Resistance is a science-fiction horror series of first-person shooter and third-person shooter video games developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation Vita game consoles. The series takes place in an alternate history around the 1950s, in which an alien species known as the Chimera have invaded Earth, expanding their conquest by capturing humans and mutating them into monstrous, super-powered soldiers to fight on their behalf. The player takes the role of one of the remaining human armed forces as they fight against the Chimera's invasion.
Gameplay[]
The Resistance games play similar to most first-person shooters and feature a variety of weapons. The weapons include both conventional weapons for the setting of the game, weapons created by the Chimera that possess unique features, and human weapons that have been modified to take advantage of the Chimera technology.
The two PlayStation 3 games feature large-scale multiplayer modes with support up to 60 players in Resistance 2 and up to 40 players in Resistance: Fall of Man. Both console games offer extensive stat tracking for online combat, with Resistance 2 featuring trophies that require online play to earn.
Synopsis[]
Setting[]
- Main article: Resistance Storyline
Approximate location of the Tunguska event, in Siberia.
The Resistance series sets in an alternate history that diverged in the early 20th century. The First World War ended differently in which an isolationist United States did not enter the war and the Treaty Versailles led to the formation of the European Trade Organization, a continental peacekeeping alliance, and worldwide peace was achieved, preventing the Great Depression, the rise of Nazi Germany, and the Second World War. However, Franklin Delano Roosevelt lost the 1940 presidential election to Montana Senator Noah Grace who leads the U.S into a semi-totalitarian isolationist state, as well as the rise of an isolationist Russian Empire, as before his abdication, Nicholas II appointed his youngest brother Grand Duke Mikhail as Tsar, who crushed the Russian Revolution.
A new menace arises from Siberia, with the epicenter corresponding to the time and location of the Tunguska event of 1908. In 1921, Russia initiated a communications blackout with the rest of the world and built a wall against its European border called the "Red Curtain". Word spreads of small towns, villages, and eventually cities in Russia and Eastern Europe that are destroyed within a single night. A strange cold front also develops over Russia and spreads outwards. European intelligence agencies attempt to listen in on Russian radio stations only to hear a single message repeated over and over: "Brotherhood, Strength, and Fortitude...in the face of the angry night."
In December 1949, the Red Curtain is suddenly breached by numerous Chimera forces. The Chimera overrun continental Europe by February 1950, leaving very few survivors. The Chimera then proceeds to dig underneath the English Channel, invading Britain in late 1950. The bulk of the British forces were wiped out, with the rest fleeing to scattered bases in the northern parts of England.
The United States government was aware of the Chimera's existence prior to their invasion and had tasked the Special Research Projects Administration to eradicate the alien threat. The SRPA conducted research to create super-soldiers derived from the Chimeran virus, Project Abraham. The research's results produced two survivors, Nathan Hale and Joseph Capelli.
Plot[]
The plot began with the first installment, Resistance: Fall of Man. In 1951, the United States deployed a task force to assist Britain as part of Operation Deliverance. However, American forces were wiped out by the Chimera, except for one survivor: U.S. Army Ranger Sergeant Nathan Hale. Hale developed increased strength and the ability to regenerate from his injuries as a result of Project Abraham. Using his newfound abilities, Hale assisted the British and American forces in liberating the United Kingdom from the Chimera while learning their weakness tied to the Chimeran towers.
In Resistance 2, after the Chimera's defeat in Britain, Hale is extracted by the SRPA and is subsequently inducted into the Sentinel Program, a military branch of super-soldiers known as Sentinels. Within two years, Hale became the leader of Echo Team while the United States fortified its mainland from the Chimera in the form of the Liberty Defense Perimeter. The Chimera fell under the control of Daedalus, another test subject of Project Abraham who aggressively led the Chimeran expansion across Earth. On May 15, 1953, the Chimera launched an invasion of the United States. Hale defeats Daedalus but succumbs to the virus and is executed by his fellow Sentinel Joseph Capelli.
After Hale's death, the plot continues with Joseph Capelli in Resistance 3, the final installment in the Resistance trilogy. In 1957, the Chimera has taken control of Earth and the human race is on the brink of extinction. Capelli marries Susan Farley, the adoptive-sister of Nathan Hale, and lives with a community of survivors in Haven, Oklahoma. Capelli is soon thrust on a post-apocalyptic journey to finally defeat the Chimera.
