Resistance: Fall of Man

Resistance: Fall of Man builds on an alternate history in which an alien invasion force called the Chimera devastated Europe and turned humanity's fight into one for bare survival. Sony needed a launch title that could prove PS3 could compete with console shooters like Halo, and Insomniac Games, until then known mainly for the colorful Ratchet & Clank platformers, surprised many by delivering a dark, militarily toned shooter seen through soldier Nathan Hale as he fights across a devastated Britain full of biomechanical monsters. The alternate history, inspired by real British locations such as Manchester Cathedral, gave the game an unusually dense atmosphere of a European invasion.

The gameplay rested on a diverse arsenal of human and alien weapons, and true to Insomniac's style, most of them had a secondary firing mode that fundamentally changed how they were used, whether projectiles that hit enemies through obstacles or planted explosive traps. The player thus constantly switched between conventional fire and stranger Chimeran tools, giving encounters pace and variety and setting the game apart from the era's usual rifle-plus-shotgun duo. Visually, the title relied on a hazy, desaturated palette of bombed-out England with a large number of enemies on screen at once, showing off what the new hardware could handle. The package also included one of the first mass-played online multiplayers on a Sony console, supporting up to sixty players at a time.

Critics praised the epic scale and atmosphere, even though the story and characters felt less developed than in later rival series. Resistance: Fall of Man nonetheless became an important launch title that helped define early PS3 as a platform with strong online support through PlayStation Network, and it kicked off a trilogy that accompanied the console through its entire life cycle. For many players, it was the first proof that Sony could offer its own answer to the West's big shooters, and at the same time evidence that Insomniac Games could handle a more serious genre outside its traditional platforming work.