In Resistance: Fall of Man, the U.S. and Britain band together in a last-ditch effort to save Europe and Asia from a horrific scourge. In mere decades, the Chimera – a species of unknown origin propagating a virus that converts other life forms into more Chimera – has overrun Russia and all of Europe. Humanity’s hope for survival is slim, and the tide of the battle rests on the shoulders of U.S. Army Ranger, Sgt. Nathan Hale.
Resistance: Fall of Man was the first PlayStation 3-exclusive title to sell one million copies, find out why people like the sci-fi FPS game so much…
System: PS3
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Release dates: November 14th, 2006 (USA), March 23rd, 2007 (EURO)
Players: 1-4 (2-40 online)
Developer: Insomniac Games
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Origin: America
Resistance: Fall of Man follows an alternative history which diverges from true history at the start of the 20th century. Due to changes in historical events, the end of World War I leads to a prosperous European alliance and worldwide peace, preventing the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and World War II, but also leads to the rise of an isolationist Russian Empire, one that is still under czarist rule as Lenin’s revolution was quashed.
However, a new menace arises from Siberia, with the epicenter corresponding to the time and location of the Tunguska event of 1908. In 1921, Russia initiated a communications blackout with the rest of the world, and built a wall against its European border called the “Red Curtain”. Word spreads of small towns, villages, and eventually cities in Russia and Eastern Europe that are destroyed within a single night. A strange cold front also develops over Russia and spreads outwards. European intelligence agencies attempt to listen in on Russian radio stations only to hear a single message repeated over and over: “Brotherhood, Strength, and Fortitude…in the face of the angry night.”
In December 1949, the Red Curtain is suddenly breached by numerous Chimera forces. The Chimera overrun continental Europe by February 1950, leaving very few survivors. The Chimera then proceed to dig underneath the English Channel, invading England in late 1950. The bulk of the British forces are wiped out, with the rest fleeing to scattered bases in the northern parts of Britain.
Watch the Resistance: Fall of Man launch trailer.
The game starts in 1951, with the protagonist, Sgt. Nathan Hale, as part of the United States Army Rangers’ 5,000-man task force to help liberate Britain and to retrieve a secret weapon that the British claim can be used against the Chimera. However, the force is quickly wiped out by a Chimeran spire attack, which infects all of the soldiers with the Chimeran virus, soon after landing in York. Hale, the only survivor, appears to be infected with the virus despite not having gone into a coma; he possesses increased metabolism and limited regeneration, and his irises have become gold/yellow, somewhat like the Chimera.
What are these Chimera that drive the story?
The Chimera are a fictional race that are the main enemies in the game. The creatures’ origin is unknown, but they first appeared in Siberia shortly after the Tunguska event in the game’s alternate history. The human forces initially believe the Chimera to be the result of a biological experiment gone wrong, but through events and revelations during the course of the game, along with the Chimeras’ advanced technologies such as weather control, energy weapons, and force fields, it becomes evident to the humans that the Chimera are extraterrestrial in origin. The Chimera army expands by infecting humans with a mutagenic virus which causes its victims to fall into a coma, transforming them into Chimera. The Chimera have built conversion centers to both speed up this process and create new breeds of Chimeran creatures.
The Chimera are much stronger than regular humans, and have between two and six yellow eyes. The Chimeran metabolism is twelve times that of humans, which allow for extraordinary healing abilities, but it causes them to overheat quickly; for that reason, Chimera soldiers are implanted with cooling devices on their backs. The Chimera thrive in very cold temperatures, which has led them to alter the Earth’s climate, reducing temperatures to the point where London is frozen over in July. The Chimera are led by creatures called Angels, flying tentacled Chimera which possess a telepathic link to the Chimeran soldiers. Individual Chimera die without this psychic link. It is said in several intelligence reports during the game that the Chimera will devour their own kind, usually their wounded or dead.
Nathan fighting Chimeras in this video.
What are Resistance: Fall of Man’s main features?
* Resistance: Fall of Man draws players into a deep, frightening story that rewrites the 20th century and pits the United States and Britain against a horrific species of unknown origin.
* In addition to an epic single player campaign, Resistance: Fall of Man features co-op, split screen multiplayer and highly customizable online gameplay.
* PlayStation 3’s superior power enables Resistance: Fall of Man to feature a wide variety of fluidly moving characters that exhibit more sophisticated behaviors and interact with their environments more realistically.
* Greater processing power on PlayStation 3 and Blu-ray technology enables more immersive visual and sound effects in Resistance: Fall of Man, heightening the chaos of large-scale warfare.
* A powerful rendering engine allows Resistance: Fall of Man to feature a greater variety of highly detailed and interactive environments for a console FPS experience, including large battlefields and sprawling military command centers.
* Insomniac Games has combined its passion for creating exotic weapons and vehicles with a proprietary physics system to create a unique human and alien.
* Rumble functionality is already in the game (after the latest online update). But it cannot be experienced before the Sony DualShock 3 controller is released for PS3 in early 2008.
Watch some more Resistance: Fall of Man gameplay footage with guns blazing.
As a conclusion let’s rate this game on its fun-basis.
FUN FACTOR – 8.0
The campaign can be played in both single player and split-screen co-op. You can play multiplayer categories like free-for-all, team deathmatch and team objective with four people locally or go online and fight it out with up to 40 people! While the campaign carries an interesting enough but cliched storyline, the extremely detailed level design, changing A.I. and variety in weapons makes up for it. From your standard 1950’s shotgun and machine gun to the Chimera’s futuristic Auger gun that shoots through walls and the needle-spewing Hedgehog grenade. It’s really fun to play around with these weapons, and with them there are lots of skill points to unlock killing the Chimera in certain ways. It’s fun to play and the best First-Person Shooter on the PS3 so far.
Graphics – 8.5
The game looks as good as it plays, a detailed and dark world looks best on a HDTV. The special effects like glass shattering, weapons fire, and firey explosions look fantastic. Since the game runs at 30 frames per second at all times, playing both offline and online is very smooth. The gruesome looking Chimera don’t come in too many variations, which is a shame, much like the stills “cutscenes” you’ll sometimes see those aspects of the game must’ve been rushed for the PS3 launch. But it definitely looks next-gen.
Audio – 7.5
There’s always a symphonic soundtrack in the background. Sound effects from the weapons are most notable when echoing through a level, after hearing it you’ll often find yourself ducking and looking around for stray gunfire. The voice acting in the cutscenes is good.
Ingenuity – 8.5
Plays great, very natural if you’re a shooter fan. Outside of your standard FPS button controls, the PS3’s motion sensing controls are used to: shaking off enemies that grab onto you, and shaking off tags and flames in multiplayer. The various weapons really give this British game world a good mix between a 1950’s world and a sci-fi plot that works and feels real as you play.
Replay Value – 8.5
The single player/co-op campaign will last you over twelve hours. Loads of weapons to play around with that each have multiple modes. If you play the game for a second time there will be even more weapons to obtain. The online multiplayer is amazing, with loads of different modes to play, like the highly customizable custom matches, or ranked matches that include: Free-For-All Deathmatch, Conversion, Team Deathmatch, Map Pack Mayhem, and the team objective aimed modes that sends you to play Meltdown, Capture the Flag, Breach or Assault. During online play you can choose between the Human or Chimeran species, each of which has its strengths and weaknesses. All in all the 11 multiplayer maps will keep you busy for a few weeks, if not months, thanks to all these options and features like voice chat contributing to a lively online community. It’ll be interesting to see how Insomniac will improve upon this game in Resistance 2.