Just hours after getting my hands on a launch Playstation 3 after waiting hours in line I made my way home, set it up, and popped in my first game which was of course Resistance: Jinrui Botsuraku no Hi as it’s known here in Japan. I know you’re thinking, “What, a Japanese guy likes First Person Shooters!?”, but who could pass up a launch title from the guys who made Ratchet & Clank? So let’s take a trip together as we assume the role of Army Ranger Sergeant Nathan Hale as he, or I guess we, attempt to curb the Chimera onslaught.


The enemy within.
Everyone who’s played R&C knows that the team at Insomniac loves making awesomely wacky weapons and Resistance’s arsenal is no exception. My favorite of the guns has to be the Augur. Hit the secondary fire button to throw up the Augur’s shield and then let loose a round at some nearby wall. Then watch as it burrows through looking for victims. I don’t know how many times I’ve done this just to watch the Augur’s innovative new ammo do its thing. There’s also a rocket launcher with ammo you can guide, a Chimera slime shooter that renders some incredible gelatinous goo, and even the Hailstorm which shoots bullets that bounce off walls for ages. The thing that really impressed me about these weapons was not only the fact that they functioned well but that their destruction looked life like. These very graphics that resulted from their destruction looked incredibly processor intensive and the PS3 seemed to handle it all with ease.


Half-Life 2 + Call of Duty??
Aside from the new stuff mentioned above and others you’ll have to find out about for yourself, there are also some old favorites though they’re seriously modified. Nearly every weapon in the game has two firing options which make new weapons that much more fun and old weapons, like say the sniper rifle, a bit fresh. Your starting weapon, called the Bullseye, is essentially a rifle but with a secondary feature that allows you to mark several targets and unleash ammo at them all at once. The aforementioned sniper rifle also has a feature that lets you slow down time around you Matrix style to allow for easier shots.


There's so much going on and it all looks so good.
Features and graphics aside, what really makes the guns fun is that they’re all useful. Whether you’re fighting tons of tiny enemies, regular size Chimera, or much larger boss like enemies you’ll have a use for a lot of them. This in turn makes the gameplay that much more fun and death-dealing that much more satisfying. A clear example of this is when you get swarmed by a large pack of enemies and you shoot off the grenade launcher. The grenade bounces up into the air and shoots needles out in every direction clearing the way for you and possibly some of your brain-dead AI buddies.


Here comes the "help!"
While clearing the way through 20 levels and around 10 hours of gameplay, you’ll find the story to be interesting and very unique while at the same time a bit clich. There are also a few problems with pacing where you’ll be knee deep in action only to have a cutscene interrupt you out of nowhere. Also making things feel a bit odd are the sections where enemies are nowhere to be seen. There are some stages that you’ll trek a good distance before anything hostile shows up and that’s just boring. Add on the fact that your crew is cannon fodder and things start to stray away from perfect.