RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN

Video games about World War II, though extremely popular, tend to bore the hell out of me. After you've played through CALL OF DUTY 2 (the pinnacle of WWII shooters) what else is there? True, many of them do a very nice job recreating the chaos of trench warfare and capturing the bleak, war torn European landscapes, but I get awfully tired of the shoot Nazis, advance, shoot Nazis, advance, game mechanic. Also, their undying faithfulness to era weaponry, though accurate and historically sound, generally presents very little in the way of pizzazz. Standard issue rifles and machine guns kill efficiently enough I suppose, but they can't shoot through walls or track enemies or fire dual wielded blasts of white hot plasma hellfire.

Thankfully Insomnia Games' RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN, one of the PlayStation 3's original launch titles (way back in November of 2006 - man, where does time go?) understands this. We get all the requisite trappings of a WWII shooter - atmospherics and sepia toned 40's era feeling intact - but Insomnia spices things up by adding legions of ugly aliens and a healthy array of face melting futuristic weaponry to the mix.

RESISTANCE presents an interesting alternate history scenario. Before Hitler has the opportunity to whip Germany into a power hungry frenzy, hostile alien attackers known as the Chimera swoop down and besiege the planet thus provoking a very different WWII. The game casts you as Nathan Hale, an American soldier that becomes infected with a Chimeran virus while battling the evil aliens in England. Why the virus doesn't kill Hale dead like it does the rest of his squadron is unknown, yet the infection has a profound effect upon the solider, giving him the advantageous ability to regenerate vital health over a sustained period of time. This is an extremely good thing for the world-at-large, because the Chimera are bad asses of the highest order. Mere mortals stand little chance against their unrelenting onslaught and wave after wave of human military units, American, British, Russian, German, all fall to their alien attackers' superior firepower and insect like infecting swarms. Hale's strange immunity and his mysteriously shifting morphology are humanity's only hope for salvation.

The game play is fairly standard, but there a number of tweaks that flip the script and really elevate RESISTANCE into must play territory.

First off, the bastardly Chimera are as nasty as they come. These bug-beast hybrids have tons more personality than do the standard hordes of faceless Nazis that populate most WWII shooters. Ugly, six-eyed, agile, and wicked, they are everything a First Person Shooter enemy should be. They operate H.R. Giger like processing plants that subvert the human form with tubes and fluids and turn unlucky captives into alien drones. They employ smart military tactics - flanking and flushing your ass into sometimes desperate combat scenarios. They are loads of fun to destroy. And most importantly, they come armed with some of the coolest weapons to ever grace a first person shooter.

It's these weapons that really set RESISTANCE apart from the overcrowded FPS pack. Character models and art design aside, Aliens might as well be Nazis and vice-versa when it comes to that shoot, advance, shoot, advance game mechanic, but Nazi soldiers don't drop guns like the Bullseye after you snipe them with your standard issue army rifle. The Bullseye is a fully automatic plasma rifle that hurls obliterating gobs of white-hot fire at your foes. What's more, the weapon's alternate fire shoots a projectile that imbeds itself in its target and serves as a GPS system for bullets. Just fire away and your ammunition will never miss its mark. Once your target falls dead, simply tag another and repeat.

Another awesome gun is the burly, physics defying Auger. This behemoth shoots rounds through walls and obstacles. As its bullets burrow through solid surfaces they come out the other side stronger and are great for clearing areas before you even enter them. The Auger's alternate fire emits a handy force field that is impervious to enemy attacks (save for those of another Auger) and perfect for coverless strikes.

Developers Insomnia are best known for their RATCHET & CLANK series, a colorful, cartoony platform title that specializes in goofy weapons that do goofy things like turn enemies to chickens or make them dance to disco, and it's cool to see the team utilize their penchant for exotic arms in a brutal, balls-to-the-wall shooter like RESISTANCE. More than just eye candy, the weapons factor into the action beautifully. Oftentimes strategy and tactical maneuvers are wholly dependent upon the cache of particular guns you are currently packing and the game play comes off as fresh and inspired as a result. What's more is that there are tons of these varied firearms, each with two unique firing options, scattered throughout the game. RESISTANCE even encourages a second play through by allowing completists to unlock even more interesting weapons after beating the game.

Then there's multi-player. I'm too slow to get involved (every time I log in some twelve year old, somewhere across the country, kills me dead in a matter of moments), but if your into fast online frag-fests the game features 40 player support and those killer guns are sure to add a bit of variety to frenetic deathmatches.

So yes, we've seen it and played it all before. War games - check. Alien invaders - check. Insomnia however, has managed to merge the two seamlessly and by peppering in some dynamic, effective weaponry, they've crafted a satisfyingly worthwhile gaming experience. RESISTANCE: FALL OF MAN is a super solid first person shooter that kept me engaged from beginning to end.