Sniper Elite 4 is prime game-y video game. Like, as if killing nazis wasn’t enough, a successful kill regularly results in the camera moving through the air, with the bullet, eventually showing it going through the body / brain / balls. You can be the most sedate person in the world, but as soon as you land a shot on a pair of Third Reich bollocks, there’s no fighting that grin.
Even if you haven’t played a single minute of Sniper Elite, the series’ kill cam is something you’re almost certainly already aware of. Although, as satisfying as ball-popping is, it’s recommended you do a bit of reconnaissance work beforehand. I mean, the game is called Sniper Elite 4. So, at the beginning of each level, you need to take out your binoculars and start tagging all patrolling scrotums. And because the game doesn’t auto-tag after a cursory scan of the area – all tagging is manual – those violent and gruesome kills are all the more sweet. You’ve worked for those exploding goolies.
Although, for some reason, when you’re tagging dangly bits, the game also gives you a brief bio on the man attached to each set. Often they’ll be things like, “this man set fire to a town,” or “he’s a complete prick, crack on.” But, in what can only be described as An Odd Choice™, some of these say things like, “he worries about his brother,” or “this fella loves labradors.” “Shooting Nazi nuts off” and “cursory attempts to humanise Nazis” make for strange bedfellows.
When the game pushes all that to one side and allows you to relish in the properly over-the-top murderings, it’s lovely. Anyway, you should never feel bad for shooting the nuts off Nazis. They’re fucking Nazis.