Despite (because of?) being heavily indebted to Halo, Resistance is one of the premier shooters on the Playstation 3.
Soon enough, however, you reach an important plot point that gives you the ability to regenerate part of your health bar (divided into fourths, you regenerate to the nearest fourth). The game does a 180 from this point on out and becomes an incredibly intense, fun shooter. You begin to work your way through war-torn England, fighting an alien force known as the Chimera, until you reach a satisfying conclusion by taking the fight to the aliens in their main base in London.
Resistance, interestingly enough, is one of the Playstation 3's premier franchises, but its roots can be found on another console. The game is massively indebted to Halo: Combat Evolved and its sequels. That's not necessarily a bad thing, as millions of people love the Halo games, myself included. But you should be aware that almost all the mechanics in this game have a Halo-ish feel to them. This is most noticeable when you pilot some of the vehicles, including a tank with a cannon and machine gun (sound familiar?) or a jeep with a machine gun turret on the back (thankfully, a Warthog, by any other name, kills as quickly). However, it also comes through in the general pace of the action, the level design, and even the lack of a cover system.
Resistance's strengths are its uniquely presented storyline, its weapons loadout, and its frenetic action. The story is not exactly a towering work of originality, but it is engrossing and keeps you moving through the different war zones. The narrative mechanism is unique, with comparatively few cutscenes and much more oral narration from the perspective of a female British soldier who fought alongside your character, an American named Nathan Hale, during the climactic battle against the Chimera in Great Britain.
The story might not take many risks and the characters aren't necessarily the most memorable, which makes the weapons the true stars of this game. Almost every weapon in the game has a highly unique idea behind it, not surprising since Resistance comes from the guys who make the Ratchet and Clank games. The Bullseye allows you to shoot a tracker dart; if you stick an enemy with it, all your shots will seek him out, meaning you can kill him from around a corner. The Auger fires through walls, with the shot becoming more powerful with each surface it penetrates. The Sapper fires sticky, egg-like mines that explode in corrosive goo. And the list goes on -- I won't spoil them all, but they're tons of fun to use when slaying enemies.
The action is intense and fast-paced throughout the game. Tons of enemies come at you, and they can hurt you pretty fast, so you have to stay on your toes. Many sections demand that you use different weapons, so you can't just stick to one favorite. This gives you a chance to test out and appreciate all of the wicked arsenal Insomniac created, which is a very good thing.
The campaign mode is surprisingly long, clocking in around 12 hours or more. That didn't used to be particularly beefy, but since this generation's standard campaign seems to be around 8 hours, 12 feels like a great value nowadays.
It is interesting, three years after this game's debut, to compare it to the competition. Killzone 2 is the only other exclusive, top-shelf shooter franchise on the PS3. But despite coming out more than two years after Resistance, I didn't think Killzone 2 was clearly a better game in all respects. It has frighteningly good graphics, but its action is a bit stale thanks to its lack of diverse enemies, and I was glad the campaign was over by the time the final level rolled around. That's not a good thing, considering it was a 6-hour game. Resistance held my attention for longer because it had more enemies and much more creative weaponry.
Resistance loses out to Killzone in a few areas. Its presentation is inferior in general, as the graphics look a notch below Halo 3 and a notch above Call of Duty 2 -- not exactly this generation's flag-bearer for graphical excellence. As I stated earlier, its obnoxious first level is a turnoff, and may dissuade some gamers right from the start.
Overall, however, I enthusiastically recommend this game to all shooter fans. The sensation I had while playing this game was eerily similar to the sense I had while playing Halo: Combat Evolved or Halo 2. It owes a tremendous amount to those games, but does its inspiration justice.