Publisher: SCEA
Developer: Sony Bend
Release Date: 3/17/2009
Available Exclusively On
Well, before you read this review, I’ve never played any of the PS3 Resistance games. With that said, RR is a great game, but it is extremely hard and has a few flaws that bring it down quite a bit. While I can say RR is slightly overrated, it’s really only for Resistance fans (well, and newcomers, kind of). You play John Grayson, who is part of the Marquis (a French resistance army fighting against the alien Chimera horde). While Chimera isn’t as cool as Helghast, Locusts, or even Covenant, they are pretty damn creepy.
One of the first things I have to get out of the way is that RR uses the Syphon Filter engine and, unfortunately, feels a lot like said games. RR plays similar to the SF games, but with tweaked controls, and the engine is, of course, updated. You have a new ‘snap” cover system, which means Grayson will duck behind or snap against the cover, and this is both useful and annoying. Sometimes, when you want to quickly get out of cover, Grayson will “stick” to the cover, exposing you to certain enemies. There is no blind fire, so this makes it hard to shoot enemies when you don’t have some type of shield (more on those later) since you’re completely exposed. Switching weapons is fairly simple since holding down the right D-pad button pauses the game briefly so you can choose your weapon. This allows a tactical advantage and gives you a minute to think.
There are a lot of useful weapons in the game, but my favorite is the BM00001, which is a Chimeran weapon that shoots plasma rounds, but secondary fire charges these, and they can be bounced around and kill multiple enemies (they home in on the enemy). Charging all 45 rounds can make a super powerful shot and kill up to three enemies at once. Another useful weapon is the sniper rifle, which slows downtime when you zoom in. Another great (and probably the most fun) is the Auger, which has a non-movable, deployable shield, can shoot through infinite amounts of solid objects, and even shows you, enemies, through objects. While ammo for the latter two is scarce, that’s the downfall of having fun weapons. While the 7-8 weapons are fun, you never feel they’re enough, and you tend to run out of ammo in the wrong situations.
Playing on normal I always had too much ammo when enemies were scarce, but in the later levels (trust me, there are a lot of later levels), when you have the most powerful of enemies coming after you in swarms, you pinch rounds, and that’s a no-no in shooters. I felt like I was playing more survival horror than TPS. I never even bothered finishing the whole thing since. 1. The game got too damn frustrating since, late in the game, too many enemies are thrown at you at once with scarce health and ammo. 2. The game seemed to never end since I was 6 hours into the game and had no idea where the end was. I know the Syphon Filter games were a bit short, but c’mon, this is a portable game, especially when it’s as repetitive as it is. You feel like you’re just wiping out enemy after enemy, and this gets boring about halfway through. Sure, there are some FPS mech sections (they’re pretty fun), but a lot of the game is just repetition. Don’t get me wrong, the game is completely playable, but the last half feels tacked on and stretched thin.
The game has great boss fights, cool weapons, good mechanics, and amazing visuals. These are some of the best on the PSP, and if you’ve played SF: Logan’s Shadow, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The game’s story is really only for Resistance fans, and I know I would have had to have played previous Resistance games to have understood this. The multiplayer, however, is what keeps you coming back.
If you’ve played SF multiplayer, you’ll know what I’m talking about. The maps are pretty big, there’s a little lag, and everything’s easy to navigate, so you can jump right in. Of course, you can collect intel like in the SF games, and there are skill points (Ratchet & Clank fans know what these are), but they are really hard to get since you have to just be lucky and do something right. Think of these as Xbox 360 achievements or PS3 Trophies, but without knowing how to get them, yeah, kind of dumb. To be honest, this whole game is for Resistance fans only, but this is also some of the best portable action you’re going to get.
Oh, by the way, YOU CAN CHANGE THE CONTROL SCHEME!!! Stop whining that the face buttons don’t make up for a second analog nub. Switch the scheme so the face buttons allow you to strafe. Ok, all done? Yeeesssss, now enjoy…
I'm in North America, I'm just not super familiar with the series.