As
Playstation 3's premiere launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man has much
riding on its shoulders, and the game delivers an intense, polished
shooting experience with some ingenious design choices. The world you
inhabit is rich in detail and looks fantastic in HD. It definitely
showcases the PS3's power. Resistance's gameplay stands out with unique
level design, smart enemy AI and bevy of cool weapons. The solo campaign
is quite intense, offering just the right balance between hardcore
shooting and engaging storylines. Multiplayer is likewise robust with
multiple modes and support for 40 players. Resistance: Fall of Man is
polished, entertaining and challenging, but does this polish represent a
quantum leap forward is it this just another flashy FPS? Look inside and
find out.
Set in an alternate past, Resistance:
Fall of Man sets up an interesting storyline. Instead of defeating the
Nazi's after World War II, the world faced an even bigger threat in the
form of an alien invasion. Called the Chimera, these evil beings
ruthlessly assimilated and converted mankind to their cause, making
themselves stronger and more numerous with each human killed. These aliens
began their relentless insurrection in Russia and gradually conquered much
of Europe before heading towards the final human resistance forces in
England. Now, even this lonely island has come under this assault.
Resistance: Fall of Man puts players in the role of Nathan Hale, the
sole-survivor of the alien infestation, who survived for reasons unknown
while hundreds of his fellow soldiers succumbed to the infectious assault.
The game starts off with a stunning opening level where you watch a brutal
assault an English town unfold. As you and your fellow soldiers run a
gauntlet through the savaged streets, you watch buildings on fire while a
relentless noise of missiles and explosions surrounds you. You are under
assault from the moment you set foot on the ground, the Chimera attack on
sight, leaving you little option but to fire back. Using the weapons is
fairly simple, with targeting requiring little more than aiming in the
right direction. You can zoom in using the scope, and each is equipped
with both primary and secondary fire modes.
One of the key elements that can make or
break an FPS is its arsenal. Resistance's developers understand this basic
fact and have provided the player has an excellent selection of standard
human weapons, and Chimera arsenal, which can be picked up from your
fallen enemies. The ingenuity and creativity of Resistance's weaponry is
fairly impressive and includes everything from standard pistols to machine
guns. You can also use several types of grenades and much more. There are
multiple types of foes here as well, ranging from human-type monsters, to
squiggly bugs and boss creatures, which keeps you on your toes throughout
the missions. In addition, Players can switch weapons quite easily using
the shift buttons. This comes in handy, since different situations and
enemies need different types of weapons. In addition, at several points,
you can take control of vehicles such as tanks and jeeps to traverse the
levels faster. Controlling these vehicles is a seamless transition, making
it easy to go from foot to wheel. Between the selection of weapons, their
impressive use and the massive level design, the single player mode in
Resistance offers an impressive shooting experience with plenty of depth
and challenge.
Resistance's
level designs are quite impressive, and range from desolate, ruined cities
to the insides of Conversion plants. There's a combination of
claustrophobic corridors, open areas and all out battle arenas in the
levels which keeps the intensity levels high throughout. Playing through
the levels can be a little daunting at first, with enemies seemingly
lurking around every corner, but as you become accustomed to the
environments and controls, things begin to come into better focus. At some
points during the game, you'll have other soldiers at your side who can
offer some assistance, but these others never seem to stick around for
very long, leaving you to fight the Chimera alone for the most part. The
levels are crawling with enemies who are relentless and call in
reinforcements the moment they detect you. Encountering one can quickly
lead you into an intense firefight. Each level offers scattered health and
weapons power-ups along with other items such as power-bricks. Shooting
these from afar causes a massive explosion, which can take out any nearby
foes. During your mission, you'll come across papers that contain
intelligence information, which can be quite useful in gathering tactical
advantages for the coming fights while also helping to flesh out
Resistance's compelling background narrative. Speaking of which, the plot
that unfolds between levels is compelling in its pacing and interest. We
won't spoil it here, but there are some surprises in the Chimera's origins
and technological techniques in reproduction that make them a daunting
enemy. These intersectional vignettes are nicely done in a sepia tone and
narrated effectively, to help to underscore the sense of doom and
seemingly impossible odds you face. The production values of these are
superb, though they don't really showcase the PS3's vaunted Cell processor
effectively.
The good news on the aesthetic front
comes in Resistance's in-game engine, which is smooth, polished and highly
effective in brining its dystopian reality to life. The level of detail in
objects is quite impressive, with shattered glass, broken walls and creaky
floors evoking a war zone with immense levels of detail. Adding realism is
the character animations, which showcase a remarkable level of detail in
facial expression and movement that suspends disbelief at certain points.
Resistance gives off an aura of quality throughout with superb light
sourcing, detailed texture mapping and a smooth frame rate that makes the
game feel effortless. The sounds are also smartly implanted with large,
booming explosions reverberating through the air in some areas. Listening
closely, you can sometimes hear the Chimera grunting through walls and the
distant screams of humans being converted, which adds a layer of
disconcerting horror to what would ordinarily be another mindless shooter.
Distinct from this is the AI, which while not as intelligent with your
fellow soldiers and enemies as one would like, still presents the player
with quite a number of intense obstacles. Likewise, the game's impressive
physics engine allows for some impressive effects where shots ricochet off
walls, enemies flail through the air and massive explosions rip through
the air convincingly. The totality of effect creates an immersive and
intense series of battles that brings a new level of smoothness to the
proceedings. Resistance: Fall of Man fulfills its basic obligations and
creates a glossy, intense shooter, that's perfect for showing off the
PS3's graphics and engines, but unfortunately, the game seems to fall a
little short in other key areas, which makes it less impressive than it
could have been.
Resistance:
Fall of Man establishes a solid early benchmark for PS3 graphics and
controls well. However, players looking for a true generational leap
forward are likely to be disappointed and find a somewhat predictable,
linear structure underneath the state-of-the-art visuals. It looks
fantastic, but the visuals can't hide the levels that unfold exactly the
same way each time you play. The Chimera enemies seem to attack in exactly
the same way no matter where you are, making them predictable foes. While
a lot of effort has obviously gone into the sheer number of weapons and
vehicles in Resistance, most players are probably going to have a strong
sense of déjà vu at many points. Of course, that's the price that's
usually paid in exchange for graphical polish and speedy development
times. This isn't the deepest shooter you've ever played, but its still
entertaining and enjoyable in its own right. It lacks complex puzzles or
inventive levels, but offers solid gameplay instead. It's easy to
criticize the game's lack of ambition, but its still far better than other
recent launch titles which fall much shorter of the mark than Resistance.
The overall design is excellent, and the attempt at melding a mid-century
war game with science fiction is successful for the most part, and this
hybrid approach gives the game's storyline a refreshing change of pace
from the rather predictable norm. Resistance: Fall of Man won't change
anyone's perception about gaming, it's still an impressive launch title
that delivers a solidly entertaining experience.
