Resistance: Fall of Man

Usually when a new console begins its life cycle the games coming out for it are mediocre at best. This happened when the PS2 launched and the Xbox360 launch titles were not exactly diamonds either. Because of this fact of life no one expected the first PS3 games to be anything more than average. Sure, Sony tried to convince us that they were the best games ever, but sadly this was far from the truth. There is an exception though – Resistance: Fall of Man is a great game. In fact, it can be considered the first PS3 killer title. But is it just a gun in hand, dead wife with lover in bed killer or machine gun in one hand, grenade in the other, trail of dead people behind it killer?

All is not as it seems

For the longest time I was under the impression that Resistance was a WW2 first person shooter where aliens somehow got into the picture. This is quite far from the truth actually. In the games alternate reality WW2 never happened and a lot of the events that led to WW2 didn’t take place. According to the game things took a different path in 1898, where events in the USA isolate themselves from the rest of the world. WW1 (or the Great War as it is called in the game) is started by the UK and France, but Germany loses all the same. The October revolution fails in Russia, so the great nation remains an empire as opposed to what really happened. The common element in this alternate history is that most of the great nations alienated themselves from the rest.

During the first half of the 20th century the nations remain isolated, but all the same news about entire villages destroyed start leaking out of Russia. This soon escalates to entire cities being wiped out. At the end of 1949 the Chimera, a mutated race start pouring out of Russia taking over the entire European continent in a matter of weeks. They posses advanced technology, have superb regenerating abilities and are extremely numerous. In 1950 they invade Britain by means of an underground tunnel and are victorious after 3 months. With human forces scattered around hidden military bases the British forces ask the US for help in exchange for technology that would help the US fight the Chimera. A strike force is sent to the UK, but except for the protagonist of the game Nathan Hale everyone is killed shortly after landing.

It is during this invasion that the game starts and players get to see the eradication of all the US soldiers. Those that don’t get killed by gunfire and explosions are exposed to the Chimera virus, which makes them as good as dead (and in month or so potential enemies). Hale gets infected as well, but for some unknown reason retains his humanity while at the same time gaining some of the Chimera traits such as regeneration and improved reflexes. I won’t spoil the rest of the story for you, but be prepared for some interesting revelations about the origins of the Chimera and their technology.

What makes a good shooter great

When you think about what separates the best shooters from the rest you can narrow it down to 3 major things: interesting and well designed environments/levels, good enemy AI and good weapons. Resistance is good at all three things. The levels are superbly designed, and they range from head-on assaults with a platoon of soldiers where the game closely resembles Call of Duty, to more claustrophobic levels, which are still action oriented but have a distinctly creepy atmosphere. The environments themselves range from devastated towns (which again, resemble Call of Duty) to high tech Chimeran factories and underground bunkers. There are even some vehicle sequences where you drive a tank or jeep and they are both very enjoyable, as they provide a respite from the other shooting action.

The AI in the game is “above average”, although the enemies tend to ignore your grenades and more often then not wait for you to get out of cover instead of coming after you. Regardless of that most confrontations with the regular Chimeran grunts are intense and you’ll have to stay in cover if you wish to last long enough to win the fight. For the first few hours there are no big surprises in how these confrontations play out, but after a while you’ll start encountering enemies equipped with wall piercing weapons. These weapons change the dynamic of the battles quite drastically, as you are suddenly no longer safe when you take cover. Luckily you acquire the same weapon after the first such encounter, so enemies can no longer hide either. I’ll go as far as to say that this wall penetrating weapon is one of the major reasons that Resistance is so good. It might not sound like a big deal , but when everything you learned in other FPS games suddenly no longer works and you are forced to adapt you know that you are dealing with something more than just a regular shooter.

