The audio of Resistance is in most ways average. The sounds of battle are very effective: explosions are deafening, bullets whistle past and ricochet menacingly off of your cover spot, but then again, most good shooters pull this off and those good ones released after Resistance often do so better. The music is also completely forgettable, fitting well in the background but never sticking with you in the slightest. Its presence is almost pointless in the game, as it’s often likely to be unheard behind the chorus of gunshots, explosions, and alien screams.

Resistance: Fall of Man is a game that does a lot very well, but doesn’t really specialize in much. On one level this isn’t a bad thing: Resistance generalizes, but it does so very well, drawing those things that worked best in other games and making them its own. The problem is that in the long run, much of what Resistance does is forgettable. It doesn’t bring a lot to the table that hasn’t been done before, and while the franchise features an interesting setting and a nice focus on large scale, its influence is visibly limited in the games that followed.