Down the years, Insomniac's games have always had the same effect on me. Initially they've always felt quite underwhelming. Generic, even.
Resistance | |
---|---|
The logo as seen on the top of the boxart for the first game | |
Genre(s) | First-person shooter Third-person shooter |
Developer(s) | Insomniac Games SCE Bend Studio Nihilistic Software |
Publisher(s) | Sony Computer Entertainment America |
Creator(s) | Insomniac Games |
Platform(s) | PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Vita |
First release | Resistance: Fall of Man November 11, 2006 |
Latest release | Resistance: Burning Skies May 29, 2012 |
Resistance is a series of first-person shooter and third-person shootervideo games developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita video game consoles. The series takes place in an alternate history 1950's, in which an alien civilization known as the Chimera have invaded and conquered Earth, expanding their armies by capturing humans and transforming them into monster-like supersoldiers to fight for them. The player takes the role of one of the remaining human armed forces as they fight against the Chimera invasion. The series is noted for its use of both conventional and futuristic weaponry, reflecting Insomniac's previous work on the Ratchet & Clank series.
- 1Games
- 1.1Main series
- 1.2Other games
- 4Other media
Games[edit]
Game | GameRankings | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
Resistance: Fall of Man | (PS3) 86.70%[1] | (PS3) 86[2] |
Resistance 2 | (PS3) 86.91%[3] | (PS3) 87[4] |
Resistance 3 | (PS3) 84.29%[5] | (PS3) 83[6] |
Main series[edit]
Resistance: Fall of Man[edit]
Resistance: Fall of Man is the first installment in the Resistance trilogy and was released on the PlayStation 3 in 2006 as a launch title for the system. The game is about the Americans and the British who join forces to stop an extraterrestrial species known as the Chimera from taking over Europe in 1951.
Resistance 2[edit]
Resistance 2 is the second installment in the Resistance trilogy and was released on the PlayStation 3 in November 2008. The game's protagonist is Nathan Hale. It is set in 1953, shortly after the events of the first game. The Chimera have managed to cross over into North America and threaten to take over the continent.
Resistance 3[edit]
Resistance 3 is the third and final installment in the Resistance trilogy and was released on the PlayStation 3 on September 6, 2011. The protagonist is Joseph Capelli, a character that was introduced in the previous game. It is set in 1957 and again takes place in the United States in cities like New York City and St. Louis, Missouri. It also drops the military aspect of the previous games and is post-apocalyptic instead. This is also the last game set in the Resistance universe to be made by Insomniac Games, as confirmed by its CEO Ted Price.[7]
Other games[edit]
Game | GameRankings | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
Resistance: Retribution | (PSP) 82.89%[8] | (PSP) 81[9] |
Resistance: Burning Skies | (Vita) 59.05%[10] | (Vita) 60[11] |
Resistance: Retribution[edit]
Resistance: Retribution was released on the PlayStation Portable on March 17, 2009. Set after the events of Fall of Man, the game follows James Grayson, a British Royal Marine first mentioned in Resistance 2, as he helps the human resistance force in Europe to retake the continent from the Chimera in 1951.
Resistance: Burning Skies[edit]
Resistance: Burning Skies was released on the PlayStation Vita May 29, 2012. The game follows the story of Tom Riley, a firefighter who sets out to find his family while fighting the Chimera, who have now taken over the American east coast.
Future[edit]
According to Resistance 3 creative director Marcus Smith, the studio has a number of franchises it wants to pursue and that Resistance is not one of them. It is possible that the franchise will be handed off to another developer.[12] Insomniac CEO Ted Price stated that Insomniac 'won't be making any more Resistance games.'[13] On March 28, 2014, all online features of the Resistance games have been discontinued.[14] In August 2018, Insomniac's community director James Stevenson called chances of a Resistance 4 'a longshot' revealing that neither the developer, nor Sony who owns the IP, were talking about a sequel.[15]
Setting[edit]
![Games Games](/uploads/1/2/6/4/126494773/285254497.jpg)
The alternate history of the Resistance series diverges from current history primarily at the end of World War I, leading to the formation of the European Trade Organization, a continental peacekeeping alliance, and worldwide peace, preventing the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazi Germany, and World War II, but also leading to Franklin Delano Roosevelt losing the 1940 presidential election to Montana Senator Noah Grace who leads the U.S into a semi-totalitarianisolationist state, as well as the rise of an isolationist Russian Empire, as before his abdication, Nicholas II appointed Grand Duke Mikhail as Tsar, who crushed the Russian Revolution.[16]
Approximate location of the Tunguska event, in Siberia.
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 Chimeran forces. The Chimera overrun continental Europe by February 1950, leaving very few survivors. The Chimera then proceed to dig underneath the English Channel, invading Britain in late 1950. The bulk of the British forces are wiped out, with the rest fleeing to scattered bases in the northern parts of England.
Some time after the invasion of England the SRPA (Special Research Projects Administration) begins experimenting with the virus, supposedly in order to find a cure. It is never revealed whether they are really attempting to find a cure for the virus or are simply attempting to create a group of superhumans just as Malikov did with the Cloven. This project is known as Project Abraham.
There are only two known locations where Project Abraham took place. One was an unspecified military facility in Alaska and another in Bryce Canyon, Utah. Out of the viral website it is known that the only survivors are Joseph Capelli and Nathan Hale. They are both later transferred into Sentinel Squad Echo.
After the events of Project Abraham, the soldiers who were infected with the Chimeran virus were formed into an elite squad known as Sentinels.
