An honest opinion of a "could've been there" game
The first thing you notice when you play Resistance, is the fact that the graphics are rather bland; whether it be the character models, or the textures in the environment. There isn't any pop-ins, but it's just the detail itself in the objects that stand out as 'meh'. To be fair however, Resistance 1 is a 2006 game; but comparing it to other 2006 games, such as Gears of War for example, it is immediately obvious that the game engine could've been better.
Ignoring the generic graphics, I tried to indulge myself in the story; or lack thereof. The game stars Nathan Hale, an American soldier that is infected with a widespread disease that has basically killed the entirety of Europe during WW2. As the game progresses you get to find out more about the Chimera (the monsters humans turn into when they are infected) and how they came to be. Now although sounding like a good premise, the story is actually very badly told.
There is usually a 7 second cutscene right after a mission, and since it is obviously rushed you can't really get anything out of it except for the context of the game. There are also "moving pictures" cutscenes which is commentated by one of the soldiers in the war. Personally, I think "picture" cutscenes found quite often in games nowadays is an absolute waste of time, and just illustrates laziness to the extreme. They are neither aestheticly pleasing nor as functional/emotional as an animated cutscene.
The sound is good, and it's backed up by quite a cool soundtrack. Weapons sound legit, yet the rumble feature wasn't used that much at all in this game.
On the multiplayer front, I can say that it's definitely fun. There is ranked system from which you gain experience (and thus, level up) the more you play in the multiplayer arena. The only annoying thing about multplayer however is the setting for a "one shot kill". Nearly all the servers use this setting, and it does what the name suggests, one shot onto you, and you're dead. Now Resistance can support up to 40 players in one map, but with such a pathetic setting, you'll just simply spawn and die before you even do anything. Moreover, there is hardly any skill involved. Someone can simply shoot everywhere as they walk and eventually some bullet will hit another person. There is no dodging, taking cover, jumping, headshots or melee, because you can simply die with just one shot. Without sounding too negative, it's always a blast to play with other people, especially if you have a headset. This way you can communicate with a clan (if you're in one) and really rage up some maps.
The single player is very fun, and the weapons are amazing. There is the Auger, which can shoot through walls; the Bulleteye, which can shoot bullets around corners, and many more. The bad part about it all is that the game is very...VERY hard. It's not neccessarily in the enermies, but rather the absolutely horrendous checkpoint system. This is because there are only 1-2 checkpoints in one mission (if any) and it is simply a pain in the arse to start all over again if you die for some reason. On the note of dying, you WILL die...a lot. Resistance has 4 bars of health, from which regenaration will only take place up to the nearest end bar. So for example you're at 1.5 bars, and you take cover, then your health will regenerate to 2 bars. In order to get back to complete full health, you must collect yellow health packets, and they're usually very rare. This adds up to the whole frustration in the game and could've been so much better if it had just implemented the "grey-screen-once-hit" interface that most FPS' use.
POSITIVES:
+ Good soundtrack
+ Nice change to WW2 era setting
+ Solid fun in multiplayer
+ Awesome weapons
+ Very cheap for a classic game
NEGATIVES:
- Bland graphics
- Frustrating "one shot kill" setting in multiplayer
- Appaling checkpoint system
- Badly told story