Sniper Elite: Resistance – Once Again, That Deadly Bullet Comes from Nowhere

REVIEW – Sniper Elite: Resistance isn’t a hardcore military simulator, but it’s not just your another run-of-the-mill shooter either. Instead, it’s a cinematic, stealth-focused tactical action game that can be smooth, challenging, and at times, maddeningly frustrating. At the end of a long day, few things are more satisfying than landing a perfectly placed headshot on a virtual Nazi skull. But is this the new ultimate Nazi-killing experience? Since the publisher didn’t hook us up with a review code this time around, we tested the game on Game Pass, where it’s available for free to subscribers.

 

If you’re new to the series, Sniper Elite has stuck to its tried-and-true formula since 2005: you play as an elite sniper operating alone behind enemy lines, taking on the dirtiest jobs to aid the Allied war effort. It’s a third-person stealth-action game where enemies are constantly on alert, and if you’re careless, they’ll send you straight to the afterlife without hesitation. The modern Sniper Elite games feel like a highly polished version of Hideo Kojima’s early Metal Gear titles—except this time, you’re not sneaking around in a cardboard box.

The learning curve is steep, and new players will likely find themselves cursing as they slam their controllers in frustration. Sniper Elite rewards patience, precision, and long-distance silent takedowns. That also means that if you attempt to mow down enemies with an unsuppressed machine gun instead of using a subsonic sniper round, things will go south very quickly—and not in your favor.

 

Story and Presentation: Back to France Again

 

Following the events of Sniper Elite 5, we return once again to Nazi-occupied France, this time in the spring of 1944. You play as SOE agent Harry Hawker, tasked with linking up with a French Resistance cell and preventing the deployment of a German superweapon that could jeopardize the upcoming Normandy landings. The story and presentation are solid, even if the History Channel-tier “Wunderwaffe” trope feels a little tired by now. Each mission starts with a stylishly crafted briefing, featuring archival film reels, encrypted documents, and barely comprehensible radio transmissions that immerse you in the chaos of war.

That said, there are some questionable creative decisions. The opening mission has you raiding a dam in support of the legendary 617 Squadron’s Dambusters operation—an obvious nod to Call of Duty’s classic British campaign from the early 2000s.

However, what baffles me is that Sniper Elite: Resistance chooses to have this mission play out in broad daylight. Not to say that everyone has read Enemy Coast Ahead, the autobiography of mission commander Guy Gibson, but watching the lumbering Lancaster bombers line up for their attack run at lunchtime just feels… odd.

 

 

Ready, Aim, and Fire!

 

At first glance, Sniper Elite plays like your standard third-person shooter: you move through massive maps, take cover, aim, and fire. Rebellion has done a fantastic job making the world feel naturally interactive. Any small crate can serve as cover, low obstacles can be vaulted over with ease, and even complex terrain doesn’t rely on those obnoxious “LOOK HERE” visual cues—like the infamous yellow paint seen in many other games. Instead, one of the few times Sniper Elite: Resistance uses environmental hints is with a subtle detail: bird droppings on a hotel balcony railing. That’s art.

When it comes to controls, gamepads have always had some advantages over the traditional keyboard-and-mouse setup, and Sniper Elite: Resistance makes good use of them. Small details matter: stealth games feel significantly better when played with analog sticks. It’s far more natural to gently nudge the stick while sneaking up behind a guard than to awkwardly tap a movement key. And let’s not even get started on games that think crouching should be the only viable way to move stealthily…

Aiming, however, is another story. I have nothing good to say about it—but that’s not the game’s fault. When the console gods blessed us with the first FPS games, they provided two proper aiming methods: the arcade-style light gun (Duck Hunt on the NES) or a mouse.

Everything else? A compromise at best. But again, that’s not on Rebellion. Sniper Elite: Resistance does try to make up for this with a well-thought-out three-step aiming system. By default, Harry hip-fires. A half-press of the left trigger raises the weapon, offering an over-the-shoulder crosshair view. Fully pressing the trigger locks into the classic scoped aiming mode. The shoulder aim is fast and responsive for close combat, while scoped aiming offers slower, more precise control—perfect for that one-shot, one-kill headshot.

