PLATFORM: PC, PS4/5, XBOX ONE/SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: 30TH JANUARY
A spinoff from the main Sniper Elite series, the events of Resistance takes place to parallel to those of Sniper Elite 5, this time following gruff cockney Harry Hawker, now promoted to a starring role after his “player two” appearances in previous games’ multiplayer modes. Harry’s mission begins in France at the height of World War II, where word has it the Nazis are developing a new never-before-seen weapon that will lead to their certain victory. Of course, that’s the last thing anyone wants to happen, so Harry’s task is to infiltrate Nazi camps and hideouts across Europe to track down the information he needs to put an end to the Germans’ plans once and for all.
Resistance features seven main missions, each taking around an hour to complete (or longer if you decide to search for hidden collectibles). Each mission gives you a couple of main objectives as well as a handful of side quests, pretty much all involving destroying something or killing someone. Much like previous SE games, you can either sneak up on enemies and take them down silently with your knife, or – as the title suggests – you can use your sniper rifle to take them out from afar. This is always the preferred method (not least because the series’ trademark X-ray killcam gives you a delightful close-up view of your bullet eviscerating whichever part of your target you happened to hit), but the sound of your gunshots will alert enemies to your location, so it’s a constant game of cat and mouse as you constantly shoot, move and hide until you reach your objective.
The large levels give a nice opportunity to tackle objectives in whichever order you like, but each area is generally quite lifeless apart from the patrolling enemy soldiers. Exploring your surroundings isn’t always the most rewarding, with only a handful of weapon attachments and collectible lore documents to find – it’s always nice to beef up your firepower, but the attachments don’t make a massive amount of difference so your motivation to track them all down might be on the low side. You’ll need to explore thoroughly if you want to unlock the game’s Propaganda missions, which are unlocked by finding posters within the main levels. These challenge you to complete stealth and sniping based objectives within a time limit using a specific set of weapons. Playing like a more streamlined version of the main missions, this is a great mode for those who enjoy chasing high scores.
Elsewhere, there are several multiplayer modes for those who like to test their skills against real-life players. Survival mode tasks you with defending defending command posts against waves of enemies, while Axis Invasion allows you to invade another player’s campaign and use special skills to hunt them down (although if you don’t want to deal with anyone causing havoc with your campaign, you can easily turn off the option in the menu). There are also a couple of 8 vs 8 sniping match modes (one with a barrier that can’t be crossed, another without) where the object is to get more kills than the opposing team, a squad-based match where four teams of four players again compete for high kill-counts, and a solo free-for-all match where players aim to get the highest number of kills before the time limit expires.
Sniper Elite‘s brand of Nazi killing is one of those things that never really gets old, and Resistance sits comfortably alongside its predecessors as one of those games you can put on when you just want to take your frustrations out on people who truly deserve it. Sure, it might not last too long, but you’ll definitely have fun while doing it.
