The Playstation 3's first killer app?

STORY

It's 1951 in an alternate reality where WWII never takes place but that doesn't mean it's all rainbows and sunshine in the world. Suddenly a race of aliens known as Chimera(Ki-Mira) show up on earth and start conquering nations. These monstrous creatures believed to be a Russian biological weapon have overtaken Asia, most of Europe and now is trying to overtake the UK. The United States perhaps fearing if the UK falls they will be next on the Chimera's hit list send reinforcements to the UK. Part of these U.S. reinforcements is a soldier named Nathan Hale, the main character in the game and the character that you will be controlling.

In between levels the story is narrated by a female British officer but because she hardly knows what's going on in Hale's head or much about the Chimera these narratives are not very interesting. Allot of the story will unfold through engaging cinematic cut scenes as well as intelligence briefings and black and white photos that you can find while progressing through each game level. Unfortunately the the story doesn't provide much detail about the main character Nathan Hale so you don't really get to know him on a deep level or feel a connection with him. Overall though the story serves it's purpose which is to give you an excuse to blast your way through wave after wave of mutant freaks.

GAMEPLAY

Resistance: Fall Of Man controls like most modern first person shooters. Moving the main character and aiming is controlled by the two analog sticks. The shoulder buttons and triggers handle the primary and secondary firing modes of each weapon. This game also makes extremely limited use of the motion sensing in the Sixaxis controller. In rare occasions a Chimera will latch onto you and take the liberty of chewing on your face, to remedy this rather unpleasant situation you can shake the controller to break free of the mutant's clutch. There is a health bar in this game that shows up in the lower left corner of the screen which represents the main character's overall health. As you take damage throughout the game it will be represented by the depletion of this health bar. The health bar is divided into four sections, early in the game the main character will develop the ability to slowly recuperate health up to the nearest health bar section when you're not taking damage. This is different from most games like Halo 2, Call of Duty 2 and Gears Of War where your health will fully charge between firefights. This adds some additional strategy to the game cause if you take too much damage you may find yourself with only one quadrant of health and that's not good.

Another thing about Resistance that's different than most recent first person shooters is the fact that you can keep every weapon that you find in your inventory. This is great because one of the best things about this game is the large selection of interesting and fun weapons. You start the game with a machine gun that has a 50 round clip and an attached grenade launcher, this gun will be your primary weapon through most of the game. You will also be picking up some Chimera made weapons such as the Bullseye which is an energy weapon. The Bullseye has an alternate fire mode which fires homing beacons so you can tag an enemy then fire at it from behind cover which makes things interesting. Some other weapons worth noting are the Auger which can fire energy rounds through walls and it's alt. fire will put up a temporary energy shield and the XR-003 Sapper which will shoot organic blobs that will stick to walls, floors, etc. and when an enemy gets close to these blobs they will explode. The other weapons in the game are a sniper riffle, shotgun, rocket launcher and an assortment of grenades. You can unlock additional weapons by beating the game once on any difficulty setting.

You will be contending with a variety of enemies throughout Resistance such as Chimera troopers, small spider like creatures that will bust out of eggs and rush you in large numbers and giant rocket launcher wielding monsters just to name a few. The enemies in Resistance are fairly intelligent. Throughout the game you will see your foes duck behind cover and then peek their head out to see if you're still there. Enemies will also do a good job flanking your position if you stay in one spot too long. Resistance has a run and gun type feel to it but not so much that cover isn't an issue. You will need to go through each level at a steady pace, if you move to fast you end up getting blind sided by a large wave of enemies. Allot of times you will inch forward, draw out all the enemies in the area and then drop back behind some cover. The action will get progressively more intense the deeper you get in the game. Toward the end of Resistance you will find yourself taking on wave after wave of foes and it will be very difficult to find any cover.

Sometimes during the game you will have the company of computer controlled comrades. These comrades don't seem as intelligent as the enemies due to the fact that they usually end up dead in a short amount of time. Basically these comrades provide some companionship from time to time but don't count on them helping you get through an entire level or anything crazy like that. There are rare times during this game where you will be driving vehicles such as a tank or a jeep. You almost feel invincible in the tank when you roll through the streets obliterating everything that makes the mistake of getting in your way. These vehicle sequences are few and far between but they do a nice job of breaking up the monotony.

PRESENTATION

Although there are games out there with better graphics Resistance stacks up pretty well. Most textures in this game are high detail but there are some objects that have low detail textures that you will notice if you get close enough. There are some nice special effects in the game for example if you shoot the hose on the weird backpack that the Chimera troops wear there will be a hole in the hose. Also if you shoot certain panes of glass it will break just like it would in real life. The lighting in Resistance is very good as well. There are huge realistic looking environments that have allot of life to them such as debris and leaves floating through the air and birds flying overhead. Even with all this going on and a intense firefight between you and many enemies the frame rate always stays steady which is impressive. The sound in Resistance is high quality as well. Every gun, grenade, vehicle, Chimera growl, etc. sounds exactly like it should. What little voice overs there is in this game is done pretty well by talented voice actors. There is also some nice orchestral background music that really sets the tone. Overall Resistance: Fall Of Man is a great game and in my opinion the Playstation 3's first killer app. It successfully incorporates the best elements of some of the best first person shooter games to come out recently.