Max Lohmann, a key German scientist who Fairburne is assigned to help capture and escort out of Berlin to America in order to prevent him from falling into the hands of the NKVD) are fictional with the exception of George S.

The historical Nazi official Martin Bormann, an extremely powerful figure within the Third Reich, is one of Karl's first targets for assassination as he plans to meet up with an NKVD contact at the Brandenburg Gate to defect to the Soviet Union (in real life, Bormann committed suicide rather than be captured by the Soviets). There are several factions active in the city, including the German resistance, who assist Karl, the Soviet NKVD, who are working against him for access to the spoils of German nuclear research, and the remnants of the Nazi forces in Berlin. Very little information is revealed about Fairburne's background, other than he was raised in Berlin before the war broke out, that he studied at West Point shortly after America's entrance into the war, and the fact that he was primarily chosen for the mission because he's familiar with the city's geography and can easily blend in with Berlin's defenders. His superiors have tasked him with thwarting efforts by the Soviet Union to obtain information, personnel, and technology from the German nuclear weapons program. In April 1945, as Berlin is slowly encircled by rival American and Soviet armies, Karl Fairburne, an agent of the American OSS, is deployed into the ruins of the city wearing the uniform of a German soldier. Other features include the ability to wound an enemy so that their comrades are forced to come to their rescue and thus expose their positions for sniping, detonating enemy grenades and fuel tanks with well-aimed bullets, and timing shots so that loud noises such as thunder or artillery blasts mask the sound and thus avoid alerting nearby enemies. When the player successfully takes a particularly well-placed sniper shot (such as a head shot or a shot on a moving target), the view follows the path of the bullet in slow motion, while the camera rotates around the bullet. Sniping gameplay is performed in first person scope view, whereas movement and use of all other weapons is in third person view. One of the main features of the game is the option of realistic ballistics, involving factors such as bullet drop, wind strength, and breathing when attempting a shot. Fairburne uses several World War II-era weapons, including various sniper rifles, a silenced pistol, submachine guns, light machine guns, an anti-tank weapon, and hand grenades that can also be used to set up tripwire booby traps. To reinforce the stealth aspect, there is a camouflage index, measured in percentage, that displays the visibility of the player. Sniper Elite is a third-person shooter that combines stealth and first-person shooter game elements.

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