Sniper Elite Resistance Review: Perfect timing

Making fighting Nazis great again.

It’s an understatement to say that 2025 has been rough… and brace yourselves, because we’re still in January. As people, for some inexplicable reason, bother to debate whether or not Elon Musk threw up two Nazi salutes at Trump’s inauguration (he did), Sniper Elite Resistance has come out at a perfect time. Not only does it remind us that fascism is bad, but of the importance of fighting back.

Resistance takes place in World War 2 and runs parallel to the events of 2022’s Sniper Elite 5. As series mainstay Karl Fairburne works towards his own goals, Resistance focuses on his colleague (and co-op partner), British Special Operations Executives captain Harry Hawker.

Working in France and backed up (or is that backed up?) by the French Resistance, Hawker stumbles upon a new superweapon that the Nazis hope to employ against Allied forces. With time running out, it’s up to Hawker to do his part to save lives and the war effort.

There’s certainly a compelling story to be told as a result of that setup, and Resistance does it well both in and out of cutscenes. Each of Resistance‘s seven main levels does an expert job of weaving in context and narrative as you play. To test this out, I skipped cutscenes before and after two main levels and immediately knew what was going on — and, most importantly, what my objectives were — before needing to jump into the map to verify.

Story aside, this is classic Sniper Elite, a franchise that Rebellion has polished to a fine sheen. It’s equal parts run-and-gun and stealth; you can patiently mark and snipe enemies from across the map, timing your shots to be masked by the noise of planes flying overhead. Or, you can grab a silenced pistol and sneak in the shadows, performing effortless headshots and instilling fear in the Nazis who find (then booby-trapped) bodies.

Or, you can grab an SMG and pretend you’re in Call of Duty, felling opponents and then running out of sight to cause even further chaos. Better yet, you can do all three.

A major drawcard of the franchise returns better than ever in slow motion x-ray killcams that show each and every well-thrown grenade, headshot, eyeshot, organ shot, and yes, testicle shot. As is tradition, there’s even a Trophy or Achievement attached to blowing off the balls of a Nazi. As there should be.

If you’re not into grandiose displays of violence, you can turn off the killcams. Similarly, each level of the campaign can be played with custom difficulty, allowing you to tweak combat, sniping, and tactical gameplay. As each level is quite large and full of main objectives, secondary objectives, collectibles, and special assassination targets, Rebellion encourages exploration and experimentation through a generous checkpoint system and the ability to trigger manual saves. The World (War 2) is your playground.

In campaign, Resistance is best when approached as an intricate puzzle game rather than a simple shooter. As I’ve said before, this has a lot in common with recent entries in the Hitman franchise — there’s considerable satisfaction that comes after spending the time to stalk, plan, and then finally execute your vision.

If that slow and steady approach doesn’t work for you, don’t fret; Propaganda missions, a horde-like Survival mode, and multiplayer will speed up gameplay while delivering beat after beat of action. Individual Propaganda missions require the player to find a special collectible in each mission; once unlocked, they offer timed affairs focused on one aspect of gameplay. Stealth missions reward ghost kills (and give you more time on the clock to keep going), while sniping missions just set you up on a hillside so you can attempt headshot after headshot. 

Survival was an absolute hoot in solo mode. Here, you’ll take on wave after wave of enemies, armed to the teeth — and rightfully so, as later waves through increasingly more complex units at you. There’s a real joy in taking advantage of quiet moments to set up booby traps, lay down mines where you think enemy vehicles will pass, and set yourself up with a perfect two-for-one sightline. I felt like John Wick, whipping around and pulling off headshot after headshot, then lobbing a grenade into a pack of enemies attempting to hide from the carnage. No one was safe.

Because this is just Rebellion continuing with a practiced formula, gameplay is incredibly polished. That said, I still had issues with verticality as in Sniper Elite 5 — this time clipping through ladders rather than steep terrain — and I frequently giggled when employing melee attacks on enemies. Occasionally, both Harry and his prey would scramble for a second before getting into the correct starting frame of the melee animation. It was a crazy little dance that offered a bit of humour before, you know, I slit the neck of a Jäger.

For the purposes of this review, I revisited Sniper Elite 5 after finishing Resistance‘s campaign. Comparing the two, it’s entirely accurate to say that core gameplay and systems haven’t changed one bit between either iteration.

I have absolutely no issue with that, though, because Sniper Elite Resistance is hilarious, chaotic fun. I encourage players to jump in — with a plan or otherwise — and just see how things play out in Rebellion’s expertly-crafted sandbox. Experiment, take risks, and above all else: fight the Nazis.

Sniper Elite Resistance is available on Windows PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store alongside Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PS4, and PS5 from 31 January 2025. It’s also available from day one on Xbox Game Pass, PC Game Pass and Xbox Game Streaming via Xbox Game Pass Ultimate.

Sniper Elite Resistance was reviewed using a promotional code on PS5, as provided by the publisher. Due to timings, multiplayer was not tested for the purposes of this review. Click here to learn more about Stevivor’s scoring scale.