Games[]
| Game | Developer | Platform | Release year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Resistance: Fall of Man | Insomniac Games | PlayStation 3 | 2006 |
| Resistance 2 | 2008 | ||
| Resistance: Retribution | Bend Studio | PSP, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5 |
2009 |
| Resistance 3 | Insomniac Games | PlayStation 3 | 2011 |
| Resistance: Burning Skies | Nihilistic Software | PS Vita | 2012 |
Special Editions[]
- Resistance Dual Pack (2011)
- Resistance: The Trilogy (2012)
- Resistance Collection (2012)
Development[]
Insomniac Games chief creative officer Brian Hastings first pitched a first-person shooter game in 2003, in which it would be "attractive to the hardcore players."[1] Insomniac began developing Resistance as their new intellectual property for the PlayStation 3 to appeal to more mature gamers after their development of Ratchet: Deadlocked.[2]
Initially, the idea for Resistance began with inspiration from the 1997 film Starship Troopers in which Insomniac played with the idea of making a squad-based game which was later scrapped for a first-person shooter.[2][3] After developing the Chimera as the main antagonist, the developers pitched several plot ideas and setting for Resistance: Fall of Man. Originally, Resistance was designed to be a "space opera" predicated on notions of time travel but was rejected. They later considered having it set in an alternate World War I, but found it difficult to implement exotic weapons with the period's weapons which they deemed it less fun.[2][1][3] They then considered moving the setting to World War II but was quickly rejected due to the prevalence of WWII-era shooter games in the gaming industry. Ultimately they moved the setting to the 1950s where World War II never occurred.[2][4]
Insomniac crafted the alien invasion story of Resistance distinguishable from other similar stories by portraying humanity fighting against a "proxy species" of biologically mutated humans who served their mysterious creators, and thereby establishing an alluring element in the Resistance story to players and fans.[5] According to Resistance writer Jon Paquette, Insomniac established Resistance to have a bleaker tone by telling its story "that is, in part, bigger than its characters. This is a universe that is brutal and unpredictable. A universe where the hero might get killed, and the man who killed him might then become humanity's best hope for survival."[5] Insomniac was influenced by Cormac McCarthy's 2006 post-apocalyptic novel The Road in terms of keeping Resistance's theme and tone, which the book's premise was later applied to Resistance 3's story.[5] Resistance 3 creative director Marcus Smith and Paquette emphasized exotic weapons, created from the fusion of 1950s military aesthetic and futuristic Chimeran technology, as one of Resistance's greatest strengths while telling a grounded, compelling story.[5]
Following the release of Resistance 2, the game was met with commercial and critical success, but was criticized for changing some of the game's traditional core mechanics from Fall of Man, such as abandoning its weapon wheel system for a "Halo-like dual weapon system."[1] Shaun McCabe who worked the first two Resistance games admitted that Insomniac had made "some controversial decisions" during the development of Resistance 2.[2] Insomniac would later addressed players' concerns about Resistance 2 and tried to differentiate Resistance from other shooters by focusing on the story in Resistance 3.[2] While Resistance 3 received generally positive reviews from critics, some of whom deemed it the best in the series, the game did not sell well due to being overshadowed by other games at the time.[2][6] On January 26, 2012, Insomniac CEO Ted Price announced Resistance 3 the last Resistance game to be developed by Insomniac.[2][7]
Due to Sony owning the IP for Resistance, Sony handed off development duties for Resistance: Burning Skies to Nihilistic Software. According to Ted Price, Insomniac's reasons for not developing Resistance for the PlayStation Vita was due to the studio not having "the bandwidth to move onto the Vita".[6]
Future[]
In January 2016, in an IGN interview while discussing the animated film adaptation of Ratchet & Clank, Insomniac's Ryan Schneider stated that Insomniac came close to adapting Resistance into a movie, but was never developed due to changing priorities.[8]
In June 2021, game developer and former IGN PlayStation editor Colin Moriarty revealed that Insomniac had planned for a fourth Resistance game, but was rejected by Sony due to the number of similar post-apocalyptic games that were in development for the PlayStation 3, such as Horizon Zero Dawn and The Last of Us.[9] Sony specifically felt the premise of Resistance 4 to sound "too similar to The Last of Us" and they did not want the two games overlapping with each other.[9][10]
On January 6, 2022, Bend Studio had pitched an open-world Resistance game after their plans for a sequel to Days Gone was rejected.[11][12][13] According to Days Gone director Jeff Ross the idea was that if Bend could not use the open world they had built in Days Gone for a sequel, they wanted to "leverage" the open world and the lessons they had learned from creating it for a different purpose.[12][14] The pitch originally came from Bend Studio design manager Eric Jensen and was "championed and ran with it" by Ross.[14] The open-world game would have players assuming the role of young rebels (akin to the protagonists from the 1984 film Red Dawn) tasked with building factions and an army that would take on a Chimeran mothership, which hover over the game map and served as the endgame. The rebels then have to find a way to reach the mothership to take it down in which may have involved building a ship themselves.[12][14] Side quests would have taken the form of conversion centers and gun towers. Combat would have variation from all of the different enemy and weapon types.[12][14]
On February 7, 2025, speaking on the Kinda Funny Gamescast, Insomniac's departing CEO Ted Price revealed that a pitch for Resistance 4 was taken to PlayStation by the studio, but it was eventually shot down.[15][16][17] According to Price, Insomniac originally intended for Resistance 3 to "end that chapter of the Resistance franchise" by concluding Joseph Capelli's story, and "a lot of loops on various smaller story items," and allowing the studio to have more options to further expand the Resistance universe.[17][18]
Other media[]
Novels[]
Resistance: The Gathering Storm is a novel by William C. Dietz. It details Nathan Hale's actions as a Sentinel and the events leading to U.S. President Noah Grace's unexplainable death mentioned in Resistance 2.
