Sniper Elite: Resistance

Sniper Elite: Resistance was provided by Rebellion for review. Thank you!

There are a couple of series that, when I see them, I know will be a specific, quality experience. Final Fantasy and Persona are great JRPGs, Call of Duty is a staple for action-packed first-person shooters, and when it comes to solid third-person stealth games taking place in World War 2, Sniper Elite is my go-to. Developer Rebellion has fine-tuned its formula for the action-stealth gameplay to a tee, making it an addicting experience that I can't get enough of. Sniper Elite: Resistance continues this trend, and even though it sticks very close to the previous entry's mechanics and UI, it is still a ton of fun.

Sniper Elite: Resistance occurs during the events of the last game, but follows Harry Hawker instead of the usual protagonist of the other games, Karl Fairburne. Harry is working with the French resistance to find out about this new super weapon the Nazis have and destroy it before they can use it and win the war.

Sniper Elite isn't necessarily known for telling complex, winding stories with profound, emotionally complex characters, and Resistance is more of the usual in this aspect. Most of the story is told within cutscenes before and after each level, collectibles you pick up, and intel that you can hear from Nazis who are walking around you. It's serviceable but not a gripping tale you will be running to tell your friends about. However, the gameplay makes up for this, and it is obvious this is where Rebellion has focused their efforts.

Graphically, Sniper Elite: Resistance holds up nicely. Each level feels beautifully crafted, with a unique atmosphere encompassing the world well. From running across a crushed dam in the daylight to avoiding the street lamps in a moonlit town, the various settings captivated me in different ways.

I also want to take a moment to appreciate the level design here. I found multiple ways to comfortably try to tackle my tasks, whether they be different infiltration points or surroundings where I could use my tools to set up traps. It made playing around with my arsenal much more enjoyable, and I didn’t feel like there was one pathway that was superior to the others. I had an even playing field no matter how I decided to complete my job, and it was up to how I handled it and what tools I used that would dictate if I survived or not. They all seemed to facilitate Harry's movement mechanics well, making it fun to even run away. There were a couple of unfortunate times I got stuck in my surroundings, and it led to my untimely death, but it was far too late.

Sniper Elite: Resistance shines in its gameplay, which doesn't break too far from the mold created for the series. You run around in an open zone with different objectives to unlock the escape option. The main and side objectives can range from finding documents to killing high-value targets, all of which advance your goal of figuring out what the Nazis have planned.

The missions are easy to digest and sound simple, but the beauty and complexity come from how you approach each task. You can try to go completely stealthy, not killing any enemies and just knocking the ones you get close to unconscious, you can go all out and start shooting everyone you see, or try doing a combination of both. You have three different guns on your person at all times: A sniper for long-range, an assault rifle for quicker short to medium-range, and a silenced pistol for close-range killing in as silent a way as possible.

You will also have to be mindful of your surroundings. All of your guns, even the silenced ones, can make noise and alert other Nazis. They will conduct investigations, hunt for you, and even ring alarms to call for reinforcements. There are other tools at your disposal to help with some of this, like disabling these alarms, distracting enemies by whistling or throwing bottles, and setting up traps like mines or grenades on dead bodies that will explode if they are investigated. There are also vehicles and generators you can explode or sabotage to mask your sound or distract enemies to get past or kill them without alerting others.

Finding a balance between all of these to complete your tasks most effectively is the Sniper Elite experience, and it is on full display with Sniper Elite: Resistance, and I love it. Rebellion has been refining these mechanics with multiple entries in the franchise, that finds a way to be challenging but never unfair. I found it engaging and slightly addicting to try different methods and experiments as to how I should tackle the assignments for each level. It also gave me the desire to complete the optional side content before leaving. There were multiple levels where I completed the main task and could leave, but I chose to stay because I wanted to assassinate someone specific. The feeling of moving around to figure out who my target was, getting the best shot lined up, pulling the trigger, and finding some way to stealthily escape is a gameplay loop I will never tire of.

And yes, the staple X-ray shots that the games are known for return and look just as brutal as ever. I have always loved seeing these shots and getting a close-up of how the bullet is affecting a foe's internal organs. I appreciate that I can customize how often these shots come up, though I found the default setting to be a great balance. Watching the bullet penetrate the enemy and hearing the sound of organs being crushed made me excited whenever I successfully pulled it off.

Rebellion has knocked it out of the park with how well all these mechanics feel when utilized, but it isn't perfect. I did find myself getting stuck on some ledges, rocks, and doorways, which caused me to get noticed when I wouldn't have if I could move. Some bugs made the enemies I killed blast into the air or fall through the ground. It's funny but annoying when I wanted to search the bodies for resources, but they would disappear.

To change things up a bit during the level, you can find workshops that allow you to customize your loadout by changing out guns and their attachments to fine-tune their stats. Each gun and attachment has different stats and pros/cons, which can aid you in tackling each level. You can also change your loadout whenever you want at the menus before going into a level, but with how often the situations can change, it is a great option.

