Sniper Elite VR

Sniper Elite VR
Information
VR/AR	Virtual Reality
Developer	Just Add Water, Coatsink, Rebellion
Publisher	Rebellion
Platform	Meta Quest, Oculus Rift (Platform), SteamVR, PlayStation 4
Device	Oculus Quest, Meta Quest 2, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, SteamVR headsets
Operating System	Windows
Type	Game
Genre	Shooter, Stealth, Action
Input Device	Tracked motion controllers, PlayStation VR Aim controller, DualShock 4
Play Area	Seated, Standing
Game Mode	Single-player
Release Date	July 8, 2021
Price	US$29.99 (all platforms, launch); GBP 22.99 (Quest and PC VR) / GBP 24.99 (PlayStation VR)
App Store	Meta Horizon Store, Steam, PlayStation Store
Website	https://rebellion.com/games/sniper-elite-vr/

See also: VR Apps and VR Games

Sniper Elite VR is a virtual reality first-person shooter in Rebellion's Sniper Elite series, developed by Just Add Water and Coatsink in partnership with Rebellion and published by Rebellion. It was released on July 8, 2021 for Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, SteamVR and PlayStation VR. Set in Southern Italy in 1943, it casts the player as an Italian partisan sniper fighting with the Italian Resistance, and its campaign has 18 replayable missions.

The game is the first entry in the series made for VR and the first to be played entirely in first person, with physical weapon handling and the series' X-ray kill cam rebuilt for VR. Critics praised its scopes and sniping but were divided on the rest of the campaign; its Metacritic scores are 68 on PC and 76 on PlayStation 4. A standalone follow-up, Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior, was released for Meta Quest headsets in November 2023.

Reviewed 4 October 2026. Release date and platforms, developers, setting, controls, prices, July 2021 patch, Metacritic/OpenCritic scores, UploadVR/Road to VR/IGN review scores and quotes, developer quotes and Winter Warrior details against all cited sources. About review dates.

Gameplay

Players take on the campaign as an Italian partisan, with the World War II story told through the character's memories. In its review, IGN noted that the game sets aside the series' usual lead, Karl Fairburne, in favor of an Italian resistance fighter. Rebellion places the game in Southern Italy in 1943. Pre-release coverage from TheSixthAxis and Road to VR described a campaign in Sicily alongside the Italian Resistance, with Nazi U-boats among the targets.

The arsenal covers rifles, submachine guns, pistols, shotguns, grenades and explosives, which Rebellion describes as historically accurate to the period. Weapons are handled with motion controls, including working the bolt, handling ammunition and chambering rounds. Shots use realistic ballistics, and the series' X-ray kill cam is rebuilt for VR. Players can use stealth to outmanoeuvre enemy troops, and the campaign mixes close-quarters fights with sniping.

Movement options range from free smooth locomotion to teleport movement, with settings for seated and standing play. Missions carry rankings and challenges for replay, and the game also has shooting ranges and leaderboards. On PlayStation VR, the game supports the PlayStation VR Aim controller, up to two PlayStation Move controllers or a DualShock 4. The Quest version supports mixed reality capture.

Development

Rebellion announced a standalone Sniper Elite game for VR devices on March 14, 2019, as one of four Sniper Elite projects, and named Just Add Water as its development partner. It followed Rebellion's earlier VR games Battlezone and Arca's Path. First details in June 2019 listed PlayStation VR (with Aim controller support), Oculus Rift, SteamVR and Viveport as platforms.

At Facebook Connect on September 16, 2020, Rebellion showed gameplay and confirmed an Oculus Quest version, with Coatsink joining Rebellion and Just Add Water to bring the game to the standalone headset. In a PlayStation Blog post that month, Rebellion co-founder and creative director Jason Kingsley wrote that the game had "best-in-class scope occlusion and zoom mechanics" and that the team had worked to make the kill cam keep its drama in VR "while remaining a completely comfortable experience".

