Rebellion desperately wants to make Sniper Elite 3

Jason Kingsley: Yeah, without a doubt. We tried to model it on as much reality as you can get in an entertainment product. So, if you do run down the middle of the road, you get shot, quite sensibly. Quite frankly, if you do get surprised by a soldier who's got a machine gun and you've got a pistol, well, you lose. That's how it works in real life and that's what we tried to do in this game.

But the reason I played it slowly was I was savouring the atmosphere and exploring. I've heard somebody say they can play Skyrim in three hours. I've heard somebody say they can speed play Skyrim in three hours, because they've played it several times. They know what the core story is. They know where to go, what to do. And then you think, that's absurd, but of course you can speed play something quickly.

But with Sniper Elite you've got to take your time. You've got to measure. You've got to look at what's going on. And quite frankly, if you don't take your time it's that much harder.

Steve Hart: It's one of the things we worked really hard on. Way back when we were putting together the brief for the game and how we were going to tackle it, we were talking about a thinking man's shooter, right back then. And that's what we've had to do.

As a gamer it's a natural fit for you to pick up a joypad and just run at the enemy and try and mow them down. We've had to try and re-educate the player in this game that, actually, that's just going to get you murdered very quick. You have to find yourself a vantage point, then secure it, then observe what's all around you before, finally, going loud and trying to take them out. Otherwise you'll get flanked. The AI are bright enough to figure out where you, get into the building you're in, up the stairs, to your room, then they're behind you and they're going to murder you.

These are the sort of things we've looked to reinforce, the mechanics we've concentrated on, in order to slow the pace down and get people thinking exactly how they want to tackle every single situation they're presented with.

Jason Kingsley: It's incredibly satisfying to do all of that, when you do take your time, and you do plan and you do prepare, and then you pull off a great shot. It's somehow more rewarding because you've put more effort in to solving the problem, rather than just running and gunning.

Some of the run and gun games are obviously awesome and we love them, but, we're trying to deliver something else for the player. It's really important to emphasise that. If people are expecting a game that's going to take them five hours and lots of explosions and lots of machine gun action up close, well, that's going to be on the receiving end of the machine gun action up close, if they do it that way.

The game is out soon and thoughts turn to the future. What are your plans for post Sniper?

Jason Kingsley: Obviously we're very keen to do a sequel, very very keen to do Sniper Elite 3. We've got some early plans for that and the team's very keen to move on, which is great. We haven't got any more details we're willing to share at this stage on that, apart from the massive enthusiasm for it.

We're self funding the PC version of Sniper Elite 2. So we're going to continue to support that over the next year as we supported the original game. We maintained all of the servers for the fans for five years with our own money, because we wanted to keep the fanbase alive and show them the respect that we obviously want them on side.

We're also expanding into other areas. So we're doing a little bit of self publishing. We're looking at iOS titles. We're looking at the free-to-play world, taking our advanced technology for ways of making games and trying to get a bigger worldwide audience for our games more directly. Judge Dredd vs. Zombies, which is our first iOS title, which is out. We're looking at other platforms for that.

So, we know the industry is changing. I love big games. I've always loved PC games myself. Bizarrely enough now I play a lot of games on PC myself. And then when I'm at home I play games on Xbox and iPad. I've been exploring the iPad world, and there are some really great novelty titles there. There hasn't yet been a game that's drawn me in like Sniper Elite or Aliens vs. Predator in the same immersive way. It's a wider, more expanding market.

What's particularly exciting is we can address the hardcore gamers, who are our typical fans, but also we can look at games for a broader audience as well. I don't know there are going to be many mums sitting at home who will be playing a game like Sniper Elite. It's not the demographic we're going for, the soccer mums. We're targeting proper gamers, the traditional gamer demographic we as a company have always worked with and for. But we're also looking at games for a wider audience, for people who are maybe more casual, who don't self identify as a gamer. It's something they do but they wouldn't say, 'yeah, I'm a gamer. That's my hobby.' So all sorts of challenges. But the industry is in a bit of a whirl at the moment.

Do you intend to continue with 505 Games for Sniper Elite 3 or will you self publish?

Jason Kingsley: We've done a half self-publishing and a half working with 505. They're very keen to work with us. We're very keen to work with them. But nothing is decided. We haven't even decided when the game's going to be set. What we have decided is we really want to come back to Sniper Elite.

Do you intend to release it for PC and current-gen or PC and next-gen?