Resistance: Fall of Man

     Resistance: Fall of Man is a first person shooter developed by Insomniac, the same company that brought you the Ratchet and Clank series. Resistance takes place in an alternate reality during the 1950’s in which WWII never happened. Instead, an alien race known as the Chimera have invaded Europe. Russia is the first to fall and pretty soon most of Europe is gone. The UK is the last to fall and is pretty much where the game comes in. You play as Nathan Hale, a US soldier sent over to Europe to help fight off the invasion of the Chimera. The only thing is that the Americans have no idea what to expect upon arriving in the UK. The games single player will take you on a decently lengthy campaign through various places throughout Europe. The locations range from tight underground bunkers to snowy cities.

     The game play is fairly standard in Resistance. R1 is used to fire the weapon’s primary function while L1 will launch the weapon’s secondary function. One of the unique aspects of the game is the weapons themselves. There are six different weapons the first time through the campaign and each of these weapons packs their own unique secondary function. The Auger is a gun that can shoot though walls and its secondary function creates a temporary shield that blocks bullets. There is also the standard sniper rifle that has the ability to slow time down when zoomed in for a limited amount of time. There is the standard shot gun that has a more powerful alternate fire as well. But the two guns that you will be primarily using are the Carbine and the Bullseye. The Carbine is the standard infantry assault rifle that packs a grenade launcher on it. It’s accurate and does good damage and plenty of ammo is provided for it. The Bullseye is kind of like the Chimera’s main assault rifle. It shoots out plasma type bullets with a very high rate of fire. What is interesting, and becomes extremely useful, is the Bullseye’s secondary tagging ammunition. These allow you to tag and enemy and then pretty much unleash as many shots as necessary that will track the enemy down and mostly destroy them. At first, this concept may seem a bit lame because it sounds like your putting no effort into killing the enemy. But when the bullets start flying, this comes in handy being able to kill enemies while staying concealed behind cover. There are also a handful of other weapons that aren’t used as much throughout the game. There is the rocket launcher that you will really only want to use in certain situations and pretty neat Hailstorm gun that shoots out needles that will ricochet off surfaces. But these guns certainly don’t get as much use.

     There are quite a few different types of enemies that you face off against throughout the game. However, the most standard are the standard Hybrids. They’re usually always equipped with the Bullseye and can be taken down with a few well placed shots. There are also some other almost generic type Chimera that you will encounter, such as these face hugger type creatures, giant Chimera that wield powerful rocket type launchers, and a few melee only class. There are also these worker type guys that don’t carry any guns, but will walk at you looking creepy and, if allowed to get close enough, will jump on your face and start biting you. However, the problem with these guys is they will literally walk at you until they are within a foot of you to make their attacks. So they really pose no threat considering they hardly ever attack. And then there is my favorite of them all, the Gray Daddy. This guys a long limbed, weaponless Chimera that will come running at you trying to claw you. He is pretty creepy. Just something about them that make the scary. Overall, the Chimera are a pretty awesome race that has their share of cool aliens which really makes fighting them that much more fun.

     Lastly, the story of the game is told as a recap by a female British soldier who had a few encounters with Hale. She recaps the story from her perspective which gives a pretty neat mysterious feel to the story, considering she has to make guesses at what exactly Hale does when he went to these different places. The story itself follows Hale as he tries to take down the Chimera singly handily. After getting infected by the Chimera, he gains some of their attributes which allows him to rise above the other soldiers. The plot is pretty standard “defending off aliens” plot, but it really sets the game up to bring you to awesome locations. What is more interesting about the games plot is the stuff that isn’t mentioned in cut scenes, but rather is found in documents laying around in levels. These documents reveal information about a secret organization that is enemies with both humans and the Chimera. You don’t really find out a whole lot about them, but you get little hints and can feel that they will play a huge role in the games sequel, provided there is one. You also pick up information about what exactly the Chimera are and how they work, which I found to be really interesting. The story does seem to be missing a few plot details here and there, but it’s not really that effective on the game fun factor. One last note is how Resistance looks and sounds. All the weapons have a unique sound for both their primary and secondary fire. There is also some really good voice acting throughout the game as well, hearing soldiers yelling stuff on the battlefield is pretty cool and well done. Graphically, the game is pleasure to look at. While they certainly won’t blow you away, they do look nice and polished.
Overall, Resistance: Fall of Man is a great first person shooter. From its somewhat tried and true game play to its unique weapons and enemies, Resistance is a must for those PS3 owners.