Resistance: Fall of Man

"Colonel Korn, Major major major where are you? Oh sorry Catch-22 reference and totally not based on a totally awesome game."

There are many heated debates going on in the gaming community. One such debate is the one raging right now. It involves Gears of War for the Xbox 360 and Resistance Fall of Man for the Playstation 3. Both games are compared to each other, but in my opinion Gears of War wins out. Here are some things though that make Resistance Fall of Man one of the greatest shooters of all time.

GRAPHICS

The graphics are absolutely beautiful. The first thing that you will notice about the game is the environments. It is set in a fallen England. The buildings are dilapidated and crumbling, everything seems to be crumbling down. These environments are done in gorgeous detail. You would swear that the buildings seem like they wants to fall through your T.V. screen and on top of you. Every section of the environments are detailed and use the power of the Playstation 3 very well. If the environments in this game are any indication of the Playstation 3's potential power, we are all in for a treat.

The character models are also gorgeous. The humans are nicely detailed and feel historically accurate. I mean looking at these characters you'll feel as if you are wearing the uniform of a 1950's soldier, fighting for your life. However, the best character models are those of your enemies. Your enemies are thoughtfully designed and terrifying looking. They are big and scary looking and shooting right at you, it is enough to make you almost pee your pants. They look real and act real which scares me even more, but they do look nice when you send them to the ground with a head shot.

The weapons effects are also nicely done. Every weapon is nicely animated and recoils appropriately. The ammo for some of the more wacky weapons, from those imaginative people at Insomniac, even gives off some of the nicest particle effects I have ever seen.

SOUND

The game supports the graphics with some of the most terrifying sounds you will hear in a video game. The death wails of your comrades are haunting and the shouts of your mutated enemies literally scare the pants off of me. The voice acting did a great job of setting the scene and allowing you to feel the situation. Their tone set the mood of each area nicely. I mean they sound like they truly hate your guts. The music in the game also, sets the tone for the game. It is upbeat for the upbeat moments, but almost feels sometimes like funeral music in the next moment when your are in the grimmest of situations. The music really struck a chord with me. (No pun intended).

The sound effects are nice as well. Each of the imaginative weapons are nice sounding and each sound different from each other. If there is one thing I hate more than anything in a FPS, is the sound of generic gunfire, and I am glad that there is none in this audio package. The explosions sound violent and life threatening, and satisfying at the same time.

CONTROLS

The controls follow in the same vein as Halo, etc. It uses the R1 button to fire and the L1 button for an alternate mode of fire. This is the thing I had to get used to the most. The alternate methods of fire are of importance and not being used to it is a definite obstacle for some. However, aside from that, the controls are easy to use and are responsive. The only part that sometimes frustrates me is the use of the Sixaxis controller. I mean it is a nice use of the motion sensitive controller to shake away from enemies, but for me the alternate method was far more easy. The responsiveness of the Sixaxis was a little suspect for me and I found myself dead a few times because of it. The camera controls are easy to use and work like a charm. There was very few problems on the control side, and this game shines because of the obvious attention to this area of the game.

STORY

Well this game is set in 1951. It had been a decade since reports out of Russia claimed of biological experiments on the general population. These mutants stayed in the country of Russia for a while and then launched a massive attack on Europe. The continent fell within a short time and England fell in 1950. So now here you are in 1951, you are the American Nathan Hale, part of an invasion force for the control of England. This is basically where you take over. The story begins at this point and the game follows the actions of Nathan Hale. This story is the basic, an unknown force has humanity on the brink of extermination, and you the Rambo of the world take down said enemy by yourself. The story is kinda the weak point of this game, however, as I have mentioned in previous reviews, who buys FPS's for the story.

GAME PLAY

The single person mode is the meat of this game. This mode even has levels of difficulty, but you will find out that even in Normal mode, the enemy A.I. is tremendously smart. The enemies will duck for cover and try to flank you and some of your comrades at every opportunity. The A.I. will even cover for hurt comrades and provide supporting fire. This is very satisfying but also very frustrating. You will find that you will die very often, and you will be very disgusted at points. Then as you go up in difficulty, you'll be even more frustrated.

The cooperative mode is a nice feature as well. It allows you to play the single player mode with a friend. This does help alleviate some of my frustrations but not all of them. You and your buddy, sibling, etc. will also get terribly annoyed by dying all the time. The good point of this system is that it allows for strategic thought into your approach to dispatching the Chimera. You'll eventually feel a general sense that this is the best way to play this game, instead of relying on just yourself to kill, kill, kill.

The replay value is sort of low, and basically one play through should be enough to wet your blood lust. I have not played this game online, but I do know that it does support up to 40 players, and that is what it says on the case. The only way you'll get any more replay value out of it is if you play co-op, which can be fun because you can go about different team based strategies, and use it against your opponents.

RENT/BUY

A must buy for all PS3 owners out there, all 758 of you in this country. The game is one of the best games made for a next-gen or now current gen system. It offers tons of challenge and beautiful graphics. Along with that it remains to this day, nearly 7 months after the Ps3's release, the best game on the system.

THE RUNDOWN- Ooooohhhhh Nummmberssssss!!!!!!

GRAPHICS- 10/10 drab and dreary have never been more chic!
SOUND- 10/10 why can't more games be like this one?
CONTROLS- 9/10 stupid Sixaxis controller, why don't you rumble, why!!!!
STORY- 6/10 Man on the brink of extinction, I haven't heard that one before...
GAME PLAY- 10/10 Very satisfying if you can stomach dying a 100 times.
RENT/BUY- BUY

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 06/06/07