R3 is my first Resistance game. Love the way the guns feel and the pacing of the singleplayer. Would it be worth it to go back and at least play the first one?

Thinking about picking up KZ2 as well. My PS3 has been sadly ignored for too long (aside from GoW and Uncharted).

if its cheap and you have the time go for it.

personally I feel that you can't go back to R1/2 after R3. Cause R3 is simply THAT good compare to the first two.

Unlike most people I enjoyed R2, but realistically you should probably just play 1. And I will warn you now: It has checkpoints that are 45 minutes apart.

Sure, why not. If they're cheap enough I think they're worth it. Resistance: FoM hasn't aged as gracefully as I'd like to remember, though R2 plays like a lot of most modern shooters and is easy to get into. It also features the best multiplayer options for the lot.

That's kind of a hard question to answer.  I suppose if you picked them up and played them on easier difficulties then you could enjoy them well enough.  There are some significant differences between each game in the series though, so I don't know if you'll find what you're looking for.
 
Resistance: Fall of Man was kind of the last of a dying breed when it came out, so it definitely feels old-school, but in a way it feels like the most polished and complete of the Resistance games.

That shit talked about Resistance 2 is often hyperbole, though I was disappointed by it.   No weapon wheel though.
 
Killzone 2 is awesome though, and you should play it.

I like R1 and R2, but I don't think I'd want to go back to them now as R3 is leagues ahead of them imo.

KZ2 is pretty good as well, although I prefer KZ3.

I quite enjoyed the first 2, and you'll maybe get a bit more context as to why things are so f'ed in 3.  I thought Nathan Hale's story was intriguing, at least.

The first was quite a bit of fun, and had a sandbox feel that honestly reminded me of Halo 1.  Maybe it was the fact that me and my buddy were playing co-op, flying across a level in a jeep.  It's been years since I played it, so I don't know how it holds up, but the memories are positive. 

And there's a moment in 2 early on that was one of the most memorable things of this generation for me.  Here, if you wanna see it (watch in HD!)

There's a lot of cool atmospheric stuff in that game, too, if you take the time to listen to the radios and soak everything in instead of just blasting your way through as fast as possible.  Mechanically, the game may have been more standard and linear than the first, but it did get good reviews when it came out (although a lot of praise was for the multiplayer, which I doubt is too active these days).  Don't know why there's all this bitterness about it now.

I thoroughly enjoyed Resistance 2 (campaign and coop). R2 got my really pumped for R3 in the first place! I couldn't stand to finish Fall of Man though. I would say R2 is definitely worth the experience even though a lot of people didn't like it. Most people note the difficulty of R2 which I didn't mind since I set it on difficult anyway.

I think Resistance 3 is significantly better than its predecessors, but they're both fun games that are worth a try if you can pick them up cheap.

I just recently finished Resistance 1 and 2 after picking up the new Dual Pack. I really enjoyed the first game a lot, but I enjoyed the second game less and less the longer I played it. I can see why a lot of people really hated it, but I an also see why some people enjoyed it. To me it just felt like a step in the wrong direction from the first game, but to each their own.

Resistance 3 honestly feels like a much better sequel to R1 than R2 did.

I really liked them but there will be 50 people come on here to complain about them. I thought that the first one had one of the more enjoyable science fiction stories of any shooters out there and I loved the narrator in the first. I may start the first two over again.

No, you'll be disappointed. R3 is the best of the series.

@Dayewalker said:

I just recently finished Resistance 1 and 2 after picking up the new Dual Pack. I really enjoyed the first game a lot, but I enjoyed the second game less and less the longer I played it. I can see why a lot of people really hated it, but I an also see why some people enjoyed it. To me it just felt like a step in the wrong direction from the first game, but to each their own.

Resistance 3 honestly feels like a much better sequel to R1 than R2 did.

This exactly , R3 is a better secuel than R2 , actually I felt resistance 2 was just a waste of time , nothin gained nothing lost (in terms of story)

No. Don't torture yourself.

The first one is fantastic is you can grab a buddy for some couch co-op. R2 was pretty good but it kinda missed what made R1 one great and just tried to go with the military shooter crowd. Still a fun ride though.

They're both well above average and have an interesting variety of weapons so I'd say go for it. They only cost about £5 these days anyway so if you've even got a passing interest in trying you should just do it.