Resistance: Fall of Man

Developer: Insomniac Games

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment

I remember when the PS3 was only a few months away from launch and this game was being hyped to no end, in the end, it received some very respectable praise, though it did fall a bit short of expectations.

As for me, I didn't get to play this game until two years ago and honestly... I don't see it.

The game tells us about the Chimera an alien/mutant species that has overtaken most of Europe in just a few years, amidst this, you play as a US marine who's name I couldn't even be bothered to memorize and there lies the first problem I have with this game: I don't care about any of the characters, their names or motivations, the game even tries to convey with a narrator who tells you what is going to happen... before it happens (spoilers much?), but honestly, as serious as said narrator tries to be, the writing is preeeeety bad, but that's fine, there's dozens of great shooters out there with poor stories, unfortunately, that's not where the games' faults end.

The gameplay is... awkward, you have a mix of regenerating health with healthpacks, your health is divided by four bars, if a bar gets damaged it will regenerate by itself, but if you lose one, it can only be restored with healthpack, honestly the idea isn't bad, but it's poorly executed, the health regeneration is so insignificant it might as well not even be there, but at the same time, the game is pretty skimpy on medpacks, it's as if the developers couldn't decide what sort of game they wanted so they went with this weird mid-way point.

But wait, there's more! Everything feels so floaty, be it your character, friends or enemies, they don't really feel like they're stepping on the ground, even the levels feel pretty sterile, it's hard to explain it, but it's like I'm playing a shooter on the PS2 (a console not known for its shooters), every once in a while you're thrown in a vehicle session, but you don't have a lot of freedom, you're just sent through narrow corridors while controlling a tank that can't even drive over lamp posts. 

I also found that outside of the basic hybrids, most chimera just are not very fun to fight, they just feel wrong and I don't really know why, the same goes for the weapons, all of them have two firing modes and some are pretty imaginative, but again, they just don't feel right, using the bullseye's targeting system isn't as fun or easy as it should be.

Graphically the game doesn't look very good either, walls, textures and environments look like they were made for the PS2, only running at a higher resolution, the character models looks pretty good though. 

I know that by the sound of this review,  Resistance sounds like the worst game ever made, but it really isn't, it's just... boring, really, really boring, doesn't help that the multiplayer servers are empty.

Pros:

- Character models look pretty good for an early PS3 game
- Some of the weapons and enemies are pretty imaginative

 
Cons:

- Health system is weird, weapons don't really feel like they should

- Level design is boring and sterile and so are the vehicle sections
- I really could not care less about the games' plot or the main character
- Multiplayer servers are empty

Final Grade: D-

I quite like this boxart, it's a picture of a ruined city with a non humanoid skull sitting on a pile of rubble, not really sure why it has a human helmet though, it's not like the Chimera use them, but that's a nitpick from my part.

Inside you'll find a manual, the disc and an inner boxart of a map which doesn't give you any detailed information but it's nice to look at.

The manual is pretty disappointing, its cover looks good, simulating an officer's journal, but it's only 8 pages long, a lot of it legal information, there's no backstory, character descriptions or even any 'journal' to speak of, it just gives you some basic information on the games' modes.

Overall, this packaging is all flash but no substance.

Packaging Grade: C+