FFVIIFan's Game Review, Ed. 1 - Resistance: Fall of Man

    This is going to be the first edition of what I will try to make a regular blog.  Seeing as this is the first, I'll try to let everyone in on what it is exactly that I hope to achieve.  In the simplest terms, I am going to be writing my own reviews expressing my opinion and ideas on next-gen video games.  So why am I bothering when you can find a review in any game magazine or just watch G4?  I guess just because I want to voice my opinion and this is the perfect place to do it.
    Now, I'll only be reviewing games that I own. At the moment, I only own a Playstation 3 so that means I'll be reviewing Playstation 3 games.  I have spent a lot of time playing the Xbox 360, however that's at my friends house.  To be fair, I don't want to rate, say Gears of War, when I have not had the time to sit down and thoroughly play it to its fullest.  I do plan on buying an Xbox 360 sometime this summer, so I will be doing reviews for that system, too.  Then if I can somehow find the money I will also buy the Wii. Heh, like its really that expensive when compared to the first two, huh?
    My scale is a little bit different than any other reviewing scales you might have seen.  In my opinion, a game can be broken down into three categories.

• Audio - This includes the soundtrack, sound effects, and voice chatting while online.
• Visual - Simply how good the game look.
• Gameplay - What you actually do in the game.

A game will be awarded up to ten points in each category, meaning a perfect game will receive a score of 30.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Playstation 3
Insomniac Games

Audio - 9
    The soundtrack in this game by itself is not amazing by any means.  However, for the tone and feel of the game it is a perfect fit. It adds to the dirty, gritty, and uncertainty by providing music with the right tempo and volume for any given situation.  The battle in Manchester that literally has around 30 enemies and some ten allies exchanging fire as you do your work is accompanied by an evenly paced beat, but it is not overdone as to take away from the experience.  More importantly I feel however, is that the people at Insomniac knew when not to incorporate music. Some games just play music from start to stop regardless of the situation of the game.  Resistance however utilizes silence in all the right places such as escaping Grimbsy after being caught by the Chimeran or creeping through the underground tunnels in Cheshire.
    The soundeffects are equally well done. From the single shot of the sniper rifle to the sound of the gas emitted by the Air-Fuel grenade before it ignites just sounds right. The explosions are crisp and the voice acting is above average. The only soundeffect that I felt could have been improved was the Chimerans themselves. Some of the howls of the Crawlers or Steelheads just did not sound perfect. They were not cheesy by any means, but I feel with a little more work a real match could have been found.

Visual - 8
    The graphics are not the best, but certainly pleasing to look at. Compared to the Playstation games currently out, it is the best.  In keeping with the tone of the game, the colors are decidingly pale and grey.  You will not be finding bright blue as you would fine in the Sonic games; it just would not fit.  While it does add to the mood, I would have found a tad more vibrance as a welcome.
    Yet, what really separates the graphics in Resistance to that of Gears of War is the textures.  It just does not compare.  An example is where a piece of cement meets the soil. It almost appears as if the cement is just solid grey colored dirt without the grass.  Compare the skin of the humans and the Chimeran.  It looks to be almost the same skin except different color.  The puffiness of the clouds is slightly off. Brick walls and the grout between them seem be the same substance.  The textures just are not perfect. Now I'm not saying the textures are horrible or that the characters have that plastic brand new action figure shine to them. The textures work, but they dont have that "if I could touch that it would feel real" element that Gears of War has.

Gamplay - 9
    Resistance is all about action, and it gives the player plenty of opportunity to do just that.  The pacing goes from careful to chaotic in seconds. One minute you will be walking done steal steps when three Howlers (mutated dogs the size of lions) turn the corner ahead and rumble toward you.  You think you are done but as soon as you hit the lights to the area a squad of some ten Chimeran enter the room to take you out.  The open area battles are equally if not more excilerating as you join your allied forces while several species of Chimeran work their way up the field and Stalkers (tanks on legs) trample their along their way.
    I have to mention the weapons.  This is what Insomniac is known for.  Every weapon is different from the next and each has a secondary fire.  The come as simple as a shotgun to a sniper rifle that can slow down time and pick off enemies just to see the blood splatter slowly erupt from their skull.  As a funny note, if you let go of the slow-mo button right before the dead body of a Chimeran hits the ground it will bounce about 20 feet up in the air.  It is fun just to redo the same level using different weapons to see which is really the best for the situation.
    The only negative about Resistance gameplay wise is that it is very linear.  It is strictly go from point A to point B, and you can only get there one way.  It is not a bad thing, but after playing games like Grand Theft Auto you find youself asking "well why cant I go there?" or "why can't I do this?"  While the weapons add a lot of variety, it always comes down gun 'em all down before you can move on.  The option to progress silently or selectively is not there.
    Online is great. 40 players can be as chaoitc as you think it can be, but some of the levels are really quite big so that even 40 players do not make things ridiculous.  There are plenty of gamers online and a decent variety of game types.  Surprisingly, I found a decent number of people with mics, and matches without at least one player capable of talking was few and far between.  Most importantly, lag free.  I found no lag issues regardless of how many players or how chaotic the action got.
    Online is not perfect though.  You only have the option of ranked or unranked games, but you cant specify what type of game you want to play ranked or unranked.  Since Halo 2, I still have not found a match-making system that I like better.

Bottom Line - 26