Resistance 3 Review for PlayStation 3 (PS3)

System: PS3
Dev: Insomniac
Pub: SCE
Release: September 6, 2011
Players: 1-16
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p	Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language

The weapons even sound better. Guns sound louder and more powerful than they ever have, and explosions have that bass you can feel in your chest if you have the volume up loud enough.

And speaking of sound, Resistance 3 sounds great all around. The voice acting is well-done, with characters having distinctly unique personalities. The background music is excellent as well—the score appropriately strings the player along through both the action moments and the softer, more emotional bits. Peppered into the mix are the classic songs from the 50s you'll hear as you pass by radios that have been left on. All of this comes together just as it should, nailing the Resistance vibe perfectly.

Resistance 3 Screenshot

Resistance 3's multiplayer offering is the best in the series so far. The 60-player deathmatches in Resistance 2 had a tendency to get too chaotic, and to compensate, the maps were built far too large. Resistance 3 scales it back a bit, allowing for maps that are quite well-designed. In fact, the map design reminds me of some of the PC FPS games of the early 2000s. I can see a bit of Medal of Honor: Allied Assault and the original Call of Duty as influences here. Maps are tight, featuring chokepoints, wide open spaces, and sniper roosts. Playing Resistance 3's Team Deathmatch makes me feel like I'm playing an old PC shooter—and I mean that in the best way possible. In fact, it feels almost nostalgic.

Of course, I do have to bring up the bugs. Going through the campaign, I found several places where enemies got stuck inside walls or floors, or where corpses floated eerily over the ground. There were even a few places where I blew up some Chimeran egg sacs and the debris just hung in the air. While this is fairly nitpicky, Resistance 3 is a very high profile game, and I would have expected things like this to be taken care of before launch—especially when some of these bugs are painfully obvious. In fact, if this type of thing just happened once or twice, I wouldn't even bring it up. However, none of these bugs are game-breaking, so many players will be able to simply ignore them.

All in all, Resistance 3 delivers a very enjoyable campaign with some incredible action sequences. Competitive multiplayer is quite well done, and adds quite a bit of replayability to this package. If you're a PS3 owner who loves first-person shooters, Resistance 3 simply shouldn't be missed.

By Josh Wirtanen
CCC Editor / Contributing Writer

RATING OUT OF 5

RATING DESCRIPTION

4.0

Graphics
There's a lot of attention to detail, and each location feels radically different than the last.

4.3

Control
Controls are tighter than ever, and are fully customizable.

4.4

Music / Sound FX / Voice Acting
Great voice work and music, and the guns sound awesome.

4.7

Play Value
A fantastic campaign that can be tackled solo or with a friend. Online multiplayer will keep you coming back.

4.5

Overall Rating - Must Buy
Not an average. See Rating legend below for a final score breakdown.

Review Rating Legend
0.1 - 1.9 = Avoid	2.5 - 2.9 = Average	3.5 - 3.9 = Good	4.5 - 4.9 = Must Buy
2.0 - 2.4 = Poor	3.0 - 3.4 = Fair	4.0 - 4.4 = Great	5.0 = The Best

Game Features:

Journey as mankind's last hope, Joseph Capelli, across a devastated America, making your way from Haven, Oklahoma to New York City.

Resistance 3 returns with a fully-loaded arsenal of innovative weapons, including classics like the Bullseye, Auger, Rossmore, and Marksman, and increase the firepower of each with a new weapon upgrade system. With the return of the fan-favorite weapon wheel, players now have access to the entire sandbox of weaponry, giving them strategic choices for any situation they encounter.

Engage smarter and more agile Chimeran enemies. Insomniac's new awareness and cinematic traversal technology gives the Chimera the ability to traverse any environment to reach you; nowhere is safe.

Newly evolved Chimeran species, such as the powerful, leaping Longlegs, are larger and more deadly than ever.

Two-player online and local/split-screen co-op gameplay allows players to team up with a friend during Capelli's journey to New York.

A new, more focused, progression-based multiplayer experience builds on Insomniac's multiplayer pedigree, while allowing players to take part in the global resistance by battling in locations set around the globe.