Yet Vasily Zaytsev, the real life inspiration for that scene in World at War, is even more impressive that his make-believe counterpart.ĭuring the autumn months of the Battle of Stalingrad, Vasily Zaystev recorded 225 kills. The fictional Dimitri Petrenko cultivates an impressive war record by the end of World at War. After assisting fellow soldiers during the Battle of Stalingrad, Petrenko survives three years in captivity, and then goes on to help the Red Army capture Belin. Which is a shame, because the real sniper could inspire an entire video game series all by himself. Secondly, whilst the scene is borrowed, the actual real-life sniper at the centre of the scene is swapped out for the fictional Dimitri. The scene was invented for the film World at War can’t claim to be focused on historical accuracy here. Firstly, the entire scene is a near-perfect copy of a scene from Enemy at the Gates, a film which also follows the exploits of a Russian sniper. It’s an impressive and memorable scene… but it’s also really odd. You should use the incoming aircraft to hide the sounds of gunfire. A second Soviet soldier, Sergeant Reznov, hands you a sniper rifle and instructs you to assassinate the nearby German soldiers. You crawl through a dried-out fountain, through piles of your dead and dying brethren. In the fourth mission of Call of Duty: World at War, the player takes control of a Soviet soldier called Dimitri Petrenko. A World War II sniper is nowhere near as glamorous or high octane as videogames often suggest – patience and teamwork factor heavily – but that doesn’t take away from all the stories of snipers that could make for great games, or influence new forms of gameplay. Videogames portray the act of sniping in rather odd ways: a lone wolf, rushing across a warzone, taking on whole armies, with scopes the size of wine bottles and the tactical ingenuity of an angry rhino. Furthermore, the history of the World Wars still offers so much more inspiration yet to be tapped. However, sometimes the reality is exciting enough without poetic license. Not only is it pleasing to see what the historical context can be morphed in to, but allowing some distance between exciting fiction and grim reality is often appreciated. War movies, TV shows and games can bathe the World War II era with so much action and violence that the reality is all but lost. History can be less exciting than the fiction it inspires.
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