Resistance 3 is a deeply troubled game. For some personal background, I’ve played the beta for a little over 2 hours, leveling myself to rank 20. The game counts 329 kills in my favor and 170 deaths against me, making my kill-death ration just under 2.0. These figures are not presented to brag, merely to give a history to my experience. And from my playtime logged, it’s clear that Resistance 3 is riddled with problems, both technical and in game design. Let’s start with the former.

Technical

Audio and visual glitches abound in Resistance 3. It seems most of the action in the game ever actual gets rendered for the player to experience. Invisible, silent bullets will race towards the player, condemning him to a cold death at the hands of an unseen foe. Players – friendly, enemy, and one’s self - will alternate between soundless killers and extraordinary loud beacons of noise for no apparent reason. I believe one weapon, the atomizer, does not have any sound at any time, making it impossible to hear when an opponent could be firing near or at the player’s location.

The HUD also tends to freak out, often incorrectly displaying where damaging shots originate. To understand how disorienting this is, imagine the following scenario – a shot hits from behind. Since the player is not physically connected to the game, the only indication they have of this damage is a visual effect overlaid on the screen and a red arrow pointing in the direction of the enemy. So the player spins toward the arrow only to face – a wall. Not behind, but to the side, where the deceitful arrow pointed. And then more shots. More arrows. Another wall. A hallway. The ceiling? A chair? As the player contemplates why the furniture turned against them so, they die, and the post death camera zooms in on the attacker. He is directly behind the player, and has not moved once.

Worse still, online lag is so prevalent in virtually every match that any sort of meaningful reaction is impossible. Every action, either an offensive or defensive move, must be done preemptively. This lag issue is admittedly common in online games, particularly ones that move at shooter speed. But Resistance 3 fails to mitigate the effects in any way, rendering planning or mid-fight thinking pointless. During the midst of battle, a player cannot reliably deploy any of the game’s variety of shields in reaction to a development. If charged by an opponent, the anti-melee shield will be so slow to come out (due to latency problems, not intentional design) as to render it entirely useless. This gives the entire experience a sort of surreal feel, as if fighting partially against the opponents and partially against one’s own conceptions of what might happen. The game is still playable, of course, but it struggles to get over these very significant hurdles.

Design

Here is a game that desperately wants to be Call of Duty, but cannot quite trim itself down enough. The elements are all here: perks, unlocks, a basic class system, and kill streaks. But it fails to capture what makes the Call of Duty series so enticing to such a wide group of people. Simply put, Call of Duty’s success comes from its speed. It’s a fast game, easy to play and easy to go on incredible streaks. Even if the average player’s game time is mostly composed of deaths and loses, those few moments, those unbelievable streaks and the ludicrous power over others they provide, give a high that gamers will gladly sink hours into reclaiming.

So maybe it’s understandable that Resistance 3 tried to emulate the series, but it’s still very disappointing. Beyond that, the game feels far too bloated and slow for any of the quick, Call of Duty like thrills it tries to provide. Player movement seems oddly restrained, and the token sprint only boost the speed slightly. Jumping is awkward and the player characters are incapable of vaulting over moderately high obstacles. There’s a restrictive feel to the overall movement in the game, as though everything is just slightly too clunky and slow to be engaging. But the major issue is the enormous amount of health players have. People just don’t die fast enough.

Resistance 3 uses extremely large health pools in a Call of Duty style game to rather poor effect. Firefights drag on far too long. This makes for some rather funny visuals (I never know humans could survive so many bullet wounds), but also rather dull gameplay. It also directly discourages team play, as an assist will not boost the player toward their kill streak, and moving in squads assures some measure of accidental kill-stealing. Consequently, the vast majority of Resistance 3 becomes one on one battles in which two payer circle strafe while wildly firing. No meaningful actions can be taken – no jumps or dives or any sort of quick movements – meaning that player dexterity has little effect on the fight. Grenades won’t detonate fast enough to save the day. And we’ve already covered why the defense mechanisms are largely useless. The game lacks tactical options during combat, and it’s just plain boring.