Gameplay[edit]
The Resistance games play similarly to most first-person shooters, and feature a variety of weapons. The weapons include both conventional weapons for the setting of the game, weapons created by the Chimera that possess unique features, and human weapons that have been modified to take advantage of the Chimera technology. Each weapon features two modes of fire which work in conjunction with each other. The human assault rifles include grenade launchers, while the Chimera 'Bullseye' has a secondary mode that fires a marker, such that all bullets shot in the primary mode will strike the marked target for a short time.
The three PlayStation 3 games feature large-scale multiplayer modes with support for up to 60 players in Resistance 2 and up to 40 players in 'Resistance: Fall of Man'. Gameplay was reduced to smaller matches in Resistance 3. All three console games offer extensive stat tracking for online combat, with Resistance 2 featuring trophies that require online play to earn.
Other media[edit]
Novels[edit]
Resistance: The Gathering Storm, a novel by William C. Dietz, was released in April 2009. It details what happened to Nathan Hale during the two years between the events that unfolded in Iceland; after his extraction from Great Britain, and later in San Francisco; where the Chimera launch the invasion of the United States.
![Game Game](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tdUDSC-Dbb4/maxresdefault.jpg)
Resistance: A Hole in the Sky, an indirect sequel to The Gathering Storm, was written by William C. Dietz. It is set before the events of Resistance 3.
Comics[edit]
Resistance, a six-issue comic booklimited series, began in January 2009. The first issue, 'Resistance #0' (which was available as part of the Resistance 2 Collector's Edition), details the early history of Private Jordan Adam Shepherd, the seemingly innocent soldier who volunteered to be a test subject in Project Abraham, and, due to the machinations of Doctor Fyodor Malikov, would transform into 'Daedalus'; the Leader of the Chimera. Another comic issue released was called 'Metastasis' telling the tale of a Nathan Hale mission and how he is to retrieve an antidote to the chimera virus.
References[edit]
- ^'Resistance: Fall of Man Reviews'. GameRankings. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance: Fall of Man Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance 2 Reviews'. GameRankings. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance 2 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance 3 Reviews'. GameRankings. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance 3 Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGnh9ze5KTQ
- ^'Resistance: Retribution Reviews'. GameRankings. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance: Retribution Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance: Burning Skies Reviews'. GameRankings. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^'Resistance: Burning Skies Reviews'. Metacritic. Retrieved April 18, 2011.
- ^Insomniac not signed for Resistance 4
- ^http://www.computerandvideogames.com/333500/insomniac-wont-be-making-any-more-resistance-games/
- ^http://www.vg247.com/2014/01/06/sony-to-shut-down-multiplayer-severs-for-grand-turismo-5-resistance-series/
- ^Stead, Chris (2018-08-02). ''It's a longshot' – Insomniac talks chances of Resistance 4'. Finder.com.au. Retrieved August 2, 2018.
- ^Oddly, although the game is set in a Europe whose borders are similar to that at the start of the Second World War (save for the independence of the Baltic States), a trailer showing the map of Europe enveloped by the Chimera displays borders close to their modern day equivalents (such as a divided Yugoslavia), though only a few of the Central Asian Soviet republics are displayed as independent. See, for example, SCEA. 'Resistance Trailer border inconsistencies'. YouTube. Retrieved 2007-03-03.
External links[edit]
Retrieved from 'https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Resistance_(video_game_series)&oldid=906905097'
Launch titles are always hit and miss. Usually its with more misses than hits as titles are rushed to market and developers are still learning the new hardware. Often, there are two or three titles that really stand out over other games and systems and for the PS3 that game is Resistance: Fall of Man. Resistance: Fall of Man isn't going to blow you away especially if you've played Gears of War on the 360, but it does give a glimpse of the capabilities on the PS3 and takes you on quite a ride in the process.
Resistance: Fall of Man takes us back in history to before WWII. Without divulging too much of the plot, you play as Nathan Hale, an American solider who is on a secret mission to support England as all of Europe is overwhelmed by something called the Chimera. The story that unfolds is one of the best I've seen and almost sells the game by itself. The time period is the 1950's and it does have a WWII, Call of Duty feel, but quickly it takes on a sci-fi atmosphere.
The gameplay is solid and represents the first person shooter genre well. It's not overly revolutionary, but the controls are balanced and movement and firing are extremely conformable and easy to use. The different weapons available add diversity and add to the gameplay as well with some extremely unique designs. Some are so unique that there strengths aren't obvious at first but once you figure them out, you wonder how you made it without them. The AI also makes its strength know as the Chimera are not dumb drones. They will take cover strategically, fire from positions of strength, and even jump out of the way when trying to mow them down with a vehicle.
Since the 360 has been out for over a year now, the wow factor on next gen graphics is pretty much over. Resistance: Fall of Man definitely doesn't benefit from this as games like Gears of War of the 360 are showing better graphical performances but this game definitely has next gen graphics. The environments are highly detailed, the enemies are diverse and interesting, the cut scenes are beautifully rendered, and explosions are realistic both visually and physically. No one should be disappointed here. In addition, the audio holds it's own as well with great voice-overs and sound effects that create an immersive experience.
Resistance: Fall of Man is the PS3's flagship and won't disappoint. Especially since there are few games available, it's easy to say this is a must buy. When you add the multiplayer aspects of the split screen and online features, Resistance: Fall of Man will likely be an active part of your library for some time.
Overall rating: 9