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User Review : Resistance: Fall of Man

Ups

longitivly plus, single player mode, unlockables, online, the kitchen sink{Some of the most innovative weapons{Did I mention 40 player online, lag free

Downs

Linear levels{No co-op online{Average A.I

Easily the most hyped PS3 launch title, so did it live up to this hype?

Who said war was ugly?
1080p is were it is at these days I hear this game is just stunning on a 1080p (720p) set but if your unfortunate like myself and have your eyes glued to a regular 476i you still will be amazed at the graphics, not groundbreaking by any means but will still make for a wonderfully polished experienced. Particularly when you take in consideration that it is a first gen game, but if you’ve seen the Killzone 2 trailer that was released at E3 07 well…then be prepared to be disappointed. Lol.

The overall look to the game looks decent enough to be given the label next gen but we all know it’s the little things in life that makes the difference, this statement applies to the game as much as it does in life. The little graphical touches that you may or may not notice for that matter consist of a seaminglisly unlimited draw distance, some pretty impressive effects and just the fact that ounce you kill a enemy, that enemy will forever be there. It wont suddenly spawn away, it wont suddenly fuse into the ground and disappear, it is always there, no matter what.

As mentioned a couple of lines above the effects used are pretty darn impressive. Smoke, dust, haze, rain are all just as good as each other but the only one to let the tem down would be the fire. It would have looked good if it was on a last gen console but stepping up to next-gen it just doesn’t cut the mustard im afraid.

The real star of the show in terms of visuals wise is undoubtable the physics. Predicted to be one of the biggest benefactors of next gen, the physics engine used in Resistance certainly sets the bar high for other developers to follow. Most objects in a level on Resistance can be brought to justice with a thundering melee attack. Heres a few examples of these wonderful physics in action. Fire a few carbine bullets through a window and the widow will split and splinter accordingly to were those bullets hit. Melee a window and you are left with a hole in the window were your elbow made contact with the glass. Fire a few well aimed shots at a cars door and with enough shots that door is going to fall of sooner rather then later, but shoot the engine and you can expect to see a massive explosion, by the way there’s one word to sum up the explosions in Resistance and that is “Cool” Back to the physics. Even the littlest of things in a level have been given there own set of physics, for example a 8 ball on a pool table can be meeled of the table then rolled around the environment until your hearts content. I mean an 8 ball, for god sake has its own physics. Another great example is that all objects react accordingly to there weight as well. So if you melee an enemy corpse it will just budge a tad, however show a cardboard box your elbow and its going to go flying like the new Boeing. We all know that grenades are one of the coolest things a human will ever be able to throw and from this games experiences it looks like the lads a Insomniac couldn’t agree more. Grenades and rag doll physics go together like peas and carrots, so when you throw a grenade be prepared to have a bit of a laugh as you are about to see something either very funny or something that’s totally cool. Seeing one of those chimeran bastards flying across your screen haplessly will release the inner evil of the gamer, and you wont be able to resist yourself.

The sound of war
The sound doesn’t play an overall huge role in the game but it does what its suppose to do and does it relatively well, but if you were to write a 100 word review on this game the sound element of the game wouldn’t get a mention. First of all the, menu music. If you don’t like it I suggest you start err liking it as this is the only tune your going to hear when it comes to menus (offline and online)

However the in-game music does improve from this, well that’s when you can hear the music as normally its either so action packed that you cant hear yourself think let alone listing out for music or its dead silent to make the game more intense. But for those rare moments when you can actually hear the music it reacts to the theme and the mood of the situation that you are in for instance the music seams to speed up when enemy’s are about to make an unpleasant welcome or when you come to the end of a level, the music is a bit more welcoming and will automatically give you a sense of achievement.

Now for the actual sound in the game. With a surround sound set-up the sound is pretty immense, with every bullet fired every chimeran footstep, every desperate plea from your comrades heard through surround sound makes for a magical experience.

Boom!!! Headshot!!!
Resistance Fall of Man game play fires up ya normal FPS type of stuff but does touch up on a few things to put it up there amongst some of the best. First of all there’s two modes to attack campaign in, the first is your normal “me myself and I” type and the second is were you can get “one of da boys” over and play the campaign mode via co-op.

Levels, stages, maps, worlds, environments, what ever you call them is what can separate good FPS’s from the bad ones and well Resistance gets the best of both worlds here. The levels perfectly portray the time period that the game is set in which makes for a really authentic experience and the environments themselves are very imersive. Although well designed the levels are very linear and the player gets very little to no freedom. It just feels as if your just going through wide corridors that’s how linear it is. It all just feels as if your route is pre-determined and it just detracts from the whole experience.

