Re: Resistance 3 - Discussion thread!
Completed the game and it was pretty good. But TBH I think I loved Resistance 2 over this one. R3 did not have any radical changes as to what R2 had to offer in terms of gameplay, visuals or storytelling but nonetheless the game was definitely enjoyable for the short campaign it had to offer.
The game's plot is based on the Chimeran invasion of the US during the '50s and it takes off where R2 concluded. Nathan Hale (who was shown being affected by the Chimeran virus towards the conclusion of the game) was shot by Joseph Capelli (a.k.a Joe) and as a result, was dishonorably discharged by the US military citing him responsible for Hale's execution. He married Susan Farley, foster sister of Hale and decides to settle down at Haven, OK after having given up fighting against the Chimera. In the meantime, Dr. Malikov succeeds in developing a cure for the Chimera virus from the extracted blood of Hale and suggest that the Chimeran forces could be stopped once and for all if Joe could accompany him to NY city. And the game begins.
Not much has changed in terms of gameplay from the previous titles. The weapon wheel and the health bar from the first title returns and Joe must now rely on health replenishers to restore the lost health. This time however, we have weapon upgrades (not present in the previous titles) and all the Chimeran and Human arms can be upgraded to two levels based on the experience gained whilst using the weapon. Some of them make a comeback from the previous titles such as the classic Bullseye, Auger, Marksman, Rossmore, M5A2 Carbine etc and several new weapons were introduced as well such as the Sledgehammer (yes a REAL sledgehammer!), Mutator, Deadye (replaces the Fareye sniper rifle from the previous titles) etc. Ammo is plentiful and is strewn around the levels. What seem to be a bit too unrealistic here is, Joe being able to carry the entire arsenal on his back. He doesn't wear a mech. suit FFS and this isn't Doom! Insomniac could have dropped this idea and introduced the ability of carrying a few selected arms instead which could have added some realism to the game. Other collectibles in the game include journals from Dr. Malikov about the experiments he had conducted during his research, some interesting letters from unknown folks, audio logs etc.
The other major downer in the game being the visuals. The pre-rendered cutscenes were done beautifully but the game which I suppose runs at a native resolution of 720p had mediocre graphics evident with sub-par or almost no AA. For a third expansion to the series, Insomniac could have notched up the visuals like how other game devs. achieved it with their respective sequels. For instance, Infamous 2, Uncharted 2, God of War 3 etc. They did a fantastic job with the Ratchet and Clank series. C'mon this is an exclusive title for the console and we certainly don't want to be disappointed. The level designs were brilliant however - right from the underground outposts at Oklahoma to the coal-mines at Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania to the Graterford prison to the frost-laden Statue of Liberty at the NY city. All the locales in the game have been referenced to real time locations in the US as was with their previous titles. The game features minimalistic voice acting apart from those in the cut scenes and did I mention the protagonist of our game is a long-lost relative to Isaac Clarke from Dead Space? He seems to be MUTE and wouldn't speak in the course of the game (minus the cut-scenes i.e.) Robin Atkin Downes has lent his voice who had voiced Daedelus, the primary antagonist in R2.
Some of the sequences in the game were praiseworthy and one of them in particular deserves a separate mention. The escape in the train with Dr. Malikov when being chased by a group of rebels (referred to as Wardens later in the game) and a bunch of Chimeran Widowmakers - reminded me of the sequence in Jurassic Park I when Sam Neill escapes with the children and a bunch of Gallimimus involved in a stampede that ensues with the T.Rex. Absolutely fantastic! I would love to see how this sequence fares in a 3D TV. Lest I forget to mention, the game supports stereoscopic 3D and the PS Move.
A vast majority of games conclude with a boss battle and there are some of those that end in successive boss battles (tsk tsk Ninja Gaiden). I am happy that Resistance 3 went a step further and decided not to have one and instead, focus on the primary objectives and get out of the game once completed and Insomniac just did that fair and square. Anyhow, this appears to be a worthy sequel to Resistance 2 and lives up to the hype sans the visuals and awkwardly short campaign (7 hrs and 5 mins!). No sequels were hinted towards the conclusion of the game so I am not sure if there is a sequel in store for us in the near future.
