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Platform
Playstation 3
Genre
Shooter
Publisher
SCEA
Developer
Insomniac Games
ESRB
M (Mature)
Released
September 6, 2011
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- New weapons are badass Chimera
killing tools of massively fun destruction
- While multiplayer won’t be
dragging anybody away from Call of Duty or Battlefield anytime
soon, definitely offers the best Resistance multiplayer
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- New hero Joe Capelli isn’t as
interesting a fellow as the now-dead Nathan Hale
- Story has its exciting moments on the path to NYC, but overall
not very compelling
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Review: Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)
Review: Resistance: Retribution (PSP)
Review: Red Faction: Armageddon (PS3)
Review: Call Juarez: The Cartel (PS3)
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Resistance 3
Score: 8.5 / 10
Through the first two Resistance titles,
the human race has taken a complete pounding at the hands of the
invading Chimera aliens, with the populace of an alternate 1940’s-1950’s
timeline being nearly annihilated. Europe fell, then the United States.
Oh, and just for good measure, the one hope that could have possibly
saved the planet’s people, the hero soldier Nathan Hale who dealt a few
heavy-handed blows to the Chimera, is now dead, killed before the
Chimera virus took away his last visage of humanity.
When the newest chapter of the franchise opens, gamers are introduced to
Hale’s hero replacement, Joseph Capelli, living in Oklahoma with his
wife and child amongst a small surviving band of humans. Capelli just so
happened to be the
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so that’s the anticipation, since other
attempts have been overwhelmingly unsuccessful.
With his wife and son escaping to safety, Capelli reluctantly accepts
Malikov’s invitation to escort him to New York City, where the giant
wormhole that Hale inadvertently opened in Resistance 2 must be closed
if humanity has even the smallest chance of extending its earthly
existence. While Capelli is a somewhat charming fellow, gamers may have
a hard time not being at the helm of Nathan Hale, who was much more
charismatic and a generally more likable Chimera killer. With Hale,
gamers could have more confidence they were going to kick some Chimera
ass, even in the most dire of circumstance. Capelli doesn’t have that
same aura of ass-kicking acumen.
As far as the actual final chapter in the Resistance trilogy goes (at
the end of the game, it seems that there’s a conclusion, but also leaves
a somewhat “Sopranos ending” that seems to slightly leave the proverbial
wormhole open for a possible further adventure), the trail to New York
City has some entertaining gameplay moments, such as a dangerous,
heart-pumping Mississippi River boat ride, an exhilarating train journey
in Pennsylvania, and an encounter with a evil, anarchic human society
holed up in Graterford Prison.
But the presence of a lackluster and not-very-bright AI enemy force,
both Chimera and human, dulls some of the gameplay. Enemies are
extremely susceptible to being either flanked without much of a
reactionary defense. There are a few boss battles, with some rather
large Chimera, that should be more sweaty-brow-inducing, but with a
proper flanking/circling strategy become not much of a struggle. It’s
not an overly long journey either, as I was able to complete the
Oklahoma-to-NYC adventure in just over 8 hours, although the time was
made much more entertaining by having a collection of Chimera-clobbering
weaponry, with a few new additions that gamers will enjoy including the
Mutator that turns anybody or anything shot with it into a mutated gooey
mess and the Atomizer, which fries its targets with lightning-hot
electricity into crisp ash.
Each weapon also has a secondary ability,
and this increases the killing capability exponentially in many of them.
Plenty of ammo is scattered along the way, along with health packs
(which can also be obtained by killing Chimera), so there’s never much
of a fear of running completely out of ammunition or dying needlessly.
Returning is the weapon wheel, where gamers can select their weapon of
choice from the wheel interface, and a health bar, both missing from
Resistance 2 and were added back into Resistance 3 after gamers who
enjoyed Resistance: Fall of Man clamored for the development team to
reintroduce both features. Accompanying the great selection of weapons
is excellent FPS controls that are a necessity for some of the heavy
firefights gamers will find themselves in against hordes of enemies.
With a relatively short single-player mode, Resistance 3 benefits from a
very good co-op mode along with a good multiplayer online mode. While
Resistance 3’s multiplayer might not distract vast numbers of FPS online
gamers away from Call of Duty or Battlefield anytime soon, it definitely
offers the best Resistance multiplayer yet, such a vast improvement from
the very first Resistance multiplayer foray.
This may not quite be the pièce de résistance finale that franchise fans
desired. But a good-not-great single-player campaign story for the
trilogy conclusion with a less interesting protagonist is easily
overcome with a fantastic variety of alien-eliminating weaponry, solid
FPS controls that restore gameplay functionality to fan-favorite quality
with the reintroduction of the weapon wheel and health bar, and
good-not-great multiplayer.
- Lee Cieniawa
lcieniawa@armchairempire.com
(September 30, 2011) |