As expected from the developers of Ratchet and Clank the weapons are very unique both in appearance and in the way they can be used. The already mentioned Augur (the wall ignoring energy weapon) is also capable of creating energy barriers which deflect any non-augur projectile while the standard Chimera rifle allows the user to tag enemies. After an enemy is tagged all fired rounds will automatically home on it, which makes firing around corners an effective means of dealing with the opposition. Other weapons include a regular shotgun and rifle, projectile weapons whose fire ricochets from walls and some even more bizarre tools of death. To make things more interesting there is a distinct lack of ammunitions for such weapons, so you’ll be mostly relying on the standard rifle and the basic Chimeran tag weapon.

PS3 exclusive

Although the game would work well on the 360 as well, there is no denying that the PS3 is doing an admirable job with this game. The textures around the game world are as good as in most PC shooters (meaning that they don’t become a blurry mess when inspected from close) and the amount of detail seen around the levels is nothing short of breathtaking. When battling it out on the streets almost every object reacts realistically to explosions and bodies, so don’t be surprised when the enemy uses a grenade to destroy your cover instead of trying to flush you out. I was taken completely by surprise when the bus I was hiding behind not only moved because of the incoming fire but actually started burning, all of which was followed by a massive explosion that made all the surrounding objects fly into the air. Until now such events were usually scripted, but in Resistance they are completely dynamic and are very unpredictable. Unfortunately the game is locked at 720p, so you’ll see some jaggies on high resolution TVs. The game is also somewhat dull looking with the color palette focusing mostly on browns and grays. On the other hand this makes the in-game situation look even more depressing, which makes you want to kill the culprits even more.

With the games high production values it is a bit disappointing that the story is told via still images (WW2 style) and in-game radio conversations, but one can’t really complain when it works as good as it does in this game. The sound in the game is not far behind the graphics either – professionally voiced characters and well made sound effects help with immersion while the occasional music score makes things feel more dramatic. If future PS3 games will manage to keep this standard up Sony has nothing to fear.

You’re not alone out there

The game offers a beefy multiplayer experience both over the internet as well as on a single PS3. You can play the entire single player campaign with a buddy via split-screen and you can fight with up to 3 other players in some of the multiplayer modes. Online the game supports up to 40 players on the same map. High production values are evident in multiplayer as well, as the game offers pretty much everything you would expect from a multiplayer FPS on the PC or the Xbox360. This includes rankings, clans, multiple play modes (deathmatch, CTF, meltdown - a domination type game, conversion – a last man standing game with a twist) and two playable races – the humans and the chimera. Be warned though, you cannot access the online servers if you play US version of the game on a Japanese PS3 (and vice versa).

Conclusion

Right now Sony needs every AA title for the PS3 that it can possibly get. While most of the PS3 games right now aren’t worth their money Resistance is not only worth the 60 bucks, but it is actually one of the best shooters recently released. I’m sure that by now everybody who owns a PS3 has a copy of Resistance as well, but for those of you that don’t have the PS3 yet – be sure to put Resistance on the list of future purchases, right under the PS3. After all, how often do you get to play a game where you can manically eliminate your enemies just by shooting madly into a wall?

Gameplay	19/20	Resistance is one of the best FPS games released in recent months, there is no question about that. The weapons are very unique and the setting is quite unusual. The AI may not be perfect, but it is better than in most other games.
Graphics	18/20	Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but you’d have to be blind not to appreciate the graphics in this game. Being limited to 720p and not having any HD cinematics mars the overall quality though.
Sound	18/20	With a good sound system you’ll be turning around when crawling through a creepy bunker and dodging for cover when under artillery fire on the outside. Sound wise it doesn’t get much better than this.
Value	19/20	The single player experience is quite lengthy, so you are getting your moneys worth even if you don’t intend to replay it. Considering the extensive multiplayer support there is no fearing for the longevity of this title.
Preference	18/20	Every body loves FPS games (well, not everybody but almost). And while most of us are fed up with WW2 games in general, killing 8 feet tall mutants in war torn Britain is a first in the genre.
Overall	92/100	Console FPS games are generally inferior to the really good PC shooters. Just as with Halo this is not the case here and Resistance is right up there with Half Life 2, Halo and the rest of the all-time FPS champions.