What is it?: A third-person snipe 'em up with tense combat and fun stealth
Expect to pay: £44.99 / $49.99
Developer: Rebellion
Publisher: Rebellion
Reviewed on: NVIDIA RTX 4080, AMD Ryzen 7 5800x 8-core processor, 32GB Ram
Multiplayer?: Yes, co-op and adversarial
Link: Official Site
Nazis are pretty much the definitive bad guys. They're perfect videogame fodder because you never have to feel bad about punching, shooting or exploding them. And for sad real world reasons, it's never felt more cathartic to do so—so Sniper Elite: Resistance couldn't have come along at a better time. Channelling the spirit of a classic WW2 movie, there's daring romps and blockbuster beats aplenty.
Sniper Elite: Resistance is the first spin off for the Sniper Elite series that doesn't have you fighting zombies, and it's clearly hoping to capture some of the magic of 2022's Sniper Elite 5. You play as new recruit to the series Harry Hawker, fighting arm in arm with several of the French Resistance characters from Sniper Elite 5 and romping around the countryside. It feels a lot like playing an expansion pack for Sniper Elite 5, with familiar enemy behaviours, mechanics and tools. But that's no bad thing—Sniper Elite 5 was a huge step up in quality, and Resistance feels like half a step forward again, full of excellent playgrounds for the series' trademark mix of long-range sniping and guerilla warfare.
There are just seven main missions, but they're all huge and took me about 90 minutes to play through. The French locales are varied, inviting you to crouchwalk your way through farms, chateaus, secret bases, and more. Importantly, each of the levels feels distinct, with a good mix of tight corridors, interesting geometry to stealth your way through and, of course, some perfect viewpoints for sniping.
Sniper Elite 5 paid homage to Hitman somewhat, and here that admiration is even more obvious from the wide open levels and greater focus on player freedom and exploration. The first run
Fighting
Stealth
UPS
Target
shooting
fun
Show