Resistance: Fall of Man is an excellent first-person shooter with a satisfying co-op campaign and online multiplayer.
THE BAD: Limited special abilities. Campaign is too straight forward and by the book. No co-op online multiplayer off one PS3.
Resistance: Fall of Man is an addicting first-person shooter that shows the PS3's tremendous potential.
GAMEPLAY is exceptional. It is up to American soldier, Nathan Hale, and his unnamed sidekick (when playing co-op) to save the world from the invading alien race known as the Chimera. These extraterrestrial beings attacked without warning devastating most of Europe and Asia. After Hale survives a Chimeran attack, he becomes a hybrid of the two species gaining special abilities like health regeneration.
Moving over to the weapons in Resistance, they're a real treat. There are nearly a dozen different human and alien artillery that all have their unique attributes. Hale starts off with a M5A2 which is a standard machine gun with grenade launcher. However, he soon picks up a whole slew of other interesting weapons like the Chierman Auger that can shoot through walls and generate force fields for protection or the Fareye sniper rifle that can slow down time for precise head shots. There are also a variety of hand grenades like the Hedgehog Grenade that can shoot out hundreds of spikes upon impact or the Air-fuel Grenade that emits explosive gas burning everything in range.
The single or co-op campaign is fairly lengthy (about less than 10 hours) with several settings of difficulty each offering rewards after completion. The online multiplayer is also quite developed with many different modes. There are the usual deathmatch and team deathmatch modes as well as capture the flag and base assault modes. Each team plays as humans or Chimeras and switches species at the end of the round. Humans can run for longer periods of time without any penalty and can use a radar while the Chimeras can go into a superpower rage allowing them to see through objects. However, if this rage is left on too long, health will begin to deplete at a frightening rate. What's more, it is easy to join a room and relatively fast to connect. There is a maximum of 40 players per game and there is also a neat ranking system. Based of how well a player does, ranking levels increase unlocking new gear. It's a fun addition with an incentive to continue playing to hone skills.
GRAPHICS are excellent. Resistance's visuals are top notch and really puts the player into a war-frenzy atmosphere. The environments are richly detailed and bring on a creepy Resident Evil ambiance. Furthermore, the Chimera designs are interesting all with their own levels of repulsive ugliness.
SOUND is outstanding. From the exciting music to the intense sound effects, the audio gets the job done. The shots and explosions really heighten the experience and put the player in the middle of the carnage. Solid voice acting and fantastic alien grunts and moans accompany the rest of the madness.
VALUE is great. Although the single or co-op campaign can be completed in a weekend, there is a lot of replay value in the online multiplayer. The action is fast and gratifying enough to play for hours at a time. There is also some fun to be had playing with friends in offline multiplayer so long as there are enough PS3 controllers to go around.
OVERALL Resistance: Fall of Man is an excellent first-person shooter not without some flaws, but the satisfying co-op campaign and online multiplayer more than make up for any imperfections. Resistance comes highly recommended to anyone looking for a solid shooter on the PS3.