The Playstation 3's most anticipated launch title is still an exciting challenge

User Rating: 7.5 | Resistance: Fall of Man PS3
The PS3's launch was apparently all about Resistance: Fall Of Man, but reports of a Halo-beater so good it warranted the price of the console were, on reflection, exaggerated to say the least. A couple of years into the console's life-cycle and I finally invest in a PS3 and a copy of one of its most celebrated exclusives (MGS 4 and Killzone 2 are going to have to wait). After approaching the game in 2009 and away hype I found it to be an exciting and viciously challenging foundation for the console's library, even if by today's standards it seems a little dated. Just a little.

The first attraction of R:FOM is that it's cheap. You could easily pick this up second hand for around £10, or even less on ebay, and at that price it's an absolute steal. You would be lucky to get 3 pints and a packet of crisps for the same price, and this will certainly last you longer.

Secondly, the game is exactly what a FPS should be; exciting, challenging and explosive throughout. The mind-numbingly crap plot follows an American soldier as he blasts through Britain fighting an alien force named 'The Chimera'. Exactly where the Chimera have come from is left unexplained, as is why they are intent on murdering or mutilating every human on the planet. The under-developed plot has clearly been thrown together in a lunch break so you have an excuse to murder lots of hideous aliens, and to be honest I couldn't have cared less. During the entire play through the action was good enough that I didn't need an original or complex story; I was always keen to see the fight though regardless.

And that's exactly what you are going to get with Resistance; one hell of a fight. On normal difficulty the game was consistantly challenging and toward the end it becomes insanely hard. The key to surviving the onslaught of beasties lies in the imaginitive weapons, which are one of the game's strongest points. Particularly impressive is the chimeran gun which fires balls of energy through any solid object. The only catch? It's an alien weapon, so they have it too!

The graphics inevitably look a little dated. That's not to say this is a bad-looking game; it just doesn't look as astonishing as some of 2009's leading shooters. Considering this is a launch game you couldn't really expect it to either.

Bigger and better games have come and gone (Fallout 3, Killzone 2, Far Cry 2, etc) but for the price you'd be hard pressed to find a PS3 game that represents better value for money. If you have played any of the previously mentioned shooters it's unlikely that Resistance will impress in the same way it did on launch, but it will undoubtedly provide 12-or-so hours of intense fun.