by The Matt
The Gameplay:
Resistance 3 is a console shooter and, as such, lives or dies depending on the responsiveness of its controls. As a lifelong PC gamer, my mastery of the analog stick is nowhere near that of dedicated console gamers. I can usually muddle along, silently wishing for a mouse and keyboard along the way. So you’ll understand just why it’s so rare for me to praise a console shooter’s controls. Resistance 3 moves like greased lightning, aiming is easy and movement while under fire remains steady throughout. This is important since enemy A.I. feels more aggressive than a Bull Elephant shot full of steroids during mating season. Getting surrounded and subsequently pounded into the ground by waves of Chimera is a frequent event so it’s important for the game to provide you with ease of motion.
Shooting in Resistance 3 is intensely satisfying. Every gun in the game has a wonderful and unique feel. You’ll quickly develop a taste for a few favorites, with the “Mutator” gun providing the most laughs. Shoot an enemy with this bad boy and he’ll instantly develop more boils than Rosie O’Donnell’s ass and eventually explode in a shower of puss and gore. Needless to say, this never gets old.
Mom told me this would happen if I kept picking at it.
While engaging in random firefights will occupy most of your time, Resistance 3 mixes things up with the occasional escort or on-rails mission. As is typical for the genre, these serve mostly to prolong the single player experience, but kudos to developer Insomniac Games for at least varying the game’s goals once in a while, making sure these distractions enhance the story rather than grind its gears to a halt. Still, people buy games like these by the millions for a single reason: the multiplayer. Sinking a good 10 hours into Resistance 3‘s main campaign is a worthwhile expenditure of your time, but most people will stick around to kick ass online.
While Resistance 3’s multiplayer won’t dethrone current champ Call Of Duty any time soon, what’s available here is consistently solid. Insomniac has considerably beefed up the franchise’s online component, bringing it closer to modern conventions than previous entries. Perks are now available, as they are in most recent shooters. Kill-streaks, leveling, weapon modifications, ridiculous screen-clearing mega-abilities… all the staples one would expect from a game’s online modes are also there. Sadly, the number of players you can shoot it out with has been massively downgraded. Sixteen players can now share a map, a considerable drop from the previous game’s 60. Modes include your usual deathmatch, team death match, and capture the flag variants. Along for the ride are Breach mode, which is a Gears Of War-style Horde mode, and Chain Reaction, wherein players must stop Chimera wormholes from opening by gaining control of nodes spread across the map. Resistance 3’s multiplayer is solid if unspectacular, strong without reinventing the wheel.
The Presentation:
Resistance 3’s graphics are a mixed bag. It seems like the smaller the detail, the worse the visuals get. Gigantic, sky-hugging bosses look suitably epic in both detail and animation, but once you get up close and personal the visuals tend to break down. Live enemies move realistically but once you kill them and stand close to their corpses, the textures that make up their bodies lose their refined edge. The same goes for the décor. The exterior of buildings feel lifeless, it isn’t until something comes along to knock them down that the graphics engine kicks in something fierce. But until some alien Godzilla comes along, no piece of scenery feels like it interacts with any other piece at all. Most buildings feel like they’re made out of Lego.
This is my only major gripe against Resistance 3. Static objects are poorly textured, but once you get some movement going, things look up. Spaceships, Chimera monsters, explosions, firefights, and moving vehicles all look stellar. Character models are very detailed but dip their toes in the uncanny valley more often than not. Any audio that occurs during the game’s countless firefights is impressive. Weapons each have a strong kick to them and their impact on alien flesh is suitably juicy sounding.
Faring less well is the voice acting. Mainly that of main character Joseph Capelli, brought to life by veteran voice actor Robin Atkin Downes. Downes, best known to genre fans for his role in Babylon 5, has a unique voice. Unfortunately, much like fellow voice actor Cam Clarke, he always sounds the same, no matter which character in which game he happens to be voicing. It’s just distracting to me.
The Verdict: [rating:4]
Resistance 3 brings the series to a close in spectacular fashion. While the war against the Chimera seems to be over by game’s end, the world of Resistance is still ripe for further sequels. Resistance 3 gets top marks in both story and presentation. This awesome package is topped off by solid multiplayer that should help keep the game’s community alive for months if not years to come. I highly recommend it.
Your faithful reviewer,
TheMatt
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFWKWICUOXU
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