Resistance 3

Resistance 3 is an 2011 science fiction first person shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3. The game is the fourth title in the Resistance series and is the sequel to the best-selling PlayStation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man and its first sequel, Resistance 2. The game was released on September 6th in North America, 7th September for all other PAL regions, and 9th September for Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Plot
The story begins four years after the events of Resistance 2. Joseph Capelli had killed Nathan Hale as he succumbed to the Chimeran virus. Hale's corpse had been recovered by SRPA, which Dr. Fyodor Malikov discovered a cure from Hale's blood, which he then isolated it and created a vaccine to the Chimera virus. Capelli was dishonourbly discharged from SRPA, and at this point decided to stop fighting the Chimera. At this phase in the war, the Chimera had essentially conquered the earth and roughly 90% of humanity had been killed or converted. Those left had resorted to hiding under the ruins, trying to survive in a bleak world dominated by the Chimera, who are intent to wipe out the last remnants of the human race.

In an underground outpost in Haven, Oklahoma where Capelli and a group of survivors are living in secrecy for two years. Capelli is married to Susan Farley, Nathan Hale's foster sister, and they have a young son, Jack. Their hope to stay hidden from the Chimera is quickly crushed when a Chimeran Death Squad came patrolling the town. Capelli and a few residents were spectating the Chimera passing-by in the bowling alley when one of them is discovered and killed, and as everyone else rushed to his aid, attracted the entire patrol. However, they were able to defeat the patrol consisting of Hybrids and a Stalker and quickly cleaned up to avoid any other Chimera patrol's attention. Capelli was then sent to find one of the residents, Tommy Dean, who hasn't reported in. Capelli finds him alive and learns the reason why he hadn't called in. Walking up to a ridge nearby, Capelli notices a Terraformer (a massive, satellite-like weapon that destroys everything on the ground by firing a energy wave from the sky) moving towards Haven. They decide to evacuate the outpost, fighting their way back to Haven past chimera patrols, including a Goliath. Capelli then realizes that the Chimera were following Doctor Malikov, who had spent the last few months trying to find the former Sentinel. Malikov explains that when Hale detonated the fission bomb aboard Daedelus's flagship, it acted as a catalyst that caused a wormhole to open on the Chimeran Tower in New York City and it has been slowly freezing the planet since (Chimera thrive in cold climates) and humanity will not survive the next winter. Malikov says that he is the only person who can shut down the tower and begs Capelli to accompany him to New York. Capelli refuses to help him and he joins the few humans who were staying behind to hold off the Chimeran assualt while the rest of Haven's civilians escape. Despite losing several people in the rearguard action, they are successful in fending the Chimera off and they fall back as the Terraformer approaches right outside Haven. Capelli, as he was following behind is stopped by Susan urges him to go with Malikov. Capelli, not willing to leave his family, reluctantly agrees.

Capelli and Malikov start their journey on a boat and pass through the Mississippi River. Two days later, due to the thickening fog, they lose their way and cut through the flooded town of Wrightsburg, Missouri. That ended up being dangerous as the town was infested by feral Grims who attempted to board the boat and some of the waterways were block by ice forming on Chimeran conduits. After surviving that obstacle, they are attacked by patrolling Goliaths and acommpanying Chimera dropships escorts and Longlegs infantry. After a lengthly chase, their boat is destroyed and Malikov is wounded, forcing them to seek shelter in St. Louis.

Leaving Malikov in a safe place, Capelli eventually meets with a local resistance group called the "Remnants" who were defending thier VTOL from a Chimeran patrol. Capelli is led back to thier hideout and he finds Malikov was brought back in a bad state. Malikov's wound is infected, no doubt from the environment, and is in need of medical aid. The Remnants' leader, Charlie Tent, agrees to help them in return of acquiring a power core from a Chimeran dropship to power their VTOL aircraft. Malikov is given medicine as a condition for Capelli's aid. Although their ambush goes awry, due to multiple Chimera partols arriving and the sudden intrusion of a feral Widowmaker attracted by the chaos, they still manage to capture the power core. Charlie and his pilot Ellis give Capelli and Malikov a ride to New York.

