ExAndOh
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Completed
Playing
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Time Played
--
Days in Journal
1 day
Last played
April 8, 2022
Platforms Played
In Ratchet and Clank: Going Commando (or Ratchet and Clank 2 in PAL regions), once you beat the game once you're given the option the experience the game again from a first person perspective. A cool way to experience the games until the third and fourth (yes I mean Deadlocked) included these options from the start instead of being relegated to a special menu. Insomniac Games despite mostly being know for their third person platforming has always had first person shooter roots in their DNA even with their very first game being a first person shooter for the original Playstation by the name of Disruptor. I feel like the developers really wanted to make something fresh with the formula which lead into the creation of the Resistance series. Despite the looks, this is an Insomniac game through and through with a few rough edges and questionable game design choices.
For a launch Playstation 3 title, Resistance: Fall of Man looks pretty good in my opinion. It does share the seventh generation struggle of "brown filter military shooter with bald head protagonist" but I really think they did enough to make it a bit different here. The cutscenes are decent and the models look really good too which I was sort of surprised by. Weapon effects look pretty visceral here as well.
The gameplay feels like a mixture of Playstation 2 first person shooters and the "new" generation seventh generation that we were bombarded by in the late 2000s and early 2010s. As I mentioned before, on paper it looks like a "brown and gray filter military shooter" but it's a little more than that in the gameplay department at least. You actually have a weapon wheel here so you have the ability to use all of the weapons the game gives you instead of just being relegated to only two which was becoming the norm at the time. The health system is something I like here being a mix of regenerative and permanent health loss. How it works is that you have four quadrants of health and with each quadrant of health you lose that you don't regenerate in time, that quadrant is gone forever until you find a medical kit or serums as they're called here. You can regenerate to the nearest quadrant if you're missing only part of it but that's as far as the regeneration goes. I also like how it ties into the gameplay as you play the first level that you don't regenerate health like this until you get infected which is a cool touch. Nonetheless the shooting feels decent enough, the main problem with the gameplay is the level design and how incredibly spongy some of the regular grunts are in this game. The first rifle you get and it would take around 20-25 bullets on average to kill a grunt and the game loves to throw a lot of enemies at you not to mention these guys actually hit their shots with the most inaccurate weapons too. The difficulty isn't too bad until you hit a spike around the final third of the game which you feel like you're taking way more damage and more often than not you're gonna be dealing with Augur chimera which are fine in moderation but awful in groups. I'd like to go over weapons as they are pretty unique in how they work. Insomniac are very good at making weapons if you haven't seen what they've done for the Ratchet and Clank series and their take on realistic alien weapons and 20th century military weapons are kinda cool here. They each have their own alternative ability which makes each weapon have a purpose in twofold. Two good example is the Augur having the ability to shoot through walls and the alternative ability putting a small shield that blocks bullets and lets you fire through it when you need it and the Bullseye being your standard chimera rifle with the alternative fire being a tracker dart you can place on a hard to hit enemy that makes each shot you fire hit with ease. The only complaint I got with the weapons is that I wish they gave ammo for some of the cooler weapons as you're gonna be mostly getting the standard rifle ammo for most of the game. The levels are mostly alright but there are some really annoying levels such as a vehicle one that makes you go to two outposts crowded with chimera and are able to completely melt the car to the point you have to snipe them one at a time to even get close even with the dude on the turret helping also failing to mention this game can be really stingy with checkpoints too. I feel like I can continue on with how I feel about the gameplay but I hate being too specific with something when I feel like I can easily condense it down. The too long, didn't read of how I feel about the gameplay is this: Cool unique weapons, health system is a good hybrid mix, enemies are incredibly spongy, checkpoints are scarce, difficulty spike at the final third of the game, levels are mostly good but some stinkers are here.
The story of Resistance isn't that interesting in itself but the world building is pretty cool, the game has you fighting the Chimera all over England as an American Army Ranger named Nathan Hale, there isn't much to him until in the first level he gets infected and somehow doesn't completely turn into a chimera. The whole game has the supporting cast knowing this but nothing is ever really done with it sadly. Even Hale rarely says anything either or have any semblance of personality, I figured he would have some sort of reaction to the fact that he's been infected but he just continues on completely without a care in the world although this might be in part of the story being told from the perspective of a woman that Hales saves early on in the game. The story is just here really to get you going along to the other levels, nothing too groundbreaking here.
The soundtrack is honestly alright, I appreciate it a bit more though because I can specifically hear David Bergeaud's influences well as he's done the Ratchet and Clank games and hearing the same sort of sound here is kinda cool honestly. Guns sounds decent too but honestly not too much to say about the sounds here.
