PS3 impressions: Resistance Fall of Man

by James Ransom-Wiley { May 13th 2006 at 12:15AM }

What is this Resistance: Fall of Man? It's not fun. We want Killzone back. Where's that game?

We asked a Resistance developer what made his game unique. He stared at us blankly for a moment, fumbling for an answer, and then he told us that we would have to figure that out for ourselves. Not a good sign.

What we figured out were a number of winding hallways, stretching through an abandoned medical facility. Every few feet alien creatures would appear. Sometimes they attacked, and sometimes they just stood around. Either way, we filled them with hot lead and continued on. Rinse. And repeat.

Resistance is a derivative FPS. It's got no backbone. But with no Killzone in sight, Resistance looks to be one of the few -- if not the only -- option shooters fans will have on their shiny $600 (you're not really gonna buy the "core" system, are you?) unit come launch day.

Tags: E32006, FPS, Insomniac Games, InsomniacGames, PS3

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Dan @ May 13th 2006 12:22AM

Where WAS Killzone 2? Did it ever exist? Was it really just a shiny, overhyped, prerendered concept movie? Signs point to yes.

What happened Sony? The Xbox 360 had games that were FUN and the Wii represented something new. You represented everything that Nintendo was against: Better looking versions of the same old, crap. Survival of the fittest works even in the Video Game Industry. Evolve or Die.

James @ May 13th 2006 12:25AM

Ouch... did you guys play Resistance at all? Insomniac is known for its great weapons and a couple in the game were actually pretty neat. I had a great time in the 32-player.

Insomniac doesn't miss, give the boys a chance.

Campanella @ May 13th 2006 12:27AM

Are fanboys now making headlines for news at joystiq? You know what else had no backbone? Perfect Dark Zero

your enemies friends @ May 13th 2006 12:33AM

bwahahahahahahhahahahahahha. ahhh joystiq. before e3 rolled in i couldve sworn you guys were buying into the ps3 hype,and talking smack on the 360. dont worry ps3 fanboys, i'm sure the ps3 will have its moment. just wait till gta4 comes ou....wait, theyr'e on microsofts side now. meh, sorry ps3.

Danno @ May 13th 2006 12:37AM

From a XBox 360 owner: PD0 DID suck, no doubt. So much promise wasted.

Luckily Kameo was great (except the final boss fight was a little anti-climactic, slightly depressing. The rest of the game was top-notch though!)

OyoyoY123 @ May 13th 2006 12:38AM

argh~ GODDANMIT~

How much is the dicks at microsoft paying this F*** up website - joystiq??????????????

(get it?dicks at micro,soft)

The3rdNuisance @ May 13th 2006 12:42AM

Wow, there are so many ways to make a game with a gun different then usual... Technically, all FPS's are the same, the only difference is ones shinier, ones simpler, ones got a cool concept, and stuff like that. If I'd be able to get a PS3 (I'd settle for the core, especially when considering not everyone has an HDTV, and a seperate hardrive with over 100 gigs can go for 80 bucks.) I'd sure as heck get that game, the concept alone is worth it, the only issue I see between owning or renting basically any FPS is:

1. Multiplayer
2. Single Player length
3. Weapons
4, What can you blow up?
5. Last but possibly least: which is shinier?

What do you mean by it has no backbone? A piece of software isn't an invertabrae. And you should really judge a game because of itself, not based off a game that aside from a small movie and a relatively old game, you haven't even seen.

embassy @ May 13th 2006 12:49AM

yeh when i saw videos of this game i thought the same thing...the other ps3 games seemed to have some life..this just seemed so...blah...and to whoever mentioned PDZ..ohhh trust me..joystiq had plenty of fun roasting that game last year...

BTW is this the game that aws code named I-8??..cuz that actually looked COOL last E3 lol..wat happened...??

Night Elve @ May 13th 2006 12:52AM

Man im not a Sony Fanboy in fact i have a Xbox 360, but im getting really tired of all those Joistiq Anti PS3 comments, Joystiq is getting pretty cheap nowadays.

Zweibel @ May 13th 2006 1:05AM

Joystiq has been a little negative towards Sony but with good reason. The price for PS3 surprised me quite a bit. I was planning on getting one launch day but it looks like I may have to wait a few months to afford it. D:

Anyway, if you want to see a really negative place just go to Digg. I swear, if anybody makes an positive comment towards Sony they are immediately buried. Oh, but if you make a witty comment concerning Microsoft or Nintendo, they dig your comment to the max. What a crazy world in which we live.

