Sniper Elite: Resistance – Déjà vu Edition

Brush up your French, monsieur, because we are going back to France. However, this time we are ditching the mass-murdering expert sharpshooter Karl Fairburne, for the new and somewhat unfortunate looking British fella Harry Hawker. It’s not that it matters much, as they could be the same person, with the only difference being the accent. Sniper Elite: Resistance follows the exact same gameplay formula that was set by the earlier titles. I must say, though, it’s getting a bit long in the tooth, even if I like the premise. There is just so little added in mechanics, and the story remains as unengaging as ever.

Invasion of France
You are being sent to France to assist the resistance. They have discovered that the Nazis are making some kind of secret weapon that will put an end to the planned invasion of France by the allied forces. Your job is to discover what this super secret weapon is, and destroy it, by any means necessary. This hunt will take you to different parts of occupied France, from cozy vineyards that would make Picard jealous to bunker fortresses that would survive the apocalypse.

Beyond the initial setup of the story, there isn’t much here to dive into. The secret weapon is built by the typical madman officer, but you are not being given much about him until the very end of the game. The same goes for the protagonist, Harry Hawker. In a way, it’s fascinating how little Sniper Elite: Resistance gives out, like they are actively going out of their way to provide the player as little as possible to work with. But, I guess, it’s tradition now.

To my triteness, I must point out that they couldn’t just let this game be when it comes to modern “sensibilities”. The leader of the French resistance is a black (independent?) woman, and your nearest man in the military is an Arab. Come on now, Rebellion. So much for keeping it authentic to the setting. It’s kinda hilarious in a bizarre way. All the Germans are of course white and mega Aryan, and would make Adolf very proud.

Sniping heads
I didn’t notice much new here at all, so, if you, like me, have played the previous games, it’s the exact same thing again. It hasn’t evolved, or devolved for that matter. It’s just more of the same, and I think the whole of Sniper Elite: Resistance could have been made into an expansion instead of a full-blown 50 euro stand-alone release.

Anyway, I played on authentic mode, like I have played the earlier games, as I think the franchise is a bit easy otherwise. However, they made this mode simpler now. From what I remember in the older games, saving was restricted, but now you can quick-save until you go blue in the face. There are no restrictions, and having no restrictions on the hardest mode lessens the tension by a lot. I couldn’t help but to spam F5 myself before taking dangerous shots, and doing other questionable things. It’s just ingrained in my gamer mind unfortunately, and without restrictions, it’s hard not to! To be fair, though, the game does not exactly work to its favor, as it’s not very interesting. So it doesn’t exactly warrant replaying long segments because a sniper spotted me through a two millimeter hole in the wall.

The sniping, and sneaking is as mentioned the same, where every miss and tumble gets punished by the Germans – to a random degree. Sometimes the whole map comes for you, having them sending reinforcements directly from the Reich to make mince meat out of you. Yet, other times they are very lenient, and don’t care that much that their super high-tech bunker has been infiltrated. It’s inconsistent, but most of the time, they will defend their locations. The most fun in the series is still to find a good place to bunker down with mines and other traps. Then wait for the enemy to pop their head out for you to put a well-placed bullet in it.

Same old
Being hunted is enjoyable still, even if I have evaded and shot Germans countless times now. The bases, and all the Nazi compounds get a bit blurry in memory, because many areas look very similar to each other, older games included. There is so little new stuff, if any, so while it’s still somewhat fun, it is starting to feel old – been there, done that – type of deal. The story segment has not improved, and is still poor and uninteresting, but now with added dumb DEI things, which does not speak positive for the game. Especially, if you are tired of this stuff. Overall, it just feels like a low-effort addition to the franchise. A thing made for a quick buck, or perhaps a remainder to themselves that they own this series. Either way, it comes off as a passionless corporate product.

Compared to the older games, there seems to be more bugs in this title, as it’s easy to get stuck on the environment. NPCs often spazz out, or fall through the world. Sometimes animations don’t connect well at all either, with Harry stabbing invisible Germans. It’s filled with small immersion destroying stuff like this that leaves it feeling unpolished. There are also many walls, some only knee-high, that you can’t jump or climb over. Some bushes have invisible walls, blocking you from belly snaking into enemy controlled areas. The maps are also much smaller than from the previous games. It’s a mess, which makes me suspect it was cheaply made for Game Pass bait. 

That WW2 look
One thing that Sniper Elite: Resistance has going for it, is the visuals. While most things have been copy-pasted from earlier games, it still looks very pleasant, and the realistic style is a big point to this. It also runs great, allowing me to run it in a higher resolution than my monitor to make it look even better and remove some jaggies. The sound is also great, but once again, the soundscape is also lifted from the other titles in the series. However, the music is genuinely good, and I think it was made exclusively for this title. It mixes classic French pieces of music with military tunes, and it sounds excellent. Just a shame it’s wasted on this game!

Conclusion
I do not recommend Sniper Elite: Resistance, unless you are a major fan of the series, and crave for new maps you have not spilled blood on yet. That would be the only reason, since this product feels empty and soulless. Sniper Elite 4 with the DLCs are still the best of series, and feels the most thought-out and polished. If you have never played any of the games, that one would be a much better pick! It has coop, and multiplayer as well. Until next time!

Thanks for reading.

/Thomas