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Sniper Elite: Resistance Review

Taking the safe shot

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The Sniper Elite franchise was stuck in a rut for a while, until it got a much needed shot in the arm. Sniper Elite 4 was that refreshing jab, offering a fantastic Italian setting, robust stealth mechanics, large open levels, and more. Sniper Elite 5 made slight tweaks, moving the setting to France and adding an interesting Axis sniper invasion mode. With Sniper Elite: Resistance, also set in France during WWII, the franchise seems happy to rest on its laurels as it does not feature any meaningful changes. While there's still a decent smorgasbord of sniping, it seems more like an expansion than a standalone release priced the same as the previous two games.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Harry Hawker will need to scope out another superweapon

This time players become Harry Hawker, who is in France chasing down another secret Nazi super-weapon. First he must discover what it entails, destroy stockpiles, and prevent it from changing the war. This is a typical setup for the series, but the presentation is boring. Mission briefings consist of surveillance photographs with a dry voiceover from a nondescript commanding officer. There are only short cutscenes at the bookends, both of which are poor, and the French Resistance is barely a footnote. While Karl Fairburne did not have much personality, Harry Hawker is equally bland and slightly more annoying because of unnecessary quips. He regularly mentions how the grass is long and, when under direct fire, he nonchalantly says it is time to leave.

Fortunately the open levels make up for the mediocre story and the best are up to the high standard set by the series. There are nine campaign missions, but the last is a rapid-fire conclusion and one level is reused twice. One of the best levels is Fort Rouge, which is situated in a quaint French town that has been half destroyed. Another memorable level is set in an open countryside near a large chateau with vineyards and a windmill. While the French setting will be too familiar for returning players, at least it is a fraction more colorful this time. Some levels did need more enemies though, and this is partly why Resistance is half the length of the previous two games, offering a 12 hour campaign, similar to the third entry.

The sandbox nature of the levels is their greatest strength. There are multiple routes, side objectives, soldiers patrolling near alarms, and circling vehicles. You can unlock infiltration points, which makes replaying missions more tantalizing. Some objectives only appear if you stumble over them, rewarding explorers. Ultimately, it is about playing how you like. Toss a booby-trapped corpse onto the road and wait for a truck full of soldiers to exit and explode. Sneak directly through enemy lines by throwing bottles left and right. Place a satchel charge on a flak cannon and snipe it from 300m. Climb up vines and stab a sniper in the heart. Or just use ziplines to avoid search parties. The ability to choose when to engage and when to flee remains a crucial part of the satisfying gameplay loop.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Some tactical approaches have explosive results

Movement around these levels is a bit clunky though. Many small ledges and waist-high walls cannot be scaled. You might not even be able to drop a short distance from a wall hang. One bomb crater blocked movement entirely, while a similar one in another level could be walked over easily. In the towns, many rooftops look like tasty sniper nests but Harry is unable to ascend any ledge that the game hasn’t explicitly allowed. While movement is slightly more fluid compared to the last game, it is still not quite as slick as it should be, given such layered environments.

Sound-masking still plays an important and familiar role when sniping in these big levels. Trucks and generators can be sabotaged for localized audio cover, like before. Most levels have an intermittent global noise too, such as planes, church bells, or cannons. Thunder created an unforgettable experience during one night mission. These big sounds reward both patience and efficiency, as players scramble to kill one or two enemies. Afterwards, they can move to their next location and wait for the sounds of silence. It is rather enjoyable to find an elevated position to disguise long shots and watch the Nazis scurry below like confused ants.

When sneaking or sniping, the Nazis are entertaining opponents. If you destroy a large bunker, they will search for a while and their alertness propagates like a virus. If you go crazy and snipe a dozen in the open, those still alive will hide until you start looting corpses. Sure, they’re a bit eager to investigate a whistle, but they also flank. Unlike many games, the AI soldiers never automatically know where you are. Even in full combat, you can break sight lines and shoot them in the back of the head. The stealth detection is fair on Sniper Elite difficulty, with appropriate changes based on lighting, stance, and cover. The AI still have glitches, though. One soldier remained alert for an hour, possibly from eating too many croissants, and another kept spinning in circles like an eight-year-old attempting a 360 no-scope in Call of Duty.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Keep an eye out for the cool x-ray kills

The sniping remains largely unchanged, so it is still the strong backbone that holds everything together. Stumbling upon workbenches unlocks more weapon attachments that you can select before each mission. Scopes provide different pros and cons, and you can tweak weapons for minimal sound with suppressors and subsonic ammo. When firing a sniper rifle, you can still empty your lung, which slows time and gives a bullet-drop-adjusted reticule to shoot any organ that needs a lead injection stat. The subsequent x-ray kill cam will show teeth exploding, lungs tearing, eyes popping, bones shattering, intestines rupturing, and plenty more that gore fans will adore.

