Game review: Resistance 3, PS3

26/12/2011 12:55:35

For those of you who haven't played any of the Resistance: Fall of man games here is a little back story to get you up to speed.

Resistance takes place in an alternative reality where the Second World War never happened. The twist with this series is that a little prior to the second great war kicking off aliens (named Chimera) invaded and started attacking everyone.

The first game dealt with the earth nations at their height in terms of technology of that era (as primitive as that was) with us having the edge in superior numbers. However, weight of numbers and comparatively puny weaponry availed us naught and the alien invaders with the superior firepower plus their communicable disease which converted humans into Chimera soon turned the tide.

The second game was more of the first but with everything cranked up to 11. Bigger enemies, bigger weapons and a fantastic single-player campaign that was a rollercoaster ride from start to finish.

Plot-wise the human race was at this point circling the drain with our only real threat against the aliens being half-Chimera hybrids (which is you) with your awesome (largely acquired) firepower and healing ability.

I must say I disliked the ending of the second game but that didnt make the journey any less enjoyable. Sorry if that sounds cryptic... I just dont want to give too much away to anyone new to the series.

This leads us to the third game, which to me seems like a step backwards as rather than playing as a superhuman being facing the alien hordes you play as Joseph Capelli, who is a biologically normal human being with no healing factor to help you out of a tough spot.

This definitely helps make the game much tougher than its predecessors.

By this point in the story the human race is well and truly buggered with 90 per cent of us wiped out and the planet being terraformed into a bleak inhospitable snowy landscape.

Stage set... now much FPS action ensues.

The creative team have done a good job with the level design. Things switch from cramped, almost claustrophobic levels where shotguns are a must to wide open levels where you must instead switch to the more long-range weapons to survive. These are broken up by on-rails train and boat sections reminiscent of the Resident Evil 5 jeep and boat scenes.

The main Bullseye and Auger are my favourite weapons. I didnt much care for the Mutator as it reminded me of the goo gun (not sure of its real name) from the early quake series.

A new thing to the series is the ability to upgrade weapons with enough usage. Its a rather simple process in that weapons you commonly use get augmented the more you use it. One of the best of these is the addition of a simple bayonet to the carbine which makes it really effective as a close-quarters weapon.

Didnt have much time for the multiplayer for the purposes of this review (broadband glitches at home) but what I saw of it I liked a lot.

Graphics are good, not quite up to the standard of Killzone 3 but they get the job done... one observation is that the Fall of Man series tend to use a muted colour range but then again so does Killzone 3.

Controls are a pretty standard FPS set-up which anyone can easily get to grips with.

Sound and music are very atmospheric and easily draw you into the reality of the game. I found the music stirring and very similar to that of the Company of Heroes titles, which is in no way a bad thing.

My only gripe (which is why I am marking this down) is over how short the single-player campaign is in the third instalment.

I managed to clock the game in under nine hours, which I dont see as value for money.

Admittedly I got my preview copy for the price of this review so it didnt cost me anything...but I have to say that if I HAD forked out 40 for this then I would have been a little gutted over how short the single-player campaign was.

Unfortunately anything more than seven hours is considered generous for single-player campaigns in modern first-person shooters as they are tending to focus less on the single-player campaign and more on multiplayer instead.

If you are a multiplayer person then you will obviously get more from this game than I did.

Summing it up:

Single-player campaign is fun while it lasted but short.

Overall: 7 out of 10