PLAY BALL - 'SPEEDBALL' HITS CONSOLES, LAUNCHES OUT OF EARLY ACCESS JAN. 27

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

OXFORD (Jan. 6, 2026) - Rebellion, one of the world's most successful independent video game developers and publishers, has today announced that Speedball will launch on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 and leave Steam early access on Jan. 27 following its initial launch in Oct. 2024. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1795190/Speedball/

Speedball is the revival of the iconic Bitmap Brothers franchise, first launched in 1988. Set in the grim future of 2138, Speedball is a no-holds-barred future sport that is used by mega-corporations to distract the downtrodden masses from their miserable lives. It is the only sport that allows two cybernetically augmented teams to go head-to-head at levels of speed and violence beyond human limitations. Matches are fast-paced, explosive and unpredictable and you will need to master high-speed passing, coordination and shooting.

Key features:

• Incredible fast-paced, explosive and unpredictable matches 
• Face off in a brutal sport featuring a wide range of teams and arenas 
• Take advantage of arena specific obstacles and abilities to gain the upper hand against your opponents 
• Slow motion Slam Cam captures the most visceral and brutal tackles 
• Arcade-style matches come together with sports management strategy 
• Organize a team that fits your playstyle based on their individual traits and talents 
• Hone your skills against the AI and then compete online or against a friend locally

Early Access Updates

Since Speedball launched into Early Access in Oct. 2024, Rebellion has continued to add new features and updates that have overhauled the game, including:

• New League Mode, which sees 10 teams compete over a season to be crowned champions 
• Tutorial system to help new players get up to speed 
• Added new Brutal versions of arenas, alongside their 
• Standard variants Improved visuals, including upgraded VFX on high impact collisions 
• Improved shooting system to allow for better shot placement 
• Enhanced gameplay mechanics, including speed, goalkeeping and AI Eight new arenas added to the roster 
• Dynamic arena traps and obstacles, including flamethrowers, ice shotguns, grind rails and more have been added 
• New armor sets and color styles

For the latest news and updates, be sure to follow Speedball on our social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Rebellion is also encouraging players to join our Discord forum to engage with the developers.

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About Rebellion

Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. Most recently Rebellion released Atomfall, a new action survival game set in Britain, which was met with critical and commercial acclaim, securing over 2 million players in the first 2 weeks.

The company also owns and publishes 2000 AD, which is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breath-taking intensity of the Sniper Elite, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.

 

Article by: Susan N.

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Fight, survive and uncover the truth in Atomfall, launching 2025

A journey across the irradiated English countryside is coming to PlayStation, Xbox, and PC next year

OXFORD (June 9, 2024) – Rebellion, the independent video game studio behind the smash hit Sniper Elite and Zombie Army franchises, has today revealed Atomfall, a brand new survival-action game set in the rolling British countryside. Announced live at Xbox’s Summer Showcase earlier today, Atomfall is inspired by the real-life events of the 1957 Windscale disaster in the North of England, picking up the story five years after the fire in a fictionalized quarantine zone.

Atomfall will launch in 2025, coming day one to Game Pass. It will also be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Windows PC, and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store.

Jason Kingsley, CEO of Rebellion, commented: “In Atomfall, we wanted to take the picturesque British countryside and flip it on its head. So, this classic picture postcard setting now serves as an eerie backdrop for a dark mystery that players will have to piece together for themselves. Atomfall is a new story based on a real disaster and told in the speculative fiction style typical of 1950s/60s Britain. So, players can expect to see post-war Britain, Cold War paranoia, and mysterious folk horror blended with elements inspired by classic British sci-fi like Day of the Triffids, Doctor Who, and The Quatermass Experiment. Growing up in Britain, this style of fiction influenced many of our team and really plays to Rebellion’s strengths as a British games studio. We can’t wait for players to uncover the mystery of Atomfall.”

