Resistance (series)

Resistance is a 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 and PlayStation Portable game consoles. The series takes places in an alternate history around the year 1950, in which an alien species known as the Chimera have invaded Earth and taken over all of Russia, and continue to invade and conquer much of Europe and the United States, expanding their armies by capturing humans and converting 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 invasion.

The series is noted for its use of both conventional and futuristic weaponry, reflecting Insomniac's previous work on the Ratchet & Clank series.

Resistance: Fall of Man
Resistance: Fall of Man was released on the PlayStation 3 in 2006 as a launch title for the system. The title follows the journey of Nathan Hale, a soldier from the United States armed forces who was sent to Britain to stop the Chimera invasion in 1951.

Resistance 2
Resistance 2 was released on the PlayStation 3 in November 2008. The game continues Nathan Hale's story shortly after the events of the first game, as the Chimera have managed to cross over into North America and threaten to take over the continent there.

Resistance 3
Resistance 3 is an upcoming installment of the series set to be released on the PlayStation 3 in 2011. The game will take place once again in the United States in cities like New York City and St. Louis, Missouri.

Resistance: Retribution
Resistance: Retribution was released on the PlayStation Portable on March 17, 2009. Unlike the other games in the series, Retribution follows James Grayson, a British Royal Marine as he helps the human resistance force in Europe to retake the continent from the Chimera.

Setting
The alternate history of the Resistance series diverges from current history primarily at the end of World War I, leading to a prosperous European alliance and worldwide peace, preventing the Great Depression, the rise of the Nazis in Germany, and World War II, but also leading to the rise of an isolationist Russian Empire, one that is still under Tsarist rule as Lenin's revolution was crushed.



However, 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 Chimeran forces. The Chimera overrun continental Europe by February 1950, leaving very few survivors. The Chimera then proceed to dig underneath the English Channel, invading Britain in late 1950. The bulk of the British forces are wiped out, with the rest fleeing to scattered bases in the northern parts of England.

Some time after the invasion of England the SRPA (Special Research Projects Administration) begins experimenting with the virus, supposedly in order to find a cure. It is never revealed whether they are really attempting to find a cure for the virus or are simply attempting to create a group of superhumans just as Malikov did with the Cloven. This project is known as Project Abraham.

There are only two known locations where Project Abraham took place. One was an unspecified military facility in Alaska and another in Bryce Canyon, Utah. Out of the viral website it is known that the only survivors are Joseph Capelli and Nathan Hale. They are both later transferred into Sentinel Squad Echo.

After the events of Project Abraham, the soldiers who were infected with the Chimeran virus were formed into an elite squad known as Sentinels.

The Chimera
The Chimera are a species of unconfirmed origin that arrived on Earth with the asteroid from the Tunguska event, who serve as the main enemies in the game. They first appeared in Siberia shortly after the Tunguska event in the game's alternate history. The human forces initially believe the Chimera to be the result of a biological experiment gone wrong, but through events and revelations during the course of the game, along with the Chimeras' advanced technologies such as weather control, energy weapons, and force fields, it becomes obvious to the humans that the Chimera are extraterrestrial in origin. The Chimeran army expands by infecting humans with a mutagenic virus that causes its victims to fall into a coma, then slowly transform into Chimera while inside cocoons. Intelligence reports in the game speculate that more than one human body is needed for the larger strains of Chimera. The Chimera build conversion centers across their territory to both speed up this process, and create new breeds of Chimeran creatures. Large, jellyfish-like creatures, called Carriers, bring infected humans that have fallen into comas to these conversion centers. The centers do however become redundant in Resistance 2, leaving the converging in cocoons right in the cities where they were infected.

The main character of Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance 2 is Nathan Hale, a human that has been partially affected by the Chimeran virus that gives him regenerative abilities but has not completely taken over his body. It is revealed in Resistance 2 that Hale participated in an American experiment named Project Abraham. The Americans tested the Chimeran virus on human subjects, and tried to inhibit the virus in some way. Hale however, was tested with a different strain originating from what Dr. Malikov describes as "Pure Chimera". They are more than 60 million years old. In "Resistance 2", Daedalus (Jordan Shephard) tells Hale that The Chimera had once ruled the earth millions of years ago and that the humans had betrayed The Chimera and taken over. Stating: "Traitor!, You fight for a race that will only betray you" and "You don't deserve this world, Not after what you've done, Not after what you've taken!".

