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Resistance 3 Review

Posted on 06. Sep, 2011 by Freak_c in Games, News, Reviews

Resistance 3 is the third game in the franchise from Insomniac Games and they have decided to go in a completely new route with the story, a kind of reboot. There is no Nathan Hale here to save the day this time round and we play as a whole new character and see a new side of the fight against the chimera and lead the resistance.

Resistance 3 isn’t really a direct sequel in the series, even though it sort of is. The story takes place 4 years after the ending of Resistance 2 and you play as Joseph Capelli. If you have finished Resistance 2 you will know who I’m talking about. I don’t want to give away some huge spoilers but there is a nice re-cap video while installing the game.

Capelli was dishonourably discharged and is now living and hiding with his wife, Susan, and son, Jack, along with a whole bunch of other survivors in the town of Haven, Oklahoma. He is trying to survive and the Chimeran death squads that roam the planet looking for the rest of the humans. Dr. Malikov arrives with an opportunity to deliver a blow to the Chimera and Capelli embarks on a road trip to New York City. Resistance 3 is the tale of Capelli’s heroic journey across the country as he encounters the last remains of humanity during the brutal invasion.

In Resistance 3, the Chimera have evolved into two distinct groups. Feral Chimera, which are wild and un-organised and then there are the militarized Chimera, which follow ranks and orders between each other. This impressed me because you can see the difference between the two groups just from the AI. The feral Chimera, are well feral, simply attacking in raged fits of fury. The militarized Chimera on the other hand are organised and in many of the battles I found myself flanked and cornered, requiring me to constantly move my position, which was great as it kept me on my toes.

Resistance 2 was known for it’s huge action set pieces and the huge goliath’s and other walkers roaming the areas. And I’m glad to say that Resistance 3 isn’t any different, some scenes are perhaps larger. I’m referring to a particular chapter in the game that takes place on a boat. You are taking a ride through a misty river when your path becomes blocked by a goliath, you end up having to take a different route, which of course turns into an awesome action sequence. You are soon over run with walkers, surrounded by 2 goliaths, who are chasing you and firing rockets at you, suffice it to say you barely make it out intact. Your jaw will be open the entire time.

Resistance wouldn’t be resistance with out multiplayer and co-op. Resistance 3 doesn’t house the large 64 player matches, instead going back to the more intense 16 player matches. The great thing about the multiplayer are the weapons and perks that come with Resistance 3. Each weapon in the game has a primary and an alternate fire mode, and the alternate fire mode can be upgraded with the experience points that you earn for kills and completing objectives. You are also allowed to equip your player with a few set of perks, which you’re also able to upgrade. Of course not all perks and weapons are available from the start, they are unlocked as you level up. The multiplayer is very fast past and sometimes becomes one sided.

Each match of multiplayer is made up of two rounds, where teams swap sides. So in one round you will start as the humans and the next swap to the Chimera. Each side has there own set of killstreak awards as well, for example if you are playing as the Chimera and you get a five kill streak you are able to pull out the Auger weapon for a certain amount of time. In the one mode your team has to capture various points on the map, one you capture a point then the next point becomes available on the map. Some of the matches in this mode end rather abruptly as one team simply dominates the filed. The other little issue I have with the multiplayer is that while in the lobby waiting for the next game to begin, you sometimes do not have enough time to purchase or update your custom class, however you can upgrade your classes, perks, weapons in game on the fly which was great. You are able to swap teams while in the lobby, which usually ends up into everyone jumping onto the more dominant team. I would have preferred rematch making between rounds or after every three rounds.

There is also online co-op and split screen offline co-op for the campaign. Insomniac have taken away the challenge type co-op from the game as lead designer Drew Murray said, “we had a very vocal group speak up when we didn’t have campaign co-op in Resistance 2, and there is something very special and unique about playing back-to-back with your buddy through the campaign.” The campaign was great and I am looking forward to tackling it with a friend of mine soon.

Just a quick mention about the presentation of the game. firstly the graphics are excellent and the game runs super smooth, even when there is so much happening on the screen. The game isn’t as vibrant with colours as the previous game but has a more toned down colour palette almost close to the first resistance game. This adds to the atmosphere of the game and makes to feel that Earth is going through a tough time. Voice acting is fantastic, especially that of Joseph Capelli, Susan and Dr. Malikov, but all other cast members did a fantastic job. Weapons and sounds are great, the sci-fi weapons From the Chimera really sound out of this world.

Conclusion
Although Resistance 3 takes on a new direction of the franchise with a new point of view from the story side, it still has all the elements that are known from the previous games. In essence Resistance 3 is a merge between the two previous games bringing out the best from both and fixing some of the errors. With a truly engaging story of a man fighting the resistance for his family, interesting characters, exciting campaign and on top of that we get top notch intense and addictive online multiplayer as well as both offline split screen and online co-op, this game really packs a punch. For all fans of the Resistance franchise and new comers the game will not disappoint.

8/10

Tags: Insomniac games, PS3, R3, resistance 3, Review