Though Resistance 3 gets a few things right, it's ultimately a lazily put together, underwhelming game...
In the world of Resistance, you are what you kill. Thusly, players will find themselves in the shoes of Joe Capelli, the soldier that put down previous protagonist Nathan Hale at the end of Resistance 2. The world is an even darker place than it was in previous titles; the Chimera are taking over, and the human population is dwindling. In fact, this relentlessly oppressive atmosphere is the best thing Resistance 3 has going for it. The feeling of being hopelessness pervades almost every moment of the game's campaign, and it's this darkness that ends up being Resistance 3's most impressive quality. The more immediate story, however, is nothing remotely special and the campaign levels are similarly bland.
When the game starts off, Joe is leading a small militia, protecting his hometown from the Chimera. When an opportunity arises to embark on a risky mission to deal the Chimera a crushing blow by destroying a wormhole that's sending the alien horde their reinforcements, Joe begrudgingly accepts. His main concern is leaving his family behind. Though his wife and son are clearly added to give the story some emotional weight, the characters are ultimately so two-dimensional that you won't care one bit about Joe, his family, or anyone else in Resistance 3's story. While the attempts at making the plot resonate fall flat, It's the various locales that you visit (or are otherwise stranded in) that shine the most. Some of the most memorable missions include a trek through a somewhat open-ended, zombie-infested town and a brutal prison escape that's too good to spoil. Each environment ups the ante in terms of creating an eerie, disturbing atmosphere, but unfortunately the action doesn't quite match up. Set-pieces often don't deliver the kind of thrills that they should, attempts at emotional moments fall flat and the level design can be extremely poor, namely because objective markers are used so rarely.
The basic shooting mechanics, however, are great. A lot of what makes taking down the Chimera so fun is the fact that a lot of the mechanics are throwbacks to the shooters of yore. Regenerating health is eschewed in favor of health packs, there's no cover system to be found, and most importantly, Joe can carry all twelve of Resistance 3's inventive weapons at once. Each of the myriad of weapons at your disposal has a different feel, and they vary greatly in terms of the sheer destruction they can dish out. Two of the coolest are the Auger, a weapon that can shoot through any kind of cover, and the , which infects enemies with a virus that soon disposes of them in an extremely grotesque way. Each gun also levels up, changing aesthetically and functionally the more they're used. Insomniac is a company that knows how to make cool guns, and here they've inadvertently shown how great a batch of fun weapons can be, as Joe's arsenal is one of Resistance 3's very few highlights.
While the campaign is an underwhelming, yet playable experience, the multiplayer is ultimately too bland to be worth much more than a few matches. The game does exactly what is expected of post-Call of Duty 4 shooters: it has an XP system, killstreaks and unlocks. It brings nothing to the table other than deliver on these now-standard features and that's especially disappointing considering how fun the frenetic 40-player matches of the first two Resistance games were. Here, the action is limited to 16 players, and the uninteresting maps and all-too-familiar modes do nothing to elevate the action. Today's multiplayer shooter market is very competitive, and there's simply no room for an online experience as thoroughly unremarkable as Resistance 3's.
The co-op mode is similarly boring, especially when compared to Resistance 2. Players can simply play through the game's singleplayer campaign either split-screen, or online. Compare that to its predecessor's 8-player cooperative gauntlets, and Resistance 3 keeps disappointing at every turn.
It's unfortunate that I have to sound like a broken record here, but Resistance 3's production values are no more impressive than the rest of the game. Aside from some cool effects, the game's graphics are dated, causing the game's many setpieces to fall flat. The sound department similarly lacks fidelity. The music is nice and the voice-acting is all there, but the game uses sound effects and ambient sound much more sparingly than it should, causing the game's audio to feel pretty empty.
Resistance 3 feels downright lazy. The game's campaign is poor, the multiplayer and co-op offerings are even worse and the production values fall well short of what a AAA title should offer. This is all even made even more disappointing by the fact that this series' previous efforts were so grand in scale and execution. On paper, Resistance 3 is a complete offering; it has an interesting setting and all the game modes a shooter fan could ask for. But in the end, it becomes clear that Insomniac simply wasn't willing to go the extra mile with Resistance 3 and make a third great game in a would-be great series.
PROS:
+Great atmosphere
+Fun upgradeable weapons
+Good shooting mechanics
CONS:
-Bad level design; unimpressive set-pieces
-Forgettable story
-Uninspired multiplayer and co-op
-Poor production values