On the flight however, Capelli experience a nightmare of his family in danger which prompts him to return to Oklahoma but they are attacked by a group of Chimeran fighters near Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania. Capelli falls from the VTOL but survives. Charlie drops Malikov nearby and promises that he will find Capelli's family. Capelli navigates his way through the dark chimera patrolled woods and abandoned mines, meets up with Malikov and they eventually find a train station and meet with Jean Rose, a member of a religious community of survivors near a coal mine. Jean tells them her husband Jonathan can repair the train but he went to the mines to kill a large Chimera they called "Satan". Capelli enters the Grim infested mine and eventually meets with Jonathan. Together they kill the creature and Jonathan repairs the train, allowing Malikov and Capelli to continue to New York.

Along the way, Malikov says that he has been responsible for many bad things, the Cloven, Daedelus and also Hale's conversion. Capelli merely agreed with Malikov, owing to his part in Hale's death. Malikov tells Capelli of events that happened after he was dishonourably discharged from SRPA. When the tower in New York activated, SRPA launched an operation to destroy the tower that ended in failure. He comments that Capelli may never see his family again, meaning the entire journey was essentially a suicide mission. Capelli knew that already but he states that they're doing their best to do so this far. Malikov also acknowledges that the Chimera, while ultimate killing machines, have no free will beyond the complete control of their hive-mind intelligence and he theorises on using that as a way of combating them.

Their journey to New York is interrupted by "Wardens", a vicious group of human survivalists which is made of former inmates from the nearby Graterford Prison. Although Capelli fights back the Wardens who try to board the train with their vehicles, their train eventually collides with a herd of Widowmakers that were attracted by the skirmish and derails. While trying to help an incapacitated Capelli, Malikov is brutally murdered by Mick Cutler, a former SRPA soldier and leader of the Wardens. After taken prisoner and forced to fight in a gladiator-like game involving Grims in the courtyard of the prison, Capelli is helped by Herbert Sawicki, a friendly Warden. Herbert devises a plan for him, Capelli and the other prisoners to escape but they first have to disable the security system, created from modified Chimeran Drones, that prevents the prison from being targeted by Chimeran forces. They eventually start a riot in the prison and disable the security system allowing the Chimera to infiltrate and attract the Wardens' full attention. Capelli, while disabling the last drone, is attacked by Mick but after a brutal fist-fight Capelli kills him and escapes the prison with Herbert and the other prisoners as the Chimera attack overwhelm the Wardens.

Continuing on his own, Capelli finally reaches New York and saw that the whole city was almost completly comsumed in snow. This hinted towards the Earth's fate under the Chimera and humanity's demise. Capelii finds a working radio in an abandoned building and makes a farewell broadcast to his wife, telling that Malikov is dead and without him, any chance of shutting down the tower is gone. Despite this, Capelli resolved to try anyway. After fighting through New York and getting close to the tower, he is cornered by a massive Chimeran force but he is saved by Charlie and Ellis in their VTOL at the last minute. Charlie tells Capelli that he was sent to bring him back. Capelli meanwhile has an idea that might just work, but Charlie persists that there isn't a chance he'll get in the tower. However, Capelli convinces Charlie to help him to disable the Terraformer to make it crash onto the New York tower, hoping that this will destroy the tower and close the wormhole. Capelli and Charlie raid the Terraformer and Capelli eventually finds the power core room. After a catastrophic fire-fight, Capelli destroys the power core and the Terraformer falls to the ground destroying the tower and closing the wormhole. Capelli is again saved by Charlie and Ellis in their VTOL as the Terraformer falls.

At the ending, Capelli is seen reunited with Susan and Jack. During the closing credits, numerous resistance groups report from all over the Earth, reporting their successes against the Chimeran forces. They are followed by several optimistic pictures (such as rebuilding of the Statue of Liberty in New York) implying that humanity have finally won the war against the Chimera.