The Chimera are much stronger than regular humans, and have between two and six yellow eyes. The Chimeran metabolism is said to be roughly twelve times that of humans', which allows for extraordinary healing abilities, but it also causes their bodies to overheat quickly. For that reason, Chimeran soldiers have cooling devices implanted into their backs, to prevent fatal overheating. The Chimera thrive in very cold temperatures, which has led them to alter the Earth's climate through unknown means, reducing temperatures to the point where London is frozen over in July. The Chimera are led by creatures called Angels (large, flying monsters with multiple limbs emanating from their backs and extending toward the front around their heads) which possess a telepathic link to the Chimeran soldiers. Individual Chimera die without this psychic link. It is said in several intelligence reports during the game that the Chimera will devour their own kind, usually their wounded or dead.

In Resistance: Fall of Man it is revealed that the Angels take shelter in areas known as Chimeran towers which are massive spire like structures that are often hundreds of feet tall. In the Resistance: Fall of Man level "A Disturbing Discovery" it turns out that the towers are excavated rather than constructed as was originally believed. This suggests that the Chimera were on Earth before humans. This turns out to be true when in Resistance 2 it is revealed that the towers were on Earth several million years ago. Apparently something radical happened in the Gulf of Mexico, which incapacitated all the towers that are scattered around the world. It is presumed that the Chicxulub asterioid impact is linked to this due to a mysterious object being described by intel in the second game and the location in the Gulf.

In Resistance 2 a Chimera known as Daedalus, which originated from the very same experiment as Nathan Hale, takes control of the Chimeran forces world wide after the surprise Chimeran attack on station Igloo. It is speculated that because he is supposed to be an older form of Chimera that he has more precise control over the Chimera than the Angels. It is revealed in several intelligence documents and mission briefings that the Chimeran command structure became more and more complex since the arrival of Daedalus and that the Chimeran offensive strategy has also become more tactical.

It's mentioned in Resistance: Retribution, since human bodies have been running low, the Chimera have apparently been dismantling old conversion centers around Europe, and building new ones, in which they are using a new raw material, yet to be revealed. During the demo chapter, Grayson tries to rescue a soldier named Bouchard, who is in the conversion process. She mentions that she is surrounded by bodies that are deformed, neither alive nor dead, all of them female.

Cloven
The Cloven have not appeared in the story campaign mode for Resistance: Fall of Man but are mentioned in discovered intelligence reports and have shown up on Resistance: Retribution on levels 2,12,15,16,17 and 18. They are revealed as an unlockable skin in the multiplayer mode. They are bald, pale-skinned humanoids in foreign military uniforms and have cuts on them in Resistance: Retribution and have no shirt and [multiplayer only] wear skulls. In intelligence reports and on the official site, they are said to be maniacs who speak Russian, ritualistically mutilate themselves and their victims, and feed on the bodies of their own dead soldiers. They appear to be enemies of both the Chimera and the British-American forces, due to their hostility towards both. Despite this, they seem to be somehow connected to the Chimera, but in what way is unknown. In two of the intelligence reports found later on in the game it appears that the British started hunting for groups of Cloven. Also in one of these two it makes reference to a possible leader that may control the Cloven.

Information from Resistance's Map Pack 1 on the Official Website reports on a possible alliance between the Chimera and the Cloven. The Cloven were spotted ransacking Chimeran bases and encountering no resistance. It also reads in an intelligence report that the Cloven purposely lead the Chimera to York where the American soldiers would be landing, indicating York was a trap from the beginning. The equipment being taken by the Cloven is different from what has been seen in their possession so far. U.S. forces speculate that the Cloven are stockpiling Chimeran technology to be used against Allied forces. An encounter with the Cloven has shown that they now have weapons far stronger than anything witnessed from either side in combat. Whether the Cloven are in possession of advanced Chimeran technology or simply modifying existing Chimeran technology is unknown.