Moonraver @ May 13th 2006 1:09AM

I also have to agree as a non biased gamer Joystiq is taking it a bit far, I used to like this site but if its gonna be a fanboy gloryhole then I'll homepage elsewhere and get less skewd news from Foxnews (sad)

Jurgen @ May 13th 2006 1:16AM

Wow, I'm lead to believe that you based this impression off of your video where you didn't even play the damn thing.

Seriously, did you even play it? It has some of the best pacing I've seen in an FPS in a long time. From what I played, it was solid and consistent.

Honestly, when the only thing you can complain about is the environment, you don't really have much of an argument. The multiplayer demo I played was great and the single player was excellent as well.

Eric @ May 13th 2006 1:59AM

Killzone 2 wasn't there because Sony asked them not to for sure!

I mean seriously, how embarrassing would it look for Sony if (after everyone saying their teaser trailer was realtime) they showed a playable game that was like anything found on the 360.

If you ask me it was a smart move on their part NOT to show it. Simply because everyone was asking for it, and for Sony not to deliver the graphics seen on the trailer a year ago, that would hammer home the idea that it is simply an expensive alternative to the 360.

Bodah @ May 13th 2006 3:33AM

Oh ffs, the 360 got roasted by joystiq plenty. Anyone remember them saying that geometry wars was the best launch title? Or, how about the long list of annoyances? Yeah, the xbox fanboys were whining that joystiq was being biased then too.

sgt manji @ May 13th 2006 3:46AM

Oh FFS. Stfu. Its their opinion, and how many of you were actually at E3? Not many. So you didn't even play it.
Give them a break.

Leto @ May 13th 2006 4:50AM

Check out these gameplay videos (get the HD versions) of Rainbow Six: Vegas for PS3 and 360:
http://www.gametrailers.com/gamepage.php?fs=1&id=2680

Siraris @ May 13th 2006 5:42AM

Everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I think everyone likes to bash Sony because they are the 800 lb gorilla. Go to any site related to computers and it's non-stop bashing of Microsoft, because they are the front runner. All over the world, people bash the United States, yet you don't see people bad mouthing the genocide in Darfour.

I just find this whole E3 a bit nausiating. I've been following the news from E3 for years, and it's never been like this before, the constant berating. Take the rumble on the PS3 for example, was there widespread bashing of the Wavebird for lack of rumble? No, people loved the Wavebird. It's as if people forget what's happened in the past, that Microsoft and Nintendo have promised things that they haven't delivered, just like Sony has, and this happens in almost every industry in the world.

I think Resistance looks great, and friends who are at E3 this year have said that it's a ton of fun and when it's complete, could be a huge title. That's right COMPLETE. Everyone is jumping down Sony's throat, when they still have 6 months until the console ships. Final development kits JUST shipped.

Doesn't that strike you? No one is saying, "Wow, the PS3 was supposed to be difficult to develop for, yet look at how polished these games look!" no one is saying "Incognito got their hands on the PS3 controller libs 10 days before E3, and they got it up and running, that's crazy!".

Why don't you all wait and see how things are shaping up in September or October, instead of drawing conclusions so soon? Have you ever played demo's of games before? I've played dozens of PC demo's that have SUCKED, I mean BAD, and the final games turned out terrific! You have no clue what build you are looking at of most of these games, what advancements they've made or could make in the next month or two. It's as if your brains shut off and you forget common sense.

This is all just getting very frustrating, the way these communities are acting. It's as if they want to see Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo fail, almost like they get something out of it, or it would do something to improve their lives or better yet, improve the game industry. Get a clue people, this console war was started and is being waged between the consumers, not the industry.

don_sf @ May 13th 2006 6:10AM

yeah man i see what u saying.

i think ppl secretly know sony is the best, i would like to remind u that only 2 games consoles have ever reached the 100 million mark, sony playstation 1 and sony playstation2.

ps3 is almost more than likely to be the best, they been through this before, ps1 was too expensive ps2 was too expensive etc. the games are not the only reason y ppl by ps3, some buy it because its sony, a top brand for consumer electronics like tvs and dvd players.

resistance looks great, i dont like fps but that looks great. something which xbox 360 is not good at, putting lots of stuf on the screen. by the way, ps3 can do 1080p x 60, that alone is amazing!.

sgt manji @ May 13th 2006 6:21AM

ROFL don_sf.
Yes we secretely know Sony are the best ...

