Resistance Review
Every new gaming console has their "killer" games at launch. The Xbox 360 had Call of Duty 2 and the Wii had The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. Well the killer launch game for the Playstation 3 was hands down Resistance: Fall of Man. Resistance was first announced well before the PS3 even had a release date and ever since the first interview with Insomniac Games the fans have been going nuts. Well guess what.... Its finally here but did it make a big impact that Sony wanted?
Resistance: Fall of Man takes place in a alternate reality which World War II never exsisted. Most of the outdoor levels looks almost identical from a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor game. Resistance's story.... Well it really doesnt have a engaging story after all. You play as a character named Nathan Hale and you are basically trying to save the world from these creatures that are called the Chimera. The Chimera was suppose to be a biological weapon for the Russians but somehow they escaped and they are taking over all of Asia and Europe. The U.S. Army was called into action to help the U.K. before the Chimera spread anymore.
Now what makes the single player expierence so memorable are the weapons. Oh man some of the guns you get in Resistance are some of the best detailed and most satisfying results I have ever seen in any type of shooter to date. You start off with a basic assault rifle then you get the Chimeras primary weapon and eventually you get my personal favorite.... The flame thrower. The flame thrower in Resistance is defintley worth talking about. You have two modes of fire with it. You have the basic flame which everyone is familiar with then you have the flame rounds. If you hold down L1 for a certain amount of time your flame thrower will charge up. Now when you release it a HUGE amount of flames fly across the map. If you get hit with the flame thrower, you have a chance to put it out which is kinda cool. You basically do the stop drop and roll method. But anyways the single player to this game is defintley worth checking out.
Another very good plus to the single player is the AI. Your teammates and the enemy AI is really top notch. I honestly havent seen a better AI in any game out there. They are smart. They know when to move. They know when to stay behind cover and they know how to flank the opposing team. Even on the lowest difficulty setting the enemy AI is still tough. The only bad thing about the enemy AI is there might be a few of them stuck someplace so then the cut scene after that objective wont trigger. Also, there are a few bugs that need to be worked out but nothing to bad.
The last thing I must mention about the offline component is the Co Op. You can play the whole campaign with a buddy in split screen Co Op which is awesome. But it kinda hurts how there isnt any Co Op online. You also have the standard four player split screen deathmatch options as well.
The online of Resistance: Fall of Man is where the game really shines. You can have up to 40 player online matches in either the matchmaking (ranked matches) or the custom games (unranked matches). Now you must be saying what about if there is 10 people in a room. Dont be afraid. Insomniac Games took that into consideration and each map you can set the size to. There are four sizes to each map so you can set it accordingly. Resistance online plays almost like Halo and Call of Duty online. Your health regenerates after a certain amount of time while not being hit. There is full clan support for up to 40 players on the roster and the in game options are amazing. You have the basic channel which you need to push a button to talk or you can switch to one of the squad channels and have it open mic.
The graphics to Resistance is nothing more than spectacular only if you have a HDTV. Resistance supports up to 720p and everything looks spot on. The lighting effects, the guns, the animations, the scenary, and the people look dead on. Now if you dont have a HDTV there are a lot of drawbacks. The game looks a little choppy from time to time and some buildings look muddy and mushy. Its almost like a step up from the PS2 but a step backwards from the PS3. Its in the middle somewhere.
The sound in the game is pretty good. The guns sounds like guns for the most part. Nothing to exciting. The voice acting is mildly above average but Nathan Hale is a guy of few words. The suspensful music sometimes gets in the way of whats really going on in the game.
Is Resistance: Fall of Man worth buying? Yes by god it is. If you have a PS3 and havent got this game by now there is something wrong with you. If you havent got YOUR PS3 yet, this is the first game you better buy for it. Period.
Gameplay: Overall very good. A few bugs in the single player that you will notice.
Sound: Alot of gunfire. Nice explosion sounds. Flame thrower sounds scary in a good way. Some cheesy voices.
Graphics: In HD they are dead on but in standard deffinition there is some work to be done.
Replay: The online multiplayer is where it shines but no online Co Op hurts alot.
Overall: 4/5
