Reviews// Resistance 3

Faced with close-quarters combat where a rapid kill is demanded, the trusty Rossmore shotgun comes to the rescue. This is especially so if you’ve opted to use the gun to kill many enemies, because the game delivers a level-up feature on all weapons.

Think of it as frequent flyer points for your favourite means of dishing out death. With each weapon having an upgrade state for both primary and secondary fire, such as the Rossmore’s incendiary rounds or the Auger’s triple fire, it makes sense to take time getting to know each weapon with an eye on getting a level-up.

Most the weapons are enhancements to those found in earlier games - the Auger, Bullseye & Marksman - or replacements - switch the Fareye for the new Deadeye sniper rifle, the LAARK for the Wildfire rocket launcher.

There are, naturally, a few new additions, from a simple sledgehammer to more exotic devices like the Mutator, delivering a tasty overdose of the Chimera virus, a Cryogun that spews frozen sludge and the wonderfully brutal Atomizer.

These all have a line of upgrades that you just know are going to come in very handy later in the game, most likely when you’re faced with one of the new breed of mutant scum.

And new breeds of mutant scum there are. After gunning down streams of Hybrids, or screaming like a girl and shooting wildly at the feral horde exploding forth from coccoons and hidey-holes, running fights are regularly punctuated with standing combat against completely new or enhanced boss creatures.

These include the fast moving meat mountain that is the Hybrid Brawler; enhanced mech Stalkers protected by energy shields, a new strain of the feral Widowmaker, plus a run-in with a completely unique, enormous critter dubbed "Satan".

There are also encounters with less than savoury human foes making the game feel more fresh and varied than the predecessors, which if I’m honest were already pretty spicy on the variety front.

Add to this the different modes of transport Capelli uses on his journey: the boat up the Mississippi and a somewhat eventful train ride, and you can see that things are mixed up so regularly there’s little chance of any monotony.

Resistance 3’s story stands, without a hint of doubt, shoulders above the rest of the series. Depicting the struggle since the end of Resistance 2, it offers a more human angle that wasn’t really possible with a mutating Hale as protagonist.

The balance of the gameplay has also been polished. Having replayed the first hours of the game and then onward into unknown territory, through both it never felt like I could trot through - pop, pop, pop - taking everything in my stride. But then I never felt utterly overwhelmed or frustrated.

Being the cautious type I prefer to take things slowly, but there are plenty of times where a direct attack forces an appropriate response; or you’re just too damn nervous that something’s going to jump out at you that legging it seems the better part of valour.

Visually, the game looks totally buff. Patrick Bateman might even call it a "hard body", and the game's depicted grotesquery would be befitting of our favourite American psycho's antics. Though the game's characters all wear a waxy pallor and move in a somewhat stilted fashion, this is the only disappointing aspect of the graphics.

The environment, enemies, lighting and atmospheric effects deliver no such disappointment, with these all proffered in exhaustive detail; from the leafless limbs of trees snapping to and fro in the shadow of a terraformer's terrifyingly destructive winds, or the writhing, pregnant pustules on the Leach Grims to the Widowmaker herds galloping across vast plains and the thick, almost tangible river fog, patchy and voluminous in a way that offers tantalising glimpses of gargantuan Goliaths. These effects deliver a sense of scale that outstrips those the former Resistance games.

Okay, thus far it’s mostly pros, so here are the cons:

The enemy can be a bit dim, at times running right up to the muzzle of your gun and just stopping, like there’s some kind of two way mirror. BOOM. They’re dead. That's not very taxing or entertaining.

On the flip side, an enemy equipped with the Deadeye sniper rifle will one moment appear to be scanning an area far from you but then snap around, dazzling you with a stream of ruby coherent light. Okay. I know, these guys actually do have eyes on the sides of their heads, but really? I was hunkered down, motionless in the darkness of a collapsed building!

There was also a glitch where, while busily dodging showers of Widowmaker acid, I just couldn’t get the bugger to die. Yes, I can be a bit rubbish, but here I’d spent 15 minutes and pretty much all ammo on one weak spot (handily highlighted by the Auger). After quitting and coming back later I duly eviscerated all its weak, fleshy bits in just a few minutes. I’m glad to say that none of these come close to spoiling the experience (*cough* mitten scene).

SPOnG Score: 94%

Conclusion
Deliciously good to look at and, disturbingly given the scares and gore, a joy to play, Resistance 3 is about as near as it gets in the quest for the perfect balance of considered combat and twitch-inducing terror. Pile on top of this support for the Move controller and its precise targeting, and the game's multiplayer and cooperative play and you’ve got what is possibly the pinnacle of PS3 shooters.