Of course, no modern shooter is complete without some sort of unlock scheme. It is, as previously mentioned, present in Resistance 3, and remarkably broken. As players advance in rank, they get points to spend on new weapons and perks and the ability to spend them. It essentially the system in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but with minor cosmetic changes. Now it’s clear why developers create these systems – they encourage grinding and replaying one specific title, rather than playing a variety of different games (and possibly not buying the map pack, heaven forbid). But ideally the unlock system should be as unobtrusive as possible. New players receive a reasonable amount of toys to play with, and experience vets gain shinier versions, and maybe a slight new power here and there. Resistance 3, and I assure you this is no exaggeration, literally rewards higher level players with straight damage and health boosts, and then throws them some superior firepower.

Initially, a starting player has access to one (1) class with exactly one (1) weapon. If a new player does not like using an assault rifle, preferring a sniper or maybe a shotgun, they’re just out of luck. This problem of weapon mismatch worsens when considered alongside the large health pools; it will take more than a few lucky shots to score a kill, conceivably difficult if the player disagrees with the tool forced upon them. Older players have evolved beyond such petty restraints, and have access to powerful perks and upgraded versions of all the firearms. They even have the atomizer, the hilariously named silent killing machine.

Balance isn’t really that big an issue in Resistance 3, but it’s telling that the developers saw it fit to simply buff players as they advanced, rather than fairly integrate the weapons across levels. The entire game is filled with these glaring oversights. There might be a good experience buried somewhere in this beta; I have a feeling it will take until after September 6th to dig it out.

Resistance 3 is a deeply troubled game. For some personal background, I’ve played the beta for a little over 2 hours, leveling myself to rank 20. The game counts 329 kills in my favor and 170 deaths against me, making my kill-death ration just under 2.0. These figures are not presented to brag, merely to give a history to my experience. And from my playtime logged, it’s clear that Resistance 3 is riddled with problems, both technical and in game design. Let’s start with the former.

Technical

Audio and visual glitches abound in Resistance 3. It seems most of the action in the game ever actual gets rendered for the player to experience. Invisible, silent bullets will race towards the player, condemning him to a cold death at the hands of an unseen foe. Players – friendly, enemy, and one’s self - will alternate between soundless killers and extraordinary loud beacons of noise for no apparent reason. I believe one weapon, the atomizer, does not have any sound at any time, making it impossible to hear when an opponent could be firing near or at the player’s location.

The HUD also tends to freak out, often incorrectly displaying where damaging shots originate. To understand how disorienting this is, imagine the following scenario – a shot hits from behind. Since the player is not physically connected to the game, the only indication they have of this damage is a visual effect overlaid on the screen and a red arrow pointing in the direction of the enemy. So the player spins toward the arrow only to face – a wall. Not behind, but to the side, where the deceitful arrow pointed. And then more shots. More arrows. Another wall. A hallway. The ceiling? A chair? As the player contemplates why the furniture turned against them so, they die, and the post death camera zooms in on the attacker. He is directly behind the player, and has not moved once.

Worse still, online lag is so prevalent in virtually every match that any sort of meaningful reaction is impossible. Every action, either an offensive or defensive move, must be done preemptively. This lag issue is admittedly common in online games, particularly ones that move at shooter speed. But Resistance 3 fails to mitigate the effects in any way, rendering planning or mid-fight thinking pointless. During the midst of battle, a player cannot reliably deploy any of the game’s variety of shields in reaction to a development. If charged by an opponent, the anti-melee shield will be so slow to come out (due to latency problems, not intentional design) as to render it entirely useless. This gives the entire experience a sort of surreal feel, as if fighting partially against the opponents and partially against one’s own conceptions of what might happen. The game is still playable, of course, but it struggles to get over these very significant hurdles.

Design

Here is a game that desperately wants to be Call of Duty, but cannot quite trim itself down enough. The elements are all here: perks, unlocks, a basic class system, and kill streaks. But it fails to capture what makes the Call of Duty series so enticing to such a wide group of people. Simply put, Call of Duty’s success comes from its speed. It’s a fast game, easy to play and easy to go on incredible streaks. Even if the average player’s game time is mostly composed of deaths and loses, those few moments, those unbelievable streaks and the ludicrous power over others they provide, give a high that gamers will gladly sink hours into reclaiming.

So maybe it’s understandable that Resistance 3 tried to emulate the series, but it’s still very disappointing. Beyond that, the game feels far too bloated and slow for any of the quick, Call of Duty like thrills it tries to provide. Player movement seems oddly restrained, and the token sprint only boost the speed slightly. Jumping is awkward and the player characters are incapable of vaulting over moderately high obstacles. There’s a restrictive feel to the overall movement in the game, as though everything is just slightly too clunky and slow to be engaging. But the major issue is the enormous amount of health players have. People just don’t die fast enough.

