Sniper Elite: Resistance from Rebellion brings us a new take on the beloved franchise. Learn more about this one in our Sniper Elite: Resistance review!
Sniper Elite: Resistance from Rebellion brings us a new take on the beloved franchise. This time around, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Harry Hawker will be taking on the lead role on a mission that takes place in parallel to the story for Sniper Elite 5 – a game that I got a chance to review on PlayStation 5 back in 2022. While Karl Fairbune is busy elsewhere, you’ll have to take on a different type of war that takes place away from the front lines in occupied France. Hawker has discovered that the Nazis have a new Wunderwaffe, a weapon so powerful that it could end up tilting the scale in Germany’s favor. You’ll have to work alongside the French resistance to destroy it before it’s too late.
On top of the main story campaign, you’ll also get a chance to dive straight into the work of the French Resistance, thanks to the new Propaganda missions. These will be activated when you manage to locate the different Propaganda posters spread around the main campaign. These are shorter missions with time-sensitive objectives that will require you to be quiet, quick, and deadly as you sneak around each area to take down the enemy in hopes of ending the Nazi occupation.
You can play this game in one of five different difficulty settings: Civilian, Cadet, Sharpshooter, Sniper Elite, and Authentic. Civilian is the easiest one of the bunch and will allow you to focus on the game’s story and explore each area without having to worry too much about the combat side of things. Cadet ramps things up a bit but is still a good option for those new to shooters. Next up is Sharpshooter, a balanced difficulty that is challenging but not overwhelming. If you go with the Sniper Elite difficulty, then be ready to take on a challenge that will make you and other veterans of the Sniper Elite series feel right at home. As for Authentic, it’s a difficulty that will focus on realism, so you’ll have to take into consideration the distance between yourself and your target, the way the wind is blowing, and more.
Once you jump into action, you’ll control Harry Hawker with the left analog stick, and you will use the right analog stick to look around you and aim as needed. If you press in on the left analog stick, you’ll be able to sprint for a good speed boost. Pressing in on the right analog stick will bring up your binoculars so that you can take a better look at your surroundings. You can tag enemies while using your binoculars by keeping your sights on them for a bit. If you hold down the R3 button, then you’ll activate your focus. Interact by pressing the Square and Triangle buttons. They can also be used for a melee pacify or a melee kill action, in that order. If you find yourself in danger, tap the X button to try and dive into nearby cover.
As expected, you’ll aim by pressing the L2 button and will fire your weapon by pressing the R2 button. Press the L1 button to open up the radial menu, from which you’ll get to access your weapons. You can use the D-Pad to switch to your rifle and pistol by pressing up or left, respectively. If using a weapon with a scope, you can press left or right on the D-Pad to decrease or increase scope zeroing. While aiming, you can press the L3 button to empty your lungs, which is used to steady your potential shot for a brief window. Items can be used with the R1 button. Press the Touchpad on your Dualsense to open up your map so that you can plan what you’ll be doing next based on your current position and your objectives.
Along with the main story Campaign Mode and the Propaganda Challenges you can take on along the way, there’s also the option of diving into the Axis Invasion Mode. For this one, you’ll be taking on the role of the deadly sniper Jäger as you hunt down other players with your special abilities. That last one is an online-only experience, so you’re going to need a PlayStation Plus subscription to be able to invade gamers from around the world. You can decide if you allow other players to invade your game if they can do so by invite-only, or if you don’t want this to happen. Oh, and you can also play the Survival Mode, in which you’ll be tasked with defending command posts against waves of enemies. How long can you go?
As you rank up in Campaign Mode, you’ll receive Skill Points as a reward for your efforts. You can then go to the Skills tab to spend them to gain new abilities you can then use in Campaign Mode and Survival Mode. These abilities will be split into Combat, Equipment, and Body. For the Combat abilities, you can unlock Back in the Fight, which will allow you to jump back into action when incapacitated by using a med kit or Grenade Throwback, which makes it possible to tap the Triangle button to quickly throw a nearby live grenade. For the Equipment section, you can spend skill points on abilities such as Scavenge Weapon Ammo so that you can remove ammo from found weapons. As for the Body section, it allows you to obtain very useful abilities like Health Boost 1, which will grant you an extra health segment, or Speedy Recovery, which will initiate health regeneration much sooner.
The game has a full trophy list with a Platinum trophy for you to try to add to your collection. And since the game is a Cross-Buy release, you’ll be able to download the PS4 and PS5 versions of the game, and each one will have its own trophy list for you to work on. Each list will be split into 44 Bronze trophies, 7 Silver trophies, and 2 Gold trophies for you to work on. Along with completing the different story missions, the objectives you’ll have to consider will include completing 11 optional objectives, reaching rank 40, completing a mission – not including missions 1 or 9 – without healing, hitting every organ at least once with your rifle, killing 350 enemies with the rifle, killing 20 enemies while using booby traps, or
On top of all that, there’s a separate trophy list called Lights, Camera, ACHTUNG! which features 5 Bronze trophies and 3 Silver trophies. That list’s objectives are tied to the special mission that is described as follows:
The Allies are swarming across Europe and gathering pace. In a last-ditch effort to sway the favour of the French, Adolf Hitler, leader of the Third Reich, is en route to the Ville du Lac Film Studios to film a series of propaganda shorts. The SOE and the Resistance want to ensure it isn’t just film that gets shot today. Infiltrate the Film Studios. Locate Hitler. End the war today.
Because of this, the eight aforementioned trophies will pop once you defeat Hitler 5 times, complete the mission, defeat only Hitler and exfiltrate, defeat Hitler at a distance of 250 meters or more, defeat Hitler and exfiltrate without being detected, complete the mission on the Authentic difficulty setting, complete the mission with a two-star rating, and defeat Hitler by using the most effective attack of them all: a solid shot to the testicle. Simple, right?
Sniper Elite: Resistance from Rebellion brings us a new take on the beloved franchise. This time around, Special Operations Executive (SOE) agent Harry Hawker will be taking on the lead role on a mission that takes place in parallel to the story for Sniper Elite 5. While Karl Fairbune is busy elsewhere, you’ll have to take on a different type of war that takes place away from the front lines in occupied France. Hawker has discovered that the Nazis have a new Wunderwaffe, a weapon so powerful that it could end up tilting the scale in Germany’s favor. You’ll have to work alongside the French resistance to destroy it before it’s too late. Sniper Elite: Resistance launches on January 30 as a Cross-Buy release, so you’ll be able to download the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 versions of the game at no extra cost, and each one will feature its own trophy list.
Disclaimer
This Sniper Elite: Resistance review is based on a PlayStation 5 copy provided by Rebellion.