Ben Fisher, Associate Head of Design at Rebellion commented: “The quarantine zone in Atomfall has been cut off from the outside world for some time. This means that you’re dealing with a bunch of people that have been left to their own devices and it’s safe to say that things have gone a bit ‘Lord of the Flies’ in places. You’ll need to explore this hostile world and navigate bizarre characters, mysticism, cults, and murky government agencies. Your interactions with these are important and will shape your story. Investigate clues to piece together events, be prepared to scavenge to survive, and remember that every encounter is a matter of life and death.”

Atomfall is an original title that incorporates single-player gameplay and story elements in ways Rebellion has never attempted before. The studio will be revealing more about Atomfall soon.

For the latest news and updates, please be sure to follow Atomfall on our new social channels: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

Copyright © 2024. Rebellion. The Rebellion name and logo, the Atomfall name and logo are trademarks of Rebellion and may be registered trademarks in certain countries.

About Rebellion

Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of the world’s most successful independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. The latest game in the franchise, Sniper Elite 5, was released in May 2022 to critical acclaim. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breath-taking intensity of the Sniper Elite, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.

Article by: Susan N.

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Sniper Elite 5 Review

Sniper Elite 5 by developer and publisher Rebellion—Microsoft Xbox Series X|S review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes. 

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Sniper Elite 5 manages the difficult balancing act of being familiar to fans of the franchise, while managing to make enough changes and improvement to warrant time spent with this latest iteration.

I’ve been hooked on this franchise for several releases now. In shooters, I tend to gravitate towards the slower pace of the long-ranged sniper classes. It somehow feels more authentic than running, gunning and respawning every thirty seconds. It also requires a bit of a strategic line of thought. Sniper Elite 5 often scratched that itch in a way most shooters failed to do.

That being said, sometimes the Sniper series leaned in so heavily on the stealth aspect of the game, that the other more action-oriented activities never really felt like options. The team has been trying to balance that gameplay out better over the last couple of releases, but I think they finally got it right with Sniper Elite 5.

Far too often in the past, if you were detected and cornered, the waves of baddies were almost impossible to overcome. It is still a challenge in Sniper Elite 5, but it no longer feels like an overwhelming certainty that you will lose. When my cover was blown in this latest iteration, I still had to be smart about it. While our protagonist Karl Fairburn is definitely a square-jawed, heroic type – he’s not a ‘mow them down’ Rambo-sort. He fairs better in ranged and sneak tactics. When I was out in the open when sirens were blaring, it was hard to survive. I still had to be strategic when my cover was blown, often looking for buildings or hallways nearby to create chokepoints.

Of course, when we’re talking about the core gameplay – the sniping is where it’s at. There’s different levels of difficulty that can impact things like bullet drop or how wind impacts shot. Looking for cover and a quality line-of-sight, and making certain you shoot when there’s some other sound in the nearby area like an explosion or an anti-aircraft gun are still a thrill. Lining up that perfect shot and seeing the x-ray zoom feedback the damage is just way more fun than it probably should be, and easily the highlight of the experience.

The maps are larger than past releases, with lots of side quests – perhaps too many objectives for some people. I was easily able to spend ninety minutes or more in a chapter when I was trying to be a completionist. The story is the same sort of tense, war-laced backdrop we’ve come to expect from the series. You have a primary narrative goal, and then other objectives to ‘help the cause’. Sometimes you will be tasked with a particularly challenging assassination. Doing so will yield experience, but sometimes you can unlock a unique weapon by meeting specific conditions. One example is needing to not just kill the target, but to do so with an explosive. There’s plenty to chew on, even just in the single player mode, and there’s some multiplayer options available as well.

The most interesting of these multiplayer options is Invasion, which sort of reminds me of a Souls game. You can be invaded, or you can invade someone else’s campaign as an elite soldier and use the resources around you to try and find and eliminate the other player. It’s a pretty cool feature that definitely heightens the tension when it occurs, though more often than not I turned that feature off so I could focus on the campaign itself. Still – it’s a pretty fun and creative option.

