iconic locations (towns, cities, geographical landmarks) from within the country where we have decided to set the story. In terms of the actual missions, we take an amalgamation of inspiration from real wartime operations, popular media (movies, books, games) and also cool ideas that come to the team during our brainstorming sessions.”
This response got me to wondering… with all that research, have there been any real-life events or historical moments that have turned up in Sniper Elite which are so weird or unusual that most players think they are made up?
“Great question!” exclaimed Jean-Baptiste Bolcato – Executive Producer, Simon Richards – Lead Environment Artist, and Martin Carter – Studio Art Lead, in unison – causing my already quite substantial ego to expand enormously and, if I’m honest, rather painfully. “There are several super weapons that have featured in the series that are grounded in real life. One of these is the Ratte tank from Sniper Elite 3, which was a humungous tank that would have used a battleship turret for its main gun. It was never actually produced, but plans were made and shown to Hitler himself. There are other oversized “Wunderwaffe” and structures in the series that are grounded in reality, like the railway gun from Sniper Elite 4, the sub pen from St. Nazaire, and the fortified flak towers, which were built to protect Berlin and could house 15,000 people in one tower! Perhaps the wackiest weapon though is the Rat Bombs used in Sniper Elite 5 and Sniper Elite: Resistance – players might not think these were a real thing, but they were!”
That’s right, dear reader, the Rat Bomb was very much a real thing and is up there with the Bat Bomb in terms of animal-exploding brilliance. Back in 1941, boffins from the Special Operations Executive procured one hundred dead rats that were then stuffed full of explosives and sewn shut. Their cunning plan involved leaving the dynamite padded dead rat by a boiler. When the rat was inevitably spotted, the oblivious German would lob the critter into the flames to dispose of it, and then boom! Thing is, it never actually worked, as the Germans discovered the Rat Bombs before any went off. Though on the plus side, they spent a lot of time and effort regularly looking for more Rat Bombs which never existed.
Exploding pests aside, how do the team go about researching more conventional weaponry, to ensure they look and feel right?
“We put a lot of effort into ensuring the weapons that players use in the Sniper Elite series are as accurate as possible,” confirms Martin. “Firstly, we have a long-standing relationship with the Imperial War Museum which allows us to digitally map the rifles, pistols, and submachine guns. Enabling our design and art teams to create authentic in-game representations. We also undertake days on shooting ranges to fire as many of the weapons as possible. These sessions are filmed, and we use this footage to map the sounds of each weapon, as well as examine aspects like recoil.”
Now that is dedication. It also sounds like tremendous fun too. Though surely changes must be made to these weapons to ensure they work within the context of a video game?
Martin again: “In terms of weapons and their accuracy, we always aim to make the main weapon a 1-to-1 representation of their real-life counterpart. Examples of where we stretch the rules is when we create items like barrel variants – either to simply give the gun a new aesthetic, or to an improved attribute, such as increase reload or accuracy etc. Also, the camouflage painting of weapons is also not accurate to the WW2 period, although on many occasions, the camouflage paint used is based on real-world examples that could be found on uniforms or vehicles.”
When talking about guns in Sniper Elite, so the next obvious question has to do with the series distinctive ‘X-Ray Kill Cam’. This innovative feature is a gory delight that follows a bullet from the barrel of the player’s gun, right into the delicates of an unsuspecting Nazi. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know the answer, but being a lover of danger, I thought I’d ask it anyway: What sort of research goes into ensuring this Kill Cam induced maiming is as realistic an experience as possible for the player?
“Our art team spends a rather disturbing amount of time looking at references for the Kill Cam.” Expounds Tom Beesley – Art Director, with a twisted grin. “This mainly focuses on studying the ballistics using high speed film and ballistic gel to get a far better visual representation of the cause and effect of a bullet impact on soft tissue. We have also studied in detail how organs would look and react to gunshot wounds, as well as using photogrammetry to scan organics to add a far higher quality bar to the overall visual. We established Sniper Elite’s Kill Cam as a ‘best in class’ some time ago, and we recognise its appeal to the players, so we are always trying to experiment and expand where it goes next.”
I can tell you where the bullet goes next, likely straight into a Nazi’s testicles. Talking of testicles – a question I never thought I’d type – for those players who have decided to shoot Hitler in the genitals using Kill Cam, did any research take place to confirm if the iconic marching song was correct and that Hitler did indeed only have one ball? If so, is there any truth that the missing ball bag was displayed as a war trophy displayed in the Royal Albert Hall?
Tom steps up to answer my probing and insightful question with relish. “There are many differing opinions as to whether Hitler was indeed running at 50%. Medical records apparently exist that attest to him having a condition called cryptorchidism. Equally there is a lot of evidence that the British propaganda machine was also working very effectively to build this into one of the original truly viral stories, even if it wasn’t true. As we know the despot loved to use body doubles and we have touched on that in the Sniper Elite series, so the question is how far would those body doubles be willing to go for an acting job!?”
That is an excellent, and rather unpleasant, thought. When it comes to Hitler’s doubles, Sniper Elite has dispatched numerous of their number in a variety of satisfyingly unpleasant ways. What has been the team’s favourite way to see off a Hitler clone?
Simon Richards, Lead Environment Artist: “I’m going to go with crushing Hitler with the bell in Sniper Elite 3”. Simon crows, “that one always stands out to me!” Meanwhile, Beck, goes with a far more understated option, “I think my favourite one is the bowling pin flying down the bowling alley in Sniper Elite 5!” To explain more of this would spoil the surprise, but it’s definitely worth booting up the game and doing some experimenting if you ask me.
As my time with the Sniper Elite team draws to an end, I just had to know, where’s next for the Sniper Elite series? Will Karl Fairburn be returning? “There’s so much of World War 2 we’ve not even explored in the Sniper Elite series, so who knows where we may end up” replies Beck, sneakily not giving anything away, “I obviously can’t talk about any specifics right now as we don’t have anything to announce just yet, but, in the meantime, we have another mission for Harry Hawker to undertake in Sniper Elite: Resistance!”
Excellent news! Frankly, the PWH Team can’t get enough of Sniper Elite, which is why you’ll definitely be finding out more about the fascinating real-life history that informed the series in our forthcoming book which, funnily enough, is live on Kickstarter right now! Our first volume will feature over 100 games, 200 pages, and 10,000,000 years of history – make sure you check it out!
