 Only One Can Resist |
| Review Date: May 21, 2007 |
| Reviewer: Sky, New York |
No one can resist the urge to keep playing Resistance: Fall of Man once the game is started. Chapter after chapter of exhilarating battles against a plethora of creatures that you use a plethora of weapons to defeat (and they'll use them against you too).
To really put the plot of the game in context (if you care about the plot), it's well worth the visit to the official Resistance: Fall of Man web site; there's a ton of story there that I'd bet 90% of the people who start the game are unaware of. For me, the story helped me "get into character" for the game. If you just want to start wasting some nasty beasts, "Get to it, soldier!" Rest assured, the story won't help you beat the enemies or evade the barrage of defenses that will be fired at you by them.
As a relatively new gamer, I'm glad that I played Call of Duty 3 Call of Duty 3 before I cracked open Resistance: Fall of Man. It was good FPS training (set in approximately the same time period) for this much more difficult PS3 title.
Resistance has an M (mature gamers only) rating which miffs me a bit, but then I'm a bit more liberal when it comes to what I think might warp the little minds of kids these days. I've seen this classified as a Horror title, but I think that Sci-fi Action is much more fitting. Resistance deserved a T (teen) rating. My kids and I get hung up all too often on sunny days playing Resistance's Co-op Mode when we should be outside playing ball. And hopefully that alone speaks volumes as to how addictively fun this game is.
Co-op Mode is split screen of course because the game is FPS; it would be nice if some games could give the option of switching to a single screen, third person view for Co-op in order to negate the need for split screen, but that would distinctly change to look, range, feel and some of the weaponry...so I assume that's why it's never offered on Co-op mode.
Multi-player is very cool. Multi-player is not like Co-op where you play the Campaign Mode with a partner. In Multi-player you battle against your friends offline (4 player max/split screen) or online (40 player max/full screen). You get some areas of battle to play in that you encountered in Campaign Mode and some new map scematics.
But Resistance's real challenge is in single player Campaign Mode.
Your weapons are plentiful. You start with a pretty standard machine gun (M5A2) that includes a grenade launcher that will become your best "little friend" in the game. It's very useful on the enemies that you encounter most throughout the game. You also get several mean weapons that you pick up from your fallen comrades and defeated beasts including the enemy's main machine gun (The Bullseye...very handy), grenades, a shotgun, a sniper rifle, a radiation blaster (The Auger), a mine thrower, a rapid fire subsonic bolt dispenser (The Hailstorm) and a rocket launcher.
Grenades are key to survival...use them, but you'll want to keep in mind that you can run out real real fast...so use them pretty much exclusively to take down groups of enemies.
(And five other weapons aside from the ones that I mentioned above are unlocked only after beating/completing the game once on medium difficulty or higher.)
If you missed the countless gamer magazines' synopsises of the creature types and the power of the individual weapons, there are some great gamer help web sites that are worth taking a look at to help you strategize (just click on my profile above and email me if you'd like me to point you in the right direction).
And speaking of getting pointed in the right direction, part of the fun of this game is figuring out on your own how to get from chapter to chapter. There are no maps, which at times was frustrating. Let me tell you that if the phrase "the best route is not always the most obvious" ever applied to trying to get from here to there it applies in this game on more than one occasion.
You'll also need to at times navigate a jeep and a tank.
So what exactly are you fighting? Where exactly did they come from? If you're up to the challenge to find out....You're Sgt. Nathan Hale, and you're the only one with a Resistance to the Fall of Man. Prepare for some serious battle.
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Great Shooter Title for the PS3
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| Review Date: November 19, 2006 |
| Reviewer: Lisa Shea, |
Resistance - Fall of Man is a first person shooter that combines World War II era environments with Doom-like horrific enemies to fight. It also offers great online multiplayer gameplay.
The plot is that, around the time of World War II, enemies attacked the world, starting with Russia and moving westward through Europe and England. In the 50s, the US launched a counter-attack, landing in England. You're fighting, at least to start with, with WWII era weapons and outfits through the streets of England.
Let's start with the graphics. The game goes for a very Call of Duty style of look - not quite realistic, more "cartooney" or stylized. Textures are smoothed out, some objects are simplified. That's not to say this is a Disney kiddie look. The monsters are grimey and nasty looking, the war-torn streets are very gritty. If anything, because this is set in a WWII type atmosphere, much of the game is brown, grimy and shell-shocked.
The HUD is reasonably well done and not intrusive. A small series of bars on the left indicates your health. An equally small but useful display on the right tracks your ammo, magazines and grenades.
The sound leans towards epic thundering scores, a la Gladiator or Conan. Players who love heavy rock music might not enjoy this, but I actually love this kind of music. I own both of the soundtracks I mentioned :). So to me, this really draws you into the atmosphere. The yells, gun noises and so on seem relatively realistic to help you feel you're really in the middle of a fight. I also like that, during gameplay, it's usually done without music. If I'm trying to sneak somewhere and listen for enemy movement, I don't want that objective made difficult by a soundtrack.
Gameplay itself is typical FPS fare. You can crouch, jump over things, zoom in on your enemy, throw grenades, strafe, and so on. Your friends and enemies are rather good about taking cover and not just rushing an enemy head-on. There are a few situations which seem quite scripted - if your pals are meant to die, you could play perfectly and take out every enemy quickly and your friends will still be killed by mysterious off-screen snipers. Still, the game needs to keep you on course for the plot so this is to be expected.
Checkpointing is reasonably good, although sometimes it sends you further back then you might like to start again. Healing is done via canisters you find, but depending on your skill you might wish there were more canisters scattered around :). That's why they have 3 levels of difficulty here.
The interactivity with your environment is pretty impressive. Say your enemy is hiding behind a car. You can shoot out the car's windows and then shoot the enemy through the open space. Or you can shoot the car to damage it, and have it explode a la the infamous 'red exploding barrels' found in most shooting games. If you shoot at a window a few times, it will first crack, then pieces will fall out.
Not only is the game great in single player mode, but you can play co-op with a friend at your home, or online in larger groups with friends or strangers from around the world. This helps turn the game from a play-for-a-few-months-at-home style game to a play-eternally-with-friends-online game.
Well recommended! |
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