Review: Resistance 3
Five years ago Sony launched the Playstation 3 along with many launch titles. Among those great titles was a first-person shooter that would later go on and become the first PS3 title to sell over 1 million copies over its lifetime. Playstation 3 owners around the world quickly became addicted to its robust online system, which they played for years end until a sequel was released.
Sadly, the sequel did not fair too well with fans of the series and the title quickly died out. Now, the third and final chapter of the Resistance trilogy has been released and we got our chance to review the game. Does Resistance 3 return back to its roots, or is resistance futile? Hit the jump to find out our verdict.
The story continues a few years after the event of Resistance 2. Joseph Cappelli, who was introduced in the last game, is now the main character and has married Nathan Hale’s sister Susan. They live together with their son Jack and the few last remaining survivors of the human race in a safe location called Haven. This all changes when Dr. Malakov (also from Resistance 2) seeks out Joseph for his help to shut down the Chimera Wormhole in New York City. Joseph denies Dr. Malakov request as he tries to evacuate the town from the Chimera’s that followed Dr. Malakov. However, upon returning to his wife and son, Susan tells Joseph that if there was a chance to make Jacks life better then he should go with Malakov. Joseph stops to think for a moment and rushes back to the doctor. This is where the journey of Joseph Capelli begins.
Now being a huge Resistance series fan I have to say that Insomniac did an excellent job at creating a new lead character. If your familiar with the series then you’ll know that Nathan Hale has always been the star of the show. However, considering how Resistance 2 went Insomniac decided that Joseph would be the next lead. Rather then fighting a war to save humanity like your typical sci-fi shooter game, Joseph actually has a reason he continues to fight. This creates a strong story and allows a better understanding of who you are playing as. Throughout the entire story Joseph is haunted by dreams and thoughts of his family being in danger. All that Joseph wants is to ensure that his wife and son can go on living in a safer world.
Graphically the game looks great and is an improvement from the previous game, which is all what really should matter in a sequel. It may not set the bars for the best looking game out there, but it does do what many other shooters fail to do and that is to capture its audience with the atmosphere. Throughout the game we see many different types of lighting and each one corresponds with the settings and mood. Colors are mixed beautifully and the overall look seems much more organic. As I mentioned earlier the game is no longer about the war against the Chimera; it’s about surviving it. This is because much of the war has already been lost to them. Towns that have been deserted or eradicated of humans are filled with dust and shades of browns. Places where Chimeras are patrolling are dark and filled with colors that one would expect from a terrifying setting. Every type of situation has its color, which makes the overall story-telling of the game so much better. This of course wouldn’t matter without the amazing sound design. Missing radio broadcasts, screeching of Chimera Grims, or disgusting bursts heard from behind are all indication that you’re never truly alone in this game. Insomniac Games have truly captured the old feeling of the first game that many have come to love.
Resistance 3 gameplay follows most traditional shooters today. However, they have added a leveling up system for each weapon along with the return of the weapon wheel. Each weapons also have a secondary fire, which can be leveled up by using the gun continuously. All level-ups are different from each gun. For example; The sniper rifle once leveled up will display a marker over enemies head making it much easier to hit your target. The classic Bullseye will tag multiple enemies at once when it reaches a higher level. This RPG element is implemented brilliantly into the game, which causes players to want to use every weapon until they are maxed out.
The weapon wheel is exactly how many Resistance fans remember it. It’s easy to use and allows you to carry a total of 12 weapons at once. It also displays the level and progress bar of each weapon. As for the A.I., they definitely improved over previous games. Now depending on the difficulty you set it at (in this case hard) enemies will attempt to flank you from any direction. They will even take cover and try to go a more strategic route as creating diversions or pairing up in large groups. Even during conflicts throughout the game where Chimera’s are fighting either themselves or humans there is always one shooting at you while the rest are shooting at the others.
There are also collectibles/unlocks in the game along with challenges that adds a good amount of replay value. Some of these collectibles include weapons, journals, audio recordings, intel, and even your fun classic cheat codes. Challenges are tied to trophies even though they display in-game. This is a great way to keep track of your progress for a trophy. Each intel, journals, and recordings a player picks up they’ll learn more and more about the Chimera race. This supplies a huge amount of background story as a lot of it explains where they came from and why they are invading. Much of it even explains the reason behind Hale last words in Resistance 2. Additionally medals and ribbons can be earned and be used to buy artwork, videos, skins, and other stuff in the shop menu.
Finally, we move onto the online mode. There are a few options in multiplayer. On the menu screen we have: Matchmaking, Private Game, Change Loadout, Edit Character, Profile, and Leaderboards. In the edit character menu you can change the multiplayer skin of your character, although you do need to unlock them. And then you have your title (kind of like call sign) and your clan tag. The final option is Remnant. I will admit it I haven’t gone through multiplayer 100% yet, but I’m assuming this is some sort of prestige mode considering it unlocks at level 60. The profile menu will display all your stats and leaderboard just shows you your rank position against the world. Now matchmaking consists of about 9 playlist. All this varies from your standard death match to your classic hardcore mode. Upon entering a lobby your are able to select whether your a chimera or a human. Another thing that was brought back from Resistance 1 is the chat option in lobby. This allows other players to chat with text right before any game starts. Now the gameplay for online mode is much similar to story. You have your basic RPG upgrading only you have to earn skill points by leveling up. Along with that Insomniac have added kill streaks. This may be a problem as it does appear that the game is trying to be more like Call of Duty. These killstreaks however are not editable, meaning your stuck with what ever ones they have. There are also special perks such as the decoy, which sends out a fake copy of yourself to trick enemies. Private games are exactly the same as matchmaking except they are invites only. I only wish there was a server to view custom games like in Resistance 1. The online mode does tend to lag up a bit, but overall it’s a solid multiplayer experience and a ton of improvements have been fixed since the beta. Though be prepared to download a large patch.
Overall, I enjoyed the game and feel that it may be the best in the series so far. It has great gameplay, great graphics, an amazing story and an addicting online mode. Fans of the series won’t leave in disappointment as the game has been improved in nearly every way that fans have wanted it.
For more information on how we review games check out our criteria here.
SteveM
September 8, 2011 @ 1:53 am
Great review, thanks. Got my copy order, cant wait to play this game.