Sniper Elite: Resistance Review (PS5) – Resisting Change

Sniper Elite Resistance PS5 Review. Golly gee, 20 years goes by fast, doesn’t it? The first entry in the Sniper Elite franchise came out in 2005, and since then the series has evolved from a cerebral shooter that had you picking off Nazi targets whilst hunkering down in bushes and tall grasses, to a shooter that has learned to become comfortable with side-arm combat whilst maintaining its strict stealthy carapace. On top of this, Sniper Elite dutifully whisks players off to tranquil destinations across the world from Berlin Germany to North Africa, Italy and France, splitting open Nazi noggins with gratifying skull-penetrating efficiency along the way.

Now the series has decided to bench series sniper expert Karl Fairburne, replacing him with his co-operative mode counterpart Harry Hawker, as he helps the French Resistance repel Nazi incursions, all the while trying to destroy a devastating new weapon that threatens to change the face of the war. With the stakes ratcheted up to eleven atop a desperate bid to force the insipid Nazi scourge to scurry out of France, Sniper Elite: Resistance is primed to keep your attention and your trigger finger itching. Can Sniper Elite: Resistance carve out its own identity from the mainline Sniper Elite games, or is it merely glorified downloadable content?

Sniper Elite: Resistance Review (PS5)- Resisting Change

Confessions upfront here, Sniper Elite: Resistance does smell like ballooned-up downloadable content as reductive as that is to point out. Swapping series veteran Karl Fairburne for his secondary co-op counterpart Harry Hawker is a tad weak, many of the features of previous Sniper Elite entries are retained but remain unchanged, the visual style, garish textures and character animations don’t appear to have been upgraded, and generally Resistance can’t help but feel like a companion piece expansion to Sniper Elite 5. This pervading notion does in no way mean Sniper Elite: Resistance isn’t worth your time, but it is important to stress the pinching sensation this semi-sequel is somewhat phoned in.

Our new hero in Resistance Harry Hawker, is a confident and cliche-spewing sharp-shooter and saboteur. A man with a strong British accent and who murmurs to himself during his espionage and sabotaging exploits, Hawker is less meathead like than his pal Fairburne, but he’s a very capable service man who deserves his own story because his backstory prior to Resistance is fuzzy at best. We already know he’s an adaptable and highly efficient marksman, but we’ve yet to see a full story from Sniper Elite’s number 2 man, but thankfully now Resistance has addressed this issue firmly.

Hawker’s accolades and proficiencies on the battlefield are eerily similar to Fairburne’s, which kinda makes his skillset tough to distinguish. Hawker is a pro with a sniper rifle, but he’s equally adept with his sub-machine gun, pea shooter, tossing grenades, and rigging satchel charges to blow giant Nazi structures to kingdom come. You may say that Hawker is a blast to play as har-har, but he definitely has all the tools and know-how to get the job done swiftly and explosively if need be.

Your Resistance teammates are primed for your assistance, just be prepared for thick French accents that can seem as cheesy as a wedge of L’Hexagone’s finest Brie. Pre-mission briefings will give you a lowdown on every mission, giving you a great sense of feeling embroiled in a heavy conflict to demolish Nazi tyranny and free France of their fiendish presence.

A Harry Hawk-Eyed Sniper Elite Experience

Each mission of the Sniper Elite: Resistance campaign comprises of high stakes and wide-open reconnaissance affairs. As it turns out, Nazi bases are intimidatingly huge and are heavily guarded, but they can be exhilarating as you plan to find the best approach, execute vulnerable Nazi soldiers, and skulk about as quietly as possible and dispatching any enemies you see who are ripe for a brutal stealth takedown.

The inaugural mission of Resistance at the hydro-electric dam shows off the impressive scale and delicious tactical openness at your disposal. As you survey your surroundings, you’ll witness a ginormous cake’s worth of visual stimulation, which can be all-encompassing, but if you play through each mission multiple times, you’ll become more comfortable with the layouts and they’ll therefore be less intimidating to take on.

There’s an inherent difficulty in entering Nazi occupied territories alone and completing every objective, but there are navigational options and routes that make your exploits sneakier and smarter, such as the ability to climb and shimmy up and across vines to reach platforms, and ripping down barricades that reveal underground passageways you can covertly dart through, or search rooms for ammo and supplies. When on red alert and the sirens are blaring, you can find ziplines to speedily find your way to safety, or if that fails you can run and attempt to evade the hail of Nazi bullets, but finding cover and recovering your covert position is an ideal way to get back on track.

Trying not to get caught is hard work in Sniper Elite, and Resistance doesn’t relent when it comes to challenging your stealth prowess. Enemies can be picked off with the hallowed and trusty sniper rifle of course, but reaching your objective in a hurry damned what’s in your way will likely penetrate Hawker with more holes than Swiss cheese. You can medicate and bandage Hawker up of course, but your inventory is fairly sparse in the face of the overwhelming odds you come up against.

