Sniper Elite: Resistance preview: the dedication to player freedom should put this in your sights

Sniper no sniping!

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

I’ve never really known much aboutSniper Elite. I played a chunk ofSniper Elite V2back in the day and mostly remember it as the game where you could shoot a Nazi in the groin and be treated to a gross X-ray clip of their nether regions exploding – oh, and there are zombies sometimes.

While I knew the game was about sniping, what I didn’t know was thatSniper Elite: Resistancehas more in common with immersive stealth sims likeHitman: World of AssassinationandMetal Gear Solid 5than I had initially realized. Given that those are two of the best games of the last generation, you could say I was psyched to find this out when playingResistanceat a preview atGamescom 2024.

Sneak king

I was dropped into a Nazi-occupied town in France, and given a list of objectives to check off, but first I had to sneak in via the town’s high walls. And there are multiple ways of doing this, as per previousSniper Elitegames. You can of course snipe the enemies watching for incoming intruders, you can climb up the towers on the corner of the wall and stealthily take out the guards with some close-quarters combat, and there was even what seemed to be a pathway from a sewer passage that I couldn’t quite figure out. Even from infiltrating this big town and dealing with three enemies,Sniper Elite: Resistancewas hitting the sweet spot of choice, moreish sniping, and riotous fun gameplay that made the previously mentioned stealth games so engaging.

Once I was in the town, I was free to follow the mission objectives in whatever order I pleased. I could search an informant’s apartment for information, I could head straight for the central castle area for the big showdown, and there was even a Nazi commander I had to take down. The latter of these was also a big highlight for me. While you can easily look from afar and blast his head off his shoulders with a well-timed sniper bullet, you’ll be able to overhear his troops talking about how he hates rats, and, wouldn’t you know it, one of the items you can find in the map is an explosive rat – veryHitman-coded.

Open-world (or in this case open zone) games have a tendency to stick all the information in front of you and leave very little up to player agency, butSniper Elitesaid: ‘Here’s what you need to do, have fun’. There was no one way to head through the mission, which is exactly what I was looking for.

Canon fodder

A member of the development team from Rebellion who was in the demo room with me explained that whileSniper Elite: Resistanceis apparently around the same size and length asSniper Elite 5, it acts as more of a companion piece to that game. Relatedly, the game’s protagonist Captain Harry Hawker - who fans will recognize as the co-op partner character inSniper Elites 3through5- has been madecanon, with his storyline taking place simultaneous to Karl Fairburne’s missions inSniper Elite 5.

But despite barely existing, Harry still has access to all the same tools his gruff-sounding American companion has too. There are classic stealth game distractions like glass bottles to lure enemies into a perfect line of sight, for example, and you can also use the bodies of your fallen enemies as lures, or – in a particularly grim twist – rig them to explode with a grenade once an enemy comes close.

Get the best Black Friday deals direct to your inbox, plus news, reviews, and more.

Sign up to be the first to know about unmissable Black Friday deals on top tech, plus get all your favorite TechRadar content.

And of course, the series’ famous sniping still feelsfantastic. Taking your time to line up a shot and seeing it shift into the slow-motion bullet camera knowing you’re about to be treated to a horrific bit of X-ray is always satisfying. Plus, you can even use it for some tricks, like shooting a grenade being held by an enemy. While I did make the decision to pop out of stealth and use my machine gun a few times (helped out by being caught by the enemy) it wasn’t quite as satisfying as the titular weapon and was a quick way to get wiped out.

I never did finish all the content in theSniper Elite: Resistancedemo; instead I decided to test out all of the different ways I could attempt the mission (dying six times and having to restart helped too). I managed to take out the Nazi commander in a few different ways, and infiltrated the informant’s house to find some info under a squeaky floorboard. But despite my failures, I had a great time with it.

I didn’t expect to walk out of Gamescom 2024 withSniper Elite: Resistancebeing one of my favorite games of the show, and yet its open-world stylings and prerogative to just let the player tackle the task at hand however they want won me over.

Sniper Elite: Resistanceis set to release sometime in 2025 forPS5,PS4,Xbox Series X|S,Xbox One, and PC.

You might also like…

Scott has been freelancing for over two years across a number of different gaming publications, first appearing on TechRadar in 2022. He has also written for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, Push Square, The Daily Mirror, and others. He’s typically rambling about Metal Gear Solid, God Hand, or any other PS2-era titles that never get sequels.

NYT Connections today — hints and answers for Saturday, November 9 (game #517)

From Dishonored to Mafia: Definitive Edition, some of my favorite games are free right now for Amazon Prime members

I’ve been covering Apple Watch deals for years – This is the one model most people should buy on Black Friday