Violence is never the answer, even when you inflict it on someone terrible. Y’know, like Nazis.
But virtual violence? Like in, say, a video game? That’s okay. And, if done well, can be as cathartic as it is fun.
It’s why I’d never punch a Nazi in real life, but absolutely love playing the Sniper Elite games, a series of fun third-person stealth action shooters set during World War II in which you undermine the German military by, well, shooting, stabbing, and blowing up Nazis. And German soldiers. And their stuff.
I enjoy them so much, in fact, that I don’t even mind that the newest installment, Sniper Elite: Resistance (PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC), is basically just the previous one, 2022’s Sniper Elite 5, but with new locations and one new mode.
For those unfamiliar with the Sniper Elite series,
Sniper Elite: Resistance is not just about shooting Nazis from afar (though you can, and should; it’s fun). You also have to explore large open areas, infiltrate German bases, and take out whatever Nazis you come across, regardless of how close you are to them.
Good thing you’re armed with both lethal and non-lethal silenced pistols, as well as assault rifles, explosives, and such special (and limited use) weapons as rocket launchers. You also have a knife, perfect for taking out unsuspecting enemies you’ve snuck up behind…or from the front, if you get to them quick enough.
Of course, being a silent killer in Sniper Elite: Resistance is made somewhat easier by how missions take place in large open areas, where there’s plenty of good hiding spots, such as grassy areas that haven’t been mowed in a while.
Though there are times…
when you have to risk being seen because the only way to reach an objective is to climb up a drainpipe on the side of a building, or down some strong vines that have grown on the side of a cliff.
It’s why the Sniper Elite games often remind me of two other series I really enjoy, even though they have no Nazis: Tomb Raider and the Horizon ones.
Those are not the only games that the Sniper Elite ones remind me of, though.
For instance, when it comes to the actual sniping, Sniper Elite: Resistance is reminiscent of the Forza racing games in how the multiple difficulty options allow you to decide how realistic or forgiving you’d like the aiming to work. Which means you don’t have to consider such conditions as wind direction and gravity if you don’t want to.
The Sniper Elite games also…
have mechanics we normally associate with role-playing games (even though they’re staples of modern action games as well), including looting dead bodies for supplies, and using experience to upgrade skills and abilities, and optional side quests. Though unlike in RPGs, you don’t get the latter from locals in need of help. Instead, you typically have to find intel, assassinate high ranking officers, and destroy important structures and stationary weapons.
Together, these mechanics make Sniper Elite: Resistance, like previous installments, feel like tense but effortlessly fun games of cat & mouse.
And this is largely true whether you’re playing competitive multiplayer, the new challenge-based time trials in the “Propaganda Challenge” mode, the self-explanatory “Survival” mode, or the anti-co-op mode “Axis Invasion.” (All of which I’ll get to in a moment.)
But they really shine in Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s story-driven campaign, which can be played solo or with a companion watching your back.
Set in Vichy, France, in 1944,
and at the same time as the campaign in Sniper Elite 5, Sniper Elite: Resistance tasks you with aiding the French Resistance in identifying, locating, and destroying a weapon that could change the tide of the war.
Except that while previous Sniper Elite games cast you as Karl Fairburne, an American sniper on loan to the British, Sniper Elite: Resistance has you playing as Harry Hawker, a British sniper on loan to the French, and who previously appeared in the co-op and multiplayer modes of Sniper Elite 3, Sniper Elite 4, and (surprise, surprise) Sniper Elite 5.
Though with Hawker having the same skills, equipment, resourcefulness, and gruff personality as Fairburne, he’s really just the same with a different accent.
Which fits since, as I said earlier, Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s campaign is like Sniper Elite 5‘s. It has the same great controls, both in terms of how they’re laid out and how well they work, all of the same sneaking and shooting mechanics, and, of course, all the damn Nazis.
That said,
Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s campaign does have new missions in (more importantly) new locations. Unlike the towns in Sniper Elite 5, Vichy has underground tunnels, while more of the homes and buildings are open to exploration.
