Rebellion has a strong track record of delivering great games with its in-house tech. The proprietary Asura engine delivers solid performance across a range of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. But there’s definitely a sense that the core engine technology is of a distinctly last-gen vintage, lacking certain key features we’ve come to associate with current-generation software. Sniper Elite: Resistance, is another cross-gen title – so it’s probably best to temper technical expectations somewhat – but has the engine been pushed further than 2022’s Sniper Elite 5 and how does performance and image quality fare across all four current-gen consoles?
From a technical perspective, Sniper Elite: Resistance does some things well. Each level in Resistance takes place in a wide-open map, with plentiful enemy AI and a large number of routes to explore. That’s the core of the Sniper Elite gameplay loop, and everything works just as you’d expect, with convincing enemy behaviour across the entire map and no real technical hiccups to speak of. Visually, I think Resistance does a great job of depicting environments at scale: many of the game’s levels have lush, abundant foliage, along with draw distances that push impressive detail deep into the entire player view. The levels generally look good from just about any position or angle, with bombed-out buildings, bunkers, and churches often taking centrestage.
Lighting in outdoor scenes also looks reasonable with strong direct lighting – even in nighttime scenes – and good-looking shadows. Interiors, though, are a bit more mixed. There are moments where the diffuse indirect lighting looks great but there are a greater number of moments with more questionable lighting quality. Rebellion relies heavily on screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO) as a kind of indirect lighting hack to make environments look richer, but it’s thick and applied indelicately, almost like an outline shader. There isn’t a high quality GI solution to handle the complex lighting in many areas so lighting quality falls apart somewhat on close inspection. That’s also sometimes true in outdoor areas that are blanketed in shade, where objects can appear to glow in some conditions.