The fall release season is under way and we have just received Insomniac’s contribution with Resistance 3. Set after the events of Resistance 2 the Chimera are still invading and are hell bent on taking over the planet. You assume the role of Joseph Capelli and you are humanity’s last hope. The game begins underground, in the home of Capelli and his family. It isn’t long before Chimeran death squads start rolling through town which will give you your first taste of the Resistance 3 gameplay. Once you clear them out you meet with someone that says they have discovered a way to defeat the Chimera, however, you need to go to New York to do it. So begins the story of Josepha Capelli in Resistance 3 and his struggle to save not only his own family but the human race itself.

Insomniac opted to make some changes to the standard Resistance formula for this title and they all worked really well. The game eschews the standard regenerating health gimmick that most shooters tend to utilize. Instead Resistance 3 brings back health packs which will definitely change your strategy as you progress through the game. This isn’t a game where you can simply hide behind cover until your health regenerates. There are health packs littered throughout the game and, at times, getting to one of them might seem like a catch-22. You obviously need one to regain some of your health, however, it is sitting in the middle of a huge firefight. The possibility does exist that you will get killed before you can even get to the health pack. This is where you have to get creative by quickly throwing a grenade over there to briefly clear out the area or using the Auger to shoot enemies through the cover they are hiding behind.

The weapons in Resistance 3 are varied and generally a whole lot of fun to use. There are weapons like the aforementioned Auger that definitely saved me on multiple occasions along with the Wildfire, Atomizer, Cryogun and more. Using the Cryogun was especially satisfying as you could use it to freeze your enemies and then melee them, completely shattering them in the process. Each weapon also has a secondary fire such as the Atomizer shooting out a ball of energy that draws in your enemies and kills them. This is a wonderful tactic to use if you are surrounded by Chimera in a room. Simply fire into one area of them and that ball of energy will keep them busy while you take care of the others in the room. There are also four different grenades that you will come across throughout the campaign which will become very helpful. My two favorites had to be the EMP Grenade where I could disable the big shields that some of the Chimera would put up and the Shrapnel grenade which would shower the area with shards of shrapnel when it detonates. This one definitely helped me get rid of those last few pesky enemies that were hiding behind cover.

Resistance 3 also features Move support as well as Sharp Shooter support. Utilizing the Move and/or Sharp Shooter gives you a bit of a different experience as some of your motions will affect what you do in the game. The Sharp Shooter is an interesting device and will help Resistance 3 feel a bit more like an arcade shooter. You also get a couple of different options here with the “firing mode selector” and things like that. There is definitely a bit of a learning curve to using the Sharp Shooter, however, once I got more used to using it, the Sharp Shooter seemed to work fine. I don’t think it is going to become the main way I play this game (or any other shooter), however, it’s nice to change things up every now and then.

You can’t have a first person shooter without an online mode and Resistance 3 is no exception. There is campaign co-op that you can play through with a friend either via a split screen or online. As far as competitive multiplayer is concerned you have a plethora of options between the standard matchmaking, private game, changing your loadout and more. Some of your primary options include the game type, toggling friendly fire on and off, how much damage weapons do, whether your health will regenerate and much more. The game types range from your standard deathmatch modes to Chain Reaction, Capture the Flag and Breach. Chain Reaction is a team based game where each team seizes control of a successive series of control points to open or collapse a Chimeran wormhole. In Breach, teams are assigned attacker and defender roles. Before running out of reinforcements, the attacking team must destroy the defending team’s reactor. Disabling the shield node and turret node will weaken the enemy’s defenses. During my time with the multiplayer everything seemed to run smoothly and I didn’t have any problems connecting with ongoing games or creating my own. The whole experience was a positive one and the team at Insomniac should be commended.

I wasn’t a fan of the original Resistance title and, while I didn’t think it was amazing, Resistance 2 was a lot better. With that said Resistance 3 is a tremendous amount of fun and is by far the best game in the series to date. I really enjoyed the campaign and seeing where the story would end. Being able to play with a friend made the game that much more fun and it would be nice if more shooters had a co op option. The multiplayer was a tremendous amount of fun and something that should keep PlayStation 3 owners busy for quite a while. If you didn’t enjoy the previous titles in this series I highly recommend that you give this game a chance. As I said, it is the best Resistance title yet and might change your mind about the series itself.

Score: 8.5/10

Originally posted on Totally Gaming Network