It's pornographic, of course, but there are educational undertones too – the occasional note of regret, a whispered reminder that, beneath the uniform and ideology, we are all bones and water, shit and tears. Score a headshot and you'll see the cranium cave and splinter, while a shot to the testes will elicit a wince as each bollock quietly explodes inside the body. Then hit pause before the bullet enters your target's body and an x-ray cutaway showing the shot's trajectory through the human body, slicing virtual organs as it goes. Squeeze the trigger and time slows to a crawl, muffling sound waves in anticipation as the camera tracks the bullet nose spinning through the air. It's about as far from the nuanced narrative reflection that champions of gaming's capacity for contemplation may be hoping for, instead choosing a somewhat more biological approach.
Sniper V2 Elite is a rarity, then, in choosing to show in explicit detail the chain of cause and effect after a bullet leaves the chamber and enters a target. Most shooting games are analogous to action movies, which rarely show their protagonists reflecting on, say, the death of on Autobot or a Nazi. It is, arguably, a failing of genre rather than a failing of the medium. Nathan Drake may be an affable, swashbuckling hero in the cutscenes, but in action he is a cold-blooded murderer, never pausing to reflect on the cadavers he leaves in his wake.
A criticism often levelled against gun games is their routine failure to address the consequences of the violence they demand their players perform.
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