This review was originally published on Gaming Horizon, GameBump's predecessor. Its format does not match our own but we support its content. It was written by Jarrett Conaway.

A week before the PS3’s launch, SCEA held an event at Insomniac Studios in Burbank, CA to allow the press to review Resistance for of Man. They set us up in comfy chairs with HD monitors and PS3’s for miles allowing us to play two days straight until our pointer fingers went sore from tapping the R1 button and our minds were lost to Red Bull. The PS3 has now arrived and the embargo has been lifted. Now, I can share my giddy enjoyment over what is arguably the reason you will be buying a PS3 (if you can get your hands on one.)

Resistance: Fall of Man takes place in England between July 11 – July 14, 1951 when the US executed a D-Day like attack against the Chimera, an alien threat that has wiped out Russia and most of Europe. The Chimera are reminiscent of all great sci-fi bug monsters - ugly and hive-minded, assimilating all human flesh in their path. The gamer gets to wear the boots of Nathan Hail, a heroic everyman and sole survivor from the US offensive.

RFOM takes a creative spin on the war genre and give the player a strong story interwoven with the gameplay. It’s no Kojima plotline, but it is immersive nonetheless and has a unique twist in the early levels which make the Nathan Hail character a bit more interesting. Insomniac took a nod from the Medal of Honor series in it’s execution of storytelling. Throughout the game players are shown cut scenes narrated by an Eastern European beauty, and soldier, who encountered Nathan Hail’s heroics. Her telling of Nathan’s story is accompanied by photos and artwork, which has been designed to invoke the feel from that era, albeit with its unique sci-fi take. As I played, I felt like I was receiving a history lesson of a war that never was, yet felt strikingly familiar. This, accompanied by the elaborate mythology on the official game website (www.rfom.com), takes the game beyond the standard shooter title.

But for those of you that could careless about story and want the sheer enjoyment of blowing bugs to kingdom come, this game deliverers in spades. RFOM is like the best of games - easy to learn, difficult to master. The game sticks to the popular controller scheme found in most shooters these days. The left analog is used for movement and allows for easy strafing while the right analog aims your weapon. R1 fires your weapon, while R2 changes your weapon quickly. Pressing the right analog inward, or R3, zooms for most weapons, including the standard issue M5A2 Carbine rifle you start the game with; this allows for more precision targeting. R2 allows you to kneel and take cover behind just about everything on the battlefield.

The L2 button uses the secondary function of most weapons which provides a diversity of tactics on the battlefield. In some cases this extra function can be simple, such as firing both barrels of the shotgun. It gives the gun a bit more focus and extra oomph, but the downside is it lacks the spread of firing it regularly. Other weapons have secondary functions that are further removed from their primary use. For example, the Carbine rifle also serves as a grenade launcher. Perhaps the most enjoyable function is that of the sniper rifle which allows you to slow down time so you can pick off enemies with super accurate headshots or evade oncoming fire.

The new tilt feature of the PS3 controller is put to good use in RFOM. When a Chimera pounces on you shaking the controller will knock it off. There are also various defensive uses of shaking the controller during the multiplayer mode.

RFOM game maps are expansive and can be categorized into two types: the traditional semi-linear maps and open battlefields. The semi-linear maps are what we’ve all become accustomed to in FPSs. Corridors that lead to more corridors that lead to rooms full of baddies. It still never gets old for fans of the FPS, but what is really cool are the levels that are more open. Some maps have you participating as one of many soldiers in combat either charging in an offensive, or just merely protecting your camp from the onslaught of Chimera coming from every which way. In these levels you feel the freedom to use the environment much more strategically.

Graphically, the RFOM showcases the PS3’s ability to handle advanced real-time physics, realistic atmospheric effects like snow and rain, fully destructible objects, and interactive lighting. The most noticeable graphical improvement is the countless amount of enemies that can be on screen at once. When I first saw the Chimera Crawlers swarm towards me in an early level or that time I saw dozens of enemies engaged in combat with AI driven allies, my jaw dropped and I almost shed a tear.

While RFOM may exploit the processing power of the PS3 in its use of real time physics, it graphics still leave something to be desired. Don’t get me wrong, they are still beautiful, but are they next gen? Well that might not be a fair question to ask. In general none of the launch titles for the PS3 have completely sold me based on graphics. The final generation of the PS2 is quite close graphically to the first generation of PS3 games, and inevitably titles coming out for the 360 will look better because developers have learned how to program for it. ROFM’s graphics are definitely a step up, but they aren’t the giant leap that one would expect from next gen. Quite honestly, the models in the game are fantastic, but some of the textures particularly on leaves and other pieces of the environment had pixilation I didn’t expect to see in a PS3 title.

As much as I praised the physics of the game there is one area where they become quite sloppy and that is when you team up with another character in the LUP-Lynx British Army vehicle. Essentially, you can drive around mowing down your enemies while your AI controlled war-mate fires a machine gun at everything in sight. This is fun for a minute, but I found driving the Lynx to be a bit frustrating and sometimes awkward. On more than one occasion I steered the Lynx up rock faces in a totally unbelievable fashion. I did however enjoy the few other vehicles that make an appearance in various parts of the game.

While the controls allow for easy play, there was one feature that was a bit frustrating. Whenever you reload a weapon while zoomed in, you are taken back out to the normal view to see the reload animation before going back into zoom mode. This probably was done to remind the player of the primary view and to keep things as dynamic looking as possible, but it can be extremely disorienting and inconvenient when in a firefight. It would have been much better to keep the zoom view constant while reloading, so you don’t lose sight of targets.

Resistance Fall of Man comes at a time when WWII games have saturated the market. Honestly, how many times can you kill a Nazi and enjoy it…hmm…well a lot, but the point is killing Chimera with hive minds that are a blatant metaphor for communism is much more fulfilling. Bottom line, this game is what results if you take Call of Duty and Doom 3, stick them in a royal suite, and put on the love music. While it might not be as pretty as that other game that it will inevitably be compared to that also has aliens that duck for cover….(Gears of War…ok I said it!), it is still the best looking thing out for the PS3 at launch. Finally, not only does the campaign mode offer a solid 14 hours of gameplay, there’s a reward system that will ensure replay. And let’s not forget about the unlimited replayability of two-player co-op and the various multi-player modes.

If you are buying a PS3 and are a fan of FPS, Resistance Fall of Man is a must-have.

Insomniac has managed to add a few innovations to the FPS genre.

Probably the prettiest thing on the PS3 at launch, but the textures could be a little better

The sound of war will surround you.

Killing bugs in war torn Europe doesn’t get much better.

A plethora of multiplayer modes, and unlockables in single-player.