There’s snow hope

Resistance 3 comes together in a moment of emotion

TFORMAT PS3 / PUB SONY / DEV INSOMNIAC GAMES / RELEASED 2011 / SCORE 8/10

he long and winding road has led you to New York. You’ve fought demons – internal and real, human and alien – and discovered maybe, perhaps, humanity isn’t worth saving after all. But you want your wife and child to survive, and for them you plough on into New York’s snowy canyons.

Tonally Resistance 3 has more in common with The Last Of Us than it does the previous me-too shooters, and it’s here in the final moments, as you reach New York, that the game throws a late gut-punch your way. The Chimera horde at the terraforming plant is too great for one lone wolf, and without the genius of Dr Fyodor Malikov, who died earlier on the journey, there’s no hope.

After trekking up America’s east coast to reach the terraformer and save the world, it seems the game will end on a sour note. Joseph Capelli makes one last radio call home, says his farewells, and prepares to give it a go. It’s one of PlayStation’s most heart-wrenching moments. You’ve come so far, and failed at the final hurdle. Given the dark places Resistance 3 has taken you, you have no reason to doubt this series is ending on a low.

Just as Capelli is about to crumple in the face of the overwhelming odds, the Remnants, resistance fighters, friends made along the way, swoop in and whisk him to safety. In this moment the shooter ties together all its themes – the struggle, pulling together for a greater good – and it does it so you can finish the fight for the right reasons. The journey may have begun with selfish motives but it ends with a moment of selflessness.