Resistance 3

Insomniac Games and Sony Computer Entertainment hosted a reveal event for Resistance 3 tonight. What was revealed? Multiplayer. We got some hands on time with the new Resistance game, both in single and multiplayer.

If you were a fan of those massive 60-player battles from Resistance 2, then you'll be disappointed. The focus on the new Resistance will be "less on military might" and more on humanity. This is reflected in the new maximum size for any multiplayer mode: sixteen players. Resistance 3 is trying for a more intimate multiplayer feel where you really need some strategy and intelligence to take out your enemies, not just throwing massive numbers against massive numbers.

Available to be played was just team deathmatch, though Insomniac said they're working on objective-based multiplayer as well. You can specify your loadout, but it becomes much deeper than that. You can use skill points to purchase upgrades for your weapons as well as both passive and active abilities. Some of these new abilities include ammo regeneration fields that let you drop a zone where your allies can regenerate ammo. Bubble shields make a return as an ability here. There is also temporary cloaking and the electric shield which makes people pay for melee attacks. The Chimera even showed off an ability in which scorpion-like leapers crawl out of your dead body to attack enemies.
The single player campaign will be based purely in locations around the United States, but the multiplayer maps will be in locations around the world. We played in the map "The Jail" in the Republic of Chad and this map was great. It was nicely destroyed which made lots of vertical shooting areas in addition to flat areas. The map seemed equally welcoming for snipers as run-and-gunners.

Sitting down with the single player, the game looks and feels tight. It definitely feels more like the first Resistance than Resistance 2, so much so that they're bringing back the much-missed weapon wheel so you can carry quite the arsenal with you. The demo was set in the fictitious Haven, Oklahoma, as it is being overrun with a Chimera death squad. After taking down some basic and jet-equipped Chimera, it was time for a fight with a Brute. Weapons upgrades are also available in the single-player campaign. I saw a couple of my weapons level up during the demo.

Fans of the Resistance franchise have generally panned the second game compared to the first, so many of the changes will be welcome. Resistance 3 also brings its fair share of innovation to the table and still looks great doing it. The outdoor areas featured high wind that gave the whole landscape a brutal feel, and the debris in the air made the world feel very bleak indeed. The game looks very much the part of Resistance, but with several welcome improvements.