A fun 1st person shooter, but doesn't offer a lot outside of standard practices.
You're a guy, and you shoot a variety of mean looking monsters. Some are big, some are smart, some can crawl on walls, and some look like big dogs. Some even ride big mech-like machines, which helps add to the variety. So there's a decent selection of foes to square off against, but nothing really inventive.
It's set in a war-torn Europe in the 50s (which makes no sense to me considering some of the equipment available), so everything is dirt-brown and in ruins. Generally speaking you tend to find yourself in or just outside of run-down towns, or in buildings that look like abandoned warehouses. I didn't find anything wrong with the environments, and I think that they got the point across, but overall I didn't find them very engaging either.
Occasionally you will find yourself giving your feet a rest to navigate terrain from behind the wheel of a jeep (with a partner that mans the turret at the back), or in a big spider-mech machine. There's only one and half levels for each vehicle though, making the change welcome when it came around.
To also help keep the game-play interesting, Resistance offers up a nice selection of weapons. The standard machine gun, shotgun, and sniper rifle options are present along with weapons that fire a stream of metal shards, fires energy bolts that can pass through solid objects, lays down explosive blobs that act has proximity mines, and more. Weapons also have secondary fire options that provide extra defensive and offensive advantages, and more weapons become unlocked for your next play through after you first finish the campaign. Secondary weapons are available as well, and take the form of grenades. You get your standard grenade, a fire-bomb-like grenade, and the hedgehog which expels sharp spikes to impale enemies (which was very satisfying to use).
Although the capabilities of the weapons aren't necessarily new to the world of 1st person shooters, they are fun to use and add some strategy. Unlike other FPS titles where sometimes it's just a matter of finding the right weapon to use in a given circumstance, to be successful in the later stages of the game you have to find the right COMBINATION of weapons to use at a given time. Being dynamic with your weapon choices in each fight made the difference between failure and success for me.
And you will likely find some good challenges along the way. There's a fair share of levels that are far from a walk in the park. And although at first, some situations may seem hopeless, I was quickly able to find out the best approach to take so it doesn't turn into a frustrating experience. The difficulty level is fairly consistent throughout the whole game, and ramps up a little as required as new weapons become available.
The biggest highlights in the game for me were the last few levels that lead up to the final confrontation. Things felt like they were stepping-up to provide a great time in the last act. They seem to really bring it all together to create an intense experience. It was a solid effort that leads me to think if the rest of the game was more like this the praise Resistance seem to receive at launch would still be as relevant four years later.
This title was also host to my first online gaming experience on my PS3. Sadly, while trying to setup a game, the navigation and options didn't feel very intuitive. This made it more time consuming to get started than it needed to be.
Resistance is a competent and enjoyable shooter, but doesn't offer enough to reach levels beyond what other titles can deliver. It will make a nice edition to the library of FPS lovers, but it isn't a must play for every PS3 owner. It's fun, but not phenomenal.