That being said, the other player vs player modes didn’t do much for me. This is not a game whose engine is built for speed, and the player vs player (outside of Invasion) just doesn’t feel like it belongs with the rest of the offering. Survival also makes a welcome return as you hold off waves of enemies. In fact, I’d argue the tweaks to the gunplay make survival a good deal more fun in this iteration than it has been before.

In terms of the presentation, this is unsurprisingly the best of the Sniper games so far. We have the new hardware, which allows from some great draw distances and snappy load times. Beyond that, the visuals are detailed and the sound design is fantastic – which is much appreciated in a game where audio is so important. Some of the stages are more linear than they look, with vegetation creaming faux walls that might make it harder to move around the map than you might expect from an overhead view.

There is a whole lot to like about Sniper Elite 5, especially if you are a fan of the series already. The non-sniping gunplay feels better than ever, and the maps are huge with plenty to do. There is a solid progression system that lets you unlock perks as you complete objectives and take down enemies, and the story is solid if unspectacular.

The best-looking and sounding release in the series, with a handful of different entertaining modes to boot – this is absolutely a worthwhile play.

Score: 8 / 10

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Sniper Elite 5 Unleashes Brand New Invasion Mode!

OXFORD (Jan. 25, 2022) – Rebellion, one of the world’s most successful independent studios, has today released a new CGI trailer for Sniper Elite 5, the latest installment of the award-winning franchise, hinting at the new Invasion Mode which allows players to drop into each other’s campaigns and take on the role of an Axis Sniper with high rewards on the line. Created by Rebellion’s dedicated production company Rebellion VFX, the new trailer utilizes both in-game and bespoke VFX assets with a tailored audio mix to create a stunning cinematic which can be watched here:

Rebellion has also today revealed the pack and key art for Sniper Elite 5.

Invasion Mode will bring a whole new dimension to the game’s intense drama and add increased diversity to the tactics that players will have to employ in order to complete their mission. The invading Axis Sniper will have the sole aim to eliminate the player while the Allied Sniper will gain an extra objective: take out the invader. Invasion Mode will also be available in cooperative play - increasing the challenge for the Axis invader as they now have two Allies to track down but offering greater rewards.

Chris Kingsley, CTO at Rebellion, commented: “Invasion Mode is a fantastic addition to the gameplay experience of Sniper Elite 5. A human-controlled invader can act in ways that are so diverse and unpredictable, which adds to the challenge and ramps up the tension even further. The player will be informed that an invading Axis Sniper has joined their game and from that point on it becomes an extremely intense, high stakes game of cat and mouse.”

Chris continued: “For those players who just want a solo gameplay experience there will be the option to switch Invasion Mode off, but we recommend that everyone gives it a try at some point. We have been having a lot of fun with it in the studio, jumping into each other’s games and finding innovative, stealthy ways to take each other out.”

Invasion Mode will enable some unique skills for both players. The Axis invader can make use of the AI Axis forces to help locate the Allied player. Tagging an Axis soldier will enable ‘Eagle Eyes,’ which means that if that soldier spots the Allied Sniper then their last known location will be displayed on the map. The Axis Sniper can also instruct nearby soldiers to ‘Stay Sharp,’ increasing their awareness. For the Allied Sniper, each level has invasion phones scattered around the map which the player can use to discover the last known location of their opponent. But beware, as not only can these phones be booby-trapped, but overuse will raise suspicions and reveal the player’s location.

Successful Axis Snipers will be rewarded with weapons, items, and skin unlocks while Allied Snipers can earn weapon and character skins by killing their opponent. You will also be awarded with additional XP for having Invasion Mode enabled.

Recognized for its unparalleled tactical sniping experience, Sniper Elite 5 will release simultaneously on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4 & 5, Epic, Steam, and the Windows Store in 2022. Players will reprise the role of elite marksman Karl Fairburne as they travel to France in 1944 tasked with the mission to uncover and destroy the Nazi’s latest plan: Operation Kraken.