It’s why, despite giving you similar objectives to complete, Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s campaign still feels fresh, since the more intricate locations give you even more ways to approach your targets…and more ways for your enemies to approach you.
Now, as I mentioned, Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s campaign can be played solo or with a friend. But it can also be played with an enemy in the mode “Axis Invasion,” in which you go into someone else’s campaign playthrough as an enemy sniper, and try to take them out.
The thing is, while this works as well as it did in Sniper Elite 5, being the enemy felt worse this time around, largely because of how so many people in the real world now take delight in being jerks, be it as online trolls, own the libbers, or the unapologetically selfish, something I don’t care for, virtually or otherwise.
As for a mode that’s less problematic,
and thus more engaging (sometimes), there’s the “Propaganda Challenge” mode, timed skill challenge missions you unlock by locating specific Nazi propaganda posters in the campaign.
Now, the best of these are such sniper challenges as “Le Sniper,” in which you rain down death from a rooftop overlooking a shipping yard that’s lousy with Nazis. It’s basically a shooting gallery, but one made more fun by having enemy snipers shooting back at you, and Nazis who don’t realize they’re standing next to things that explode when shot.
It’s just too bad the other “Propaganda Challenges” weren’t as much fun (at least not for me). In “La Résistance,” for instance, you find yourself on the streets, surrounded by soldiers, and only armed with a silenced pistol. But while this mode has the same difficulty options as the campaign, this challenge was decidedly harder, not a fun thing for someone who’s very Lisa Simpson when it comes to difficulty: “I like a challenge…a challenge I can do!”
As for the online modes, Sniper Elite: Resistance has four competitive multiplayer modes, three of which will be familiar to people who’ve played other games online. “Free-For-All” is “Deathmatch”; “Team Match” is “Team Deathmatch”; while “Squad Match” is “Team Deathmatch,” but with four teams of up to four players.
The thing is, while you have the same sniping mechanics in these modes as you do in the campaign, all three usually devolve into fairly rote rounds of “Deathmatch” and “Team Deathmatch.”
The same can also be said…
of “Survival,” a solo / co-operative mode in which you have to, well, survive an influx of increasingly stronger waves of enemies. But while this might sound like it’s Sniper Elite: Resistance‘s answer to Gears 5‘s “Horde” mode, the latter is actually deeper and more evolved, making this feel rote as well.
What is unique, and fun, is “No Cross,” which is like “Team Deathmatch,” except that the two teams are separated by an impenetrable barrier, thus forcing you to snipe the competition. It’s kind of like playing a deadly game of tennis, and yes, it is as frantic and engaging as that sounds.
Unfortunately, the negative energy of “Axis Invasion,” and the less interesing online modes, are not the only problems I had with Sniper Elite: Resistance, though. Especially since it being so much like Sniper Elite 5 meant it had the same issues as well.
For instance,
neither Hawker nor Fairburne ever remember to bring crowbars or bolt cutters, even though they often need them, probably grabbed some in a previous level, and carrying them doesn’t take up room in their inventory.
There’s also an issue with the captions. Specifically, that they sometimes come up for people you couldn’t possibly hear, like, say, a soldier on the second floor of a building when you’re in an underground passageway.
Sniper Elite: Resistance also has an issue so common (and not just in this series) that I basically write the same basic paragraph in every relevant review, like a running gag that no one cares about: some of the text is too small. If you sit at a reasonable distance from your TV — y’know, like your mama told you to — you’ll have trouble reading the mission objectives and the tutorial text. Which is weird given how the game lets you alter the size of the captions and the menu text.
This is not to say Sniper Elite: Resistance doesn’t have its own issues. For instance, Hawker occasionally got tripped up by curbs, especially when in the crouched position, something that never stymied Fairburne in Sniper Elite 5.
The thing is,
these are not so much issues as they are irritations. And minor ones at that. Especially as someone who doesn’t play well with others, and prefers to just do a game’s campaign solo. Because in this regard, Sniper Elite: Resistance is like Sniper Elite 5 in the best way possible: by being such a fun sneaky shooter that you’ll want to play it multiple times. And not just to hurt all those Nazis.
SCORE: 9/10
