Rebellion has a strong track record of delivering great games with its in-house tech. The proprietary Asura engine delivers solid performance across a range of platforms, including the Nintendo Switch. But there’s definitely a sense that the core engine technology is of a distinctly last-gen vintage, lacking certain key features we’ve come to associate with current-generation software. Sniper Elite: Resistance, is another cross-gen title – so it’s probably best to temper technical expectations somewhat – but has the engine been pushed further than 2022’s Sniper Elite 5 and how does performance and image quality fare across all four current-gen consoles?
From a technical perspective, Sniper Elite: Resistance does some things well. Each level in Resistance takes place in a wide-open map, with plentiful enemy AI and a large number of routes to explore. That’s the core of the Sniper Elite gameplay loop, and everything works just as you’d expect, with convincing enemy behaviour across the entire map and no real technical hiccups to speak of. Visually, I think Resistance does a great job of depicting environments at scale: many of the game’s levels have lush, abundant foliage, along with draw distances that push impressive detail deep into the entire player view. The levels generally look good from just about any position or angle, with bombed-out buildings, bunkers, and churches often taking centrestage.
Lighting in outdoor scenes also looks reasonable with strong direct lighting – even in nighttime scenes – and good-looking shadows. Interiors, though, are a bit more mixed. There are moments where the diffuse indirect lighting looks great but there are a greater number of moments with more questionable lighting quality. Rebellion relies heavily on screen-space ambient occlusion (SSAO) as a kind of indirect lighting hack to make environments look richer, but it’s thick and applied indelicately, almost like an outline shader. There isn’t a high quality GI solution to handle the complex lighting in many areas so lighting quality falls apart somewhat on close inspection. That’s also sometimes true in outdoor areas that are blanketed in shade, where objects can appear to glow in some conditions.
Beyond those details, Resistance fits well with a lot of last-gen software. The game assets – many of which are derived from photogrammetry – look reasonably good but not exceptional, with some slightly flat areas at times. Reflections are handled using a mix of screen-space reflections (SSR) and cubemaps – again, a very last-gen approach. That’s not really too much of a slight though, because Rebellion is shipping this game on current and last-generation platforms simultaneously, so visual progression isn’t necessarily something you’d expect.
This also applies to the series’ signature visual element, the x-ray kill cameras. These shots track the path of your bullet through an enemy, providing a visual reward for carefully-placed weapons fire. Sniper Elite 5 and Resistance provide very similar x-ray views, which look great. I do still slightly prefer the approach taken by Sniper Elite 4, which sometimes provided a more visceral visual result. Of course, if these shots aren’t to your taste, they can be reduced in frequency or disabled entirely.
Resistance looks good enough for what it is: it’s artistically sound, and on a basic technical level the stages and enemy encounters proceed smoothly. However, the state of the art moves ever onwards, and I’d love to see a true current-gen effort from Rebellion – or perhaps another of their boundary-pushing Switch ports, which are legitimately very impressive considering the hardware. In 2025 on PS5 Pro, Resistance looks decent but would have perhaps benefitted from a stronger current-gen focus. The other rendering issue with Resistance comes down to image quality where there’s a lot of aliasing of various kinds, especially of the specular variety. The game is stricken with constant edge artifacts in almost every scenario, which are particularly clear when looking at distant geometry.
Unfortunately, Resistance just doesn’t make use of very effective anti–aliasing. TAA solutions are out of the picture here, let alone more advanced temporal upsamplers like FSR 2. It’s possible that a light post-process technique could be in use here, but if present it is very light. The PC version doesn’t have options for any anti-aliasing methods, nor selections for any particular kind of upscaling.
Resolution wise, a dynamic 2160p resolution is used on PS5, PS5 Pro and Xbox Series X – it’s just that Pro benefits from a higher general pixel count, with Pro and Series X spending more time at the 4K upper bounds. Otherwise, the games look very very similar without obvious divergence in other settings. Thankfully, the higher-end current gen platforms offer a steady 60fps update. Sudden changes in camera position can occasionally drop a frame or two, with the DRS system perhaps not keeping pace completely. Big explosions can also cause drops, especially when scoped in but outside of those very minor issues, it’s a typically faultless 60fps.
There is however one minor problem I noted on PS5 Pro and PS5. Sometimes it can seem like camera travel isn’t perfectly linear when panning the camera on a thumbstick, with subtle wobble visible. This usually isn’t noticeable but occasionally it did register during my gameplay. The Xbox platforms were not affected in my experience. The situation on Series S is a little more interesting. Resolution takes a cut, decreasing from 4K on Series X to something around 1080p on Series S. That means more aggressive edge artifacts that alias over a larger area of the screen, but that’s nothing out of the ordinary.
What I did find unusual is that the game targets 30fps on Series S. To its credit, it’s a flawless 30fps refresh in my experience without frame-rate stumbles, so it’s not that bad for a Series S version. But a 60fps mode – at least as one option – would be typical on the S, especially in a cross-gen game. It’s especially curious because Sniper Elite 5 originally targeted 60fps on Series S three years ago, delivering a slightly rocky 60fps update with frequent dips. But when I revisited the game on the S, I found that it too now has a 30fps lock in place. It seems that at some point in the last few years, Rebellion has changed their Series S approach to favour lower frame-rate experiences. That’s not necessarily a bad trade-off, but I wouldn’t mind seeing a proper 60fps option as well – preferably one that makes all the resolution and settings compromises needed to hit a decently consistent 60fps on Series S hardware. That should be possible, though it might not be especially pretty.
There is a certain efficiency to Sniper Elite: Resistance’s production that I admire. It arrives only two-and-a-half years after Sniper Elite 5, and packs a fully featured campaign with multiplayer offerings and a number of different modes. Relying on very similar engine technology certainly helps, as does taking usual Sniper Elite production shortcuts like using relatively static, simple cutscenes between levels. In a world where AAA titles often spend upwards of five years in development, perhaps this is an alternative, hopefully more sustainable game development model.
However, at the same time, there are certain characteristic faults that could have seen some attention in the time between the two titles. Various lighting and asset issues can be chalked up to the strains of cross-gen development, but the lack of anti-aliasing treatment is harder to excuse. Resistance is clear and sharp, but it shimmers like few other modern games. Gamers have become more and more sensitive to image quality issues like aliasing in recent years, and this feels like a bit of a blast from the past. Fortunately, performance is strong, logging a solid 60fps on the higher-end consoles, and a locked 30fps on Series S. That consistent update is a bit of a breath of fresh air, and comes without caveats or compromises.
The game itself is also a good deal of Sniper Elite fun. In terms of the core mechanics, level design, and UI, this is very much a retread of Sniper Elite 5, though that’s not necessarily a bad thing. The mix of planning, stealth, and long-range action is compelling enough, and I think series veterans will get a kick out of this entry. Like the graphics, though, I’m not seeing a clear progression past that last game. And there’s still occasional clunkiness with basic camera and character movement that feels out of place for a new game in 2025. So for better or for worse, this is a hit of Sniper Elite content that looks and feels much the same as the last Sniper Elite entry. That’s definitely going to appeal to a lot of players, but there’s little new here to draw the eye.
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