To keep up to date with all the latest Sniper Elite 5 news please visit sniper.com and follow the game on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

The new CGI trailer was created by Rebellion VFX. Based at Rebellion Film Studios in Didcot, Rebellion VFX has been formed from industry-leading visual effects supervisors, artists and developers. The team specializes in full CG environment builds, FX, Compositing, Environment Set Extension and Virtual Production set builds with projects utilizing both offline rendered and real-time rendered game engine methodology. The on-site capability is further enhanced by Rebellion’s award-winning motion capture and full performance capture facilities, Audiomotion.

He Sun, Head of Rebellion VFX, said: “It has been a real pleasure for Rebellion VFX to be collaborating with the Sniper Elite brand, to be involved in working on such a title was a real privilege. We wanted to create a trailer that evoked a gritty and down-to-earth feeling in its cinematography, as if it was shot with a film crew on a real location. Technically, we relished the challenge of implementing USD (Universal Scene Description) pipeline in our offline rendering workflow. It was an enjoyable creative process which will hopefully be enjoyed by our passionate community of Sniper Elite fans too.”

For the latest news and information about Rebellion VFX please visit rebellionfilmstudios.com/vfx/

COPYRIGHT ©2022 REBELLION. THE REBELLION NAME AND LOGO AND THE SNIPER ELITE NAME AND LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF REBELLION AND MAY BE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

About Rebellion

Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of world’s most successful independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV, and film, but at its core it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breathtaking intensity of Sniper Elite 4, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.

Article by: Susan N.

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Sniper Elite 5 Returns to the Fray in 2022 on All Platforms!

OXFORD (Dec. 10, 2021) – Rebellion, one of the world’s most successful independent studios, has today revealed that its award-winning Sniper Elite franchise will return in 2022 with the release of Sniper Elite 5. Launching simultaneously on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 4 & 5, Epic, Steam, and the Windows Store, Sniper Elite 5 will see elite marksman Karl Fairburne travel to France in 1944 to destroy Operation Kraken.

To celebrate the announcement Rebellion has released the first trailer for the forthcoming game using all in-game engine footage.

As part of a covert US Rangers operation to weaken the Atlantikwall fortifications along the coast of Brittany, Karl makes contact with the French Resistance. Soon they uncover a secret Nazi project that threatens to end the war before the Allies can even invade Europe: Operation Kraken. It’s Karl’s mission to take out the high-ranking Nazi officers and end Operation Kraken once and for all.

Based upon real-world locations from France in 1944, the new game maps are the largest and most immersive in the franchise’s history. The game's new traversal system offers players an even greater sandbox of options when it comes to taking out their targets. Players can even invite a friend to help them on their mission with enhanced co-operative gameplay options.

Sniper Elite 5 continues the franchise’s unparalleled tactical sniping experience complete with incredible ballistics and an enhanced kill cam, taking the genre-defining feature to the next level. New customization options allow you to adjust your rifle, other weapons, and ammo to suit the mission and your play style.

Game Features:

Expansive Campaign – Real-world locations have been captured using photogrammetry to recreate a living, immersive environment, and multiple infiltration and extraction points along with kill list targets provide a whole new perspective on each mission. Take on the Nazi plot solo or work with a partner, with improved co-op mechanics allowing you to share ammo and items, give orders, and heal each other.

Advanced gunplay physics and traversal – Use ziplines, slide down slopes, and shimmy along ledges to reach the perfect vantage point, or to sneak past a sharp-eyed lookout. Factor in rifle stock and barrel options along with gravity, wind, and heart rate while you line up your sights on the target.

High caliber customization – Use workbenches to customize and upgrade virtually every aspect of your weapon. Change scopes, stocks, barrels, magazines, and more. Rifles, secondary weapons, and pistols all have a huge variety of options. On top of that, you can select the ammo to suit your target, from armor-piercing right down to non-lethal.

Invasion mode drop-in PVP – You can invade another player’s Campaign as an Axis sniper and engage in a deadly game of cat and mouse, providing a new dimension to the challenge as you stalk your prey. Alternatively, as Karl, you can call for assistance and have a second sniper drop in to help you out of a tricky situation.