MegaWatts @ May 13th 2006 6:49AM

Sony completely falls down at E3 like a drunken uncle at a wedding smashing tables and embarassing everyone including themselves and the thick headed PS3 fanboys forgive them and make excuses for them. nice...

admit it. sony is a joke.

neale @ May 13th 2006 6:50AM

"a top brand for consumer electronics like tvs and dvd players."

1990 called, it wants its facts back. sony arent the company that they used to be.

so you trust a company who makes 'top brand' tvs and dvds over the worlds largest company who specialize in software? is that what your saying don_sf?

wait and see, stop spreading crap

Andy @ May 13th 2006 6:51AM

PS3 sucks... poor stupid Sony fanboys.

striderhayasa @ May 13th 2006 6:56AM

@# 7, the sad part is you can get a maxtor 300GB HD for 100 bucks at retail, cheaper if you get it online. You can get a 60 GB harddrive for 40 bucks online if not cheaper. E3 is the biggest show of the year in gaming. It's the biggest show in the world. How can Sony show up at the show and not represent?
I think two things caused Sony problems, 1) Microsoft ditching the Xbox to release the 360 early 2) the DS outselling the PSP in the US and destroying PSP in Japan.
If MS didn't release early I'm sure Sony was prepared to release the PS3 in 2007. PS2 is still getting great software and it could have made the stretch.
With the success of the DS, Sony couldn't take the chance of the Wii gaining ground with its features like the DS is now. Something had to be done and it looks like Sony had a knee-jerk reaction. Let's see ho w well they recover at Tokyo Game Show.

striderhayasa @ May 13th 2006 7:27AM

@ Megawatts LOL, I read that post and it made me laugh because it's so true, good stuff.

DECEMBER @ May 13th 2006 7:54AM

How is failing to be impressed by Resistance the same thing as "bashing Sony"??
Try and dial-back the sensitivity a little bit, folks.

Lekko @ May 13th 2006 9:21AM

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't get a feel of storyline from a gameplay demo. Isn't the storyline the part of the game that delivers the real backbone?

On M @ May 13th 2006 12:38PM

Resistance looks ok, but really i'm just a little disappointed that insomniac is doing an fps instead of sticking with the style of games we all know and love from that company. Not saying they should continue Rachet& Clank, but a new plattforming IP for the new gen would've been awesome. One of my deciding factors on whether I was going to get a PS3 or not had to do with what Insomniac and NaughtyDog were going to bring to the table this gen. I've long kept a PS2 in my house because of the top rate plattformer and action/adventure games that have been on the system. I'm not hating on PS3, I would gladly shell out 600$$ if they were still making the games I care about playing. And I also have a suspicion that it was sony that dictated insomniacs new direction and not the developers themselves.

Michael @ May 13th 2006 3:37PM

Wow! Awesome review guys!

and good job on the whole credibility thing!

Nick @ May 14th 2006 3:23PM

To whoever commented about the writer of this story having even played the game...I don't doubt that they played it, but they clearly missed out on a lot. The weapons, as expected, are crazy and have some awesome features that unless otherwise briefed on (by either one of the Insomniac team or a tutorial in game) you might not pick up on.

I liked the game. Thought it was one of the more interesting and fun games on the PS3 (Singstar aside!). But that had less to do with the hardware and more to do with the game itself which seemed to be up my alley.

Sense @ May 15th 2006 10:07AM

Siraris,

If demos are merely supposed to be viewed as incomplete, what's the point? Why would you release a demo if you weren't expecting people to draw conclusions from it? Obviously some games with crappy demos will turn out great, but you can't expect people to *assume* that everything will turn out all right. The opposite is easily true as well. Remember how Full Auto was being hyped and praised before release? It actually got awards at last year's E3, but when it was released it was awful.

All Joystiq is doing is giving their opinion of what they played. That's all it is. There is no way they can actually forsee how the game will turn out. If a company sees fit to show a playable demo at E3, they are taking a risk. They are essentially saying to the media, "This is what our game will be like. This represents what we're trying to accomplish." Obviously, no company would intentionally release a bad demo, right?

Nobody is going to give much credit to a developer just because they have overcome the complexities of the PS3 hardware and made a game that looks polished. If the game isn't fun, nothing else matters. I haven't played this demo, and I might come away with a completely different impression, but I won't fault Joystiq for posting their impression.