Resistance: Fall of Man
Every launch needs a must-have title. This is it.
Published: November 28, 2006
Whatever you do, don't make the mistake of thinking Resistance is another World War II shooter. It is not another Call of Duty or Medal of Honor, despite what most of the screenshots have shown so far. This was entirely intentional on developer Insomniac's part, going with the same sort of browns and greys and blown-out rubble, because it was important to establish that this was the world you know, just slightly different. By the end of the game, however, the color palette shifts to blues and greens and it's all decidedly unlike anything you know in our version of 1951.
Again, this was intentional. Resistance, if you haven't been following it, takes place in an alternate timeline where a mysterious menace known only as the Chimera has swept out of Siberia and completely taken over Asia, Russia and Europe. The only place not completely conquered is the UK, and they're in their final fight when the cavalry in the form of one Nathan Hale from the good ol' US of A rides in to save those poor Brits.
Except something happens (which I won't spoil), and it results in Hale contracting the Chimeran virus. Unlike every other person infected, though, Hale wakes up, subtly altered by the virus, and charges off on a mission to stop the Chimera as a one man army. The number of spoken lines Hale has in the game can probably be counted on one hand, leading to a feeling that he's a little wooden as a main character, but like Valve's decision to go with a mute main character in the Half-Life series, having all the other characters in the game world speak at him rather than with him, the idea is to suck the player in.
Unlike Half-Life, however (which along with Halo are probably better comparisons than any World War II shooter), the story is driven almost entirely by cutscenes that play out, linking Hale's trek across the UK in the three day journey, slowly moving from human-occupied (and mostly destroyed) locales to something more Chimeran-influenced. By the end of the game, the transition into a completely alien world is handled so smoothly that I almost didn't notice how completely the environments had changed.
What I did notice was how much the Chimeran architecture feels like something out of Half-Life 2. That's not a slight against Insomniac; Half-Life 2's world sported some incredibly cool alien tech with tons of spires and 45 degree angles. There's and obvious feeling that you're walking from an area where the Chimera are interlopers -- where they're still invading -- and eventually their influence is all that can be seen.
Luckily, there's one very key difference between Halo or Half-Life in Resistance, and it happens to be Insomniac's hallmark: crazy ass weapons. The stuff you'll start out feels like typical post-WWII fare, but as the Chimera come to the fore, so too do their weapons. Things like the Hedgehog grenade, which shoots a couple dozen tines out in every direction, or the Auger that can fire through walls or the Bullseye that lets you "tag" a target and send all your shots around corners and cover to hit an enemy, show that experience on the more futuristic Ratchet & Clank series was time well-spent.
Again, this was intentional. Resistance, if you haven't been following it, takes place in an alternate timeline where a mysterious menace known only as the Chimera has swept out of Siberia and completely taken over Asia, Russia and Europe. The only place not completely conquered is the UK, and they're in their final fight when the cavalry in the form of one Nathan Hale from the good ol' US of A rides in to save those poor Brits.
Except something happens (which I won't spoil), and it results in Hale contracting the Chimeran virus. Unlike every other person infected, though, Hale wakes up, subtly altered by the virus, and charges off on a mission to stop the Chimera as a one man army. The number of spoken lines Hale has in the game can probably be counted on one hand, leading to a feeling that he's a little wooden as a main character, but like Valve's decision to go with a mute main character in the Half-Life series, having all the other characters in the game world speak at him rather than with him, the idea is to suck the player in.
Unlike Half-Life, however (which along with Halo are probably better comparisons than any World War II shooter), the story is driven almost entirely by cutscenes that play out, linking Hale's trek across the UK in the three day journey, slowly moving from human-occupied (and mostly destroyed) locales to something more Chimeran-influenced. By the end of the game, the transition into a completely alien world is handled so smoothly that I almost didn't notice how completely the environments had changed.
What I did notice was how much the Chimeran architecture feels like something out of Half-Life 2. That's not a slight against Insomniac; Half-Life 2's world sported some incredibly cool alien tech with tons of spires and 45 degree angles. There's and obvious feeling that you're walking from an area where the Chimera are interlopers -- where they're still invading -- and eventually their influence is all that can be seen.
Luckily, there's one very key difference between Halo or Half-Life in Resistance, and it happens to be Insomniac's hallmark: crazy ass weapons. The stuff you'll start out feels like typical post-WWII fare, but as the Chimera come to the fore, so too do their weapons. Things like the Hedgehog grenade, which shoots a couple dozen tines out in every direction, or the Auger that can fire through walls or the Bullseye that lets you "tag" a target and send all your shots around corners and cover to hit an enemy, show that experience on the more futuristic Ratchet & Clank series was time well-spent.
