Sniper Elite: Resistance Is Like A Welcome Serving Of Comfort Food

I often think about the era when Grand Theft Auto games were coming out almost every year rather than once a decade or so. In those off years, there were a lot of games that tried to fill the void for players wanting an open-world crime-drama game: True Crime, Saints Row, Mafia, Scarface, Crackdown--the list goes on. Presumably, no one making these games thought they would dethrone Rockstar. Still, they understood they could capitalize on the genre's popularity by giving players a new lookalike while Rockstar was busy cooking up the next GTA. Since 2017's Sniper Elite 4, I've viewed the Sniper Elite series as something similar, only in this case, the series it's filling in for is Hitman. Rebellion's Sniper Elite: Resistance won't outdo IO Interactive's incredible Hitman series, and it doesn't even seem to do much differently compared to the last few games in its own series, but if you've enjoyed this sort of game before and are eager for another one, Sniper Elite: Resistance looks to be a reliable proxy.

I recently played about 90 minutes of the game's third mission before its debut in January on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox Series X|S, when it will also be a day-one Game Pass launch. Even as I strained to find much in the way of new experiences, I had a fun time. That suggests that this sixth game in the series, and the first since 2022, is roughly as enjoyable as the last couple of entries--at least from what I've seen so far.

Like Hitman, levels are huge and open-ended regarding where you can go and how you can complete your objectives when you get there. In recent sequels, Rebellion has built in more creative kills reminiscent of Agent 47's handiwork, such as hiding a grenade in wrapping paper for a target to unwrap, or killing Hitler with a bowling pin. Each mission includes a main objective and several optional objectives of a few different kinds. There are intel collectibles you can gather, ally hideouts to locate, things like enemy weapons depots to blow up, and usually a high-value target to snuff out, too.