Sniper Elite: Resistance Review (Xbox Series S)

by Jim Smale · February 10, 2025

Sniper Elite: Resistance Review, Offering unparalleled sniping mechanics, stealth, and tactical third-person combat, Sniper Elite: Resistance turns the attention of the award-winning series towards a hidden war, far from the front lines, deep within the heart of occupied France. In a gripping new story that runs parallel with Sniper Elite 5, Harry Hawker, agent of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), takes the lead for the first time as he discovers an insidious new Wunderwaffe – something so powerful, it guarantees the Nazis will win the war. Working with the French Resistance, this deadly addition to the Reich’s arsenal must be eliminated.

Sniper Elite: Resistance Review Pros:

Decent graphics.
49GB download size.
1000 Gamerscore.
Mouse and keyboard support.
Accessibility options – subtitles, cutscenes subtitles, box opacity, text size, text color, Colourblind support, motion blur, disable binoculars distortion, camera shake, tutorial notifications, menu text size, and opacity, aim assist strength and aim to assist with keyboard and mouse.
Controller settings – six presets, Invert axis, and sensitivity sliders.
Axis invasion (optional) this is where anyone can jump into your game and try and take you out.
Cross-play support.
Player card – unlock emblems and titles.
Sniper shooter gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play complete with text and video.
Hidden Collectibles in each level and you can see your progress in the area and in the menu.
Medals and ribbons can be earned during play, they pop up with a satisfying noise and you can view them in the menu.
You have two ranks – one for campaign and one for multiplayer.
The shooting range lets you try out any guns in set scenarios.
Loadout and customisation can be done for each individual mode – campaign, axis invasion, survival, and multiplayer.
Five game types – campaign, propaganda challenge, Axis invasion, multiplayer, and survival.
Axis mission is where you enter another player’s game as Sniper Jager and you have abilities to help track the player down.
Survival mode is a case of defending command points from waves of enemies.
The propaganda challenge is a time-based set piece, you earn bonus rewards for speed and stealth.
Host and find Co-op campaign games.
A full 3D game world with 360-degree camera control.
X-ray kills are the series’ unique sauce, shots will do a slow-motion kill shot and the X-ray will show what damage it does to the enemy and it’s very impressive and gory.
Play every level how you want.
The areas you play in are big enough to allow many different ways to attack a situation and find secrets alternate routes and hiding spots.
You can replay any completed level.
Earn one to three stars per level for the objectives.
Nine campaign missions.
Five campaign difficulties but you can create a custom one and tweak combat, sniping, and tactical difficulty individually.
Earn EXP and level up to get skill points to put into the three skill trees – combat, equipment, and body. You can spend them manually or set it to automatically spend skill points.
Unlock optional starting locations for future playthroughs.
You can unlock different characters to play as in the campaign and headgear.
A lot of replay value for many rewards and unlocks.
Multiple load-out slots for different builds.
Your loadout is a sniper, gun, pistol, and items.
Each weapon can be customized for parts like scopes, mags, grips, etc to improve stats.
Can tag enemies.
Fast loading times.
Cutscenes are a mix of fmv and in-game.
Top-tier voice works.
The feedback you get for kills and hitting objectives and unlocks is a real dopamine hit.
EXP earned does show on screen and a brief breakdown of why you got that much EXP.
The sniping is so tight and fun to use.
You can use normal guns in third or first-person down iron sights with a button click.
Highly detailed locations.
Photo mode integration.
The ragdoll effects and how enemies react to shots and explosions are hilarious and also fantastic.
Environmental elements are highlighted to help cause maximum carnage.
Map and mini-map that shows objectives and points of interest.
Heart rate is a big deal, anything you do like holding your breath, running, etc will fill the bar that affects your aiming and shooting.
Third-person view outside of first-person sniping.
Save when you want.
The d-pad is used for shortcuts between guns and items.
Aside from shooting you can stealth kill enemies.
Vehicles can be sabotaged and used as a noise distraction or you rig it up with a grenade for a booby trap.
Dead bodies can be picked up and dumped, looted, or booby-trapped with a grenade.
Levels will have multiple objectives and sometimes you can pick and choose which to do outside of the main objective.
A clear stealth marker shows when an enemy can see you and how severe it is.
Alerted enemies can call in reinforcements but trigger the alarm but you can kill the soldier to stop it or use tools to dismantle the alarm altogether.
Noise is well implemented as you can use engine noise, church bells, or anything else you sabotage to mask your shots.
Items, ammo, special ammo, and weapons can be sourced from the game world.
Watching traps go off is not fun.
Bottles can be used to distract enemies but you can also use the traditional whistling method.
Radial menu for selecting items and tools.
The game is so satisfying to play as you can go full stealth which turns it into a puzzle game or you can go balls out action.

Sniper Elite: Resistance Review Cons:

They have a Jason Statham stand-in as the main narrator/character voice and for some reason, it grated on me.
The performance in the Xbox Series S is not great, a lot of slowdown and stuttering with pop-in happening.
When it comes to shooting normal guns and pistols it’s not as tight and great to shoot as the snipers.
Despite the map showing them, it can still be tricky to make out enemies.
If you are new to the series you have a slight learning curve as you learn it’s not a case of rushing in but planning and timing every move.
Using the cover felt spongey but honestly, it could be the performance of the game causing it.
The radial menu for items and tools is so fiddly, that it always seems too sensitive and selects the wrong thing.
You cannot remap the controls yourself.
It can be really tricky to lose the alertness.
Enemy snipers are the bane of my life in this game.

Related Post: Cube Snake Review (Steam)