First Impressions: Answering its own call of duty
10 years ago Insomniac made their PlayStation debut with Disruptor, an excellent corridor shooter (aka FPS) that arguably was ahead of its time. After all in 1996, before Sony invented the dual analog controller and Rare created Goldeneye, consoles just didn't hack it for FPS games, and the genre itself was wholly dominated by id Software, more specifically Doom. In time the developer became one of Sony's best, as they moved on to create three excellent Spyro the Dragon games, and most recently the critically lauded Ratchet & Clank franchise. Thus Disruptor has become a forgotten gem, unless you're an old-school (read: pre-Final Fantasy VII) PlayStation fanatic. Insomniac hasn't forgotten though, and after rumors of the company returning to their roots, it's come to realization with I-8 (Insomniac's 8th game), known now as Sony's flagship PS3 launch game, Resistance: Fall of Man.
Imagine that World War II didn't happen, that Nazi's didn't rise up to conquer and the ensuing result of the Allied victory didn't lead to the baby boom and the post-war age that many consider America's greatest. Because in Resistance, WWII doesn't exist. But you know, the world would have been better off with that legendary conflict, because what the game presents is far more sinister. Instead of Hitler and his Axis powers, Europe is being dominated by the Chimera, a bizarre race of mutated humans that seem to come from twisted experiments in the Soviet Union and seem to have the ability to pass their virus to others, zombie style. The Chimera have not just dominated Europe, but completely destroyed it, with just the western part of the continent left, most notably the United Kingdom. To protect this land, the United States has entered the conflict, and you'll play as Nathaniel Hale, a US Ranger leading the assault.
Insomniac is trying very hard to keep the game authentic to the 1950's era where Resistance takes place, meaning much of the weaponry will resemble the technology of that time, but naturally they couldn't hesitate to make their own crazy-ass weapons (that seem out of place even in an alternate universe), like a bullet that you control and a special grenade that fires needles instead of exploding. Given their pedigree for wacky weapons, one could expect even more, but alongside you'll find regular old rifles, machine guns, and the like. In general Resistance is a solitary experience, but the game opens up the ability to gather an AI-controlled squad that will work independently. But to get them, you may have to rescue them from a Chimera, in what they're calling Hero Moments. You've got two options; continue along and let your fellow soldier get killed (or possibly turned into a Chimera), or rescue him, which leads to being followed around until they perish or you get separated.
The influence from 'realistic' WWII games is present in the gameplay mechanics, since you'll have to duck and hide from assaults, run from place to place in a hurry to dodge the hordes of Chimera (including a massive one that Insomniac has hinted at), and completing various objectives to cripple the Chimera engine. The cities are demolished from war, there's dead bodies all around, and all sorts of destruction. Replace the Chimera with Germans and we'd have Call of Duty, really. Resistance also will use Sony's new online service for 32 combatant multiplayer, though not much has been said about Campaign co-op play. In fact Resistance is being pigeonholed into the position of being the flagship online game for PS3's launch, which is a good thing, since the last two Ratchet games have had some surprisingly solid online implementation on PS2, though not enough people played it to realize it.
