Sniper Elite: Resistance Review - Screenshot 1 of 6

Have you ever wanted to play an entry in Rebellion's fantastic Sniper Elite series that stars Danny Dyer as the protagonist? Have you ever wanted to give a whole bunch of Nazi slags a right good doing?

Well, we reckon you're not alone, sunshine. In fact, we've been petitioning Rebellion for this very thing for years (they've never answered our tear-stained letters), and in Sniper Elite: Resistance, the studio has almost gone and delivered thanks to new leading man, and expert Nazi-slag-basher, Harry Hawker.

Yes, whilst this all-new Sniper Elite has decided to play it incredibly safe in terms of both its setting, and in its selection of tricks and traps (the core gameplay here is exactly as it was in Sniper Elite 5), things have been given a lift through the introduction of a mouthier protagonist, combined with new Propaganda missions that add a little more variety to the mix.

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Before we dig into these new aspects, though, let's address the game's return to the same geographical points of WW2, as it's been one of the bigger complaints about this new offering pre-release. It's not hard to see why, we've visited and revisited this region of the conflict time and time again, and Sniper Elite 5 did it with such incredible swagger that it's been hard to figure why we haven't been treated to a shift to some other theatre of war for this next installment.

However, in practice, and as much as we thought we were 100% done with World War 2-based Sniper Elite good-times after Karl Fairburne's last outing, the thing is that Rebellion has refined this stuff down to an artform at this stage. This studio is just really, really good at designing great big playgrounds that are jampacked full of perfectly pitched WW2 atmospherics and, more importantly, loads of impressively reactive Nazis to shoot in the balls. These are the most important factors, let it be known! And Rebellion excels in executing this stuff every time.

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So, whilst Sniper Elite: Resistance, with its return to France and lack of a number 6 to give it that premium mainline-entry feel, might seem as though it's gonna be a dialed-back slice of glorified DLC, what we've actually got is a game that delivers nine truly excellent campaign missions, all of which are well-worth diving into, and hugely replayable to boot. Yes, it is absolutely more of the same, we can't dress it up any other way, and if you've played 5 to death, this is gonna feel mighty familiar. But, it's hard to care when each of the sorties on offer here strikes such a fantastic balance between giving you all the long-range sniping opportunities you could want across vast and intricately detailed maps, whilst also digging down to street level to provide a ton of scope for tricksy CQC experimentation.

You know the sort of stuff; rigging a truck to explode when anyone approaches, whilst also making sure there's enough TNT to start a deadly chain-reaction of fiery vehicles popping off all the way back to the nearest bunker. Booby-trapping dead enemies so their pals get rinsed when they come to check if they're OK, or just whistling nearby lads into some long grass for a good old-fashioned shanking. Heck, you could even decide to drop the whole Johnny Stealth facade before going on a full-scale rampage with some grenades and a Panzerfaust 80.

The excellent Sniper Elite 5 finally managed to get this series into a position, mechanically, where "going loud" in this way didn't spell the end of a satisfying run. Being a cockney Rambo at times is perfectly legit. You don't have to slowly save-scum your way to a perfectly-ghosted mission result anymore (although, we do still do it out of habit for the most part), and this vibe continues in Resistance, giving you far more choice when things go south. It's still advisable (or perhaps just more interesting) to stay hidden overall, to play to your stealthy strengths, use your binocs to tag everyone and then silently proceed on your bloody way, but slipping up, making noise, getting caught and then dealing with it on-the-fly, is now an aspect of the game that's actually fun and fluid to interact with.

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We said in our review of Sniper Elite 5 that it was the pinnacle of the series, and that remains true, hence the slightly lower score for this new entry. Karl's last outing just had a certain flashiness to it, in its sumptuous opening mission at Mont-Saint-Michel, for example, that's unmatched here. It felt like Rebellion going all-out to prove that Sniper Elite could play with the big boys. Having achieved that ambition, Resistance comes across as a bit of a victory tour. Every map is a beautiful thing to behold, make no mistake, including a dam-busting opener that kicks things off in fine style. The UI and controls - whilst still requiring some learning - have never been slicker, and the enemy AI continues to impress us at every turn. It's a very good and very well-made thing! But it lacks the overall wow factor of 2022's epic, it doesn't need to make the same technical or mechanical strides as its predecessor.

In terms of the headline changes, well, Harry, who's been in the series as a co-op partner since 3, is paper-thin as a prospect, really. There's no effort to give him any backstory or depth, and honestly there isn't any need to. He talks a lot more than Karl...mostly to complain, but it's the delightfully panto accent, alongside his terminally-exasperated energy, as it mingles alongside that frisson of Danny Dyer danger...that uneasy feeling he's about to completely lose his rag with some of Hitler's slags, that easily makes him much more interesting than the blandly stoic Karl Fairburne. In fact, in our minds Karl is Craig Fairbrass. We'd take Danny Dyer over Craig Fairbrass any day. And that's no disrespect to 1993's Cliffhanger, in case you were wondering.

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And the Propaganda missions? We've only managed to unlock four of them so far, as you need to find very well-hidden posters on each stage to gain access, but what we've played has been a fun diversion. Killing enemies on a timer, besting your previous times and scores, and being oh-so-clever about it all, is addictive stuff, and little touches like your timer not starting until you make a kill, add lots of strategy for those who want to make a proper effort. Yes, this means you can scope out and tag everyone on the level before getting underway! Preparation is vital, you absolute slags.

Add in returning Axis Invasions, which allow you to do a Dark Souls and invade other players' games, alongside full co-op for the entire campaign, as well as the usual multiplayer modes and survival tagged on for good measure, and you've got yet another massive Sniper Elite game that provides an almost endless sandbox of Nazi-wrecking good times, really. Something we could all do with right now, let's face it. This is gaming as therapy.

In summary, it's hard to knock what's on offer in this latest outing, truth be told, and it's only the over-familiarity of the setting, the lack of innovations/additions to the core suite of stealth tricks, and a few small technical niggles (some small walls can't be vaunted, and Harry has occasionally got stuck when crouch-walking up steps) that have us downgrading the score a tad from 2022's effort. Touching on performance very quickly, and we should also note there is only one graphical mode as things stand right now, offering visuals on a par with the last game in the series, with what's looked and felt like a nigh-on flawless 4K/60FPS for us on Xbox Series X. It's very slick in action, this one.

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If you love Sniper Elite, this is quite simply more of the series at its very best, equal to 5 both mechanically, and in terms of the size of its wonderful maps. Now, can we please, please do a Pacific war adventure for the next one folks? And just go the whole hog and hire Danny. Go on.

Conclusion

Sniper Elite: Resistance is a super solid return to slo-mo sniping duties. It may lack the overall wow-factor and technical upgrades of its predecessor, and it treads a lot of very familiar ground, but this new entry has still got it where it matters most. A procession of nine outstanding maps provide sandboxes galore for the usual tricks, traps and fancy long-range shots, the new Propaganda missions are a fun diversion, and protagonist Harry Hawker is as close to Sniper Elite: Danny Dyer as we're likely to get. Add in co-op and Axis Invasions and you've got yourself another great big sniper celebration that's hard to resist.