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If great artists steal, then Resistance 3 must be the best game of all time. Over the course of eight to ten hours, it doesn’t demonstrate a single original idea.
Resistance 3’s "inspiration" runs deep. "Theft" is the more appropriate term. If you get a feeling of déjà vu, well, that’s because you’ve seen it all before: Resident Evil 2’s croc fight (itself stolen from Jaws), Uncharted 2’s train sequence, Uncharted 2’s sniper battle, Doom’s corridor shooting, cyberpunk tropes, and The Temple of Doom’s minecart chase…. No time for love, Dr. Jones!
Take a look at the above photo. Notice any similarities? Do any leitmotifs jump out at you?
Hideki Kamiya (director of Resident Evil 2) is clearly a Jaws fan. RE2's croc fight shares more than a few similarities with the villainous great white shark. Lo and behold, the croc is nice enough to chew on gas canisters, which you can shoot to send him to reptile hell. The only thing missing is John Williams’ iconic score.
Resistance 3 features a baddie called Satan (no kidding), a giant monster that likes to play fetch with acetylene tanks. Your goal? Toss the tank into his mouth, and make it go boom. Gee…where’d they get that idea? And along the way, you just happen to hop in a minecart and speed off in a thrilling chase reminiscent of Indiana Jones.
In another rousing sequence, Mad Max flunkies chase you across/through a moving train. This continually reminded me of a similar scene from Uncharted 2.
The plot feels like a dirty dishrag. Resistance 3 has sopped up so many genre clichés that the resultant game feels indistinguishable from countless FPSs. Just so: Don’t aliens have anything better to do than invade Earth? Judging by the million bazillion times they’ve taken over the world in countless video games, I’d say…probably not.
You can trace the FPS genre’s failure to innovate to its cannibalistic approach to game design. These games steal and repackage everything, and Resistance 3 is a particularly egregious offender. “Inspiration” is one thing; George Lucas was inspired by old-school adventure serials when he created Indiana Jones. “Theft” is something else entirely.