At the risk of sounding too cliché in my introduction, it only feels like yesterday that I found myself, controller in hand – WW2-period French countryside before me – trying out a sample of what was, at the time, Rebellion’s fifth mainline outing in their popular and understandably-indulgent Sniper Elite series. For that period between the release of 2017’s fourth entrant and the build-up to its successor, my thoughts had become one of tempered expectations. Confiding in the possible reality that maybe this was to be a series whose advancements, improvements and other such additions had halted. Any semblance of change was more about perception via personal investment rather than hard numbers on some mechanical/audible/visual overhaul.
To invest one’s time in “the next Sniper Elite game,” would be to buy into the idea perhaps that Rebellion would simply go about things as they so often had – nothing gained, but through that continued enjoyment of the series' core loop of gameplay (hilariously-gory kill-cams and all) so too nothing would technically be lost either. But come the review period leading into5’s release, I found my initial perception (and assumption too) that Sniper Elite would sadly plateau via clear technical/structural design – more so than through pure fun – blown to a pulp in much the same way many a fictional Nazi soldier’s body parts are. The assumptions going in were wrong: Rebellion had in fact pulled it off yet again.
Known Quantity, Known Quality
Reassuring in one sense that one’s praise for the mission “Spy Academy” was shared by many others at the time – a level that unashamedly took me by surprise with its fantastic level design; quite alarming (in a good way) I can find myself dabbling in the [then] new Invasion mode and the like and say to myself: “I do have a deadline and all, probably best to get back to beating the main campaign…actually no, let me play more of this mode.” A kind of competitive, PvPvE styling that on paper I should instinctively loathe, yet Rebellion found a way to impress all over again in a series I was all-but-certain had reached its creative peak.
My point is that 2022’sSniper Elite 5felt so much a surprise package as it did a package of known quantity. The kind of game whose added features, new twists and smart quality-of-life additions in hindsight seem like a no-brainer. “How did it take you this long to include this stuff?” you inevitably ask rhetorically. And playing through a similarly hand-picked, single-stage environment toSniper Elite: Resistance– surprisingly hot off the heels of the series' fifth outing – I’m reminded of the enjoyment spent stealthily making one’s way from perched hill tops to tight-knit streets and back out onto open spaces. Getting a good (noise-masked) hit on a distant enemy or two while I do. Which in turn leads me to the main take-away of around a solid hour’s playtime withResistance: it very much feels as “more of the same” as “more of the same”-type deals can get with video game follow-ups.
Just Like Old Times
Should that come as a surprise, though, given the speed with which Rebellion have turned this around – a planned release in January of next year still marking this down as a follow-up coming only two-and-a-half years after5released? Perhaps not, but it does beg the question on whether Rebellion have knowingly come at this with the conceit that 2022’s outing had proven to have reinvigorated the series, arguably more so than the previous 2017 entry before that. Such was the leap in quality, perhaps a hypothetical numero 6 would feel even more daunting a task. How to improve on the surprise joy that 5 brought? Well you know what they say about things that aren’t broken. And that very much feels like the order of play withSniper Elite: Resistance. A release that happily confides in what the series has long excelled at: sandbox-style openness in play-style, sprinkled about by those delightful opportune moments to pull the trigger and let one’s rifle round whistle through the air.
The small, emergent details are all there: slowly sneaking one’s way around (and into) buildings, making mental notes of the patrol route soldiers both on-foot and in vehicles make. Deciding for or against the order in which targets are dealt with – and whether one wants to put in the extra time to mask one’s shots via nearby environmental objects/devices. And just maybe, at its best of moments, spending just that little bit extra time poking in and around the in-game world’s shadowy confines to lo and behold, acquire a jacked-up gold-tier weapon like a fully-suppressed Kar98k. Call me easily impressed, but moments like this are why I still find time to immerse one’s self in sandbox-like forms of stealth.
Review: Sniper Elite 5
It’s a no-brainer to proclaim Sniper Elite 5 has taken everything that made 4 as great as it was and improved it.
Comforting then that despite the familiar mold and a template that quite literally feels lifted from out the game’s predecessor,Resistance’s same subtle qualities are of course those hidden, tucked away but much sought-after discoveries – as major as optional objectives or just another helpful shortcut between points A and B. To tempt fate and see if one can play it slow and sneak around all while the glint of enemy snipers in the distance means my strategy may not be as sound as I initially suspected. Even figuring out how and where any viable entryway/exit into and out of a building can be better approached, other than the one staring directly at me…and more than likely incurring a heightened level of danger and hostility.
The small, emergent details are all there: slowly sneaking one’s way around (and into) buildings, making mental notes of the patrol route soldiers both on-foot and in vehicles make. Deciding for or against the order in which targets are dealt with – and whether one wants to put in the extra time to mask one’s shots via nearby environmental objects/devices.
Rebellion are once again cunning when it comes to the craft of their level design. Geometric scenarios that, from up above with one’s mini-map, could be construed as simple and straight-forward, but in the moment, are anything but. The aforementioned patrolling soldiers, as much the temptation to get drawn into the series' signature letting loose with one’s scoped rifle.Resistance, like previous titles in the Sniper Elite series, revels in the ongoing temptation to do anything but beeline the main objective. If your standard for a new entrant at this point in time is precisely what 2022’s outing impressed on,Resistancemeets those requirements, if at a glance does little else to feel all that much an enhanced formula.
What’s Around the Corner?
That’s not to say thatResistanceis entirely deprived of new incentives and original ideas – specificially new modes to compliment the main campaign and the return of the enjoyable Invasion mode from prior. The all-new “Propaganda” missions, as Rebellion themselves describe, aim to give players an incentive to return to previously-completed levels, as they play as resistance fighters taking on additional objectives. And unlike prior titles in the series,Resistancefinds players taking control of someone other than series-staple Karl Fairburne; this time it’s British-born Harry Hawker who steps into the role of main protagonist. Even if, admittedly, Sniper Elite hasn’t always been celebrated for its characters or narratives alike.
The question you have to ask yourself then is whether the prospect of a continuation on5’s formula seems sufficient. Hard as it is to shake off all the little reminders (and fond reminders on top) of the time spent picking apart the systems employed in the prior game, to find Rebellion employing those same fulfilling highs once more, can’t be considered that much of a disappointment. No doubt it’ll be difficult – but an interesting dilemma to theorize over in the meantime – to try and provide as clinical a step-up and advancement for the series in whatever shape or form that hypothetical SE6 materializes in.
ButSniper Elite: Resistance, for all its commonality and familiarity with level design and gameplay, still proves Rebellion understand what makes this brand of sandbox stealth so powerful a pull in close-up detail as they do in those broadest of strokes. Welcome affirmation more than anything it may be,Resistance’spreaching to the choir is, at the very least, doubling down on the traits that matter most. In as open and as tempting a sandbox as Rebellion so often make them, who can say no to more of a good thing?Sniper Elite: Resistancereleases across PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and PC on January 28.