For solo players, the only new addition this year comes via seven short Propaganda challenges. These are unlocked by locating posters across campaign levels, which are not too hard to find. There are three challenge types: stealth, sniper, and combat. Each takes place in part of a campaign level and you must eliminate all enemies before the time expires. For sniping, you are stuck in one location—so fortunately the Nazis don’t hide as much—and headshots add precious seconds. Stealth challenges allow players to move, eliminating guards quickly and cleanly. Here, ghost kills add time, and because getting fully detected alerts almost every foe, it is mission over if that happens early. While the sniper challenges offer moderate short-lived entertainment, the stealth challenges have the most replay value, as there are many ways to weave through levels. Finding the optimum path could entice some to try again and the brisk stealth is similar to Splinter Cell: Conviction.

There is only one combat challenge and it features tanks, airstrikes, and explosives. Unfortunately it highlights how direct combat is a weak point. All seven propaganda missions only offer about 1-2 hours of passable entertainment—after that it is way more enjoyable to replay the campaign.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Axis invasions are the only socially acceptable way to become a Nazi

When playing the campaign, other players can invade levels as the Axis sniper. However, some might prefer to disable this option, unless they want the added challenge and frequent interruptions. The Axis sniper appears to have the advantage in 1v1 situations because they have no objectives and, unlike Harry, there is no AI to punish them for not being stealthy. This is offset because only Harry can grab items (weapons, grenades etc.) and his special focus vision can see the invader through walls at close range. Still, the mode seemed best when there were either two allied snipers, via campaign co-op, or when nearly all AI soldiers had been eliminated.

Axis invasions still offer an intriguing game of cat and mouse when the conditions are ideal. As the Axis sniper, the first five minutes might be spent tracking down the opposing target(s) by following Nazi corpses and getting into the best position. Then there might be five seconds of adrenaline as you take aim and fire before the other player sees the scope glint, and hope it wasn’t a limb shot that merely incapacitated them behind cover. Since the campaign will likely be the most popular part of Resistance, Axis invasions should be playable for longer than the other multiplayer offerings.

Survival is a co-op mode that can be played alone or with three others, and like the last few entries it involves holding off attackers across several rounds. There are only two maps for this mode but each has four sets of four defensive points to protect. Survival works best with at least a few other people since the enemy numbers are overwhelming and the aggressive soldiers shrug off damage.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Take the shot quickly in multiplayer or you'll take a bullet to the head

Competitive modes are also similar to previous years, with team deathmatch, FFA, squad match, and the no-cross mode. There are only three maps for the first three modes and one for the last. All maps are ripped from the campaign, albeit with some navigational changes that includes more roof access. The online action rewards patience, although it is possible to play aggressively. No-cross is one big waiting game, especially early, as players take cover and hope to see scope glints before their head is taken off. While you cannot flank in no-cross, it can be satisfying to catch enemy snipers unawares in the other modes. It is a pity that the skill unlocks give experienced players a genuine advantage over newbies, with better healing and glowing enemy traps. Also, since the online uses peer-to-peer connections, there are annoying quirks like host migrations, and long movement or shooting delays.

Although Resistance looks decent, the Asura engine is starting to show its age. The game chugs along quite nicely at ultra settings, but character models, geometry, and even some textures are underwhelming. Character animations could be more fluid too. It makes up for these problems with nice big levels and those cool x-ray sniper kills, so it probably is not worth switching engines just yet. Also, at least the game had no crashes or serious bugs.

Sniper Elite: Resistance
Resistance ultimately carries on with more of the same and that is just enough

Sniper Elite: Resistance is a decent game, but it does not have the impact of its recent predecessors. The large open sandbox levels remain a highlight, even though the campaign is shorter. The AI routines, sniping, sound-masking, and stealth offer consistently engaging gameplay, albeit without any changes to the recipe. The new propaganda missions are short-lived and fairly underwhelming. Aside from the returning invasion mode and co-op, the multiplayer is basically a ticked checkbox. Fans of the series will still have fun sniping Nazi eyeballs across France, but the franchise will need another shot in the arm soon.

Our ratings for Sniper Elite: Resistance on PC out of 100 (Ratings FAQ)
Presentation
70
France is slightly more colorful and the large open levels look nice, but visually the engine is starting to show its age with average character models, simple geometry, and mediocre textures.
Gameplay
80
Sniping remains the satisfying core and the stealth is still a robust option. The sandbox open levels give players glorious freedom to act how they desire.
Single Player
50
With a typical narrative involving another super-weapon, the story is extremely bland and the French resistance is woefully underrepresented.
Multiplayer
65
Invasion still offers a compelling battle of wits between snipers, and co-op works like before. The other online modes are shallow and unlikely to keep many invested for long.
Performance
(Show PC Specs)
CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 3600
GPU: ASUS 6700 XT DUAL OC 12GB
RAM: 16GB DDR4
OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
PC Specs

75
Despite some AI bugs and movement quirks, the engine runs quite well at ultra settings.
Overall
71
While the returning sniping and stealth mechanics keep Sniper Elite: Resistance on target across some good open levels, the lack of innovation means it is not a surefire hit for everyone.
Comments
Sniper Elite: Resistance
Sniper Elite: Resistance box art Platform:
PC
Our Review of Sniper Elite: Resistance
71%
Good
The Verdict:
Game Ranking
Sniper Elite: Resistance is ranked #1127 out of 1999 total reviewed games. It is currently our top ranked game released in 2025! (4 in total)
1127. Sniper Elite: Resistance
1128. Unless
PC
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