GamesRelay

Name: Resistance: Fall of Man

A brand spanking new console and Insomniac Games launch a game franchise straight out of the gate. Previously known for fun platform affairs such as Spyro the Dragon on the original PlayStation and the recent Ratchet & Clank series on the PlayStation 2; Insomniac Games have taken the brave step of departing from their bread and butter and created an entirely different game with first-person shooter Resistance: Fall of Man for the PlayStation 3.

Resistance: Fall of Man is set in 1951 in an alternate world history, the world is still at war but it isn't the Nazi's that are the problem, a race known as the Chimera are. The Chimera are alien in appearance although their origin is unknown, they are thought to have started their invasion in Eastern Europe but little else is known about them. The story is joined when the Americans come to Britain to help retrieve a special weapon that can defeat the Chimera, they haven't reached the Americas yet but it is feared that the Chimera would invade them should they succeed in taking Britain. The main protagonist of the tale is an American Army Ranger known as Sergeant Nathan Hale whose unit is soon wiped out after landing in York by a Chimeran spire attack, a missile designed to carry Chimeran bugs known as Crawlers which carry a virus. The rest of the unit is killed off by the virus, all except Nathan Hale; although he is infected by the virus he somehow survives the attack and it has an unexpected effect which has seemingly given him special abilities including increased strength and an ability to regenerate his health, his eyes however take on a Chimeran like appearance and assume a gold tint, quite why or how he managed to survive the attack is speculated upon but with no answers to be found he chooses to use the abilities in the fight against the enemy.

In an interesting take on a first person shooter the story is actually told from a third person perspective, that of Captain Rachel Parker, she narrates Nathan Hale's journey through Britain and documents the events that take place in the war, it's through her that we learn of Nathan's missions, from his landing in York to his adventures through mainland Britain taking him via Grimsby (where Rachel first meets Nathan), Manchester, Cheshire, and Bristol amongst others before finally locating the Chimeran base in London. Along the way Nathan helps collect and deploy the secret weapon and unearth some of the origins of the Chimera; although all might not be as it seems as Nathan is viewed with some suspicion having survived the viral attack, especially as his special abilities become more and more apparent.

You're not completely on your own as you enter the fray, occasionally you'll be part of a team, although to be fair you're never confined to staying with those, you can wander off and do your own thing if you think you've got a better tactic as you fade off against a wall of Chimera, but make no mistake there will be plenty of times you'll be glad you've got a bit of cannon fodder by your side. The action lends itself to a variety of different play styles depending on your own preferences; you can take it slow and easy or if you fancy your chances you can go in with all guns blazing, the AI for the Chimera is reasonably well done and it is noticeably more intelligent on the harder difficulty levels, they'll quite happily retreat from view if they can and wait round a corner so you've always got to be on your guard against their threats. The Chimera come in various guises, you start off against the normal infantry type, ones that are Human like in appearance, standing on two legs and using weaponry not to distant from the Human variety, they also have cooling equipment fused to their bodies, presumably to help keep them alive in warmer temperatures than their natural habitat; these are the ones you'll be facing most of the time. There are also bigger, stronger, and larger variations which you'll sometimes find guarding the bigger objectives which are harder to kill. The Crawlers are another more mechanical beast you'll come across as well, they aren't only confined to Spire attacks, you'll often find them swarming areas and making your life difficult as you try and deal with their numbers.

Of course you'll find many of the locations are heavily infected with Chimera and Nathan must fight his way to each objective. The game begins with a moderate arrangement of weapons, based in an alternate history the early weapons you get your hands on are all based on the period, albeit a little more futuristic, but as you progress you get some of the fancier Chimeran weaponry. You start the game with a human made weapon, naturally, the M5A2 Carbine which is a machine gun equipped with a 40mm Grenade Launcher to get you out of those tough spots, but before long you'll be picking up your first Chimeran weapon, the Bullseye. This weapon fires bullets like the Carbine but instead of being normal bullets they fire laser energy bursts; the rate of fire is higher than the Carbine but at a cost to the accuracy of the weapon. Other Human weapons you'll come across are the standard fare like a Shotgun, Sniper Rifle (which also has the ability to slow down time for a short while for that perfect headshot), and of course you can find a variety of Grenades to throw. The Chimeran weapons also come in a variety of guises, there's an Auger weapon which will allow you to fire bullets through walls, once the bullets start to burrow through a wall it will also gain more power so when it emerges on the other side it can do some devastating work. Most weapons come with a secondary fire mode, the Chimera's Bullseye weapon can fire a tracking device which can be shot at an enemy and cause all subsequent bullets from the gun to be guided to that location; The Auger weapon is capable of producing a shield which is able to block most bullet types, the only thing that can penetrate this is the bullets from the Auger weapon itself. Generally as the game goes on the weapons get bigger and better, such as the Rocket Launcher which you'll find handy when you come across some of the larger Chimaeran threats.