The Sniper Elitefranchise has become something of a personal favourite of mine over the years, and Im sure Im not alone in that. Rebellions historical stealth shooter franchise hasnt shaken any foundations or pulled up any trees with any of its outings, and has largely been happy to sail around in familiar and charted waters. But it has also consistently delivered solid, well-made games that fans of the genre cant help but eat up- which is why every time a new one gets announced, if you enjoy stealth games, chances are youre going to be paying attention to whatever it is thatSniper Eliteis cooking up next.Sniper Elite 5launched in 2022 and turned out to be a predictably solid game, but when the series returns for its next outing imminently, it wont do so with its next numbered entry. No, instead, Rebellion is set to releaseSniper Elite: Resistance, which, on paper, is a standalone spinoff- though honestly, looking at it, it may just as well be a full newSniper Elitegame, based on everything that its promising to deliver.There are some ways where its nature as a standalone spinoff is very apparent. For starters, its clearly making use of the work that Rebellion did forSniper Elite 5 which, honestly, we need to be seeing more of from the games industry. Asset reuse gets a bad rap, and of course, there are plenty of situations where itisfar from desirable, but there are also cases where developers manage to save a great deal of time and money by reusing previous work without having to compromise in terms of actual quality.Like a Dragondoes it time and time again, and were not opposed toSniper Elitedoing the same.Theres also the fact thatSniper Elite: Resistanceis being billed very much as a side story. For the first time in the series history, players wont be playing as American soldier Karl Fairburne, with British Special Operations Executive agent Harry Hawker instead stepping in as the protagonist, in a story that will see him going after a mysterious and deadly new Nazi war machine in Occupied France, running parallel with the events ofSniper Elite 5.Then again, thats an intriguing enough premise in its own right, while more importantly, story has never really been what most people come toSniper Elitefor anyway- soResistancebeing billed as a narrative sidequel shouldnt end up being much of a factor.In the areas that matter (at least in the context of this specific series), the game is making all the right promises, however. Something thatSniper Elitegames have become increasingly better at with time is letting players loose in large, open-ended stealth sandboxes and letting them accomplish a variety of objectives however they wish. DeliveringHitman-style gameplay (but obviously not quite as expansive),the series loves to reward players for being creative, and emphasizes player agency and freedom above all else. That is combined with strongly designed maps that are also densely packed with compelling optional content to take on.All of these are boxes thatSniper Elite: Resistancelooks set to check. Of course, things could always go wrong, and we havent actually played the game ourselves yet, but everything that has been shown of it so far (which is a fair bit of gameplay) has looked incredibly promising, while hands-on previews by various outlets have also suggested thatthe game is looking likely to deliver another dose of that open-ended historical stealth sandbox experience that the series has effectively got down to a science by now.There are other reasons to be excited aboutSniper Elite: Resistanceas well. The Nazi killing genre is one that has obviously always been a classic, and were never going to say no to more (even thoughwe just got a good, healthy taste of it not too long ago in the form of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle). Blasting Nazis in the most hilariously gruesome, creative, and brutal ways possible, with x-ray shots killcams and everything, is what many of us come toSniper Elitefor, and it looks likeResistancewont disappoint in that area.Youll likely have noticed that much of what weve spoken about so far isnt necessarily unique toSniper Elite: Resistance. No, in fact, more of the same is a very accurate way to describe this game, based on everything that weve seen of it so far. Its not a numbered sequel, and in this sense, its definitely treating itself like that- though then again, evenSniper Elite 5 didnt necessarily change things up from its own predecessor that much either. So yes, the upcomingResistanceis definitely looking like its going to be a very familiar experience for anyone whos played any of the series last couple of outings- but theres strong appeal to something like that. You know exactly whatSniper Elite: Resistanceis going to be, and chances are, its going to be good.Given the fact that this is a standalone sidequel, there will probably be some wholl be wondering just how much bang for buck theyre going to get from the game, especially with it being sold as a full priced $60 game. Based on what Rebellion is saying, however, it doesnt look like that should be much of a worry. According to Rebellion, the games campaign will be about as long asSniper Elite 5was, which, as per HowLongToBeat, can be anywhere between 10 to 40 hours long, depending on how thoroughly youre playing it. Even if youre only looking to stick with its campaign, then, it will have plenty of meat on the bone.Beyond its campaign, meanwhile, the game will also feature a co-op survival mode, as well as a PvP multiplayer component, the ability to play the entire campaign co-op, and an Invasions mechanic for the campaign. Again, theres not much here that, in terms of the broad strokes, wont be familiar to anyone who playedSniper Elite 5 thats definitely a running theme with this game but if theres one thing that it seems like we can be sure of, its thatSniper Elite: Resistanceis at least going to have plenty of content on offer, right out the gate. Will Rebellion add to it with post-launch support? The studio has been known to do that with pretty much all of its games, but this isnt technically a numbered, flagship release, so it remains to be seen how heavily it will be supported. Perhaps that will depend entirely on how it sells.Either way, as a fan of the stealth genre and honestly, after the last few years, of the Sniper Eliteseries Im all aboard the hype train forResistance. No, its not the sort of shiver-inducing hype that you get with the biggest of the biggest releases-Sniper Elitenever pretends to be anything more than a AA series, after all. But as a series that consistently delivers well-made and engaging stealth sandbox experiences, even if they never really revolutionize anything,Sniper Elitedeserves the recognition it gets, and then some. Hopefully, it will continue to attract eyeballs withResistanceslooming launch.Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.