E3 06: Resistance: Fall of Man Sony Conference Impressions

LOS ANGELES--Today at Sony's press conference, in which it unveiled a cavalcade of PlayStation 3-related material, Insomniac president Ted Price took the stage to play a quick demo of Resistance: Fall of Man, the gritty new futuristic shooter for the upcoming superconsole. But is it really that futuristic? Turns out the game is actually set in 1951, as Price revealed in a quick rundown of the game's storyline. As he put it, however, this isn't the 1951 we know. In Resistance's version of history, World War II never happened--because mankind was too busy being wiped out by a malevolent alien force. These off-world beasts have decimated entire populations around the planet, and the game will focus on the last fighting remnants of mankind as they grab a bunch of weapons and shoot a bunch of stuff in a desperate last grab for freedom.

The story's unique, but the gameplay we saw in that trailer looked pretty by the book in terms of mechanics. But formulaic or not, it was still intense, as the player navigated through an utterly obliterated urban area, firing on a number of hideous humanoid soldiers who may be possessed humans or simply big bad aliens...that wasn't clear. But at least we can say they were wearing some cool glowing backpacks. Later in the demo, the player encountered another sort of enemy, a small, five-legged crawling nasty that traveled in packs and should give anyone with a fear of bugs the heebie-jeebies.

Again, the gameplay in the Resistance demo seemed standard, but it sure was one of the better-looking shooters we've ever seen. The battered cityscape bore an incredible amount of detail, with walls crumbling into piles of brick, giant airborne war machines soaring overhead, and a ludicrous number of combatants taking part in the battle. The weapons in evidence in this demo were again standard shooter fare--an assault rifle here, a shotgun there. The style of the human soldiers' dress was consistent with '50s military technology, but the flying vehicles and weaponry definitely looked a little more advanced--so maybe the stalwart humans have been copping alien technology whenever they can?

Whatever the case, we're looking forward to helping the last remnants of humanity fight the good fight--and we may just get the chance to do that when the Electronic Entertainment Expo starts in a couple of days. We'll bring you more information on this demo, and the game's 32-player multiplayer mode that Price mentioned after the demo, as E3 continues.