Tense adversarial multiplayer – Customize your character and loadout and earn XP, medals, and ribbons as you take on intensely competitive 16-player battles that will really test your sharpshooting skills. If co-op’s more your style, you can team up with up to three other players against waves of enemies in Survival mode.

Enhanced kill cam – More realistic and grisly than ever, the trademark X-ray kill cam returns, showing you the true destructive power of each shot. Bones deflect bullets unpredictably, ripping a new path through enemy bodies. SMGs and pistols can also trigger kill cams, including multiple shots in dramatic slow motion.

Sniper Elite 5 will release on Xbox Game Pass, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 4 & 5, Epic, Steam and the Windows Store in 2022 with more news to come in the run-up to release. To keep up to date with all the latest Sniper Elite 5 news please visit sniper.com and follow the game on social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

COPYRIGHT ©2021 REBELLION. THE REBELLION NAME AND LOGO AND THE ZOMBIE ARMY NAME AND LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF REBELLION AND MAY BE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

About Rebellion

Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of Europe’s most successful independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV, and film, but at its core, it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breathtaking intensity of Sniper Elite 4, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator, or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.

Article by: Susan N.

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Sniper Elite VR - PSVR Review

Sniper Elite VR by developer and publisher Rebellion—Sony PlayStation VR review written by Nick with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 7 minutes

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While shooters in VR are hardly new, many of them lean towards the more arcade like, wave-based formats that focus heavily on high quantities of enemies and fast reflexes. However, my personal preference in shooters leans towards sniping, even in online games like Call of Duty. Sniper Elite VR brings a different flavor to virtual reality shooters, and despite a few rough spots here and there, the overall experience is enjoyable.

The Sniper Elite series has long been my favorite of its kind. There’s action, but more to it – there’s a good deal of strategy in picking your spots and figuring out how to take out your target and then survive the counter attack. While the focus is certainly on getting that one, perfect shot – there’s plenty of action to be had in the series as well. I was curious how that would be handled here, as the series has grown over the years to feature larger, more explorable environments that tend not to work so well in VR. Missions in the series can run rather long as well, which can be an issue if you’re a gamer with a sensitivity to VR sickness.

To their credit, Rebellion seems to have taken these considerations to heart when designing Sniper Elite VR. For one, the stages are in somewhat smaller, more digestible bites that seem like the right call given what I said about motion sickness and how some people just can’t sustain thirty-plus minutes of VR action. You essentially have a couple types of missions, ones revolve around stealth and the other around getting set up to take out your targets. They have a certain ebb and flow where you find yourself aggressively stalking a target, or holing up somewhere to fend off your would-be killers.

The stage design might be a bit controversial for fans of the series, as it eschews the larger, more open-world level design of the most recent Sniper Elite titles for narrower, more focused passages and objectives. To me, this is the right call. You can walk or teleport to nearby locations as your locomotion options – something done in many shooters in VR, and both work well here. However, I think the somewhat more controlled passages and chokepoints suit the gameplay of Sniper Elite VR quite well. Certainly having larger areas to explore would have a certain level of appeal, but the risk is that the game would be frustrating to play as well. While the name of the game is sniper, you do have other weapons such as machine guns and grenades (no melee options though, which seems at odds with some of the stealth mechanics when you have to pop up and shoot someone with a pistol instead of a more silent takedown technique) – but the focus is on the sniper gameplay. To that end, having people coming at you from a variety of angles at all times would have likely been a problem in VR that is largely mitigated in a more traditional shooting game, so I have no qualms with how the levels are laid out.

Admittedly, the stages themselves are a bit lifeless. There’s little to no interaction outside of finding your hiding spots or perhaps shooting an explosive red barrel strategically located here and there along the way, but the actual visuals are pretty great in virtual reality. In terms of the visual aesthetic, I see a lot of Sniper Elite III assets applied here. The setting is 1943 Italy and is told through a gamely voiced narration, even if I never really got hooked by the story itself. The rest of the presentation is quite solid. Audio is generally good in this series to begin with, and that holds true here. It’s nice that directional sounds can tip you off when you’re being shot at, or you’re ducking behind the environment to try and avoid detection. Little things that help to support the bigger picture, so to speak.

