From the old school (well college actually)

Here's a game review I did in college for an assignment in English. I thought it would be cool to share it since I found it on my laptop. This is actually an early draft since I remember my later drafts having more pictures. Unfortunately I can't find any of those.

Resistance: Fall of Man

Platform: PlayStation 3

Developer: Insomniac Games

Publisher: Sony

Release Date: 23rd March 2007

In this modern day, First Person Shooters are equalivent to platformers in the 90's. Every other game released is one of them. With first person shooters, the premise is the same. Run n' Gun. Some have tried to mix it up with Squad based gameplay and even have magical powers. Though, none of these innovations have stuck with the genre. Resistance: Fall of Man, or R:FoM for short, doesn't do this. It keeps things basic in a sense but that doesn't stop it being a unique experience and a perfect curtain-opener for Sony's new Tower of Power.

R:FoM is set in an alternate world in which World War 2 didn't happen and instead prosperity fell until 1931 when Russia closed its borders. The world thought Russia was building some kind of new weapon. What was occurring was far worse. The antagonists of the game, the Chimera, are an alien race who were previously humans, but infected with a virus which mutated them into these vicious beasts. The game takes place in a 1951 England, where the Chimera are making their way to after spreading through Europe, before burrowing under the English Channel. Naturally, being a First Person Shooter, you play an American, Sargeant Nathan Hale, who is a strange character who doesn't really talk, a la Gordon Freeman from Half-Life. Anyway, the game starts when the US are helping the English fight off the Chimera invasion.

The gameplay in resistance isn't much different from any other FPS you come across but what does make it more interesting the various weapons. The standard rifle you get is the M5A2 Carbine, which has a grenade Launcher attachment, basic enough but nothing too spectacular. However, that where the cliche in guns ends where the other weapons are weird and wacky, though you expect this as Insomniac, the developers of R:FoM, also make the brilliant Ratchet & Clank series, so they know their stuff about cool and weird weapons. Some of the other weapons in the game include a gun that can shoot through walls, a flame thrower, and a sniper rifle that can slow down time. If I had one of those, I'd be the best sniper in the world. The weapons work really well and add variety into this alien-slaying funfest. The story is also very good, it immerses the player and wants them to play on, and find out the secrets of the chimera. You also find out some secrets via finding intel, which is spread around all other the place. And as you find Intel, you get skill points, which are like Xbox Live's achievements but with a difference. You don't know how to complete the skill point until you have actually done it. For example, there is one called "Karma's a bitch". In order to do this one, you have to kill the enemies by using the same weapon that they are using so if they have an Auger, the gun that can shoot through walls, you have to kill them by using that gun.

While the single player is good, on your own or with a friend via co-op, offline only though. The online multiplayer is what will keep people talking about this game for some time. With up to 40 player in one match, R:FoM's multiplayer is a great achievement for any game, even more so for a launch title. While very fun and quite fast paced at times, there is never any slowdown as the game is locked at 30fps, just like the single player game. And like the single player, there are awards to be won, in the form of medals or ribbons. Ribbons are won by getting a headshot kill or sniping someone, whereas the medals are slightly harder to get, where you have to kill 100 people with a certain weapon, or kill 10 people in a row without dying.

All in all, Resisistance: Fall of Man is a great game in every way, the story is engaging, the weapons are great. Despite not bringing something trully groundbreaking to this genre littered with good titles, everything R:FoM does, it does exceptionally well. The only problems I found are that the game's difficulty curve is a little steep and that the hardest difficulty, Superhuman (which is unlocked by completing the campaign on Hard difficulty) is easier than Hard difficulty itself, though that may just be me. Also, there is no texture streaming, so the textures look blurry when up close to them, though you probably won't notice when playing the game itself. Other than that, a great experience and a sure must-buy for all PS3 owners.

PRESENTATION: 8.5
GRAPHICS: 9.0
GAMEPLAY: 9.5
SOUND: 9.5
REPLAY VALUE:10.0
OVERALL SCORE: 9.3