The Sniper Elite 3 “X-Ray Killcam” sets a new benchmark in high-definition bone-shattering, blood-spraying, dude-murdering excess that borders on self-parody.
I’ve never played a Sniper Elite game so I have no idea what it’s all about, although I assume it has something to do with putting bullets into people at extremely long ranges; and also, now that I’ve watched the new developer diary video, rendering the results of said bullet insertion in excruciatingly graphic detail.
How excruciating? Rebellion Developments says enemies will be composed of five unique “layers” – skin, bones and organs, which were present in Sniper Elite V2, plus newly-added muscle and circulatory systems – which react in visceral slow motion to the impact of your round when you make a particularly skillful shot. Bones now fracture dynamically at the point of impact while globs of blood will spurt in real 3D, resulting in a killcam experience that’s dramatically improved over the original game.
“The money shot, the killcam, is that final bullet impact, and we really worked to get across the breaking of bones, the splitting of organs, and that tearing of muscle and sinew,” Lead Audio Designer Nick Brewer, who seems rather excited about the whole thing, explains in the video. “So we took a little trip down to the local grocer’s and bought all manners of fruit and veg, and spent a few days snapping them and twisting them, breaking them and squishing them between our hands to get the squelchy and cracky noises that we needed for all of the bones and organs.”
The net result of all that effort looks cool in the video, but it’s also kind of crazy, isn’t it? The whole thing has a vaguely psychotic edge to it, like a parody video made to tweak the noses of fervent crusaders against video game violence. And yet it’s not a parody; Rebellion has given these enemies skeletons, organs, circulatory systems and more, just so it looks more “realistic” (which is to say, cooler) when a large caliber bullet smashes into them.
Yeah, that’s a little nuts.
Sniper Elite 3 is currently slated to launch in the early summer for the Xbox 360, Xbox One, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 and PC.
