Resistance Fall of Man is a first person shooter. It was one of the few exclusive PS3 launch titles. It’s now being sold as a “Greatest Hits” game. I missed the debut and so that’s how I picked it up. The sequel Resistance 2 has already been released.

The game takes place in England in the early 1950s. World War II is over but a new threat, the Chimera, has swept from Russia through Europe and occupied the country. Chimeras of mythology are animals with an odd mix of body parts. Chimera in genetics is an individual with two sets of DNA. These Chimera are part zombie, part Borg, part Predator, part Alien, part the many etc. They use a virus to infect their enemies and transform them into obedient foot soldiers controlled by the hive mind. Their only motive seems to be to kill all humanity. They are a satisfying enemy on par with Doom’s NAZI hell demons. Speaking of Doom, the game mechanics clearly are its progeny. Bad guys shoot, claw, gnaw or otherwise try to disembowel you. You shoot them leaving behind a wake of their entrails. As you progress through the sprawling linear levels you gain more weapons, encounter tougher and/or more plentiful enemies and kick more demonic Chimera ass.

You play an American soldier who was deployed to aid the British. Very early on you are infected by the Chimeran virus but luckily not only are you immune but its effects are entirely beneficial, nicely explaining your exceptionalism and Wolverine like constitution. While you often charge into battle with fellow soldiers, time and again you’re the only one that makes it out alive. The health bar is split into four segments. If you have taken damage within a segment but manage not to get hit for a short time that segment of health replenishes. If you lose a segment you must pick up the equivalent of a first aid kit to restore it. That system works very well. You can hide behind cover to replenish some health but it keeps it well enough balanced that you don’t become immortal.

Part of the fun of this genre is gathering bigger and more exotic weapons as you progress. The old favorites are here: a machine gun, scoped sniper rifle, a rocket launcher and of course a shotgun. Being 15 years and a thousand generic FPS releases since Doom, the designers deserve praise for managing to create some fresh unique weapons types to add into the mix.

The plot is told nearly entirely through cut scenes. There are also intelligence papers scattered about the levels providing some back story or hints. While it’s not enthralling, it does everything a video game plot should do. As mentioned before it nicely explains the game mechanics and your exceptionalism. It also adequately provides motivation and sets goals. They avoided the pit trap of providing lame explanations for the unexplainable; no midi-cholorian babble here. However, they committed the deadly game sin of the always ending story. About a quarter of the way through the game it felt it was nearing the end. A few levels later again it felt like it was nearing the end and so on. Each plot milestone feels like the conclusion and there’s no overall progress indication to tell you otherwise. Which means each triumph is also a let down.

The levels are diverse taking you through various locations in England including some historical locations. It’s inclusion of the Manchester Cathedral caused controversy and threat of legal action from the Church of England. Until they decided to turn the other cheek. There’s a good mix of large outdoor areas, recognizable interior spaces (homes and pubs), dark tunnels, and the otherworldly Chimeran structures. Unlike most FPS games there is no map available to the player, but the levels are generally linear enough not to need one. There’s not a lot of interaction with the environment other than a few explosive barrels, fixed turrets, and the various terrain features that can be used as cover. Like Half-Life 2, there are a few levels in which you drive vehicles. Unlike Half-Life 2, there isn’t much going on in terms of a physics engine.

The game also supports multiplayer both online and offline, cooperative and competitive play. Offline locally two players can cooperatively play the single player campaign split screen or play deathmatch. Surprisingly online you cannot cooperatively play the single player campaign. Instead up to 40 players can battle it out as either human or Chimera in eight game types across eleven maps. The game types include free for all death match as well as numerous team variations. Match creation provides a big list of options such as: how many points to win, maximum lives per player, timer options, which weapons appear on the map, who can join, how many rounds are in the match, etc. As expected it supports blutooth headset chat during play. The points you earn while playing matches accumulate in your account into ranks. Gaining rank will earn you customizations to how your character appears and other rewards. Overall, it’s a surprisingly comprehensive system for a game focused on the single player game. And I was surprised to find there was no shortage of games to join over two years from the games original release. However, in general the online action is less satisfying than games dedicated to multiplayer such as Bad Company, or COD4.

While it doesn’t offer up anything revolutionary it is a solid title. Besides the always ending plot issue, another single player quibble is it only saves at check points. Though they are generally frequent enough there was a few spots when I found that aspect frustrating. It is well polished. I never got stuck in a wall and only experienced one crash. Its multiplayer extends the fun if that’s your cup of tea, but it doesn’t overshadow the single player campaign. Overall it stands up well as an incremental improvement to the Doom style first person shooter. If you’re into that kind of thing be sure to check it out.

Rating: B