Resistance: Fall of Man (Sony Playstation 3, 2006)

Ok, so I broke down and purchased my friends PS3 from him. (Still cant justify spending the huge amount they want for the console since I am not a die hard movie buff.

On with the review....

So you feel left out when it comes to FPS games? Dont have a 360 or High end PC?
Look no farther my PS3 friends. This is one FANTASTIC shooter. Before I realy get started let me get one thing out of the way, the controls/movement feel a bit to buttery. Just doesnt feel like he is running or walking but sliding across the ground instead. But once you get past that and the light weight of the controller you need to get ready for some all out shooting fun.

The story is pretty darn good. In fact I would venture to say that a movie script could be released from this one. If you picked up Resistance 2 try to hold back your cravings to jump in and start shooting things if you havent played the first one yet. I did get about an hour in before a friend told me to stop and get the first one before continuing. And I am glad I did. I now have a better understanding of the lead character and what has taken place. This is one of the few FPS games that really get carried by the story.

Level design is, imo, great! I am tired of every FPS holding your hand by guiding you through a level like you are on a rail with the invisible walls holding you back from exploring what is one gorgeous piece of landscape. There are buildings you can go into and look around and off the beaten path places to get explored a bit. But I have yet to get lost at the same time.

Multiplayer shines in this game. From the 40 person battles to the 4 player coop story playing. All of your favorites are here and some other added goodies.

Weapons in this game are pretty cool also. I have yet to see a game put a weapon in that allows you to shoot a beacon on an enemy and no matter where he hides the bullets find him. Whether its around a corner, behind some cover it doesnt matter. No place is safe.

Sound is also done well. They have really put time into this one. But to be honest, its what I have come to expect from an Insomniac game. For example, I am driving a tank and in between reloads of the main gun, they put in a sound effect that clicks and clanks. It really makes you feel like you are right there in the tank. Not to mention the noises they have added in for when the main gun moves up down left or right. Its the ACTUAL sound effect from what I have seen on TV (history channel) and movies. That is good attention to detail.

And of course you have the DLC map packs on PSN ready to grab and get started with if you need some extra MP mayhem.

Sure the PS3 is lacking when it comes to AAA titles that are exclusives. But this is one series that needs to be in ANY gamers library NO MATTER what system it is on.

To the point, would I spend $60 on this game? You got it. Though you should be able to pick up a copy on eBay for under $25.

This is a First Person Shooter based in a alternate hhistory that has unique weapons and a great enemy to fight against. The Chimera are relentless and smart enough to give the player a challange. The variety of weapons and their many functions gives the player lots of options when trying to fight the Chimera. This game also has online play thats fast paced and has many different types of games to play that keeps players coming back again and again.

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-on​line game.

Well recommended!

I wanted to buy this game for a long time. I liked the idea of a human vs. alien war in an alternate 20th century reality. I played the "Medium" difficulty setting and found the game not too difficult. The weapon control system in this game is very clumsy and hard to master. I found myself forgetting how to use weapons even towards the end of the game. Switching weapons during battle is tedious and can get you killed easily. The game is very repetitive, and lacks re-playability.
The game also has no main bosses and leaves the most exciting tasks to cut-scenes instead of allowing the player to enjoy completing pivotal moments in the game.
The "Easy" setting in the game was harder because you are given very little if any health re-charges/canisters during game-play. I thought easy meant easier to play not harder. If you win the entire game new weapons become available to you, but it seems a bit pointless because you have to play the game again to get them, and you lose all your existing weapons.
Overall this game was very boring. Hopefully Resistance 2 learned from it's predecessor's mistakes.

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 schematics.

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