System: Playstation 3
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment America
Developer: Insomniac Games
Of all the launch titles available for the Playstation 3, Resistance: Fall of Man was one of the most anticipated. Insomniac Games, of Ratchet and Clank fame, thrusts gamers into an alternate past with the world on the brink of destruction. Resistance: Fall of Man does not really add anything new to the FPS arena but it serves as the best testament of what the PS3 has to offer to the gaming public.
Resistance: Fall of Man places you in an alternate past where World War II never took place. Instead, a race known as the Chimera invades Earth and quickly takes over Asia and a large portion of Europe. Enter Nathan Hale, an American soldier that has been mobilized with British troops to help defeat the encroaching menace. As the story progresses, things go from bad to worse but Nathan keeps on trucking to try and gain some ground in this endless war.
For the most part, Resistance: Fall of Man is a better than average shooter. If you have ever played an FPS on a console, you will be right at home with the controls and the atmosphere. Although very few things separate Resistance: Fall of Man from other shooters out there, it does however offer some pretty interesting weapons, loads of things to shoot at, and personality by the boatload. The game also happens to boast some of the best enemy AI that I have seen in awhile.
Clocking in at around 10 hours to finish, Resistance: Fall of Man has a decent length to it. With any normal shooter, it’s easy for things to get monotonous and boring. Thankfully from the unrelenting waves of Chimera to piloting different vehicles to the increasing difficulty, Resistance: Fall of Man displays the finely balanced pacing that Insomniac is known for. The fire fights will suck you in and keep you hooked.
The multiplayer portions of the game are also extremely well done. Many of the multiplayer maps are taken from different areas of the single player campaign. Depending on the map, battles can range from eight to forty players. Needless to say, 40 players running around blasting each other is always welcome in my book. There are six different multiplayer modes to play in, ranging from the traditional deathmatch to capture the flag. Though the Playstation Network is far from unified and in bad shape at the moment, Resistance: Fall of Man does provide you options of such as playing in ranked or unranked matches, clans and friends lists. Besides the online multiplayer, you also have the option of playing four player split screen in the various modes as well as being able to tackle the campaign with another person.
Being one of the showcase titles for the PS3, Resistance: Fall of Man boasts some pretty nice visuals. As a whole, it feels extremely polished. While Resistance: Fall of Man doesn’t leap out and smack you with the visuals, it merely does what it does extremely well and it happens to look very good. And as fate would have it, this game can not truly be enjoyed unless you have access to a HDTV.
For a launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man will be a welcome addition to any PS3 owners library. But on the other hand, if you have an Xbox 360 there is not much here that you haven’t seen already. As they say, “personality goes a long way,” and Resistance has that in spades. Insomniac Games has done what they do best and that is developing quality games that are fun as well as being easy on the eyes.