Claud Bouchard discovered Cloven are more insane alone when he secretly tortured 7 out of 8, but the last one cut his tongue off and died of blood loss.

It is revealed in Resistance 2 by Doctor Malikov that they are hybrids of human and Chimera caused by an antidote gone wrong. Their dead have photos of their leader stuffed in their mouth and middle fingers cut off. Malikov created them himself, during some experiments involving the Chimera. It was because of his "success" in Russia that he was transferred to the American Chimeran virus experimentation program, known as "Project Abraham". He then continued his work, thus creating "The Sentinels".

Gameplay
The Resistance games play similarly 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. Each weapon features two modes of fire which work in conjunction with each other. The human assault rifles include grenade launches, while the Chimera "Bullseye" has a secondary mode that fires a marker, such that all bullets shot in the primary mode will strike the marked target for a short time.

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.

Nathan Hale
Nathan Hale was born on November 30, 1922, in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. He joined the Army in 1945 where he started his training at Camp Wolters, Texas. In 1946, he was promoted to Private First Class, and was cited for lack of reasonable effort because he, according to a report, consistently drove tanks beyond speed limits. Two years later he was promoted to the rank of Sergeant. In February 1949, he was transferred to a military camp in Achnacarry, Scotland where he went through the Ranger Orientation Program which he passed later in May 1949. Two months later he was transferred to the 1st Ranger Regiment in Fort Benning, Georgia and wounded in a live fire exercise.

In December 1949, the Chimera attacked Europe, but the United States government did not reveal the truth to the American citizens, covering it up by saying that an influenza epidemic was going on in Europe. A government project called Project Abraham starts, whose purpose is to find a cure for the Chimera virus. Hale heard of the project and volunteered for it on December 1, 1950. He said in an induction interview that he thought that something else is going on in Europe that the government isn't telling them. He also said that he thinks that someone like him should volunteer for the project. During his time at the project base in Alaska, he gets to know Doctor Cassandra "Cassie" Aklin. Aklin falls in love with Hale during the time he is there. Hale was injected with the anti-virus in December 6 the same year, and fell into a coma, but woke up from it a few days later.

Hale ships out to fight the Chimera, and is part of Operation: Deliverance, where a 12,000-man taskforce is flown into York to secure a site for reinforcements and re-supply, and gradually work their way to liberate Britain. After a pitched battle, Hale is left as the only survivor since the enhancements he received during Project Abraham allowed him to survive and remain conscious. Hale joins up with the British Resistance, under the command of Captain Rachel Parker. After repeated missions, sometimes alongside Lieutenant Steven Cartwright, Hale separates when casualties reach critical levels, and embarks on a one-man mission that allows Hale, who possesses Chimera abilities, to ascertain the central tower in London as the source of Chimera throughout the country. With fresh American reinforcements, the British Resistance launches a final assault on the tower with Hale personally ensuring it would succeed. All of Britain is liberated from the Chimera for good.

Hale narrowly escapes the tower before its complete destruction, and is then intercepted and picked up by Special Research Project Administration Black Ops soldiers. Hale is forcibly recruited into their Sentinel Program, a task force of soldiers who are all semi-immune to the virus, like Hale (in certain cases, the members include fellow Project Abraham survivors). Hale eventually ascends to command his own squad, with him finally reaching officer status with the rank of Lieutenant. Hale and SRPA's fight against the Chimera, now led by "Daedalus" (actually Jordan Adam Shepherd, an old friend of Hale's), becomes increasingly desperate after Daedalus launches an successful invasion of the United States, and later successfully overruns the Liberty Defense Perimeter after a botched SRPA mission that leaves half of Hale's men dead and Hale himself on the verge of transformation into a Chimera (having neglected to have a compulsory viral inhibitor treatment well over the recommended timeframe). Hale and surviving SRPA forces launch a final attack to save America which succeeds; Daedalus is killed and the Chimera fleet is destroyed. Unfortunately, shortly after crash-landing his escape shuttle, Joseph Capelli, the only soldier other than Hale to be a survivor of the squad and the mission, finds Hale has almost finished transforming and about to become a Chimera. Capelli regretfully executes Hale with his pistol.

