Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"All it's cracked up to be"

Plus: There are alot of new weapons that have never been seen before
Minus: Feels alot like the Halo games on XBOX
Interesting: This is Insomniac's first non-Ratchet & Clank game since 2000

Resistance: Fall of Man for the Playstation 3 was released simultaneously along with the Playstation 3 and Motorstorm. Even though most games that are released with the console usually get a low score from critics, this game has been argued that it's one of the best console launch games. Resistance: Fall of Man is rated M17+ by the ESRB and MA15+ in Australia. The controversy following this game is that it has too many similarities towards the Halo games.

So the story goes as… these aliens called Chimera have invaded Earth during World War 2 and have taken over Russia and most of Europe, and are currently invading Britain. A resistance force from America comes to try and beat these horrible and terrifying to a pulp. It is an alternative story to World War 2, which is where it happens. I actually think this IS a lot like the halo games… aliens invade, one certain dude steps up to kill them, etc. Most of us have experienced this same storyline but it isn't bad. XBOX owners may feel a slight sense of déjà vu, and it might seem to them this is just Halo set in the 1950's. The thing is, it isn't. It will definitely suck you in, and makes a good fictional storyline of what could have happened during World War 2. I like it and it has a nice twist to it.

So you play Sergeant Nathan Hale, who is part of that resistance from America. He doesn't actually speak that much, but the feel you get from playing him is… strength. He's shaved/bald, whichever you want to say, with a green World War 2 outfit on. In the first level of the game he gets attacked by the Chimeran babies, which look like the scarabs from the Mummy movies, who implant their what-ever into his body. This is how he gains the ability to heal himself when his health is low and take damage. Also when you're playing co-op (which I'll talk about later) there is a different player that your mate plays as. He doesn't have a name and is never seen in cutscenes, and the story is that Nathan is all alone in this big Chimeran base for example, and this character was merely stuffed into there for co-op. There isn't anything bad about that, but maybe if they added in a background story to this mysterious man. Now the other main characters in the game are, most obviously, the Chimera. They all come in different shapes and sizes and are all unique in their own way. Some are big, some are small, some are strong and some are weak. Most of them put up a good fight, as it's very interesting to look through the documents you collect to see more in-depth looks at the aliens.

Resistance: Fall of Man is an FPS game, no doubt. All of it is set in first-person view from Nathan's perspective, besides in the cutscenes. While there are many FPS games, this gameplay is solid, fun and the only parts when you aren't in action is when you're stuck and don't know where to go, or when you're in the jeep trying to find out where you need to go and what you need to do. Pretty straight forward, standard FPS gaming. It's not that special, but by all means, it's not bad.

The controls are… almost perfect. You are always using ranged guns, the only melee attack it when you whack your gun against your opponent, with triangle. They're basically the same as any old shooter, but the only issue I had with it was when you zoomed in with your gun you had to click down the R3 button to do it, which is kind of annoying to do but nothing too bad.

I must say, these are definitely good graphics, especially as it's one of the very first Playstation 3 games to be released with the system. They are spectacular, even better in high-def. There aren't many -or any at all- technical issues or blocky figures. All smoothly shaded and well done. The cutscenes and gameplay graphics actually look exactly the same, except for the big cinematics (such as the ending and a few others) when it showed the brightness and finer details.. The big thing I couldn't get over was when I was up one end of the battlefield, with the sniper rifle, I zoomed in to the "safe house" which is at the other end, and on one of the signs I could read the writing! I guess it's not that big a deal, but in other games it might not have exact writing. For your information it said, "No pedestrians past this point."

There actually is a bad thing in this game. Yes, you heard me. And that bad thing is the music. It's pretty good at first but it's just so… damn… annoying! It is literally the same World-War-2-inspired-trumpet-and-drum-tune over and over again! Luckily there is no in-game music, but in the main menu and lobby loading up your multiplayer match it's just so repetitive.

Although waiting for an online game to start up and listening to the annoying and boring music over and over again, multiplayer is one of Resistance's strong points. You have 3 options of multiplayer. One is to play local co-op in the storyline. Another is to play locally with up to 4 players, and the last is to play up to 40 players online. They're all fun, very immersive. In 4 player local, or 40 player online, you can have death matches; where you must kill everyone you see until you achieve the highest amount of kills, team death matches; the same thing but with teams, capture the flag; where one team needs to capture the other teams flag and take it to their base, and more, such as meltdown and breach. They're all so fun, and you can adjust basically anything; time limit, kill limit, weapons, health etc. When you're in the online lobby you can either go to ranked match; where you enter a random game with people of your skill level, custom match; where you select a number of options and automatically search for a game, or create a match; where you get to do just that. I played this game so much online, and it was fun every match I was in.

Now this is a moderately long game. It didn't take very long to complete it in co-op with my mate, but it's longer in single player campaign –mostly because you'll die a lot more when you're playing on your own. It could easily be finished in about a week, maybe longer if you're pacing yourself. It's not really long, but not really short, around 10-15 hours it will last you in campaign mode.

So after you're done with the story you wouldn't really play it again. It just doesn't seem as fun as the first time you do it. I doubt you would go through it again unless you wanted to collect all the pages of some report and unlock other weapons, so the only reason to keep playing this is the multiplayer.

Resistance: Fall of Man has amazing multiplayer, an interesting story and superb graphics. The only bad things are the replay value and maybe the length. The characters and chimera are cool in their own ways too. So this was basically the best game on the Playstation 3, but other games have came out since then so if you want a better shooter game there are games like Metal Gear Solid 4 and Call of Duty 4, but seeing as though this game has gone platinum and is fairly cheap, this is a must have game if you're looking for a compelling story, so the bottom line is… get it!

Story – 4/5
Characters - 5/5
Gameplay - 4/5
Controls - 4/5
Graphics – 5/5
Music – 1/5
Multiplayer – 5/5
Length – 3/5
Replay Value – 2/5

Overall Rating:
89/100 - Superb