Sniper Elite: Resistance Review (StreetCleaner)
Plainly, this is Sniper Elite 5.5. If you are here, it's because you played the others and likely enjoyed them. This is more of the same.... yet not.
Core of what is here:
For SP and 2-Player co-op, there is a total of 1 intro mission (more of an orientation for newbies... or to ensure no returns on Steam?) and 7 main missions. There is one DLC mission of the always entertaining Kill the Fuhrer. Map size is ever increasing and making for some terrific long shots as since SE4.
For SP mode of Propaganda (kill total number of enemies in specific amount of time) there are 7 missions.
Axis Invasion is still there as introduced with SE5. Good fun if you like it spicy for additional XP on both ends. Still adds an arse-pucker element.
Multiplayer is 3 mission maps for the 3 available modes or 1 map for the No Cross mode.
Co-op Survival mode starts with only 2 mission maps. Feels bare-bones and not as good as SE5. There are 4 operation choices like last time to unlock with the waves to change it up slightly. Nothing new here really, it is the exact same formula. Really surprised they didn't do more in this space and lean into more co-op friendly designs or innovations (escort missions, gather codes to transmit in sequence, assault and retrieval, etc). So many games are doing well because they embraced it.
As much as I am a fan of the series and having spent lots of time with friends on the others, I cannot recommend the game at this time for the following reasons:
Performance - There is a clearly a performance issue/memory leak, which I filed a bug report and dropped a DXDiag for. Yet, they are instructing all their players to do so in the forums. It is easily reproduced in single-player (SP), shouldn't be there at this stage. Frustrating stuttering that even if you drop it to lower graphical settings does not resolve. Glitching collisions, odd detection for aiming shots (like cannot shoot through a visibly clear area that has a big hit box or boundary so it throws off the distance detection completely), can't walk up stairs at times and gets stuck or on the edge of something hat looks like you should be able to walk there, sometimes you will drop a special weapon on stairs because it thinks you jumped down, can't go through openings specifically designed for crawling or squatting... etc. lots of other small yet annoying glitchy stuff cropping up. AI goes from interesting to knows where you are at all times and shooting through walls. Network code is not too bad, some light hiccups in co-op survival and warping. All rush to market problems that should not be there, surprisingly buggy. The last couple years have been companies beta testing releases with their paying customers... which is a big confidence killer.
Pricing - Charging a premium for just map/mission design with major asset recycle (and bugs). Clearly an expansion of SE5 with a new character thrown in to distract you from what it is. This is a DLC. It is unfortunate that Rebellion is being aggressive with their approach of overpricing and under-delivering. They should be careful or they will price themselves out of customers. SE5 was nearly 15k players on launch...
Innovation - Nothing new here. They kept it very very safe. But that is why we are all here in the first place, right? The formula is good and even great the last few iterations. The weapons are blasé (keeping in the French theme here) and nothing to write home about; really surprised this is where it ended up. It feels like SE V2, SE3 and ZADW4 were the last big push in innovations with the franchise, only small additions or gimmicks since. There is so much more they could do, as well as include their community in. NO ONE likes invisible barriers and walls... come-on, guys, what year is it?! Enemies coming through and dying in unreachable areas behind an invisible wall?? And seriously, no 4 person campaign co-op after ZA and Strange Brigade?? Sorry, but it seems like continued laziness at this point while looking at the market offerings. Not setting a good tone, Rebellion.
I'd say get the game IF you are a die-hard fan AND they drop the price significantly after they addressing the performance/glitchiness. Otherwise, you've played it already and should avoid until they come to their senses. You will have buyer's regret once FOMO wears off. They should have sold Premium Edition at $40-50, current pricing for this is a bit on the ridiculous side. Rebellion may want to rethink their cash-cow approach as they are now treading on their faithful customers that have pre-ordered in the past. You're burning goodwill and trust with this release.
Given all this, I will definitely be hesitant of Atomfall.... I plan to wait and watch with no pre-order or Deluxe Edition because of how this played out.
System Specs:
ACER Predator Orion 7000: i7-12700K, WIN 11 64bit, 32GB RAM, Geforce 3080 RTX, Samsung SSD 860 2TB, Samsung SSD 860 1TB, Samsung SSD 860 1TB.
Monitors - Primary: Acer Predator Z301C 29.5-inch Curved UltraWide FHD (2560 x 1080) NVIDIA G-Sync Display 200Hz - Secondary: Acer Predator XB241H 24-Inch FHD (1920x1080) NVIDIA G-Sync Display, 144Hz
Latest Nvidia drivers - Version 572.16