PlayStation: The Official Magazine states that "The Resistance 2 story is all about Nathan Hale and his role in this great conflict. Playstation Universe lists Hale among the top five Playstation 3 characters thus far. Rob Smith writes that "Nathan Hale is, on paper, a fascinating protagonist," explaining that "Hale's character and fight against the virus was well played, solidly voiced, yet missed the expected spark."

Joseph Capelli
Joseph Capelli was born in Brooklyn, New York City on December 10, 1919. Capelli was known to be an extremely independent man but also very insubordinate and rude. In March 1948, he joined the US Marines at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. However, he used disrespectful language towards a superior officer and was given a court-martial, sending him to work on the Liberty Defence Perimeter for six weeks. He was soon given another court-martial for assault and was given the choice of going to prison or volunteering for Project Abraham to become a Sentinel, choosing the latter. He was the first Sentinel to be injected with the Chimeran virus, which sent him into a psychotic rage. He nearly killed the doctor who injected him and the doctor was forced to defend himself with a crowbar, giving Capelli a large scar on the left side of his face and the injection left him emotionally unstable.

He later went on a mission to Warsaw, Poland and promoted to Sergeant, but due to his insubordination during Operation Icarus he was demoted to Corporal. During the Events of Resistance 2, Capelli was transferred to Sentinel Team Echo under Lt. Nathan Hale and fought with the Hale from San Francisco to Chicago and survived many close encounters, such as with a Mother Spinner but still displayed a disrespectful attitude. At one point, Capelli approached Hale at Bryce Canyon when his superior officer was beginning to succumb to the virus, saying that he would shoot Hale without hesitation when he finished transforming. The Lieutenant silenced the Corporal, inviting him to do so when the time arrived. Echo team eventually went to Iceland to stop Daedalus from activating the Chimeran towers, but the mission was a failure, resulting in the death of half of Echo team and leaving Nathan Hale critically wounded by Daedalus. Capelli finds and rescues Hale but too late to stop his transformation.

After Hale awakes, Capelli briefs him, telling the Lieutenant that the Liberty Defense Perimeter has fallen and that the Baton Rouge protection camp is all that is left and the people are about to starve to death. He explains that their only hope to destroy the Chimeran fleet, hovering above Chicxulub Crater in Mexico with a fission bomb in Operation Black Eden. Capelli and Hale protect the fission bomb as it is loaded onto a shuttle. Capelli, Major Blake and Hale all board the Chimeran flagship in the center of the fleet formation and make their way to the bridge. Capelli directs Hale to the bomb after Blake and his team are killed. Capelli and Hale narrowly escape after klling Daedalus and arming the Bomb. The resulting EMP forces them to crash-land near the Mexican coast and knocks Capelli unconscious. After waking up, Capelli steps outside of the shuttle to see Hale looking upon two massive sphere-like objects in the sky. After asking Hale what they are, Capelli realizes he has finished transforming into a Chimeran creature. Capelli pulls out his pistol and orders Hale to stay back, only to hear Hale's response of, "This is just the beginning." Capelli hesitates to kill Hale but he knows he has no choice and, contrary to his previous attitude and threats toward the Lieutenant, says, "Forgive me, Sir. It was an honor." and is forced to execute Hale with his pistol.

Capelli's exact fate after Resistance 2 is unconfirmed, but it seems he most likely returns to the United States to continue the fight in Resistance 3, as the man who jumps on the train at the beginning of the official Resistance 3 teaser trailer aired at Gamescom 2010, in which he has a scar on the left side of his face and he is seen killing hoards of Chimeran creatures with what appears to be a Marksman rifle and demonstrates Superhuman-Chimeran reflexes found in Sentinels.

Rachel Parker
Rachel Parker was born the daughter of a Lieutenant General of the British Army, and her father was restationed too often for Parker to ever know what a home was. The lifestyle was too much for her mother to bear; she left when Parker was six. Parker became inseparable from her father. Despite her desire to join him in the military, he steered her toward a university education. Her eagerness to impress him led her all the way to the theoretical physics department at Oxford. Before Parker could graduate, her father offered her the job she always wanted with British Army Intelligence. The Chimeran threat was just becoming known in British Intelligence circles, and he needed someone he could trust to be a liaison for the military.

