Here's another something I wrote. 
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Why Resistance is so refreshing
Resistance is one of those rare series that, when they come along, remind me why I like playing games so much. With so many games becoming more realistic, more gritty, more brown and gray, more linear and stream lined, and more boring, it’s great to have a series that actual offers a fun experience.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against games trying to be more realistic, but sometimes I really want to shoot aliens with a gun that fires energy blasts through walls. Enter Resistance.
I recently started playing Resistance: Burning Skies for the PSVita. Like with previous games in the series, I had a smile on my face while playing. Why? Because it’s a fun game. Resistance’s main draw has always been it’s weapon selection, and this game doesn’t disappoint. The usual weapons are here, like the Bullseye, Carbine, and Auger. There’s also a shotgun that is also a crossbow and a giant, heavy machine gun to name a few, and you can carry all your guns around with you through out the entire game.
While weapon variety in Resistance is always great, that isn’t the only thing this series does better than most shooters out there today. Making the most out of your surroundings is a must. Many enemies can attack you while you’re in cover, so it’s important to keep moving. You can’t just rest behind a chest high wall for hours on end.
There’s also room to explore some. Resistance 3 had this down perfectly. Instead of only have one correct path, players could explore and try different routes: finding different Intel and supplies depending on the route they took.
Enemy variety is another perk to this series. There’s your standard foot solider chimera: your jumpers, giant chimera that charge right toward you, ones that wield different weapons, smaller ones that travel in swarms, etc. Each enemy and each encounter can be tackled differently. The RPG may be more powerful, but the Bullseye can home-in on an enemy’s weak point, while the Carbine’s grenade launcher offers great crowd control.
Now compare everything I just said about Resistance to the annoying “modern military shooter.” You know: linear levels. Only being able to carry two weapons at a time. Gung-ho American (or British) soldiers shooting up vastly out-gunned foreigners with little to no context. Riding a conveyer belt from shoot out to shoot out. Being told exactly how to handle a situation.
Ugh.
In Resistance, not only are your enemies not out-gunned, but in many circumstances, you are the one that is out matched. This requires you to really think on your feet and makes finally winning feel like a real accomplishment. Oh sure, you can have moments in modern military shooters where your character is outmatched, but that is almost always scripted and ends with the enemy taking an airstrike or RPG punch in the face.
The Resistance series is simply more creative. Even Resistance 2 (to me, the worst in the series) is more creative and more satisfying to play than modern military shooters.
Fortunately, the Resistnace series isn’t the only one that offers creative gameplay in the face of all these cardboard cut-out modern shooters. The inFAMOUS series (which is basically a third person shooter with electricity) emphasizes combat experimentation and world exploration. Bioshock games combines a larger typical gun selection with superpowers. Games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored offer similar experiences. Ratchet and Clank not only has crazy weaponry but great third person shooting and platforming.
There are other games out there that also offer open, creative experiences. The point is that the modern military shooter is the dominating genre. And more and more games are copying the “Call of Duty style.” Killzone 3 took way too many cues from CoD. The new Xbox One game, Ryse, might as well be called Call of Duty: Ancient Warfare. Even the Tomb Raider reboot took the dark, gritty, realistic route. Even the developers of Destiny seem more interested in the games varying shades of browns and grays than anything else. Not to mention Dead Rising 3.
Again, while there is room for games like that, I can’t help but be worried when more and more games are jumping on the “dark, gritty, realistic, boring” bandwagon instead of going the Resistance route, which really is a great blending of both extremes: fun, exciting, creative gameplay and open levels, but mixed with a darker tone.
It’s a real shame to watch so many game developers dive head first into a generic pile of trash instead of a colorful ball pit.
I mean less face it, which one of these two would you rather jump into?
This:
Or this:
When you put it like that, the answer is pretty obvious.
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Why Resistance is so refreshing
Resistance is one of those rare series that, when they come along, remind me why I like playing games so much. With so many games becoming more realistic, more gritty, more brown and gray, more linear and stream lined, and more boring, it’s great to have a series that actual offers a fun experience.
Now don’t get me wrong, I have nothing against games trying to be more realistic, but sometimes I really want to shoot aliens with a gun that fires energy blasts through walls. Enter Resistance.
I recently started playing Resistance: Burning Skies for the PSVita. Like with previous games in the series, I had a smile on my face while playing. Why? Because it’s a fun game. Resistance’s main draw has always been it’s weapon selection, and this game doesn’t disappoint. The usual weapons are here, like the Bullseye, Carbine, and Auger. There’s also a shotgun that is also a crossbow and a giant, heavy machine gun to name a few, and you can carry all your guns around with you through out the entire game.
While weapon variety in Resistance is always great, that isn’t the only thing this series does better than most shooters out there today. Making the most out of your surroundings is a must. Many enemies can attack you while you’re in cover, so it’s important to keep moving. You can’t just rest behind a chest high wall for hours on end.
There’s also room to explore some. Resistance 3 had this down perfectly. Instead of only have one correct path, players could explore and try different routes: finding different Intel and supplies depending on the route they took.
Enemy variety is another perk to this series. There’s your standard foot solider chimera: your jumpers, giant chimera that charge right toward you, ones that wield different weapons, smaller ones that travel in swarms, etc. Each enemy and each encounter can be tackled differently. The RPG may be more powerful, but the Bullseye can home-in on an enemy’s weak point, while the Carbine’s grenade launcher offers great crowd control.
Now compare everything I just said about Resistance to the annoying “modern military shooter.” You know: linear levels. Only being able to carry two weapons at a time. Gung-ho American (or British) soldiers shooting up vastly out-gunned foreigners with little to no context. Riding a conveyer belt from shoot out to shoot out. Being told exactly how to handle a situation.
Ugh.
In Resistance, not only are your enemies not out-gunned, but in many circumstances, you are the one that is out matched. This requires you to really think on your feet and makes finally winning feel like a real accomplishment. Oh sure, you can have moments in modern military shooters where your character is outmatched, but that is almost always scripted and ends with the enemy taking an airstrike or RPG punch in the face.
The Resistance series is simply more creative. Even Resistance 2 (to me, the worst in the series) is more creative and more satisfying to play than modern military shooters.
Fortunately, the Resistnace series isn’t the only one that offers creative gameplay in the face of all these cardboard cut-out modern shooters. The inFAMOUS series (which is basically a third person shooter with electricity) emphasizes combat experimentation and world exploration. Bioshock games combines a larger typical gun selection with superpowers. Games like Deus Ex: Human Revolution and Dishonored offer similar experiences. Ratchet and Clank not only has crazy weaponry but great third person shooting and platforming.
There are other games out there that also offer open, creative experiences. The point is that the modern military shooter is the dominating genre. And more and more games are copying the “Call of Duty style.” Killzone 3 took way too many cues from CoD. The new Xbox One game, Ryse, might as well be called Call of Duty: Ancient Warfare. Even the Tomb Raider reboot took the dark, gritty, realistic route. Even the developers of Destiny seem more interested in the games varying shades of browns and grays than anything else. Not to mention Dead Rising 3.
Again, while there is room for games like that, I can’t help but be worried when more and more games are jumping on the “dark, gritty, realistic, boring” bandwagon instead of going the Resistance route, which really is a great blending of both extremes: fun, exciting, creative gameplay and open levels, but mixed with a darker tone.
It’s a real shame to watch so many game developers dive head first into a generic pile of trash instead of a colorful ball pit.
I mean less face it, which one of these two would you rather jump into?
This:
Or this:
When you put it like that, the answer is pretty obvious.
