There are very few games that have this kind of atmosphere. Resistance 3 is set four years after the second game’s ending and you take the role of Joseph Capelli, who has been discharged for (censored for spoilers). The Chimera have basically taken over the world. With most of the world either killed or turned into a Chimera, things are looking pretty bad for the humans. Will they win this war or end up dying at the hands of the Chimera? I strapped in for this ride with a close gamer friend of mine in split-screen to give you the details.
Story:
As I have mentioned already, the humans are about to be entirely wiped out. No matter what they try to do, it almost seems like it’s completely worthless to try and stop the Chimera. While trying to save the world, Joe has been off in Oklahoma getting married and having a kid. He only cares about them now and would do anything to protect them. However, soon after everything feels like its safe, Dr. Malikov shows up. The Chimera are up to something big in New York, and its up to Joe to stop them. You, and almost you alone, are supposed to save the world from destruction.
The game does a brilliant job making you feel like you are there. The atmosphere is one of the best I have ever seen. The colors are dark, almost no humans to speak of, and every major city is destroyed. What little humans that are left live in small towns or underground. You literally feel like you are going to die at any minute.
The story itself is very blah. It almost seems tacked on. It’s a shame, considering how good the atmosphere is. It uses the same old plot lines as every other sci-fi movie or game, “Something big is going on in New York! I must go save us all!” The final scenes in the end are also blah as well. It could have been a better ending to such a great trilogy.
Gameplay:
The gameplay is top notch. It has all the mechanics of a great first-person shooter. Epic set-pieces, amazing and interesting boss battles. Just with almost every other Insomniac game out there, the weapons are to die for. Each one of them is unique from one another. Each weapon can also level up, going up three levels to add even more awesome to what they originally offer.
The game itself isn’t that hard. You will die at certain spots a lot, but with the numerous checkpoints throughout the game, you won’t have to worry too much in terms of dying. Also, despite how little food and humans you see in the game, there is ammo everywhere. You will almost never run out and with numerous guns in your weapon wheel, you will always have a weapon to shoot with.
The one main problem I had with the gameplay is that the waypoints were horrible. I spent a great deal of time running around trying to figure out where to go. That can easily be fixed with a patch, however.
Visual/Audio:
The visuals are stunning. The cut scenes are some of the best I have ever seen, while the visuals during gameplay are pretty good as well. There are some horrible spots of lag throughout the campaign, but for the most part, it ran rather smoothly. It surprised me how much stuff was going on screen and it was still running just fine. With all the Resistance games, I have loved the environments that you play in. The environments certainly look destroyed and overrun with Chimera, but all the locations felt uninspired and boring. Oklahoma was easily the best designed. From there, it was nothing but levels taken from other games. The ending will especially remind you of the ending in Half-Life 2.
The sound effects are pretty good. There are the Chimera battle cries, the guns, snow, and more. It feels like you are the one holding the gun. Turning up the TV during this game will definitely scare the neighbors.
Online:
Resistance is always a series that does co-op right. You can do split screen and online co-op. Split screen is rare these days, so any game with it is a great game in my book. However, certain animations such as ladder climbing are horrible in split-screen. I laughed so hard when I saw my friend climb up a ladder. It really takes you out of the experience. Insomniac also changed co-op in a big way. There is no separate co-op story, just a player added on to the campaign.
The multiplayer is nothing special. It lags a lot online. There are also numerous shutdowns and hit detection errors. Looking past these, you will find your standard Death match, Capture the Flag, etc. The levels in the multiplayer are well done, beating the campaign levels almost entirely.
Overall:
The Resistance series has always been a good one. I will say that I’m disappointed in the third installation. The campaign was average, with levels taken almost directly from other games. The combat was nice, the guns were amazing, the graphics were gorgeous, but I still didn’t have as much fun as I wanted to. Co-op was also changed from the others in the series. Where were the things we loved about the series, Insomniac? It’s a great game, but it could have done much better.
Score:
7/10
