Finally, Sony released the powerhouse known as the Playstation 3. The PS3 fan boys all remember the first PS3 show when Phil Harrison demonstrated just how powerful this technological marvel is. Now it's here, but how is all this power being used? Fairly good in my opinion! Resistance: Fall of Man (RFM) is a first person shooter (duh) for the Playstation 3 (double duh), set in the 1950's where all of Europe and most of Asia has been overrun by a virus, capable of mutating humans into alien creatures, known as the Chimera. The game is built up around the endeavors of the American soldier Nathan Hale, who is dropped in on an assault, on the city of York. From here, he too is infected, but not mutated. He thus becomes a powerful half-human, half-chimerian hybrid, and must now join his fellow humans in the battle against the vicious E.T. look-alike invaders.
The game itself runs in 720p HD, which is jaw-droopingly beautiful providing of course that you have a HD TV and a HDMI cable. Otherwise, the crisp details in the textures are washed away by jaggies from standard TV sets and SCART cables. Although the graphics are inconsistent from time to time, it is a very beautiful game on the bottom-line. The Blu-Ray discs really show just how much potential the machine has, unlike the X360's DVD drive. (Yes, I am a PS3 fan boy, please close your e-mail client.)
As for game play, the RFM is pretty basic. The enemies can take quite a lot of damage since there's little reason to get to cover. Just aim and shoot. However, the AI is strafing, dodging, ducking and jumping and aims irritatingly well. Rest assured, you'll be up for quite a challenge. The strong point in game play is the weapons. These are the guys that made Ratchet and Clank people, they have some twisted ideas for tomorrow's arsenal. Like the Chimerian standard rifle that can "tag" and enemy, so that all future shots will be homing to that position. Or the Auger that slowly goes through walls, and doesn't stop. It even has a force field for you to hide behind. Awesome!
And of course, there is the multi player. 40 people can kill some time killing each other with little to no lag. That's impressive. Sadly, the vehicles available in single player are nowhere to be found on the online arenas. I surely would love to blast through a wall with a tank and surprise a few unwary noobs gone camping.
The only problem RFM has, is that it becomes very linear at points. Even though the scenery is very different from one place to another, there're little to no cut-scenes, even though they are brilliantly done. All you get are 30-50 seconds of dialog and some black and white stills, and then a load of new aliens are thrown at you. Give us a tiny break please.
Still, Resistance: Fall of Man is a well done FPS, and for a launch title, the best on it's field. If this is the beginning of what we can see on the PS3, Bill Gates is in for quite a time. It combines the cool elements from classics like Halo and Call of Duty, with weaponry worthy of any childish inventor. With brilliant graphics that easily competes against X360 classics like Gears of War, I'll certainly will be on the lookout for a sequel. If you got a PS3, get out there and buy it!