Gameplay
The game will retain mostly the same gameplay mechanics as it predecessor albeit with several changes. The weapon wheel from Fall of Man returns. All weapons are upgradeable, and become more powerful the more they are used. Open level design will allow players to tackle scenarios based on their playstyle. The system of regenerative health has been dropped for a circular system of health which will not regenerate forcing players to play more carefully and look around the levels for sym-bacs, however the durability of the player against all attacks is much higher than previous games. The player's (Capelli) movement has been improved to make him more agile, now he has the ability to climb over walls and through windows. The developers of Resistance has also tweaked the controls to be more compatible with modern FPS's eg. L3 to dash and R3 to melee. These changes apply to both the Campaign and Multiplayer. Also, the weather in Resistance 3 will not be static as it used to be in its predecessor, but it will have some effects, like rain or winds.

Multiplayer
Resistance 3 features 16 player competitive online multiplayer with both deathmatch and objective-based modes. It also includes a customizable progression system where players spend points earned by playing online to unlock customized loadouts that include various tactical and combat attributes. There is also a co-operative mode where players can team up to play through the story mode either online or split-screen. Unlike in Resistance 2, there will be no 8 player co-op. The multiplayer maps are set in locations around the world such as the Fort Lamy prison in the Republic of Chad, Africa; a Trainyard in Bogoto, Columbia; a seaside map set in Wales, and Alice Springs, Australia. Some of these maps are not included in the story mode. A multiplayer beta has been released including two maps, and allowed the player to upgrade the character until level thirty, in order not to reveal all features and abilities. On August 30th, the beta was released to non-Playstation Plus subscribers. The beta ended on September 4th.

Development
On October 11th, 2009, a billboard was spotted in Shreveport, Louisiana, bearing the text "Resistance 3". The billboard was seen on the set of the movie Battle: Los Angeles, which was being produced by Columbia Pictures. Columbia Pictures is owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment. On the third Battle Los Angeles trailer the Resistance 3 billboard is visible. When asked to comment by IGN.com, Insomniac Games said "We've made no announcements at this time." Insomniac Games released Ratchet &amp; Clank Future: A Crack in Time on October 27th 2009 Insomniac Games have mentioned before that they will alternate between producing Ratchet & Clank and Resistance titles. The billboard was taken down several days after the photo was leaked onto the internet.

On November 11th, 2009 people found out that an artist by the name of Ben Mauro had put on his LinkedIn profile, he spent three sleepless months from March until May 2009 crafting content for several projects, including "RCF2" (presumably Ratchet & Clank Future: A Crack in Time), "R3" and some unannounced items. [Note: Mentions of "R3" and "unannounced projects" have mysteriously vanished since people contacted the parties concerned.]

On March 3rd 2010, Community Manager James Stevenson posted on his Twitter account telling us that: Over the last couple of months, the burning question amongst all of our fans out there has been, 'what's going on?' As far as I can remember, this is the longest stretch of time without Insomniac having announced a future project, leaving many of you wondering what exactly we're up to in the walls of our Burbank and Durham studios/" "More than one game" is said to be en route, although the title is not the long speculated 'surprise Sony sequel' (Resistance 3), Stevenson adding on Twitter that this "is not a game from Insomniac."

Insomniac Games created a partnership with EA Games, presumably to be the 'new game' James Stevenson was talking about.

On August 12th, 2010 Insomniac teased the world with: "Congrats to @IrrationalGames on revealing BioShock: Infinite. Trailer looks great. We can barely resist joining the announcement fun!" and five days later, on a Tuesday, they officially announced Resistance 3 on Twitter with these comments: "We are ecstatic to announce Ratchet & Clank: All 4 One - 4-player online and same screen drop in drop out co-op coming to PS3 in Fall 2011" which was then proceeded by "Oh, you wanted Resistance? Well, why not two games? We are also incredibly excited to (finally) announce Resistance 3. Coming to PS3 in 2011!"