Resistance: A Hole in the Sky is an indirect sequel to The Gathering Storm. It sets before the events of Resistance 3 and details Joseph Capelli's meeting with Susan and the breakdown of the remnants of the U.S. government.
Comics[]
- Main article: Resistance (comic)
Resistance is a six-issue comic book limited series published by Wildstorm that began in January 2009. It is written by Mike Costa, with art by Ramón Pérez, with the prequel being written by Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning, with pencils by C.P. Smith. The first issue, Resistance #0 (which was available as part of the Resistance 2 Collector's Edition), details the early history of Private Jordan Adam Shepherd, the seemingly innocent soldier who volunteered to be a test subject in Project Abraham, and, due to the machinations of Doctor Fyodor Malikov, would transform into "Daedalus".
References[]
- ^ a b c Nutt, Christopher (November 12, 2008). "In-Depth: Inside The Making Of Resistance 2". Game Developer.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Moriarty, Colin (28 September 2012). "Always Independent: The Story of Insomniac Games". IGN.
- ^ a b "Full Moon Show #51 - The Resistance: Fall of Man retrospective". YouTube.
- ^ Kolan, Patrick (25 February 2007). "Q&A With Ted Price, CEO of Insomniac". IGN.
- ^ a b c d Moriarty, Colin (July 18, 2011). "Resistance 3 is 'The Road' of Video Games". IGN.
- ^ a b Nunneley, Stephany (September 11, 2012). "Insomniac has "theories" as to why Resistance wasn't Sony's Halo, says Price". VG247.
- ^ "A Message from Ted Price". YouTube.
- ^ Schwartz, Terri (January 29, 2016). "How Insomniac Strove to Adapt the Ratchet & Clank Movie Right". IGN.
- ^ a b Eylers-Stephenson, Kes. (June 6, 2021). "PlayStation exclusive Resistance 4 cancelled due to post-apocalyptic fatigue - report". TrueTrophies.
- ^ Ferdinand, Pam (June 9, 2021). "Resistance 4 Was Allegedly Scrapped Because of The Last of Us". Game Rant.
- ^ Valentine, Rebekah (January 7, 2022). "Days Gone Director Says Shawn Layden's Departure Killed Chances for Sequel". IGN.
- ^ a b c d Smith, Rebecca (January 11, 2022). "Bend Studio’s Resistance Game Would Have Made Use of the Days Gone World". PlayStation LifeStyle.
- ^ Tu, Trumann (January 7, 2020). "Bend Studio Pitched Open World Resistance Game". Game Rant.
- ^ a b c d Maher, Cian (January 11, 2022). Here's the pitch for Days Gone developer's open-world Resistance game. For the Win.
- ^ Insomniac's Ted Price on Retirement, Resistance 4 - Kinda Funny Gamescast
- ^ Daniel Morris (February 8, 2025). "Insomniac Pitched Resistance 4, But Was Rejected". Game Rant.
- ^ a b Ethan Gach (February 7, 2025). "Insomniac Boss Says Resistance 4 Was The One That Got Away". Kotaku.
- ^ Johnny Flores Jr. (February 7, 2025). "Resistance 4 Pitch Was Turned Down By Sony". TheGamer.