A closer look at the Resistance 3 Demo

1957.  Six years after the Chimera overran Europe, the United States has fallen to their overwhelming forces.  You are ex-Sentinel Joseph Capelli.  On the run with his wife and son, he finds himself being recruited by one Dr. Malikov on a mission to send the Chimera back on their heels.  But after so many setbacks and losses, is it truly possible that Malikov has the solution to humanity’s planet-wide infestation?

These questions and more are asked in Resistance 3, Sony and Naughty Dog’s latest entry into their keystone first-person franchise, available with your purchase of Battle Los Angeles on BluRay.

The demo takes you through the Mississippi river en route to St. Louis.  Entire towns have been flooded out and not so much as a shadow of another human can be seen; however, they are heard over the radio.  Pleas from mothers to hear back from their daughters and settlements wanting to trade their freshwater for foodstuffs crackle over the airwaves.  There are no signs of any living thing except for the Leapers wandering lazily across the rubble that was once a small American town.

As you move through the river on your boat, you can see shadows in the fog.  One, a hulking behemoth known as a Kraken looms overhead.  Having wandered too far inland, it lays strewn across a drawbridge being devoured by more of the scorpion like Leapers.  A spray of machine gun fire startles them from their feeding rituals and suddenly they swarm your ship.  After dispatching the mutant creepy crawlies, Doctor Malikov chastises you for your actions and you move on.

As you progress down the river, a Goliath appears in the distance.  The good doctor takes another path through the river town to avoid being seen, however you only have a brief respite as the town is completely infested with Grims that attack the boat from all sides.  While the trusty shotgun that Malikov provides to you dispatches them quickly, your problems begin to mount as you move out of town and into a swarm of Drones whose static discharge causes your engines to stall.  And to make matters worse, you are spotted by the Goliath you were so dreading to encounter.

If you’re lucky enough to escape the rocket barrages from the Goliath, drop ships will land their parties of Long Legs to make Joseph’s day go from bad to worse.  As you clear through them, another Goliath appears from nowhere to sink your boat and meet a fate that will only be known to us this September.

From what you can see of the demo, Resistance 3 is a very solemn and dark game.  The fact that all hope is lost to humanity is an all-too-real concept from the sights and sounds of not just the people, but from the environments around you.  Absolutely everything is decimated and just about everyone is dead.  However, one finds a macabre sense of beauty in all the chaos.  The demo isn’t very far removed from what we’ve seen in Resistance 2 graphically, however as the saying goes, “If it isn’t broke.  Don’t fix it.”

What it does provide is a glimpse into another exciting story from Naughty Dog with slightly improved game play.  If this demo is just the appetizer to the main course, I can’t wait for some fine dining this fall.

Resistance 3 launches exclusively on PlayStation 3 on September 6th.

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