Where Sniper Elite VR is at its best however, is the actual sniping gameplay – and yet sometimes at its worst. I think if VR hardware continues to improve and gain precision, titles like this will only become more enjoyable. The nuts and bolts of aiming and shooting are generally quite solid, with the controls having you raise your hands up in front of your face, a gentle pull of the trigger simulating how you can hold your breath to steady the shot as you steadily take your shot. With the angle of the scope affecting things like focus and shadowing within the scope lens, the level of attention is fascinating and when everything comes together, Sniper Elite VR is exhilarating. I was holding my breath even as my character was, even though there was no real impact on the game – it’s just that in those moments, I was really losing myself within the immersion.

Unfortunately, the technology is not always there yet, and there were times when the PSVR seemed to lose center of focus, or the controllers didn’t quite track the way they felt like they should have been. While this did not happen overly often, the times it did were major impediments to the illusion, taking me out of the moment to deal with whatever technical issue was taking place. There were a few times those hiccups cost me my shot because I lost my narrow window of opportunity to a hitch in the system. Undoubtedly when that happened, it was frustrating – but given that it worked far more often than not and those moments where it all came together were just so damned intense? Sniper Elite VR comes out ahead far more often than not in this exchange. However, I did try several of the levels just using a traditional Xbox controller versus the Move (usually when I had to repeat a stage due to needing additional precision after a technical issue caused me to fail the mission), so you have options there depending on your preference.

There is a decent amount of content to be had here in Sniper Elite VR as well. I mentioned that the stages / missions were broken up into what felt like bite-sized pieces, and that is true throughout almost all of the eighteen missions. There are multiple levels of difficulty here too for those looking for a challenge or more of an arcade-style experience. I think I spent a bit over a dozen hours playing the game. There were a few do-overs required, as mentioned above, but by and large the experience felt appropriately sized and streamlined and certainly provides far better bang for its buck than a lot of the rather shallow shooters that have come out for VR over the last few years.

Summary

Sniper Elite VR pulls you in with flashy kill shots and some interesting presentation around the actual process of sniping. The PSVR’s tracking is not as precise as this title needs at times, but that is more a limitation of the hardware than the developers. Stage design makes sense, even if it perhaps seems a bit simplified when compared to the last couple of entries in the Sniper Elite series, and stealth feels a bit barren without any kind of melee options. These quibbles however are relatively minor in the big picture of what this title delivers. Sniper Elite VR is intense, immersive and simply put – a whole lot of fun.

Score: 8 / 10

 

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Sniper Elite VR Launching July 8th on PlayStation VR, Steam VR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest!

The Frontline (June 3, 2021) – Join the resistance - Rebellion, one of Europe’s largest independent studios, today revealed that Sniper Elite VR will be launching July 8, 2021 on PlayStation® VR, Steam VR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest. The latest entry in the award-winning franchise puts you deep into the heart of the action with fully immersive virtual reality first-person shooter gameplay.

Built from the ground up as a virtual reality experience, Sniper Elite VR enlists you as an Italian partisan, fighting fascism in a powerful World War II story told through his harrowing memories as you protect your fellow countrymen and drive back the merciless invaders. Developed in partnership with Just Add Water and Coatsink, the game delivers a new perspective on Rebellion’s critically acclaimed sniping and stealth mechanics which marries breathtaking immersion with the authenticity for which the series is famous.

Sniper Elite VR Key Features:

●     HEART-POUNDING GUNPLAY – Grab your rifle, gaze down the scope and take aim, as realistic ballistics and immersive weapon interactions, such as physically reloading while under fire, bring a whole new dimension to this intense sniping simulation.

●     EXCLUSIVE CAMPAIGN – Take on a new explosive stand-alone campaign with 18 replayable missions as you relive the battles through the memories of an Italian veteran.

