Resistance 3

If recent news stories turn out to be true, then it's too bad Insomniac might not personally make a new entry in the Resistance franchise because for all intents and purposes, they pretty much nailed what the franchise should feel like. From the tone and pacing of the campaign, to the graphics and the engine and to smaller but very important changes such as the return of the weapon wheel, Resistance 3 improves on its predecessor in nearly every way. But there is some unfortunate omissions and if you're looking for a "every question answered" kind of finale, you're not going to get that here but with a promising multiplayer offering, and a great campaign, Resistance 3 might not end up getting everyone's money thanks to bigger games in a really crowded Fall season, but it sure feels like it deserves it. 
 
During an alternate 1950's, an alien/mutated human race known as the Chimera swept through all of Asia and either killed or converted everyone in their path eventually making their way to England. Fighting back and driving them off was a lone American soldier named Nathan Hale who was infected by the Chimeran strain (Resistance: Fall of Man). While defeated, the Chimera pursued and set their eyes on America leading once again for Hale to make a valiant effort to drive them back (Resistance 2). But it was all for naught as 4 years later, the Chimera have taken over the country and only pockets of civilization living underground exist, vastly outnumbered and lacking the resources to fight them off. Living underneath Haven, Oklahoma is Joseph Capelli, a former soldier and squadmate of Hale, who is newly married with a son. But when Dr. Malikov, the scientist from the second game finds him and explains a situation that threatens to completely wipe out humanity, Capelli and Malikov make the long trek to New York City to if nothing else, deal a huge blow to Chimeran forces and hopefully, wipe them out completely. 
  
What makes the Resistance 3 story way more effective than its 2 predecessors is that there's an emphasis not only in the situation humanity has found itself in but also the motivation of its protagonist. Things are grim and faced with the possibility of having his family and everyone else's wiped out, Capelli's journey is one of personal stake and not one of military orders like Hale's. The campaign is also incredibly well-paced and with each chapter (20 in all) promising the introduction of either a new weapon, setpiece or environment, the game does a good job at keeping things varied. The only slight misstep is the ending but I don't mean that in a abrupt scenes-are-missing feeling that Killzone 3's gave but rather it feels a bit too brief and for a series with a thick backstory and questions a mile long that need be asked, it's disappointing not everything is addressed.  
 
Learning from their mistakes, Insomniac also brought back some gameplay elements that were lacking in Resistance 2. Chief among them is the weapon wheel so while realistically, one man shouldn't be able to carry 2 assault rifles, one rocket launcher, a sniper rifle and others, gameplay wise it makes for more varied and dynamic firefights. No longer do you have to pick up the new weapon found to deal with the next situation, now you can just decide how to best approach it. With weapons having alternate fires such as the makeshift bomb that magnum rounds give, the shield the Auger puts up or a mini-turret the Marksman lays down, you can use one gun for most of it or change things up when you need to. And it's best if you mix things up since weapons will actually level up with use so bullseye can now tag up to 3 enemies instead of one or the shotgun can shoot a powerful concussive blast and even light them on fire which makes combat even more satisfying as it continues. Also returning are health packs and thankfully they're always around when you need them and not sneakily hidden or thin in numbers. While you can buy cheats to be used in campaign, among them is the shooter-standard regenerating health, the return of health packs is a welcome one.
 
Graphically, this isn't the next Playstation 3 "look what we can do" powerhouse like God of War and Uncharted are but the game is remarkably improved over R2. More attention is paid to its atmosphere and lighting with wind kicking up tons of dust particles and debris, levels played out in the snow and some cool setpieces involving a foggy river trip and a stampede (it's best to see it for yourself), the extra year helped make not only a more pleasing looking campaign but a better designed one. Sound design is equally strong with guns such as the bullseye getting a more violent sound, the distinct Chimeran roars and death knells abound, and the setpieces and accompanying music are appropriately epic. Voice acting is also very solid and despite some rather stiff facial animation (though let's be honest: after LA Noire, everything looks bad in comparison), characters are believably voiced and though there's a lack of personalities among them, they're at least not laughable to hear.  One thing to note is the game does have a 3D mode option which I of course can't test because I'm not fortunate / rich enough to afford one but least it's there for people who do. 
 
Another overhaul is in its online modes so once there was a unique and addicting 8 player co-op mode, now it's just campaign co-op. Instead of a huge 60 player count in its multiplayer, now it's 8 on 8. While the missing co-op mode is cause for sadness, the actually multiplayer is a welcome change since the 60 matches were chaotic and almost cluster****-ish though the new offering is more "Call of Duty with a Resistance skin". Now I'm not completely adverse to anything with a CoD-like structure and what's on hand here is promising though not altogether spectacular. Getting XP to level up in rank so you can access abilities and get killstreaks (called "berserks") is fairly standard now but with the unique weaponry of the series, it's just different enough and plays well enough to be exciting. But there's some faults such as sometimes the game temporarily stops and freezes before it continues, weapons and abilities can be either underpowered and useless to overpowered and irritating. But then the matchmaking was remarkably quick and with promises of more updates in the future, the multiplayer should hopefully last quite awhile. 
 
Another thing to note: Resistance 3 is the first game to have an "Online Pass" system where new copies of the game will be shipped with a code that must be redeemed to access the online. The one caveat is that unlike some of EA's passes which at least contain a trial, if you rent or buy used, you're not allowed on there period so either you pay 10$ for a multiplayer you might not care for or it's all-in and you're paying full price for the game. 
 
While it's kicking off the busy-as-hell Fall season of games, I'm not entirely sure if Resistance 3 will be the big hit it should be. With bigger and even multi-platform titles on the horizon, people might just pass this game up to save for something else. Which is unfortunate because this is easily the best Resistance game with a campaign better than you'd think and a multiplayer that should have legs to it, it's a game that I found easy to enjoy despite its flaws. It's just too bad Insomniac is probably finished with the series when it feels like they're just getting started.