Each level also has tons of different collectibles. Some can unlock lore text to pad out the story and posters that can unlock special challenge missions called Propaganda Missions. You can unlock new guns and attachments by completing challenges and finding workshops at different levels. There are also new starting points you can discover to replay levels from a different location. I appreciate that the game tells us exactly how to unlock everything.

Along with the 9 replayable Campaign levels you can optionally play in co-op, there are a couple of other game modes to enjoy. There are various multiplayer modes like Free for All, team matches, and a mode called No Cross, which separates players by a barrier, and you have to use snipers to shoot them from afar. There is a Survival mode, where you face off against waves of enemies, and a mode called Axis Invasion, where you can invade a person's single-player campaign and try to kill them. Axis Invasion has its own loadout and skills, as well as some rewards for more ways to customize your character the more you play.

If you enjoyed Sniper Elite 5 and how it felt, Sniper Elite: Resistance will feel right at home. In some ways, it feels almost like an expansion to 5, with all the similarities in how it feels, the UI, and most game modes. There are key differences, like the new levels, story, new grenade type, and more, but the overall experience feels very familiar. I didn't mind this. I love the formula, and it still feels fresh and enjoyable, but it does play very safe and not experiment more. However, Rebellion doesn't need to and can still create a worthwhile experience.

Sniper Elite: Resistance - Steam Deck Performance

Sniper Elite: Resistance surprised me a lot on the Steam Deck. I wasn't expecting terrible performance, but with the minimum specs, I was expecting more compromises. However, not as many compromises needed to be made, and I was able to make sure the game could run at framerates above 40 while still looking great. You will need to change some settings around, but if you do, you will find a great experience on the go. Rebellion did a fantastic job of optimizing this game.

The two settings outside of the render scale that I noticed impacted performance were Shadow Detail and Draw Distance. The rest could make a difference at Ultra settings, but at High, it wasn't a huge difference. Shadow and Draw Distance were the exceptions to this rule and resulted in heavily reduced performance when at High over Medium. Ambient Occlusion also affected performance, but turning it off changed the aesthetics too much, so I kept it on.

Recommended Settings

My favorite way to play was a balance of settings with a framerate of 45 for smooth gameplay and lower battery drain. Keeping the quality preset at medium and setting the render scale to 80%, we can keep the battery drain under 15W with smooth 45 FPS. There may be some slight spikes when playing Survival, but for the most part, this will be a fantastic way to play. The blurriness further away is unnoticeable in general gameplay, and I was able to make out far away foes and kill them regardless.

Quality Settings

However, if you want higher-quality settings, there are a few more sacrifices to make. My goal here was to keep the render scale at 100% and still get above 30 FPS, so I ended up with a mixed range of Medium and High settings at 40 FPS. This gave a much clearer picture while still keeping smoothness. It does have a higher battery drain, but if you are near an outlet, this will be great. If you are okay with sacrificing some render scale, you could bring it down to 90% and push back up Draw Distance, but I prefer to keep it at 100%.

60 FPS Settings

Finally, we have the 60 FPS settings. And yes, the game can run at 60 FPS! There aren't many changes we need to make from the recommended settings. We will set Draw Distance to Low and keep everything else at Medium. This gives us enough power to push to 60 FPS, and I didn't see many drops when playing. I was even able to bring up the render scale to 85% and it still be a great way to play. This would have been my recommendation if it weren't for the high battery drain and low Draw Distance, but it's still solid:

Accessibility

Sniper Elite: Resistance has some specific Accessibility settings where you can toggle subtitles, change the box opacity, increase the text size (very helpful for the Steam Deck), change text color, toggle camera shake, and change HUD opacity. There are also three colorblind modes you can change between

On top of that, there are a ton of different settings you can change. You can toggle crossplay, x-ray and trap cameras, frequency of slow-mo bullet and melee kill cams, change field of view, show tutorial notifications, turn on automatic skill/perk upgrading, change controller layout and sensitivity, and change audio settings.

The game doesn't support 16:10 resolutions, but it has great cloud save and gamepad support. It does have HDR settings, but it wasn't recognizing the Steam Deck OLED's screen.

Conclusion

Sniper Elite: Resistance is a wonderful new adventure in the Sniper Elite franchise that doesn't break the mold the series has perfected, but it doesn't need to. The fantastic sandbox-like gameplay and excellently crafted levels make it feel like I could replay them multiple different ways, with it still feeling fresh and exciting. With customizable weapons, skills to unlock, different tools to use and set up traps, different collectibles, different game modes, and co-op and competitive multiplayer, there are many reasons to come back and play more.

Resistance does feel a lot like Sniper Elite 5, with some aspects like the gameplay mechanics and UI being near identical. It does have different levels, story, and new tools, which do help make Resistance feel worthwhile, especially if you just want more Sniper Elite. I also encountered some bugs that ended up getting me killed, but it didn't happen often. Even with the glaring similarities, I had a blast playing Sniper Elite: Resistance and happily recommend it to fans of the series and someone who wants a great third-person Action-Stealth experience to enjoy.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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