Sniper Elite: Resistance hands-on preview — Bloody good time

I recently got to get behind the scope of Sniper Elite: Resistance, the upcoming next installment in the excellent sneaking/sniping game series from the team at Rebellion. In this hands-on demo, we got to see many of the new features for the game as the team preps for the January 30th 2025 release date. Welcome back to World War II, let’s turn some Nazis into a fine pink mist and scattered bone chips.

While Karl Fairburne has been the series protagonist for the last four games, with Sniper Elite: Resistance, you’ll be jumping into the boots of Captain Harry Hawker, a fellow member of the resistance, and an agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE) branch. Taking place at the same time as Sniper Elite 5 and Second Lieutenant Fairburn’s missions in France. Hawker has been tasked to uncover and destroy a new Luftwaffe “Wonder Weapon” that could stop the Allied forces from reclaiming France and Greece from the Nazi invasion. Using his skills in espionage, infiltration, stealth, and marksmanship, Harker will need to uncover the nature of this new weapon, locate it, and destroy it before it’s too late.

There are a lot of returning elements that we’ve seen in previous Sniper titles making their way into Resistance, including the always-popular slow motion x-ray kill cam that shows bullet impact in all of its visceral and gory glory. The game will also feature a wide variety of weapons, both Allied and Axis-made, including a large roster of sniper rifles. Suppressed rifles, heavy-duty anti-materiel rifles, and lever-action beauties are joined by suppressed pistols like the Wellrod, tried-and-true 1911 platforms, shotguns, MP44s, and many more. Most of the time, Hawker has the tools needed to accomplish his mission if he does so quietly, but there are times when you just need to make a mess. Let’s talk about going loud, then we’ll talk about stealth.

Going loud in the later Sniper Elite games is a downright difficult task. Unleashing firepower is sure to draw attention of nearby foes, and if one of them hits the alarm, they’ll have friends as well. Gestapo and standard grunts patrol the area, and more trained SS soldiers will happily show up by the truckload to help search if you start making a racket. To help with this, the series had introduced various sound masks in previous games, and they’re present here as well. During the mission I played I was able to sabotage a generator to pop and sputter enough to time my shots in between the noise, but it was far from the only opportunity. Jeeps driving by honked their horns occasionally, and if I happened to be in the right position at the right time, I was able to take advantage of the distraction. It’s not foolproof, but it can be a good way to pick off a would-be countersniper in the distance.

I was happy to see that the period-correct Gestapo uniforms are making a comeback after first appearing in 2022’s Sniper Elite 5 (and that’s an odd sentence to type out). More attention to detail than ever, both in the vehicles, clothes, and weapons has been paid, and it really shows. Graphically, it looks like the engine has gotten a fresh coat of paint and animation work as well.

Another fresh addition to the mix are propaganda mission objectives. Throughout the mission I played I saw multiple opportunities present themselves to further enhance my understanding of the layout of the current mission, or to engage with the resistance in new ways. One sequence had me uncover a nearby resistance HQ only to discover that the Nazis had already found it, cutting down the members inside. Additional clues lead me to another nearby safehouse, but ultimately that is entirely optional. Since you can earn experience points and gear by tracking down these additional objectives, it’s worth taking the time, if you can manage to keep yourself under the radar anyway.

The particular mission I tackled had me crossing a massive river. One side had a heavily-defended bridge, overflowing with soldiers, gun emplacements, spotters, and more to keep a watchful eye over this possible crossing point. Naturally, I could try to sneak through the patrol net, but that’s practically suicide. Instead, I could also use a zipline to make my way to the side gantry for the bridge, proceeding underneath to avoid patrols. If that’s too dangerous, there’s also a secondary bridge far in the distance that houses a train yard. It’s a good distance out of the way, but with a significantly reduced patrol pattern, it’s the easier path, if there is such a thing.

Once across, I ran into another opportunity to explore further. A local deli had a safe containing critical documents. If I happened to have recovered the key for it in my approach I’d be able to quietly open the safe. Failing that, if I wanted the contents, I’d have to instead recover some TNT or other explosives, though the resultant noise would bring a swarm of Nazis almost immediately. Like every other story beat, how you approach it is entirely up to you, consequences and all.

There is one other opportunity that doesn’t immediately present itself, but might be worth investigating when it does – optional kill targets. Sometimes you’ll find yourself in the right place at the right time with a chance to take down a particularly nasty element. Doing so would likely make other missions easier, or present other opportunities. While we didn’t get to see that for ourselves with the limited time we had, it’ll be exciting to track down these unique mission objectives when the game ships.

If you loved the invasion system that was in Sniper Elite 5, then you’ll appreciate that it also makes an appearance here. We didn’t get to check it out in our hands-on time, but the team was eager to point out that you’ll be able to give your friends remote grief just like before.

I was pretty happy with what I saw from Sniper Elite: Resistance. January is right around the corner and the game is shaping up nicely. This completely new protagonist and campaign will give us a new lens into the resistance, and the new Propaganda system will provide us a bit of risk and reward beyond the already great buffet of danger we already face. If you’re a fan of Sniper Elite, there’s a whole lot to be excited about.

Sniper Elite: Resistance will launch on January 30th 2025, coming day one to Game Pass. The game will be available on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Windows PC and PC via Steam and Epic Games Store. Stay tuned for our official review!

Sniper Elite: Resistance hands-on preview — Bloody good time

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