Initially serving as an intelligence operator, Parker and her father worked closely together at Central Command in London, until the Chimera invaded the U.K. and attacked the base. Parker's father died helping her escape. With the deaths of the British Armed Forces' hierarchy; Parker, only a Captain at the time, became head of the British Intelligence Corps, and defacto head of the British Resistance. At her direction, the Corps, who were given tacit control of the Royal Marine Commandos; the defacto unit leader now Lieutenant Stephen Cartwright, ordered the Commandos in a guerrilla campaign against the Chimera. Parker had since continued to serve on the front lines in the war against the Chimera; her brilliance at collecting and interpreting strategic intelligence is the only weapon that hasn't failed against them. Parker has since long become accustomed to losing everything she's ever cared for, but wants to believe the war against the Chimera can still be won, and found herself willing to support long shots.

Eventually, with Hale supporting the efforts every step of the way, Britain was liberated and all Chimera on British soil eradicated following the destruction of the tower network; with Parker sadly assuming Hale perished in the colossal explosion of the central tower in London.

Parker worked quickly, initiating restoration and rescue efforts throughout the country, restoring and re-deploying armed forces, beginning research efforts into the Chimera's mysterious history and reverse-engineering the Chimera's left-over nuclear reactor technology and energy weapons. At this time, Parker was promoted to Colonel and made official head of the British Intelligence Corps and defacto head of the British Armed Forces.

Parker eventually re-started the conflict in Europe by launching an invasion of the continent, coordinating with the SRPA and "Maquis" to succeed (in the case of the former; she learns Hale survived and now served with SRPA's Sentinel Program, and so drafted a sealed letter to him; the contents of which are revealed in Resistance: Retribution.

James Grayson
James Grayson was a Lieutenant with the Royal Marines fighting in the re-opened European conflict theatre a few weeks following the liberation of Britain (by Nathan Hale). Initially shirking off his wartime duties following the traumatic loss of his brother; an RAF officer, which led to him giving up his own RAF career and briefly turn to petty crime, James was inspired to return to service, this time as a Marine, when his beloved older brother Jonny went MIA during a mission while fighting the Chimera in London. James was devastated to find Jonny in one of the conversion centers he and a team of soldiers were raiding for technology and kills his half-converted brother.

While completing the mission, James has an emotional meltdown that drives him mad and then he travels around England destroying every conversion center he can find. After destroying 26 centers, and the London Tower, Stephen Cartwright, who is promoted to Major, finally captures him. Then James is charged with desertion and is sentenced to death by firing squad. However, Raine Bouchard, the leader of the "Maquis", finds that James is now an invaluable source of intelligence and a defacto expert on conversion centers. James is released and officially promoted a SRPA Maquis private, and he joins them, along with Cartwright, Colonel Rachel Parker, Bouchard and Malery in Operation: Overstrike; the mission to retake Europe from the Chimera. While he supports the team's mission to destroy every conversion center so they can gather enough information to create a permanent cure to the virus, in truth, James is only supporting them to gain retribution for his brother's death.

Later he is forced to kill Malery and Bouchard, due to them being infected with the Chimeran virus during an attack on the Chrysalis lair. After the battle, James Grayson leaves Bouchard's dogtags at a memorial and then goes off to apply for a colonel position in the Maquis. The last time he was heard was when he attacked the Chimera in Russia and he was missing. However,as the credits end he is seen staring in awe at Saint Basil's Cathedral then he faces the camera revealing that his eyes are now golden yellow, a clear sign that he has been infected by the Chimeran virus.

Novels
Resistance: The Gathering Storm is a novel by William C. Dietz released in April 2009. It details what happened to Nathan Hale during the two years between the events that unfolded in Iceland; after his extraction from Great Britain, and later in San Francisco; where the Chimera launch the invasion of the United States.

Resistance: A Hole in the Sky is an indirect sequel to Resistance: The Gathering Storm and is currently being written by William C. Dietz It is set to release on October 25, 2011

Comics
Resistance is a six-issue comic book limited series that began in January 2009. 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"; the Leader of the Chimera.

Reception
The Resistance series has been critically well-received with every game in the series scoring an aggregate score of at least 80%.