●     SUITE OF MOVEMENT OPTIONS – From full locomotion to accessible single stick teleport, you can tailor the controls to your preference as you use stealth and cunning to outmaneuver enemy troops and vehicles across levels packed with tactical possibilities.

●     AUTHENTIC WW2 WEAPONS – Experience the firepower of historically accurate WW2 weaponry, with an armory of rifles, SMGs, pistols, shotguns, grenades & explosives.

●     VISCERAL X-RAY KILL-CAM – Witness the devastating effect of your shot as Sniper Elite’s signature kill-cam returns, rebuilt for VR.

SNIPER ELITE VR is coming to PlayStation VR, Steam VR, Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest on July 8, 2021.

For more details, please visit

●     Official Website: https://rebellion.com/games/sniper-elite-vr/

●     Sniper Elite Facebook: Sniper Elite | Facebook

●     Sniper Elite Twitter: Sniper Elite (@SniperElite) / Twitter

●     Rebellion Facebook: Rebellion | Facebook

●     Rebellion Twitter: Rebellion (@Rebellion) / Twitter

COPYRIGHT ©2021 REBELLION. THE REBELLION NAME AND LOGO AND THE SNIPER ELITE NAME AND LOGO ARE TRADEMARKS OF REBELLION AND MAY BE REGISTERED TRADEMARKS IN CERTAIN COUNTRIES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

About Rebellion

Founded in 1992, Rebellion is one of Europe’s biggest independent studios. Its flagship Sniper Elite series is renowned for its authentic stealth and sniping gameplay with more than 20 million players worldwide. 2000 AD is synonymous with the absolute finest in British comic book art. With the acquisition of a $100m film studio and the world’s largest archive of English language comics, Rebellion continues to grow from strength to strength.

Rebellion now operates across books, comics, TV, and film, but at its core, it’s still a leading developer and publisher of games. Whether it’s the breathtaking intensity of Sniper Elite 4, the face-hugging terror of Aliens vs. Predator, or the grindhouse frenzy of the Zombie Army series, the Oxford-based studio is revered for creating stand-out games designed to thrill.

About Just Add Water

Founded in 2006 by British career developer Stewart Gilray, Just Add Water (Development), Ltd is an experienced PC and console development studio specializing in work-for-hire alongside original titles. The company has partnered with a variety of the industry’s most high-profile publishers and developers, on well-loved and award-winning franchises. Clients have included Lorne Lanning’s Oddworld Inhabitants (Oddworld: Stranger’s Wrath HD & Oddworld: New ‘n’ Tasty), Bossa Studios (I Am Bread), Codemasters (Micro Machines World Series), Bithell Games (Volume & Volume: Coda), and Outright Games (Ice Age Scrat’s Nutty Adventure).

About Coatsink

Based in North East UK and driven by a passion for creating unique and innovative video game experiences, Coatsink was founded in 2011 and has developed titles for PC, PlayStation, Nintendo, and Xbox platforms along with Oculus Quest, Rift, Gear VR, and Microsoft Mixed Reality.

About Oculus

The Oculus team at Facebook Reality Labs lets people defy distance—connecting with each other and the world—through world-class VR hardware and software. The Oculus content team pursues the creation of best-in-class games, narrative experiences, and new VR use-cases like fitness, productivity, and travel. Oculus joins other teams at FRL dedicated to cutting-edge research, computer vision, haptics, social interaction, and more. Facebook Reality Labs is committed to driving the state of the art forward through relentless innovation.

Article by: Susan N.

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Evil Genius 2: World Domination - PC Review

Evil Genius 2: World Domination by developer and publisher Rebellion—PC review written by Jim with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

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Fans of the original Evil Genius have been waiting seventeen years for the sequel to be released. Finally arrived, is it as fun as the original?