Resistance 3 uses extremely large health pools in a Call of Duty style game to rather poor effect. Firefights drag on far too long. This makes for some rather funny visuals (I never know humans could survive so many bullet wounds), but also rather dull gameplay. It also directly discourages team play, as an assist will not boost the player toward their kill streak, and moving in squads assures some measure of accidental kill-stealing. Consequently, the vast majority of Resistance 3 becomes one on one battles in which two payer circle strafe while wildly firing. No meaningful actions can be taken – no jumps or dives or any sort of quick movements – meaning that player dexterity has little effect on the fight. Grenades won’t detonate fast enough to save the day. And we’ve already covered why the defense mechanisms are largely useless. The game lacks tactical options during combat, and it’s just plain boring.

Of course, no modern shooter is complete without some sort of unlock scheme. It is, as previously mentioned, present in Resistance 3, and remarkably broken. As players advance in rank, they get points to spend on new weapons and perks and the ability to spend them. It essentially the system in Call of Duty: Black Ops, but with minor cosmetic changes. Now it’s clear why developers create these systems – they encourage grinding and replaying one specific title, rather than playing a variety of different games (and possibly not buying the map pack, heaven forbid). But ideally the unlock system should be as unobtrusive as possible. New players receive a reasonable amount of toys to play with, and experience vets gain shinier versions, and maybe a slight new power here and there. Resistance 3, and I assure you this is no exaggeration, literally rewards higher level players with straight damage and health boosts, and then throws them some superior firepower.

Initially, a starting player has access to one (1) class with exactly one (1) weapon. If a new player does not like using an assault rifle, preferring a sniper or maybe a shotgun, they’re just out of luck. This problem of weapon mismatch worsens when considered alongside the large health pools; it will take more than a few lucky shots to score a kill, conceivably difficult if the player disagrees with the tool forced upon them. Older players have evolved beyond such petty restraints, and have access to powerful perks and upgraded versions of all the firearms. They even have the atomizer, the hilariously named silent killing machine.

Balance isn’t really that big an issue in Resistance 3, but it’s telling that the developers saw it fit to simply buff players as they advanced, rather than fairly integrate the weapons across levels. The entire game is filled with these glaring oversights. There might be a good experience buried somewhere in this beta; I have a feeling it will take until after September 6th to dig it out.

Its a shame. Brad and Jeff mentioned it was looking janky as fuck, back @ E3.

Before I read, how was Resistance 2?

Before I read, how was Resistance 2?

Design complaints aside, all those technical issues could just be limited to the beta.

Hmm, Ill hold judgement till its released, but I remember nothing but great responses from the single player preview discs they sent to some sites a few months ago. Could care less about multiplayer if the single player is great.

@GetEveryone: R2's metacritic is 87...I'd say that's generous for what it is. 

Played a few hours of the beta, and technical issues aside, it's feeling just like any other generic modern online shooter. It's pretty bland, and kinda boring.

Never played a Resistance game before this beta and to me it feels like a mix between a couple modern shooters with an old school mentality. Not necessarily a great thing. It was somewhat enjoyable until there were the lag issues, but that is part of a beta and hopefully won't be in the retail version. I'm curious to see how well it's received by critics and fans of the series.

Yeah it's all about the single player and it will not disappoint 

I actually like it when you have lots of health in MP shooters, i prefer Gears and Halo style games more than COD ,where you can spray a couple bullets, and kill people.

I'm only hoping for a solid single player at this point. These days, virtually every facebook update from the Insomniac page is them apologising and stating in advance that they'll be making alterations, closing servers for repair, resetting ranks ect. 
 
@AhmadMetallic said:

Before I read, how was Resistance 2?

Yep, the Battle: Los Angeles blu-ray demo killed what interest I had in it.

I have to say I disliked almost everything about Resistance 2. it came with my PS3, and I had heard rave things about it from friends (though it may have just been because, aside from Uncharted, there wasn't much happening on the PS3 at the time), so I was ready for a decent FPS game. Now I'm no FPS connoisseur, but even I could tell Resistance 2 lacked in gameplay. It had some impressive setpieces, but it lacked the weight and importance of the later God of War 3, and the mechanics just felt really dull and slow. The kills didn't feel rewarding at all. It reminded me of Doom, but slow and sad.