In an alternate reality, a mysterious race of alien beings springs from the earth hell bent on eradicating humanity. As the last bastion of civilisation falls, an American hero rises to combat the threat and defeat the 'evil' at it's source.

But enough about Gears of War

Resistance was, before I start, supposed to suck. I hope I'm not alone amongst xbox fanboys when I originally looked upon this as another Killzone; another FPS, a token resistance against the Halo juggernaut but not noteworthy at all. So yeah, as I mentioned, I threw this one on to give it a token look in before I started on the glorious Ratchett. I didn't stop playing it until I finished it.

Firstly, why I liked it.

Resistance is, at it's very worst a competent shooter with a rich selection of weapons (half of which I have not seen, having unlocked the complete second set after finishing the game; I don't know when rewards for finishing a game went out of vogue, but this is delightful) most with their own clever uses. Oh sure, the shotgun is a shotgun, the rocket launcher launches rockets, but the alien SMG can track targets if you land it's second shot, making it akin to a sniper rifle in certain situations. The sniper rifle is POWERFUL and can slow down time but has precious little ammo. The main rifle is useful even until the end.

There's a gun which will set it's clip up as a temporary floating turret, while you hammer away at the enemy with the next, reloaded clip from the same weapon or take on another group. And then there are exploding spike grenades and guns that shoot through walls. Awesome.

The physics is fine. The game looks lovely. The AI isn't notably stupid and other than many strangely notable instances of enemy waves popping into existence, the game holds it's own as an FPS. So I liked it and can say it's worth a look in.

But I loved it for the same reason I loved Bioshock and was underwhelmed by Halo 3. I was completely and thoroughly immersed in the plot and the world.

So firstly, the delivery of the story is really well handled. It's narrated in the past tense from the third person. Like "Hale entered the power conduits. To do so would have seemed suicide but it appears he proceeded regardless. The discovery he made there was to turn the tide of the war". What discovery?! I have to play the chapter? Shit! Fire it up! I guess it's akin to Monkey by Wu Che'ng 'En having at the end of each chapter "and if you do not know whether monkey defeated the dragon of the western sea, well good reader, you must listen to what follows in the next chapter!".

To put it here like makes it sound kind of nothingish, but that was at the core of the experience for me; from the first beautifully voice acted biographic level intro I was hooked. So many questions I wanted answered, not the least of which was 'who is this narrator and how does she know my character, Hale? Don't I survive?'

For that matter, your regular army grunt character Nathan Hale isn't silent like Gordon Freeman, nor is he Master Chief. He's just a soldier caught up in it all, serving his country and his race. A little quiet, but otherwise just a guy. I connected with him more than bioshock me, GF and MC. This is weird in an FPS, or indeed in most games.

The world is an alternate WW2 where, from russia, an evil parasitic life form mysteriously arrises. Why? From where? Did the russians make them? You have to play to find out. Littered around the map are, a little like the audio tapes in bioshock, pieces of Intel on the bodies of fallen soldiers which piece you in on little side facts about the game. Some soldiers still have their radios blaring orders. For me it was immersive, though this may be objective.

I dunno. I don't want to spoil it too much for anyone by overhyping it, but like Bioshock it was the originality of the world and the idea, and the delivery of the overstory and the little touches that serve to further immerse you in the world that make Resistance: Fall of Man worth playing. Otherwise it's a sci fi fps; you get the gun, you shoot the alien, then you go post about how fully sick Halo 3 is.

Rating: Buy it. It's old though, so you probably already have. I don't normally give number reviews but apparently I have to for the site, so I guess an 8.5 and a hearty thumbs up?