Resistance rewards deft and careful play, and while it can be difficult and frustrating at times if you’re the hurrying type, you’ll scrape by if you find the best routes and vantage points to reach and accomplish each objective. Rejoicing in an exquisitely planned and executed mission is always something to bask in and savour in Sniper Elite, and Resistance is still very compelling regardless.

Sniper Elite’s Secondary Sensations

Secondary objectives such as kill lists and assassinations bring more depth to missions, as well as secondary objectives such as collecting stolen Resistance intel documents ensures that every mission carries its own distinctive flavour.

Propaganda Missions are new to Sniper Elite: Resistance. As you play through levels in Resistance, you’ll happen across various propaganda posters on walls. These may seem like simply by-the-numbers collectibles you’ll find in any game, but in Resistance these poster collectibles are secret challenges you can participate in. You’ll be thrust into the boots of a French Resistance fighter and tackle time-sensitive objectives that’ll involve utilizing your entire arsenal and skills to get the job done.

These Propaganda Missions are great for experts and for players who want to hone their skills and increase their high scores, but the rewards for completing them aren’t truly worth the effort, but at least it shows Resistance has a new feature it can boast about, so that’s something at least.

An X-Ray-Rated Shooter

Obviously the ideal way to go about things is to live up to the ‘Sniper Elite’ in Resistance’s namesake, and Resistance never disappoints here. Sniper Elite’s flagship skull-crushing and blood-gushing X-ray camera is as gratifyingly moreish as ever. Whether you’re aiming your sights and firing off a scorching round right between the eyes, or right below the belt, there really is nothing in any Sniper Elite game as satisfying as seeing Nazi skulls shatter like smashed up porcelain.

Using explosive traps is also very rewarding when you can lure a Nazi into them and seeing their innards explode in viscerally satisfying ways. Couple this with all of the unique animations for every X-ray shot type, then you can really tell that Sniper Elite: Resistance is a festival of Nazi evisceration and pulverization you can indulge in wantonly and vigorously.

Unfortunately, the undeniable marquis X-ray camera and all the satisfying kills and shredded apart body parts fail to mask the lingering stench of unrefined gameplay from what Sniper Elite 5 wrought. What this means is Resistance doesn’t improve the fundamentals of the gameplay as much as you might be anticipating.

While using secondary weapons has been improved in the past, they’re still unsatisfying but convenient weapons for close-quarters encounters. Firing away at Nazis using the sub-machine gun and pistol doesn’t usually offer up the heft and gratification of using the sniper, which makes sense since the title alone proves what weapon the developers Rebellion Entertainment want us to use for the most part, but if other weapons are in the game they shouldn’t be the afterthoughts they regrettably are here.

A Technical Misfire

The technical performance is underwhelming too with environment clipping and bugs noticeably impinging on the game’s immersion. These issues don’t completely tarnish Resistance, but it really could’ve used some significant cleaning up in places, especially considering this is a Sniper Elite title running on a PS5.

Resistance’s visuals are a mixed bag. Often breathtaking and diverse in terms of locations and building interiors, it can be unparalleled in how picturesque every area of the game you visit is. Taking all of the locations while you’re perched up high and beaming down upon it with the sniper scope expresses the enormity of every base, which coheres appropriately with the size of the task you’re undertaking.

The stunning locations can be garishly contrasted by underwhelming character textures that look flat and lacking detail. Lamentably, Resistance can look like a PS3 game at times, and that’s a shame considering how good the scenery can look, the end result connotes a game that’s graphically at odds with itself.

To be fair, Resistance has retained many of the facets of the series in both good and bad ways. While the X-ray cam, alluring European settings, and the exciting sense of scale are always welcome, the technical choppiness and afterthought sub-weapons are not. Truthfully, the series may need some overhauling if it’s ever going to evolve properly, but in the case of Resistance it’s a solid if unremarkable “that’ll do” kind of Sniper Elite game, rather than an exciting return with an impact greater than the blast radius of the game’s satchel charges.

Altogether, Sniper Elite: Resistance is a fine entry in the Sniper Elite franchise which gives us more insight into Harry Hawker, as well as a shiny protagonist spotlight for him to be recognized in. The meat and potatoes (or should that be bullets and bones?) of the Sniper Elite experience is all here and accounted for, and although there are various new locations to be in awe of, and navigational options to test out, Resistance fails to truly push the envelope in exciting directions despite shifting the focus onto a new hero and a new story.

If you loved previous Sniper Elite games, Resistance provides more of this juiciness for you to indulge in like the perfect steak. Having said that, while Resistance is a steak that’s been rested long enough, it’s also got its fair share of bugs it doesn’t look quite right with those seventh-generation character textures. Even so, while Resistance doesn’t do anything to truly evolve the series, there’s still plenty here to enjoy.