It was an interesting experience seeing what Insomniac could do when they don't personally relegate themselves to making third person platformers but I feel like this was probably what every prominent Sony studio felt at the time. With the new generation, they felt like they had to make more realistic and grounded games to match with the graphical power of the Playstation 3. Fortunately for Insomniac, they still make those third person platformers and went on to make one of the better super hero games from what I've heard despite the tech and generation like Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog went. An above average first person shooter that goes against the grain a bit of what the industry expected them to do.
For a launch Playstation 3 title, Resistance: Fall of Man looks pretty good in my opinion. It does share the seventh generation struggle of "brown filter military shooter with bald head protagonist" but I really think they did enough to make it a bit different here. The cutscenes are decent and the models look really good too which I was sort of surprised by. Weapon effects look pretty visceral here as well.
The gameplay feels like a mixture of Playstation 2 first person shooters and the "new" generation seventh generation that we were bombarded by in the late 2000s and early 2010s. As I mentioned before, on paper it looks like a "brown and gray filter military shooter" but it's a little more than that in the gameplay department at least. You actually have a weapon wheel here so you have the ability to use all of the weapons the game gives you instead of just being relegated to only two which was becoming the norm at the time. The health system is something I like here being a mix of regenerative and permanent health loss. How it works is that you have four quadrants of health and with each quadrant of health you lose that you don't regenerate in time, that quadrant is gone forever until you find a medical kit or serums as they're called here. You can regenerate to the nearest quadrant if you're missing only part of it but that's as far as the regeneration goes. I also like how it ties into the gameplay as you play the first level that you don't regenerate health like this until you get infected which is a cool touch. Nonetheless the shooting feels decent enough, the main problem with the gameplay is the level design and how incredibly spongy some of the regular grunts are in this game. The first rifle you get and it would take around 20-25 bullets on average to kill a grunt and the game loves to throw a lot of enemies at you not to mention these guys actually hit their shots with the most inaccurate weapons too. The difficulty isn't too bad until you hit a spike around the final third of the game which you feel like you're taking way more damage and more often than not you're gonna be dealing with Augur chimera which are fine in moderation but awful in groups. I'd like to go over weapons as they are pretty unique in how they work. Insomniac are very good at making weapons if you haven't seen what they've done for the Ratchet and Clank series and their take on realistic alien weapons and 20th century military weapons are kinda cool here. They each have their own alternative ability which makes each weapon have a purpose in twofold. Two good example is the Augur having the ability to shoot through walls and the alternative ability putting a small shield that blocks bullets and lets you fire through it when you need it and the Bullseye being your standard chimera rifle with the alternative fire being a tracker dart you can place on a hard to hit enemy that makes each shot you fire hit with ease. The only complaint I got with the weapons is that I wish they gave ammo for some of the cooler weapons as you're gonna be mostly getting the standard rifle ammo for most of the game. The levels are mostly alright but there are some really annoying levels such as a vehicle one that makes you go to two outposts crowded with chimera and are able to completely melt the car to the point you have to snipe them one at a time to even get close even with the dude on the turret helping also failing to mention this game can be really stingy with checkpoints too. I feel like I can continue on with how I feel about the gameplay but I hate being too specific with something when I feel like I can easily condense it down. The too long, didn't read of how I feel about the gameplay is this: Cool unique weapons, health system is a good hybrid mix, enemies are incredibly spongy, checkpoints are scarce, difficulty spike at the final third of the game, levels are mostly good but some stinkers are here.
The story of Resistance isn't that interesting in itself but the world building is pretty cool, the game has you fighting the Chimera all over England as an American Army Ranger named Nathan Hale, there isn't much to him until in the first level he gets infected and somehow doesn't completely turn into a chimera. The whole game has the supporting cast knowing this but nothing is ever really done with it sadly. Even Hale rarely says anything either or have any semblance of personality, I figured he would have some sort of reaction to the fact that he's been infected but he just continues on completely without a care in the world although this might be in part of the story being told from the perspective of a woman that Hales saves early on in the game. The story is just here really to get you going along to the other levels, nothing too groundbreaking here.
The soundtrack is honestly alright, I appreciate it a bit more though because I can specifically hear David Bergeaud's influences well as he's done the Ratchet and Clank games and hearing the same sort of sound here is kinda cool honestly. Guns sounds decent too but honestly not too much to say about the sounds here.
It was an interesting experience seeing what Insomniac could do when they don't personally relegate themselves to making third person platformers but I feel like this was probably what every prominent Sony studio felt at the time. With the new generation, they felt like they had to make more realistic and grounded games to match with the graphical power of the Playstation 3. Fortunately for Insomniac, they still make those third person platformers and went on to make one of the better super hero games from what I've heard despite the tech and generation like Sucker Punch and Naughty Dog went. An above average first person shooter that goes against the grain a bit of what the industry expected them to do.