Nazis are the ultimate video game antagonists. This universal enemy remains (just about) in living memory and represents the polar opposite of heroic values. And yet, as anyone who reads the news knows, Nazism sadly remains a presence in our modern world, often festering in the darkest corners of the internet. Perhaps because of this context, I had a raucously good time raining death on the Third Reich in Sniper Elite: Resistance.
The sixth entry in Rebellion’s World War II-set series takes us back to occupied France — the same setting as 2022’s Sniper Elite 5. This time you play as British SAS operative Harry Hawker, rather than the brash American series protagonist Karl Fairburne. Our puffy-faced protagonist has appeared in previous titles as a co-op partner, but Resistance is his first time in the spotlight. Thankfully, his roguish charms extend beyond the rote Britishisms he occasionally spouts during missions and he plays well off the French resistance members he interacts with.
This story unfolds parallel to the previous entry, positioning Resistance as more of a spin-off than a full-blown sequel. This return to familiar concepts has disappointed some fans — it does feel more like Sniper Elite 5.5 than a true leap forward for the franchise. But as a player introduced to Sniper Elite through Sniper Elite 5, Resistance offers more of the same dependable shooting but with a heap of supporting content and auxiliary features that elevate the overall Sniper Elite experience.
Sandbox sniper
At first glance, you’d be forgiven for writing off the Sniper Elite series as an impenetrable sniping simulator, but there’s far more to it than that. Rebellion’s third-person action games are more accurately described as immersive sims. You are a lone operative dropped into large sandbox environments with a series of objectives that you must complete by any means necessary, making use of an extensive arsenal of period-appropriate weapons and tools along the way.
These objectives usually involve killing V.I.P. nazis, gathering intel, sabotaging war machinery or rescuing hostages. It’s standard fare, but what makes Sniper Elite so irresistible is the freedom you can exercise in these sprawling playgrounds. You can choose to hunker down, lining up headshots from a distance, but the dense streets of French cities often demand movement. The enemy AI isn’t exactly ingenious but once you start taking potshots they’ll close in on your position pretty quickly and you’ll usually have to contend with numerous enemy snipers posted in crafty spots that aren’t always obvious. You’ll often have to get in close to eliminate threats, marking enemies with your binoculars, and luring them of their ranks to perform silent takedowns.
As well as your trusty rifle, you have a fairly extensive arsenal to call upon including a silenced pistol, submachine gun (which has limited utility), mines, decoys and more. You’ve also got your trusty knife, which got a surprising amount of use in the dozen or so hours I played. The dense city environments demand a lot of interior exploration, during which whistling to get an enemy’s attention, separating him from his allies, and slitting his throat is a much more viable strategy than going in guns blazing. The AI is a few bullets short of a full clip — enemies are often oblivious to the point of immersion breaking. Still, this isn’t Metal Gear Solid and isn’t trying to be. Sniper Elite succeeds in the variety of its systems and the freedom granted to explore them, rather than mechanical excellence.
When you’re not staring down the scope of a Karabiner 98, Sniper Elite: Resistance feels most akin to IO Interactive’s phenomenal Hitman series. While not quite as intricate as this inspiration, the spirit of Agent 47 feels alive in all the ways you can torment the AI — booby-trapping bodies, sabotaging vehicles, and performing decoy kills. There are also numerous opportunities to tinker with incidental machinery to create sounds that can mask your gunshots — even church bells can be used to disguise your shots if your timing is good enough.
One shot, one kill
The sniping is, as you’d expect, top-notch. Each rifle is highly customizable from scopes and specialist ammunition down to stocks and grips. You’ll feel these nuances as you line up your shots, as well as factors like wind resistance, gravity, and even your own heart rate. When you nail the shot you can enjoy your kill in gruesome detail with the series’ most infamous feature: X-ray killcams. These brutal cut-aways follow your bullet in super slow motion as it tears through your target’s brains, bones or gonads, leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination and heightening the pleasure of the precision kill. These scenes can be disabled, but to do so would be to ignore the series’ outrageous USP. We recommend leaving your good taste at the door, slowing down and enjoying the carnage — these are Nazis after all.
Sniper Elite: Resistance is a feature-complete package, with a meaty campaign, fully playable in co-op, a PVP multiplayer mode, multiplayer survival, and a new addition, Propaganda missions. These take place on main mission maps and add new time-sensitive objectives. Invasions also return, a mechanic lifted from Dark Souls, that sees rival players invade your campaign missions as an Axis sniper, collaborating with the AI to take you down. These invasions drastically change the gameplay experience but come with hefty rewards if you emerge victorious.
My verdict on Sniper Elite: Resistance
Sniper Elite: Resistance wouldn’t be confused with a triple-A blockbuster in visuals or gameplay. While its open vistas look gorgeous, in tighter environments the creaky textures and obvious haloing around character models betray the game’s medium budget. There’s also a fair amount of jank with visual glitches and bizarre enemy behavior occurring frequently.
Sniper Elite is a niche series, but in that niche, Rebellion has crafted a deeply enjoyable experience. Sure, it’s not as polished as the likes of Call of Duty or Far Cry, but with this much charm, it doesn’t need to be. It’s also worth noting that it launched on Xbox Game Pass, so subscribers can dip in and give it a go without spending an extra cent. If you’re a fan of World War II shooters, the Hitman series or grisly death animations, you’ll probably love a bit of Nazi bashing in Sniper Elite: Resistance.
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