The game's story follows an American OSS officer who must eliminate a group of scientists involved in the German V-2 rocket program before the Red Army captures them.

[6] Sniper Elite V2 is a third-person tactical shooter that emphasizes a less direct approach to combat, encouraging players to use stealth and keep their distance from enemy soldiers.

Most single-player campaign missions provide multiple routes for the player to take, including multi-story buildings and side streets, to get vantage points and hide from pursuing enemies.

Different postures, like crouching or lying down on the front, can also steady a shot, and the player character can also take a deep breath, which, from their perspective, seems to slow down time.

[8] A major feature of V2 is the "X-Ray Kill Cam," where a successful and skilled shot will be followed in slow motion from the bullet shooting out of the sniper rifle to the target, where upon impact, the player will be shown an anatomically correct X-ray style reveal of the body part being hit and the damage the bullet causes to the target's organs and bones.

[8] Kill Tally is a mode where two players fend off increasingly numerous and difficult waves of enemy soldiers and vehicles in an enclosed environment with an infinite supply point of ammunition and explosives.

[9] The protagonist is U.S. Army Second Lieutenant Karl Fairburne (Tom Clarke-Hill), a German-American OSS operative and skilled sniper who is inserted into Berlin in 1945, during the final days of World War II.

The campaign's first mission has Fairburne assassinating German Major-General Hans von Eisenberg as he meets with a Soviet agent to defect to Russia.

However, he overhears a radio message revealing that one of his targets, Dr. Efram Schwaiger, has been caught trying to defect to the American side, and was now being held at a detainment camp at the Opernplatz.

He then infiltrates a military camp at the Opernplatz, saves Schwaiger from execution in the nick of time, and provides covering fire as the scientist flees to safety, before holding off a detachment of Soviet troops sent to capture him.

Unsure of what to make of this information, Fairburne proceeds with his mission and hunts down his fourth target, Oberst (Colonel) Müller, whom he kills with a long-distance shot from atop a flak tower during an air raid on Berlin.

With a single, desperate shot from the top of the structure, Fairburne critically injures Wolff as he's speeding away, causing his car to swerve and flip over.

As the Battle of Berlin comes to an end, Fairburne remarks that while World War II may be over, a new conflict is just beginning, and that his actions have made him its first soldier.

The mission involves an alternate historical scenario where Fairburne is sent to Salzburg to intercept a convoy in order to assassinate Adolf Hitler before he escapes the area via train.

The missions involves the assassination of "General Rodebrecht", a rising star in the German army whose death could turn the tide of the war for the Allies.

[21] A separate stand-alone title called Sniper Elite: Nazi Zombie Army[22] was released following V2 on 28 February 2013 as a standalone expansion.

The premise is that during the final days of World War II, with the German army close to defeat, Adolf Hitler deploys a last resort plan to raise the fallen as zombies through occult rituals and turn them against Allied forces, causing Germany to be overrun with the undead.

[28][29][30][31] In a review for GamesRadar, Matt Hughes favourably compared V2 against the original Sniper Elite in regards to the mission structure and variety, stating that "V2 keeps the objectives varied and avoids tedium by condensing and refining the physical scope of the game".

[7] Similarly Nathan Meunier at IGN praised the single player, feeling that it "delivers a satisfying trek through a well-designed medley of war-torn cityscapes ripe with tactical opportunities for assassination and covert sneakery".

"[40] In a mixed response however, GameTrailers felt that the single player varied in quality, where "things take a turn for the worse when you're doing anything other than sniping", particularly in regards to close-quarter stealth segments in what the review considered to be "a real drag" causing "unbearable" trial-and-error.

[46] GameSpy writes the AI has some moments of brillance, mixed with complete stupidity, however he admits it allows killing enemies in exciting way.

[37] Marsh Davis of Eurogamer echoed this view by stating that "Its appeal is most definitely crass but, oddly, these animations also give each enemy's death a ghoulish significance.