Since its release in the US last year, a lot has been said of Insomniac's Resistance: Fall of Man. Of note is the game's move to revise twentieth century history. To put it simply, where there was once a second World War, there now isn't, and where there was once restructuring, rebuilding, baby-booming and all that sing-along nonsense, now there's just a systematic, genocidal displacement of the entire Eurasian continent by nasty half-Droid, half-Alien creatures with a very poor record of dentistry.

Fall of Man's World War setting and huge set-pieces will make you think of Activision's Call of Duty. But if you were to throw in a couple of spaceships and futuristic weapons into the mix. Sony's first-party begins treading down a slightly different path than the box art would have you believe. As you progress, the vast locations become more varied and the visuals actually step away from the war setting, moving closer to more classic science-fiction.

Plot-wise is straight out of an 80's sci-fi series, only much prettier looking and without the flared trousers. US and British forces team up in an attempt to save and Asia from the Chimera, a virus that converts other life forms into even more Chimera. With the virus fully mainstream, it's up to you to try and stop it from spreading further.

Your arsenal, an obviously important element of any shooter, gets off to a bit of a slow start. You begin with nothing more than a type machine gun before getting your hands on the Chimera's impressive Bullseye. Further on down the line, as you'd expect, the weapons become more powerful, ambitious, ludicrous, useless and useful. Once you get access to all the weapons, you'll find yourself relying on the same trusted few (Bullseye, Carbine, Laark, Rosemore). I'd only recommend whipping out the others when ammo runs out for the rest. Each weapon yields a secondary fire mode, some of them work and some of them not so well. Indeed, I suspect that a few probably sounded better on paper. The Auger is a funny one. Primary fire allows you to off enemies through walls whilst secondary fire will bring up a shield that protects you from enemy bullets. The reticule turns red even though you're staring at a wall but that means you can still squeeze and shoot. Ultimately though, you're equipped with more than enough adequate firepower and ammo to have a jolly good blast-fest.

Another important element of any worth its salt is what you're shooting at, and I'm sorry to report that Resistance's enemies become quite tedious, quite quickly. It's not until you reach the later levels that you'll begin to see variation, but the AI still fails to stand out above anything I've seen before. The enemies will usually just stand there shooting you even though they're being suppressed with shells themselves. They won't run, duck, or hide when even when being pummeled. They just stand there waiting to become a part of the war's history. That said, a few of the game's bigger enemies will give you the jeepers-creepers, even if the AI remains fairly non-descript.

Throughout the campaign mode you'll come across a few well placed vehicle sections. Unfortunately, these are few and far between and don't work as well as in other shooters (Unreal, and the like spring to mind). You'll get to test-drive a tank, a jeep and an alien vehicle. They all work reasonably well, but I would have liked to see such craft implemented a bit more into the game rather than just featuring to break up the shooting action.

On the side of things, there's split screen co-op and an mode with support for up to 40 players. Online play is great fun to participate in (if your squad is well coordinated), and you really feel as if you're stuck in a war zone, with only your teammates for support. Without any coordination by either team's members however, online matches can be a tad frustrating.

One area of the game I'm slightly disappointed with is the graphics. Even though this is a first generation game, it isn't an excuse for it not to blow your eyeballs out. If can look as astonishingly good as it does, why can't Fall of Man? Some areas of the game look much more detailed than others, which may suggest parts of the title have been rushed as the PS3's US launch date loomed. Additionally, the real world locations sometimes look far too clean and well formed for a turgid disease to have wreaked havoc throughout the land. Such oversights damage immersion into the game world. Indeed, by the end of play I constantly found myself asking why the entire game doesn't look as impressive as certain sections do. Buildings, walls and objects would all too often remind me of Lummines - square, clean and perfectly slotted next to each other.

Despite the missed opportunities, Fall of Man will still most likely be among the games you'll buy after acquiring your new PlayStation 3. It's a solid shooter that ticks all the right boxes and is a blast to play in places. Just don't expect it to blow you away or give you a good idea about what the PS3 can do, because it only scratches the surface.

81%

By Dean Cole

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  1. dalehowelldalehowell 1 year ago

    will it come out for the pc resistance fall of man