On August 17th, 2010, Resistance 3 was finally announced, along with the announcement of Ratchet &amp; Clank: All 4 One, in Insomniac Games' Newsletter:

''The date we’ve been all been waiting for quite some time now has finally come. Yes, we are very aware of the fact that some games are just too hard to keep a secret; however, it’s our pleasure to finally put some rumors to rest. Today, we would like to OFFICIALLY announce our latest title currently in development – Resistance 3. Since the release of Resistance 2, we’ve listened to your feedback to help fine-tune what we know will become a respected addition to the franchise. Our Burbank studio has done a phenomenal job of crafting a cruel and brutal Resistance 3 world. You can catch a glimpse of it by watching the live-action Resistance 3 teaser trailer shown during the PlayStation Press Conference at GamesCom today. Follow @insomniacgames on Twitter and you'll be the first to know when we've uploaded it for you to watch and share with all your friends. We are very excited to show you more about Resistance 3. Remember to tell your friends to sign up for the newsletter, we’ll be offering swag and exclusive info throughout the coming year. In fact, you can visit our Community section and download some wallpapers right now.''

Pre-Order Bonuses
The pre-order bonuses are:
 * Gamespot - Capelli's Chimera Teeth Necklace, start multiplayer at level 5
 * Wal-Mart - 5 custom name titles including Sentinel
 * Amazon - Get the Air Fuel Grenade in singleplayer (normally not in the game)
 * Best Buy - Infected Nathan Hale multiplayer skin

Collector's Edition
The collector's edition of Resistance 3 is only available in PAL regions. There are two editions; the Special Edition includes the pre-order bonuses, a steelbook cover and the blu-ray disk made to look like a vinyl record. The Survivor Edition includes the Special Edition, Capelli's Satchel Bag, a chimera firing range target poster, "Fight for Freedom" toy soldiers, Capelli's journal, a SRPA Hip Flask and SRPA Playing Cards.

A later edition called the "Doomsday Edition", announced by Sony, includes the Playstation Move/Navigator Controller, a Sharp Shooter peripheral and the Playstation Eye. It launches alongside the regular retail game on September 6 in North America. It is only available in North America.

Downloadable Content Packs (DLC)
Insomniac revealed the first DLC which will be ready for release on October 4th. The Survival Pack brings to players a brand new game mode: Invasion. Invasion requires both teams to divide resources to simultaneously own multiple control points on the map. As the nodes are held, user will receive more points. In addition to the Invasion mode, in the price of $3.99 four new skins of the various Survivors in the game are going to be included, as well as a static XMB theme. Also on October 4th, a patch for all players that will include two new maps. Since December 2011, Insomniac released a second DLC pack which includes Survival Mode, 7 Tracks from Mastodon, the Mick Cutler skin and the Sledgehammer weapon. In January 3rd, Insomniac released all the pre-order bonuses for free Resistance 3 DLC.

Trivia

 * Resistance 3 was the first Playstation game to require Sony's Online Pass.
 * A poster for the game appeared in the movie Battle: Los Angeles, which is also centered around a human-alien war. Subsequently, a demo for the game was included in the movie's Blu-ray release.
 * It is the first game in the Resistance series to feature weapon upgrades.
 * Although the ending & credits imply that Humanity has won back the War, the Chimera are still dominant & humanity is still struggling to survive, but have a stronger hope to win against the Chimera.
 * In the final cinematic, Jack Capelli is playing with a toy modeled after the Hydra Tank from Ratchet and Clank Future: A Crack in Time, which is also made by Insomniac.
 * Resistance 3 is the only game in the main series not to win any trophy or nomination since it was just announced during the show.
 * Resistance 3 is also the only game in the main series that feature Joseph Capelli replacing Nathan Hale as a new protaganist.

Trailer

 * The Resistance 3 reveal trailer was completed and rushed by taxi to Gamescom 5 minutes before it was scheduled to debut.


 * The song played in the trailer is a cover of Bob Dylan's "Masters of War" performed by the Staple Singers.


 * There are three separate hidden messages throughout the teaser that are written on billboards, which reveals: "Get away from New York."


 * The railway line that the survivors were travelling on in the reveal trailer is the Union Pacific Line from Chicago to West Coast.
 * One of the survivors that gets on the train is Joseph Capelli. This is known by his beard, scars on his left side of the face, and the Chimeran teeth he has strung around his neck.