I’m finding it hard to focus on and enjoy games at the moment. I’m terrified every day I wake up that the Government will take away more rights from myself, my friends, my family and my loved ones. I see headlines from overseas that workplaces are partaking in a snitch hotline to dob in those “hired due to diversity.” I sit, terrified that this is just the beginning and the world is losing its compassion and care. This isn’t several decades ago. This is 2025. I launch Sniper Elite: Resistance, the latest in Rebellion’s long-running sniper simulator. I send a 7.62mm bullet through a Nazi’s skull from 300 metres away, shattering it into a million pieces. For a moment, everything feels okay. I love the smell of Nazi blood in the morning.

The year is 1944. Players control the new protagonist Harry Hawker in events that run parallel to those in Sniper Elite 5, the last numbered entry. As an agent of the Special Operations Executor, he discovers a Wunderwaffe, a dangerous super weapon that could turn the tide of the war in the Nazi’s favour. It is up to Harry and his comrades to guide him along over radio communications to put a stop to it and continue the fight to liberate France.

Across seven campaign missions, you’ll navigate through work sites related to the Wunderwaffe and where the weapon itself is located. Thousands upon thousands of Nazis lay between you and victory. This is about all you get story-wise; preamble cutscenes at the start of each mission that describe your current task. Further developments come along, including the scope of the Nazi’s plot being bigger than what it originally seemed. However, it’s all stuff far too easy to drone out when you’re wading your way through oceans of Nazi blood.

It’s due to the fact this is a side foray that events of Sniper Elite: Resistance don’t feel all that memorable or important. Out there elsewhere is the main protagonist Karl doing the primary mission of saving the world. Harry Hawker is a bit of a boring protagonist. He’s so unremarkable in fact that I forgot he’s been in the series since Sniper Elite 3, something I just learned upon researching as I write this. In short; a bland story, with a bland protagonist.

Sniper Elite games have never been strong in storytelling and that’s mostly fine, the name of the game is popping Nazi skulls like blood blisters. However, playing Resistance reminds me how good Wolfenstein (and most recently Indiana Jones and the Great Circle) developer MachineGames is at writing compelling characters, even fascist villains you hate. The trio of new Wolfenstein’s are just as much a character piece as they are a Nazi-killing feast. BJ Blazkowicz is a complex character, someone who feels like a God chiselled from stone sent from the heavens who has suffered trials and tribulations, but uses that to help bolster and defend those around him. Well-written Nazi world-set games exist, and I wish Resistance and the greater Sniper Elite name would also aim for such heights.

Of course, where I have never doubted Rebellion’s vision or skill is in their ability to create open-world sandboxes full of Nazi-killing fun. Though it doesn’t quite reach immersive sim levels in interactivity as there are fewer options of what you can do and see, I’m often reminded of the Hitman franchise. Sniper Elite, and in turn Sniper Elite: Resistance, feels like a sister series. Your primary task is often to investigate several key sites housing points of interest (tanks, powerful crafts or weapon productivity bases) to more often than not destroy, then move on to the next task, before eventually exfiltrating from the map. Where interactivity and varied means of play open up is in the optional side missions, where you’re taking out specific targets and have a bunch of different ways you can go about it.

One mission had me taking refuge from the dangerous and open cobblestone streets where I could be spotted at any moment and forced to engage in a hectic skirmish. Entering the building from the second level, I crept my way downstairs where I discovered I was in a bar. A Nazi soldier and a special Nazi commander target were talking about a rat infestation problem they were having that needed dealing with. Lo and behold, a few options lay ahead of me. I could take them out with a silenced pistol shot to the head, nice and clean. Or I could go for the theatrics and get a ‘rat bomb,’ which is exactly what it sounds like, seeing the Nazi commander attempt to crush it only to be blown into smithereens to kingdom come. There are a few of these sorts of opportunities throughout the game; you can choose how you dispatch patrolling high-ranked snipers that’ll make your life hard out in the open, or you can poison another Nazi commander with a glass he regularly drinks from. They’re all delightful, but I wish they were a little more abundant.

More often than not, it leads to being sighted and engaging in skirmishes you didn’t plan for, but that’s actually where Sniper Elite games are at their best. With gunfire and explosions erupting all around you, you’re there in the moment no matter the Sniper Elite game. Adapting to the chaos around you and fighting tooth and nail through Nazi forces is what it’s all about. When it’s so fun then, why would I bother to equip the measly wooden ammunition and go about knocking people out? All Nazis must die, as far as I’m concerned.

