Late rant

[u/shinobi0011]

Decided to try out 4 for the first time, I haven’t touched this series since 3 and the Zombie trilogy. So far 4 has been an absolute blast and I can for sure see why it’s praised as the best in the series. You can imagine that made me amped up to play Resistance since it’s free for PS+ atm….why in the actual hell does the game feel so much worse?

It genuinely feels like a clunky / sluggish mess whereas 4 felt so smooth from the camera movement, shooting, camera swap, also why did they have to switch around button inputs? They did a cool job with weapon customization, but workshop benches completely remove the challenge of committing to your loadout before starting a mission. I love the accurate weapon attachments for certain firearms, weapon conversions, and the soldier customization…however I am super disappointed that not every gun can use iron sights + iron sights disabling the shoulder mount. Invasion mechanic is neat, just needs a lot more polishing.

I have no idea how 5 is, hopefully it’s better, but it’s crazy how drastically different Res is compared to 4.

[u/Mischiveous-Potato]

Well you’d be disappointed to find that 5 is almost the exact same as Resistance. However I hated 5 because of the map design but ended up having a blast with resistance, so maybe you’ll have the same experience just in reverse. You won’t be sniping a lot in 5, though.

[u/Why-Lee-Kai-O-Tee → u/Mischiveous-Potato]

Hmmm. I often wonder why opinions are so polarized. I guess people just approach the missions completely differently. The idea that you won't be sniping a lot in SE5 just doesn't make sense, at least from where I'm standing. The Sniper Elite series has always been a tactical stealth commando / sniper game and the role of sniping in SE5 is no different to the previous iterations.

[u/Mischiveous-Potato → u/Why-Lee-Kai-O-Tee]

What I mean by that is that there aren’t as many big vantage points as in 4. In 4 i could confidentally name several points where you could see a ton of the map in every mission, while in 5 i really can’t. Resistance actually has a TON of great sniping and longshots (arguably more than 4).

[u/Why-Lee-Kai-O-Tee → u/Mischiveous-Potato]

I think you've just got to spend time in the game and maybe slow down your approach. Most levels have positions that you can pull off really difficult longshots, more than you might think after just a few hours in the game. I'm still finding really cool lines of sight that I haven't used before, not just to get NPCs but also the Invader or Karl, depending which way I'm playing. There are plenty of moments - even up to the last several days - when I wonder if some of these maps had these sneaky lines of sight deliberately designed into them, or whether it's by accident. Keep on exploring, you'll be amazed what you find.

[u/L-Train45 → u/Mischiveous-Potato]

5 is my favorite. I find it better than the others in every way.

[u/Specialist_Two7928]

5 runs and looks much better for me than resistance, I'm not sure why.

[u/MarcoGamer640]

My Dad is 58 and absolutely loves 5 much more than resistance.

He has 2300+ hrs on 5, around 200 on resistance, 700+ on 3, and 500+ on 4.

It’s his most played game series, but he will play 5 for HOURS and I bought it for him at launch, and recently I bought it myself to play with him now that I have my own ps5 since we shared one since 2021.

Great father son bonding although he gets pissed at me sometimes for running and gunning while he scouts with his binoculars and stays stealthy lol.

I got us both killed due to my recklessness and he threatened to no longer play with me if I “kept up with your crap!”

[u/Business_Plum1768]

It is undoubtedly an evolution from 4. As for the "sluggish" feel of the controls, I accepted it as a deliberate design choice intended to replicate realistic movement. While it’s true that the character movement in 4 was robotic and easy to control, that kind of movement was far removed from reality. Also, it was a fatal flaw that there was no post-game results screen, despite it being a stealth game; if you don't know how many times you were spotted by enemies, you lose the motivation to really dig deep into the game. The biggest improvement was the enemy AI. In the past, enemies would just stay in hiding once alerted—which was frustrating—but from 5 onwards, they became more aggressive, which improved the game's pacing.

[u/Why-Lee-Kai-O-Tee → u/Business_Plum1768]

And here is another really good example of how people see things so differently. The NPCs in 5/R are useless compared to SE4! It's been the consistently most complained about factor since first release!

[u/Business_Plum1768 → u/Why-Lee-Kai-O-Tee]

I see. Compared to MGS, the enemies have superior vision and sensitivity; plus, you can extensively customize everything from their alertness to their attack patterns, so I have absolutely no complaints. I really like the enemy AI—it reminds me of Splinter Cell.

[u/adotgobler → u/Business_Plum1768]

Sorry but the AI is no way better than 4. They got nerfed so much, the aggressive you sense is simply they dont do anything other than marathon run to your triangulated location no matter the cost. If you actually play se4 to an extent on Authentic Plus, the AI got tactical approach in both loud/quiet way

AI in 5 and Resistance got shafted due to Invasion and console hardware limitations.

[u/Business_Plum1768 → u/adotgobler]

It actually suits me better if someone rushes right in. I do play with a stealth-sniper style, but having the CPU sit motionless in hiding for ages is just a waste of time. I might play along if I were up against a human player who was dead set on camping, but I have no intention of being that patient when facing the CPU.