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Science-fiction shooters are all the buzz this new generation. The genre was first given its opportunity to truly shine when Halo was released for the Xbox. Since then we’ve seen numerous alien shooters such as Half-Life, Killzone, Metroid Prime, Gears of War and the more recent Mass Effect (if you count it as a shooter that is). This new phase in the gaming industry has leaked over to the PlayStation 3 as well. Insomniac decided to give the little fluffy creature and his tin backpack a break (until quite recently) and went for something more realistic, more gritty, and I can honestly say that their new IP, Resistance: Fall of Man is a must have if you own a PS3.

Unlike most extraterrestrial brain blasters, Resistance takes place in alternate 1951 where World War II never happened, and instead Russia was invaded by aliens called the Chimera who eventually consumed all of Europe, save for Britain. You play the role of an American Sergeant, named Nathan Hail who is sent to York with the rest of his company to help the British defeat a foe they know nothing about. However, your company is wiped out and infected with the Chimeran virus, including you, except you are the only known person who has ever woken up after being infected.

This biological alteration in the protagonist lends itself to a Halo like health-system. Because the Chimera have a metabolism much higher than that of humans, your life regenerates, but only to a certain extent.

Insomniac has become well known for their quirky weapons in Ratchet and Clank. For years we’ve been morphing tiny critters (and big mothers) into girl lovable ducks, and not to mention hitting things over the head and killing brain cells with an oversized spanner. These unorthodox weapons have been inherited by Resistance, and they work very well for a first-person shooter. For instance, the bazooka (LARK) can fire a normal missile, but its alternate fire option allows you to stop the projectile in mid-air and redirect at some poor unsuspecting noob. Another weapon called the ‘augur’ is capable of firing through walls and is able to put up a temporary shield in front of the player as its secondary fire.

With that said, Resistance isn’t particularly easy either. Your always forced to take cover and standing out in the open like a moron will get you killed faster than you can say ‘pea bottom’. This means you have to use your weapons effectively and knowing what your weapons can do, and what their alternate fire options are can be useful in getting you out of a tricky situation. Of course, none of this would be any fun if the enemy AI had the intelligence of a mince pie, but luckily that’s not the case. The Chimera will lay down suppressing fire upon you and try to flank you as well, so your constantly going to be on your toes.

Enemies are extremely varied, and each has its own little background story. On the one hand you have the menials, mindless workers that love to snarl at you when their pissed and are an absolute joy to bash the over the head. Then you’ve got the big mothers like the Titans, who in short, are basically rhinos on steroids armed with fiery cannons. This makes combat very enjoyable as the game continues to through harder opponents your way as you complete more levels.

Aesthetically, Resistance is brilliant. The amount of detail on the character models is rich, the lighting effects are impressive though sometimes over done with too much bloom, and it keeps a baby-bottom smooth framerate throughout most of the game…most. However this is also where Resistance hides a few flaws. Pop-in occurs occasionally, sometimes loading a tree or patch of grass that should already have been there. And I did run into a moment of rather ugly slow-down, but that only occurred once during my two play-throughs of the game. Also the cutscenes take on a comic like fashion that appear slightly amateur and seem out of place in what is mostly a well balanced title.

Another problem for some people might be the level-design. It’s very linear, but it works well for the story, and you will have to do some exploration if you want to find all the goodies.

Resistance pertains a number of reasons why you should come back to play it. There are documents to find in every level, giving you a little more insight into the story which adds a nice bit of depth and there is a big list of skills and accomplishments to achieve, all of which you will be hard-pressed to find because the game doesn’t tell you exactly what you have to do, and some of them are quite creative. Outside of the single-player though you have an awesome multiplayer set-up. It combines traditional and new modes that give something for everyone, whether you just want to be by yourself in a deathmatch game, grilling up others players with a blue torch, or taking part in a more strategic mode like Meltdown involving nodes and bases. Insomniac have also released two brand new map packs so there’s plenty of reason to get stuck into the multiplayer.

If you own a PS3, and you haven’t picked up Resistance: Fall of Man already, you owe it to yourself to do just that. But if you don’t have Sony’s big black box covered in Spider-Man writing, then Resistance probably won’t change your mind about the PS3. If this little piece of gaming goodness has already caught your retail eye however, then you can look forward to a good lengthy single-player campaign which is well supported by a deep multiplayer mode. No game is perfect, and Resistance is no different, but the overall package is a treat in itself.