Thankfully there’s plenty of exciting map variation to work through to complement the chaos. Your first mission sees you working to destroy a dam that Nazis have seized control of. Before your allies can complete that last bombing run to make the dam break, you need to weaken the structures and halt the smaller operations they have dotted along the site. You start low, climbing and working your way up hills and walls to the level of the dam walkway. On the way you’ve been taking out guards near and far that have stood in your way. Only now that you’ve got this height advantage do you notice there are several people you missed and are heading your way! With your newly gained advantage, this set piece level is a stellar introduction to showing you use height to your advantage when getting the drop on enemies.

Other mission highlights see you enter apartments to get away from the dangerous blood-soaked cobblestone streets or go deep underground in bunkers to put a stop to production lines. Hectic gunfights ensue in the latter as you’re running the length of catwalks, getting fired upon from below as you do your best to find refuge and cover in corner nooks and pillars. My favourite mission of all has to be one where a giant mansion lies atop a hill. In about every direction lies vineyard grounds that are cruel in their slant that you never quite know what’s coming over each incline. Deliberately but expertly lacking in cover, players will have to dart between tufts of tall grass and dingy fences that are falling apart. Or you can work the outermost perimeter, working through huts and houses to get better equipment as you slowly make your way to the map’s centre.

The only time this let up for me was in the moments the AI could be a bit dumb (enemies getting lost or stuck against a wall in patrols) or the scarce moments that I’d get stuck on the topography or walk/fall through an asset I wasn’t meant to. Rebellion assures at least the latter issue will be fixed come release, but proof remains to be shown. It’s worth noting as mileage may vary.

Sniper Elite is far from the biggest franchise in the gaming world, but it’s often a known name thanks to its delightfully bloody and brutal x-ray cams it cuts to on kills. That’s of course back in Resistance and is as welcome as ever as you watch an enemy’s body crumple into a symphony of blood and bone. I’m not a prude to violence and gore in my games as I’m a big horror fan. Though even I find Mortal Kombat‘s fatalities to be a bit much sometimes. In Sniper Elite, it always feels apt and cathartic. When I watch a dense bullet penetrate a Nazi’s skull, exiting the back with blood chunks and bone fragments following it, I’m reminded they deserve it. X-rays of nazi soldier’s jugulars slashed, limbs shot off or testicles obliterated with a stray assault rifle bullet… give it all to me. I can never get enough.

You’re also feeling incredibly smart as you pull off these kills. Suddenly I’m a Nazi killing tactician, accounting for bullet drop, along with wind speeds and directions to make sure I accurately pop that soldier’s head off. It’s not often that a game with this much shooting and explosive action makes you feel clever, and I appreciate that Sniper Elite has just enough mechanics to foster that sensation without overcomplicating things.

Sniper Elite: Resistance also aims to keep its audience playing for a long time with its laundry list of checklists to fill out. This won’t appeal to every player but more often than not if you’re already in the Sniper Elite games then you’re really in, wanting to get as much out of them as possible. Why yes, I will strive to rack up kill counts with x weapon or complete y feat ten times if it means killing more Nazis and watching numbers go up as I gather more valuable skill upgrades to make my gameplay more efficient. What this means is you can also get out what you put in. Upgrades can allow you to stock higher ammo counts, flinch less when being shot at and be able to enter a ‘last stand’ mode that’s resolved with medkits instead of being forced to watch a kill screen.

Replayability is also emphasised with the additional game modes. Though I didn’t get to check out multiplayer functions such as invading or being invaded mid-campaign, co-operative play or multiplayer deathmatches in this pre-launch period, if the community’s dedicated there’d be plenty to see and do. Challenge missions are an excellent way to refresh and refine your skills as you work through either stealth-oriented missions that have your boots on the ground taking out foes on a smaller map or a sniping job in a sniper’s nest, raining carnage on those down below you. No matter which of these challenge missions you go on, they delightfully play like the Mercenaries Mode often found in Resident Evil games, letting you multiply your score and add extra time depending on if you score a headshot or successfully take out an enemy in stealth. Survival mode is the most run-of-the-mill of the modes, but at least throws dozens of explosives and weaponry variety your way as you defend points, letting you try out arsenal tools that can otherwise be missable in the campaign.