Review: Resistance 3

Review: Resistance 3

note: this review contains spoilers over the whole trilogy of games. If you haven't played it yet, and are going to at some point. Don't read further.

You have been warned.

Initial Take Before Playing: So this is the end. The final battle between the humans and the Chimera. This should be an all out war. We're taking our planet back and sticking our big military boot up the chimera's asses (do they have asses?) and sending them home crying to Chimera Mom. WOO!!!

Initial Take After Playing: WTF was THAT? It looked like the french resistance came in and threw up all over the place. Where was the epic battles I expected?

The Story Setup: the story so far gets recapped during installation:

We see Capelli (R3's main protaganist) shoot Hale after succumbing to the Chimera Virus. The we find that the body has been returned to SRPA (Army's Special anti chimera unit) and an antibody to the virus is created with Hale's blood. Those who are affected and given the antibody and are once again fully human. Capelli is Dishonorably Discharged. Those who are given their lives back are told to live life to the fullest while they can. Capelli gets married and has a son.
We fast forward four years. Where Capelli and his family are living in an underground colony with a ragtag bunch of freedom fighters. They defend their small town in Oklahoma as best as they can, occasionally fighting moving groups of chimera who get too close to the town. During one of these raids, an old friend shows up looking for Capelli; good old Dr. Malikov, who certainly hasn't given up on the planet just yet. He tells Capelli that there is a chance to shut down the main tower in New York, but he'll need Capelli to protect him on the way. A reluctant agreement is reached.

Now, the two of them travel and end up in trouble everywhere they go. They travel by boat up the Mississippi and get into trouble. They meet up with another resistance force in St Louis, led by Charlie, which gets them into more trouble. They try to fly to New York, but get attacked and land in Mt Pleasant Pennsylvania and get into trouble. Again more freedom fighter groups and that causes more trouble. They get on a train but end up in Graterford. PA and get into a lot of trouble with a penal colony (this is the part where Malikov is killed). Finally. Capelli makes it to New York. Alone and desperate Capelli marches on the tower, fails to make it, and is rescued by Charlie and his plane.

Now, the two men formulate a plan to take out the tower by crashing a large terraformer hovering in the sky into the tower. They fly up there, cut power, overload the terraformer, and crash it. Without getting into greater specifics and some really lame physics. The loss of the tower screw up everything for the chimera and the crisis is adverted.
We leave the game with Capelli getting back home via plane.

My Take on the Story: WHAT!? We know that Hale had to die. I can even respect that Capelli had to be discharged, but couldn't they do that AFTER THE WAR? Speaking of war, WHERE WAS IT? Did we become Switzerland and just give up? We got the flu shot, went home, and pretended that life goes on? By giving Capelli and the others the antibody, we took away our only advantage. They soldiers were stable, just as long as they didn't go off their inhibitor shots, like Hale did.

Four years later? FOUR YEARS LATER? Who was asleep at the wheel on this one? We just let the Chimera walk all over us? We certainly weren't winning at the end of R2, but we weren't losing either. It was a stalemate at best. Yeah they had better tech, but our SRPA guys were kicking some ass (again, do they have asses?) and putting the hurt on the chimera every chance they could. I can only assume that everything was wiped out. (maybe I missed that part) but not without a fight.

The fact that Capelli had to jump through every hoop he could just to get to New York was irritating. The game feels more like a post apocalyptic game like Fallout rather than Resistance. I was really expecting something more large scale.

New Stuff in the Third Installment: Guns get upgrades the more you use them. There are new guns like the cryogun, the atomizer, and the mutator. New Chimera are introduced, such as the Brawler, the Widowmaker, The Longlegs. Grims have shrunk, but now there are two types. Capelli's healing factor is gone and needs health packs to survive. 5 types of Grenades now.

My Take on the New Stuff: I hate having new enemies to attack in a third installment. I know time has passed since the last installment (FOUR YEARS? REALLY?) and they can justify evolution with new feral Chimera. Still a bit lame. Longlegs are basically grasshoppers and actually blow up much like a grasshopper or locust would. Brawlers are big ape creatures. Surprised that there are no Chimera Dogs at this point.

The idea of guns getting xp for use and upgrading is cool, but what about the main character. He seemed drab and lifeless at times. There was nothing to really make him stand out. Being a former member of SRPA, he should've been better.

They took the Grims, (arguably the most scary creatures to fight in one and two) and shrunk them down to man size. Why? 7 foot tall freaks are great to shoot and with their speed and numbers, and they ruined them. Bad move.

Graphics/Look/Tech: questionably the best graphics out of the three, though it is designed to be gritty looking. Serious lag issues with animations and sounds. Locations are cool but reminiscent of other games. Some mapping issues with weapons.

My Take on G/L/T: when I blow up a grim with a shotgun. I expect to hear the report right away, now two seconds after the fact. That was horrible. Graphics are glitchy in some spots. There's a part when Capelli is unscrewing the top of a cap on a bottle, and the fingers and the cap unscrewing are going at different times.

It feels like stuff was glued together from other games to make a big one. We took Ravenholm from Half-Life 2 and put it in Pennsylvania. We took the train scenes from Uncharted 2 and threw them in. The Prison sections feel like someone took Manhunt and smashed it with Batman Arkham Asylum. Why don't I go play those games?

The Final Wrap-up: the assault on New York was probably the most irritating thing in the game. To go through that, with a snail like pace. Then die for stupid reasons. Over and over again. Then find out that you can't get in. thanks for a waste of time.

The ending is the worst. No real dialogue what-so-ever. There's an overlay of dialogue from a radio. No words are spoken between Capelli or his family as he makes his way home. No toughing good bye from Charlie either, or at least a “Thanks for helping me save the planet” before he flies off nonchalantly. I saw a better ending in Turning Point and that ending was crappy!

At the end of the day, Resistance 3 fails to deliver. It's wrap up is weak, and for a franchise that launched a platform such as the PS3 to end like that, I say good riddance. Its a shame, but its all too common now, that a franchise fails to live up to its fullest potential.