As you can tell by the name you play as an evil genius who is trying to take over the world! There are four evil geniuses you can play as each with their own campaign story and you get pick one of three islands for your base. I spent most of my time in this mode playing as Maximilian and poured over 15 hours into his story alone and still haven't beaten it. The main thing you do in this game for anyone who hasn't played the original is to build a base and manage your minions, gold, power, and criminal networks. Building your base is pretty straightforward like in most games of this type. You build rooms and then add in items needed. So for example, to start making criminal networks you will first need to build a control room and some radio repeaters to get broadcast strength. Each repeater makes one broadcast strength that you can then use to start a criminal network on the world map.

You have to use these networks to steal money for you, and to do other dirty work, but they will cost minions and intel that you can get by building computers and by interrogating any enemies that you capture. The criminal networks will build up heat as they work and you will have to lower it at times or they will go into lockdown and you won't be able to use that network for a time while until the heat is off. As you start gaining more heat the forces of justice will also start to try to infiltrate your base. At first, it will be just some low-level investigators but later on, they will be sending out super spies after you. Each one of these super spies has their own special thing they do. Because these are super spies, they are good at different things. One likes to set bombs and destroy your hard earned things while another would simply steal your gold and loot.

On some of the missions though the campaign, wording of what you are supposed to do can be hard to understand. One mission said something about getting to the fourth floor so I did that but I did not connect it to the right spot making it not work. Another problem was it doesn't always tell you how to do something. One time it said to test-fire a weapon I had gotten but I had no idea how to do it and had to look up it up. A little bit of more guidance would have been helpful for your first time performing these tasks.

The main story goals are not the only things you can do though as there are also side stories and optional missions. Side stories can help you out by giving you loot which are special items you can place in your base to unlock a new type of minion. Optional missions are the easy ones that you can do for a boost in gold like building certain rooms or killing a certain type of enemy or minion. Finally, you can also get henchmen by doing side stories and on completion of a side story you get to pick out who you want to join up. For example, the first one that I picked seemed to be good at fighting and always helps beat back any enemies who thought that they could break into my base.

When the "good guys" do come after you, you can have your minions kill them, capture them, or distract them by having your minions bring the agents back to your cover operation which happens to be a casino that you run. The casino you run attracts tourists and can keep agents busy by playing cards and other things. You can scam the tourists out of their money too but even though the game is not a casino simulation it would have been nice to expand on this idea a little more than what's in the game. The story itself is silly fun that doesn't need to be taken seriously after all it's a bit of a parody almost reminding me of Dr. Evil from Austin Powers.

As you advance in the game you will be able to research new things for your base like new traps and weapons for your soldier type minions to new items and having better stats for some of your other minions types such as making them smarter. And of course, you'll also be able to get access to minions that let you dig deeper down into your base to let you have multiple floors. The only problem that I had with this is it only lets you do the first two tiers of research until you advance farther in the story and as I said earlier I have spent well over 15 hours on it and still haven't reached that third-tier limiting how big my base is to 4 floors and not being able to build on all the spots until I research better digging to destroy harder rock.

The production value of the game is top-notch with pleasing graphics to look at and good sound and music design. The voice-over is alright but could have been better but luckily a game like this does not need great voice acting as the story is not the reason you should be playing this game.

Evil Genius 2 is a solid base-building sim that builds upon the original's ideas and makes them better. The has a good challenge and is fun to plan out your base with traps and where everything should go giving it a bit of strategy when you have to think about where things should go. It's easy to spend hours playing this game but at times the challenge for me became a little bit of a headache. There was no to kill the super agents that came and sometimes they all would hit the base at the same time leaving me with little to no minions to fight them off and little gold to get any faster. You do get a few new minions every so often but paying can be faster and since they are untrained they die rather fast when fighting a super agent. You can use the evil genius you picked to fight also but if he dies in combat it is game over. There is also a sandbox mode that is more relaxed than the story mode though so that's a nice addition.

Summary

Overall the game is well made and the seventeen years fans have been waiting has been well worth it. This game is worth your time if you enjoyed the original or if you are into these kinds of games!

Score: 8.5 / 10

 

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