 

 

Find the Best Position and Strategy

 

One of the biggest criticisms of Sniper Elite 5 was that the AI was so brain-dead it made the game almost laughably easy. Sniper Elite: Resistance swings the other way—perhaps too far. It’s possible that I’m just a low-tier gaming journalist, but there were moments where I felt completely overwhelmed, while veteran Sniper Elite players might breeze through without breaking a sweat.

Most encounters in Sniper Elite: Resistance feel like a puzzle. Almost every location offers multiple entry points, with plenty of patrolling guards making sure you don’t have an easy way in. You can brute-force your way through, but with limited ammo, low health, and deadly accurate enemies, this is rarely a good idea. The game never forces you into a specific playstyle, leaving room for creative problem-solving.

In one instance, I knocked out a German soldier with a well-placed glass bottle, then stealthily took out his buddy. In another scenario, I used a timed TNT explosion to create a distraction, drawing enemies away while I slipped past unnoticed. These tactical moments are incredibly satisfying—until the checkpoint system screws you over.

The game autosaves periodically, but it doesn’t always pick the best moments. In the first three missions alone, I had at least five instances where the game saved right before I was about to get gunned down. While this does add a sense of consequence to failure, a more refined checkpoint system would have made for a much smoother experience.

 

 

Keep Your Eye on the Crosshairs, Not the Graphics

 

The graphics in Sniper Elite: Resistance aren’t bad, but they’re far from impressive. The lighting is great, textures are decent, and performance is smooth—but overall, the visuals feel behind the curve for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X standards. The biggest issue is the character models, which look like they were pulled straight out of a 2015 game.

This is especially jarring when compared to the detailed weapon models, objects, and environments. Having visited some of the locations depicted in the game, I can confirm they were instantly recognizable and nailed the atmosphere—just replace the tourists with Nazis. In terms of graphical improvements over Sniper Elite 5, there’s barely anything noticeable, which is disappointing for a game that had three years to evolve.

The audio, on the other hand, is top-tier. Rebellion wisely avoided the temptation to blast every sound effect through the controller speaker, allowing the gunfire and ambient noise to shine through the primary audio source. Gunshots feel weighty without being over-the-top, German dialogue is surprisingly authentic compared to other WWII games, and the sound design ensures that noise and silence both play vital tactical roles.

One thing did drive me up the wall: Harry Hawker’s constant, unnecessary commentary. A little introspection is fine, but if this guy says, “Ah, a submachine gun!” one more time, I might just put him out of his misery myself.

 

 

The game that Sniper Elite 5 should have been

 

If you’re coming from Sniper Elite 5, you can expect to hear about crashes, bugs and other technical glitches that made the previous installment a pretty nasty mess.

The good news is that there is nothing to talk about. Sniper Elite: Resistance runs flawlessly, and I didn’t experience a single crash or major glitch in my 15 hours of testing.

The game is highly optimised and polished to a degree that many other developers could emulate. The stability, fine-tuned movement, more logically structured maps and smarter AI all show that this is the part that Sniper Elite 5 was meant to be.

 

 

Shot from the past, hit the fun

 

Sniper Elite: Resistance won’t bring a revolution, but it doesn’t need one. It’s a fun, tactical action game that takes you back to one of the most important periods in history, and if you loved Sniper Elite 5, you’ll love this one too. And if you’re just getting into the series and are missing a bit of Metal Gear-esque spy action, it’s definitely worth a go – just remember: aim for the head!

-Gergely Herpai „BadSector”-


Pros:

+ Impressive cinematic experience and sound
+ Significantly improved artificial intelligence
+ Huge, free-to-play levels

Cons:

– The graphics are a generation behind
– The main character is irritating, it was a shame to replace him
– Just like the previous parts


 

Publisher: Rebellion Entertainment
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Style: TPS tactical action game
Release: January 30, 2025

Sniper Elite: Resistance

Gameplay - 8.2
Graphics - 7.2
Story - 5.8
Music/Audio - 8.5
Hangulat - 7.4

7.4

GOOD

Sniper Elite: Resistance doesn't change the world, but it delivers exactly what it should: a challenging, precise tactical shooter. The sound and enemy AI have improved immensely, but the graphics are still a generation behind. If you like sniper, stealth-based games, you're guaranteed to have fun.

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BadSector is a seasoned journalist for more than twenty years. He communicates in English, Hungarian and French. He worked for several gaming magazines - including the Hungarian GameStar, where he worked 8 years as editor. (For our office address, email and phone number check out our impressum)

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