Resistance: Fall of Man Review

The hype delivers with Insomniac's must-have PlayStation 3 launch game.

Posted by Chris Faylor on Wednesday, November 15, 2006

There's one thing Resistance: Fall of Man really has going for it -- attention to detail. The part military, part sci-fi shooter includes little touches everywhere, such as the growing stubble on lead character Nathan Hale's face during the game's four-day timeframe. Propaganda posters plaster the walls of underground bunkers. Outside an abandoned fish market, a list scrawled in chalk details the catch of the day from long ago. Smoke plumes out of half-destroyed buildings. Glass realistically spiders when shot. Spent ammunition litters the floors.

No casual gamer will pay much attention to these trivial details, but that's why it matters. In the context of the actual game, these minor things come together to form a world that feels eerily plausible. Due to a miscalculated throw, a grenade misses its target, sails through a nearby window and harmlessly detonates. As the bullets whiz overhead, the shielding safety of the half-wall disintegrates into a cloud of plaster. Bolts of energy soon start eating through metal, and while weaving to avoid them, there's barely enough time to save a fellow soldier from a getting clubbed over the head before the next volley. After lengthy and nerve-wracking battles, when every enemy has been defeated, areas turn into smoking, shattered ruins littered with corpses -- and that's when the deadly Stalker tank turns up.

Safe to say, Resistance delivers big on its promise of epic battles and the uneasy chaos that comes with them. Unlike other first-person shooters, these battles aren't pre-scripted walks in the park either. Battles and their outcomes occur on the fly, with the actions of the player making a substantial difference in who lives and what dies. Nor are the Chimeran enemies easy pushovers. They're vicious, intelligent foes that make the best of their environment and weaponry, resulting in a hearty appreciation of the respawn checkpoints that, outside of one key area, have been placed in smart locations.

Fortunately, not all of Resistance's encounters include epic battles in open spaces. There's plenty of creepy corridor skirmishes, complete with unexpected encounters and some yelp-inducing moments. Notably guilty are the stealthy Menials that seem to come out of nowhere and attempt to munch on Hale's innards, literally requiring a fast shake of the controller to throw them off.

Despite the various situations and weapons Resistance presents, the open-ended nature of the game allows for any weapon to be useful given the right strategy. It's up to the player and their play style, not the design of the game, to decide which weapons to use in what situations.

For example, the Bullseye weapon first seems to be nothing more than a weak machine gun with a weak spread. However, its alternate fire places a homing beacon on an opponent, transforming the ineffective swarm of bullets into a precise instrument of death. The quick zoom of the Fareye sniper rifle, in conjunction with its ability to slow time, allows for headshots in the wake of a heated battle. Not only can the Auger's blasts pass through walls, but its alternate fire sets up a temporary shield that's only vulnerable to other Auger fire. Things only get better with more playtime, not just because more weapons translate to more techniques, but because additional weapons and difficulty settings appear after beating the game.

Mixing up battle strategies even more, the two player co-op permits folks to approach the game's many scenarios with a human counterpart, resulting in much more complex battle strategies, particularly in boss fights. However, co-op's not everything it could have been. When a player dies, a triangle appears on their partner's screen indicating their position, so their partner can rush to their friend's side and speed along the respawn process. However, due to the equilateral shape of this triangle, it's hard to discern exactly where the other player's corpse is located. Also, the fact that co-op's restricted to offline, split-screen play lessens the impact.

Fortunately, Resistance's online portion doesn't disappoint, allowing players to fight as either a Chimera or a human, each with their own pros and cons. Yet despite their differing abilities and play styles, the two sides end up rather evenly matched.

In fact, that's the whole point of Conversion mode. Given a preset number of lives, players begin the match as a human, and then respawn as a Chimera after a certain number of deaths. The last player standing wins, the victor's species is not always predictable.

Beyond the requisite multiplayer modes -- Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag -- Resistance offers up some team-based goodness in the form of its Breach and Meltdown modes. Each focused on the destruction of an enemy's reactor, and each supporting up to 40 players, the main difference between the two lies with the vulnerability of a base. In Breach, bases can be directly attacked and the capture of additional nodes provides both respawn points and additional defensive capabilities, requiring the team to keep careful watch over both their base and their nodes. Meanwhile, in Meltdown, an opponent's reactor can only be damaged by capturing the nodes scattered through a map, freeing the team from defending the base itself. Either way, the strategically placed nodes are central to victory.

Harkening back to the attention to detail, it's clear a lot of thought went into the various aspects of multiplayer. Beyond the various modes and playable species, the little touches are apparent here as well, such as the ring of lights indicating how long until the next weapon pickup appears. Insomniac also promises a variety of stat-tracking options on the forthcoming MyResistance.net site, complete with the ability to check a friend's stats and compare the medals awarded throughout one's online career.

Perhaps most impressive, the framerate never slows down. The importance of the unwavering framerate can't be overstated, especially during the game's more intense moments.

Though not without its minor problems, mostly resulting from co-op not being everything it should be, Resistance: Fall of Man easily ranks as the must-have entry in the PlayStation 3 lineup. The chaotic battles and creative weaponry help make its single player campaign among the most intense experiences in recent memory, a rare trait to find in a launch game. Meanwhile, the variety of options and modes in the well-designed multiplayer, another rare trait for a launch game, guarantee the formation of a dedicated online community. While justifying, let alone affording, a $500 or $600 PlayStation 3 may be a questionable affair at this point, games like Resistance provide a solid reason for the eventual purchase.



Final Score: 9/10