The one title that this game can proudly boast about is that it has some of the most coolest, innovative and downright outrageous weapons ever seen. Many titles of late have shouldered of the feature of having a secondary fire mode to comply with the primary fire mode. But not this title, infact it makes full use of the feature and overshadows the primary fire mode with ease. This is were the player can be creative when approaching the enemy. Heres a few examples of just what the gamer can do to humiliate the chimeran forces. The Bullseye, it’s the chrimera equivalent to the Uzi, but what sets it apart is the fact that its secondary fire acts as a type of strong magnet, so ounce you fire one of these bad boys onto something every primary bullet you fire is heading straight to that sticky bullet, how cool is that, it also adds an aspect of strategy to the game play. Even the rocket launcher has a out of this world secondary fire mode. Its effect. Devastating. What happens is that ounce you’ve fired of the rocket you can stop it in its tracks with the simple press and hold of L1 and then you the player has the option to move around and aim again to re-direct the rocket. Now try and hide you bloody chimeran fools. Mwa-hahaha. I think I’ll let you the player figure out the rest as this is just a review not a walkthrough. But there is another weapon I will talk about and that’s the melee attack, I call it a weapon for good reason as it is un-chararisicly just as powerful as a weapon, two melees to a chimeran head and they are hitting the ground faster then you can say I like cookies.

Other points that are worth noting when it comes to game play is the good but not great AI. For the most part the Chimera are quite well educated when it comes to ground assault, you will often find them taking cover ounce they are on there own and they will rampage you when they are it a pack. But ounce you have a sniper rifle the enemy are as dumb as a goldfish and will only react when you shoot them and even then they still sometimes don’t react and for some reason the steal-head hybrids think they are the govenator and will just stand out in the open firing the powerful but slow auger at you without even using its secondary fire shield. So with a well placed rocket they are as good as recyclable steel. This brings me to my next point. There are many species and types of Chimera to lay into, and they all have there strengths and weaknesses, so you will never get a sense of boringness or repetitiveness. Other points to note are the skill points that are shamelessly plucked from the Ratchet and Clack franchise, and yes the names are as wacky as ever but do relate to what you got to do to achieve them. The use of the motion sensing capabilities of the SIXAXIS just feels like a bit of an add on but Insomniac has given it good enough thought for it to work. You will find yourself literally trying to shake fire of, and trying to shake of tags when playing online.

We want you!!!
40 Players online + lag free = magical gaming moment. Fact. Online multiplayer is were it is at this generation and with Sonys first real attempt at it, they come out with flying colours. This is just proof that Sony can do online play the way its suppose to. Personally wasn’t much of a fan of online gaming at first as I live down here in little ol New Zealand and we often suffer from some pretty mega lag which just ruins the fun and turns it into frustrating but in a move I did not see coming, Sony put in Aus/NZ servers and now its all lag free and I cant get enough of it. This truly puts the fu in fun and made gaming fun again. The scope of online play is just massive, being part of a 40 player team death-match is just amazing and is unique of a gaming moment that you’ll ever come across. With well designed maps and evenly created characters there’s no real advantage to any player, the only thing that’s wrong with online play in Resistance is the un fairness of the weapons. Take the Lark (rocket launcher) for example, was so powerful it made noobs look pretty good, even my 9 year old little brother could get a 3 kill ribbon simply using this gun and he doesn’t even like FPS‘s. Also one thing that it doesn’t lack is game modes, there’s everything here including the kitchen sink so don’t expect to get bored anytime soon, oh and get ready to lock ya girlfriend out as she will just be a nuisance. Mix all this and downloadable content of the PSN and you have yourself some gaming gold

Now that I’ve got that out of the way, we’ll jump of the battlefields and cheek out what other things make online so fun. One word to sum it all up when talking about the lobbies and menus is “convenience” Its easy to chat with buddies, find your buddies, create games, join games, its all done with a couple of button presses and your away and laughing so going through all those menu screens like last gen consoles are a thing of the past. In terms of ranks and what not, Insomniac along with Sony have not let up. There’s many ranks to get promoted to and the comprehensive stats list and medal achievements are enough to keep you playing for a long, long time. Although there are some downsides to online-play but very minor one when you take into the account all the good things. These little minor gripes consist of the lacking response time to update stats and the inconvenience of re-spawners, re-spawning near your location and popping you off without a seconds notice.

Was it worth the hype???
A big fat juicy definite YES, Although this game would look pretty average without its online component, but thanks to the best range of weapons in a FPS and immensely fun online play this game was worth all the hype for sure.