Standing on an overlook some 300 meters from the remains of a hydroelectric dam I had a hand in destroying, I use my binoculars to take note of roughly fifteen Nazi soldiers guarding the reconstruction efforts undertaken by the Third Reich.
The reconstruction isn’t my concern; rather, some ally-invented dam-destroying ordinance was left unexploded and the Nazis are trying to reverse-engineer it. I can’t have that – we can’t have that.
Positions of soldiers noted, I take out my Berthier 1916, look down the scope, and hold my breath.
I kill all fifteen of the fascist bastards with one bullet each.
The narrative is rarely the point in Sniper: Elite games; it’s packaged in tight cutscenes crammed between levels. The real meat of the game comes from the massive open-world exploration and the puzzle-solving aspect – no Indiana Jones and the Great Circle-type puzzles, but the simple puzzle of which of these Nazi bastards do I have to kill first? The game’s protagonists are often flat cardboard men, gruff and cold, whose depth is never as important as their gear loadout.
In Sniper Elite Resistance, that story is still crammed into the game’s corners and our protagonist is still mostly flat – though just a little spiced up by way of an accent – but there’s a certain amount of narrative thrill to the game’s framing: you’re out there to perk up a struggling resistance movement. Rather than being told which interchangeable Nazi commander to kill and setting out to kill them, Resistance sees you destroying incriminating documents, uncovering the fates of resistance fighters, and reestablishing contact with cells that have been cut off or pinned down.
The game makes you feel scrappy, so moments like those at the dam feel less cut and dry and make the player feel vindicated in their skills.
The gameplay itself hasn’t been tampered from the previous games too much. Dropped into a sprawling open world map, the player needs to complete a primary and a couple of secondary objectives (destroy the Nazi research, kill a certain guy, get some intel, etc.). Also dotted throughout the level are a handful of collectibles and worktables which you can use to upgrade your armory permanently.
The struggle of these games isn’t to go in, guns-blazing – Sniper Elite Resistance isn’t a Wolfenstein. Rather, a route has to be planned from objective to objective, and in moving along that route a sequence of kills must be uncovered. Whom can you take out without sending the remaining soldiers into red alert mode? Alarms dot the levels; reinforcements are just one button press away.
Sniper Elite Resistance is not a reinvention, by any means – previous games in the series (and several stealth/assassin games alongside) have provided the same puzzle-shooter mechanics. This new game feels a little more punch-y, though, and more accessible than the others. There’s a sense of arcade joy to it, aided along by its not-so-bright enemy AI and its multitude of solutions every level. Found the right nest, got the right silenced rifle, and cleared the map ahead of exploration? Sure? Why not?
To further the arcade feel, special propaganda posters are hidden throughout each level and collecting these unlocks Propaganda Mission challenges: stealth, sniping, and combat. The game drops the player into the world with a ticking clock and they must hone their skills to add time to the clock. Sneaking around a library in broad daylight, desperate to cross the courtyard between kills unseen with just enough speed is exhilarating – and feels challenging indeed. Meanwhile, wiping the entirety of a shadowy city free of Nazi occupiers from a single spot on a roof will make the player feel invincible.
Sniper Elite Resistance doesn’t tinker with an already streamlined and effective formula, but it adds just enough new flair for the game to feel fresh and vital. It’s an easy recommendation and a great place to dive into the series for the snipe-curious.
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