Undoubtedly the best game of the PS3's launch
Resistance: Fall of Man, the greatest video game to grace the Playstation 3's launch lineup. In fact, it's the only game to actually GRACE the launch.
Fall of Man is a first person shooter that exceeds all expectations required in a great FPS. It can proudly stand up there in the spotlight with Halo and Call of Duty.
STORY
The story of Resistance is definitely unique. The Chimeran(The enemies in the game.) virus spreads throughout Asia and Europe in the early 1900s, changing the course of history so that World War II never took place. The game starts in the 1950s(People thought that the whole "WWII never happening" thing was false because the game starts in the 50s and WWII was in the 40s. Well, the Chimera have been around since 1914, when they changed history, so there you have it.) The Chimera were once humans who have been infected and converted. There are these large spider-like machines called Goliaths that launch Spires. Each Spire contains beetle-like Chimera called Crawlers that do the infecting. After it has done its job, the Crawler dies. One Spire that's shot has enough Crawlers to infect thousands of humans, but a Goliath never shoots only one. The jellyfish Chimera, called Carriers, carry the bodies of the infected to conversion centers to speed up the process of the human turning into the Chimera.
The game starts in England, and that's where it ends, too. Nathan Hale, a US soldier sent with others as reinforcements against the Chimera, ends up getting infected. He lives, though, and slowly starts turning into one of them...
GRAPHICS
The PS3 is capable of some amazing things, and that includes wondrous graphics. Whether you're playing this in 480i or anything higher, it's going to turn out beautiful. The character models are detailed, and the environments are stunning. 'Nuff said.
GAMEPLAY
Gameplay is probably the most important part of a video game. If a game doesn't play well, it's pretty much worthless. Fortunately, Fall of Man does play well. When I first started taking down the Chimera, I thought to myself, "I haven't had this much fun since I played F.E.A.R. on my PC." F.E.A.R. was a great game, and I loved it down to the core. It's gameplay was awesome, so if Resistance made me have as much fun as F.E.A.R. did, it's definitely something.
Resistance plays ALMOST like a typical first person shooter, and at first, I thought it would. But the weapons really spice up the game, as Game Informer magazine stated, "Each weapon has it's own personality." Now please read the last sentence in the "GRAPHICS" section of this review.
If you're not playing online, you're really missing out. If the campaign doesn't appeal to you as much as it did, online is the way to go. Online play consists of two different kinds of matches: Unranked and Ranked. In Unranked, you can join or host a game. You can set the match type and the preferences. Now all you have to do is wait a few seconds for someone to join. In Ranked, the game finds a match for you that has people with the same skill level as you playing. Playing Ranked matches nets you experience points which go to increasing your rank(Which starts at Private and goes all the way to Supreme Commander.). As you increase in rank, you unlock new items and skins to customize your online character. And of course, you can form clans and parties to easily play with your friends.
FINAL SCORE - 4/5 Stars
If you are a Playstation 3 owner and don't have Resistance: Fall of Man, I strongly recommend you getting it. It is a great FPS to start out the next generation of gaming, and it's worth every penny.