In a pre-release interview, Rebellion's Steve Bristow told UploadVR that the team had to balance authenticity with what players could manage in VR. He said that with a fully mechanical reload, "I was dropping bullets the whole time and thinking that I'd reloaded the rifle", so the team added assistance, and that fully naturalistic stealth feedback "gets really frustrating really quickly", so the game keeps some interface indicators that players can switch off. Meta's launch announcement said the Quest 2 version used the headset's extra processing power to improve the game's visuals.

Release

Rebellion announced the July 8, 2021 release date on June 3, 2021. The game launched at US$29.99 on every platform; UK prices were GBP 22.99 on Quest and PC VR and GBP 24.99 on PlayStation VR.

Platform	Store	Release date	Notes
Oculus Quest / Meta Quest 2	Oculus Store (now Meta Horizon Store)	July 8, 2021	Quest version with Coatsink
Oculus Rift	Oculus Store	July 8, 2021
PC VR (SteamVR)	Steam	July 8, 2021	Windows 10, VR only; developer listed as Just Add Water
PlayStation VR (PlayStation 4)	PlayStation Store	July 8, 2021	Requires PS VR and PlayStation Camera

The Steam version requires a 64-bit Windows 10 system with at least an Intel i5-4590 or AMD Ryzen 5 1500X processor, 8 GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 480 graphics card, and it supports Steam achievements and leaderboards. It is localized in 12 languages, with full audio in English only.

Updates

A patch reported by UploadVR on July 20, 2021 added an optional "Controller Stock Grip" setting for use with gun stock accessories and official HP Reverb G2 support, including corrected controller vibration, controller display and weapon alignment. The same update corrected the default pause-button binding on Valve Index controllers, added teleport rewind to the PlayStation VR one-handed controls, and adjusted the stealth AI after reports that stealth play was too difficult for some new players.

Reception

On Metacritic, the PC version holds a score of 68 out of 100 from 20 critic reviews and the PlayStation 4 version 76 out of 100 from 11 reviews; the Quest version has no Metascore. OpenCritic lists a Top Critic Average of 74 and a "Fair" rating from 31 reviews, with 45% of critics recommending it.

Publication	Score	Reviewer
UploadVR	4/5	Jamie Feltham
IGN	6/10	Gabriel Moss
Road to VR	5/10	Ben Lang

UploadVR's Jamie Feltham called the game "proof you can teach an old dog new tricks". He praised its manual reloading, stealth sections and mission design, and criticized weak melee, missions that are remixes of earlier ones and about two hours of replaying missions to earn the stars needed for unlocks. He estimated the campaign at five to seven or more hours, depending on difficulty.

Ben Lang of Road to VR wrote that the game "delivers strong sniping mechanics, but the surrounding action doesn't do it justice". He rated its scopes among the best he had used in VR and praised the game's visuals and performance on Quest 2, but faulted its homogeneous enemies and weapons, levels that played like a series of shooting galleries, a forgettable story and sluggish teleport movement. He gave the game 9 out of 10 for comfort and finished it in under six hours.

In his IGN review of the Quest 2 version, Gabriel Moss wrote that the game "is good enough to satisfy the craving for a solid World War II shooter on the Oculus Quest 2", while faulting its "forced story and lack of cohesion" and praising its over-the-top arcade combat.

Sequel

Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior was released on November 30, 2023 for Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest 3 and Meta Quest Pro. Rebellion executive producer Steve Archer told Meta that the team was first approached to make DLC for Sniper Elite VR and that the project grew into a standalone game. It moves the setting to Northern Italy, keeps the Italian partisan protagonist and adds Sniper Hunt and Last Stand modes. UploadVR's pre-release interview about it featured Rebellion head of design Jordan Woodward, Just Add Water associate producer Kieran Forrester and Just Add Water studio director Les Ellis, and listed a price of US$15.