Resistance: Fall of Man

"Who Will Be Left Standing?"

Us...or the Chimera...

Well, Sony has released the PlayStation 3 and it's arrival is more than welcome, the next-gen console wars have begun and Sony is going to need something big at launch. A game that sticks out amongst the others that makes you want the system. And that game just so happens to be, 'Resistance: Fall Of Man', created by the talented folks over at, Insomniac Games, the guys who brought PS2 owners the 'Ratchet And Clank' games. 'Resistance' is a gritty, no-holds barred, First-Person Shooter, set in WWII, but instead of it being the war we all know, 'Resistance' throws an alien invasion in the mix. So does Sony have their killer-app already? Or do we have yet another over-hyped title on our hands? Read on to find out...

'Resistance' has a pretty awesome story, yes we have all heard aliens taking over the planet before and us finding a way to fight back and destroy them. But it's the way that the story is told and how it unfolds that makes it so interesting and good. When you start, the story has already happened, you hear it through the narrative of a female British officer, told through black and white stills and cutscenes, you are instantly pulled into it's world. You'll want to find out all the answers to everything here and the gameplay is so well-done, you won't mind playing through all the levels to do so. The female officer goes on to tell us that an alien race known as, The Chimera have invaded the planet, starting with Russia and eventually annihilating mostly all of Europe. The only remaining place is Britain, and the Chimera are already set to take it over, fast-forward to July the 11th, 1951. The Americans launch an assault on the Eastern coast of England and on the second wave of the assault, there was a Sergeant named, Nathan Hale. His actions have become a mixture of both scrutiny and myth. What follows later are the known events of his life from July the 11th to July the 14th. And this is the character you play as, and you get to see first-hand at exactly what goes down on those days.

The gameplay is your standard First-Person Shooter material, aim and shoot at anything that threatens your well-being. But 'Resistance' kicks it up a notch by throwing hordes of enemies at you from all-directions, and it rarely stops between each pulse-pounding level. You will receive a beating during this game, the enemies are smart, tough and everywhere you look. The fire-fights in this game are amazing, and it never lags at all, the back-grounds aren't foggy either, so you can see every Chimeran blasting away at you as clear as day. But it's no-fun if the weapons aren't cool and plenty, right? Well fear not, 'Resistance' has you covered, we're talking guns that target enemies through walls and fire through them to blow the alien-scum into the afterlife. Guns that launch homing-devices onto the enemy so that you can use cover and fire your weapon and have the bullets trail the unlucky selected-target. These and more are available for you to use, and once you complete the game, you can unlock even more weapons to tear your enemies to shreds. Each of the weapons have alternate-firing methods as well, so you'll be having fun with this arsenal, no doubt. There are vehicles as well, tanks, jeeps, and everyone's favorite, Mech's. However, these are only available during certain levels, but hey, at least you get them, it also breaks from getting monotonous. There is also the always welcome, co-op mode, blasting away through the campaign with a friend is always good and this is no exception. The only draw-back is the lack of online co-op, yes gamers, this one is offline co-op only. But on the other hand, you do get to participate in having 40-player battles online, which is insanely fun. With that one minor exception, 'Resistance' is packing some serious gameplay overall, good-times.

You bought a six-hundred dollar machine, so how are the graphics? Well, this being a launch-title, and with Epic Games releasing their visual-behemoth, 'Gears Of War' on the Xbox 360, not too long-ago. The game just isn't as eye-popping as you would come to expect, granted it is a great-looking game, just nothing to get too excited over. The environments are huge and detailed really well, especially the Chimeran technology and the war-torn streets. Characters are also covered nicely, they are smooth and have realistic-expressions and all. Explosion, fire, smoke and water effects are all beautiful and crisp, seeing those cars get blown to pieces from gun-fire was an awesome sight. However, some things are noticeably bland and other graphical-features were not incorporated. Bland being some indoor structures compared to the devastated-streets outside and unincorporated graphical-features being not able to see myself in the mirror and so on. It's not a big-deal for something like that, and I feel as though I'm nit-picking, but it also makes you wonder, why not? It adds more to the game and makes sense to see my reflection. As for the AI, the Chimeran's are excellent, they take cover and fire at appropriate times while your comrades are simply-put, braindead. These guys run directly into the bullets and die within minutes, they rarely help and sometimes just plainly get in your way. Sound effects are loud and damn-good, the guns are all ear-shattering sweet, and all the roars and screams of your Chimeran foes sound excellent. Voice-overs for the human-characters are surprisingly well-done also, this area was covered just fine.

I, on very-rare occasions have issues with the way controls are set-up, so this game, control-wise, was perfectly fine in my opinion. However, if you don't take a liking to them they are fully-customizable. The default controls are as follows, moving your character is done by using the left-analog stick, jumping is done by pressing X, the action/melee buttons are performed by pressing Triangle, and to shake off an enemy is done by shaking the SIXAXIS controller left and right or by moving the analog-sticks rapidly back and forth. To aim your weapon/look is done with the right-analog stick and to throw a grenade is done by pressing the O button. To reload your weapon, press the Square button and to fire your weapon (Primary) press the R1 button, the alternate fire is the L1 button. To quick select a weapon, hold R2 and use the left-analog stick, to switch weapon select (Rings - if more than 8 weapons) press both R2 and O. To cycle your weapons tap R2 and to toggle the zoom, click-down on R3. To select a grenade use the directional-pad both up and down, to put your spotlight on/off press right on the directional-pad. And to pause the game or open the Start menu, press Start.

After all the smoke has cleared, the fires put-out and the blood washed away, is 'Resistance' worth your hard-earned money? You bet, especially after the cash you dropped on the PS3. If there is one game to grab along with your PS3, this is it, some minor faults keep the game from getting a perfect score, but they are nothing major to take away the fun this game brings. It has a long campaign, around fifteen to twenty hours, replay value (You unlock more weapons after you complete the campaign) and tons of online options. In my opinion, this is Sony's killer-app indeed, pick this one up and get ready to lay waste to the Chimeran race!

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/07