Despite quietly exiting the stage after its third mainline entry, the Resistance franchise left a notable footprint during the PlayStation 3 era.Developed by Insomniac Games, the series offered an alternate-history vision of the 20th century – one where a brutal alien race called the Chimera invaded Earth and rewrote humanity’s fate.
Blending gritty worldbuilding, a unique arsenal of weapons and bleak storytelling, the franchise evolved steadily, stumbling only on the handheld frontier.
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This list ranks every Resistance game from worst to best, taking into account gameplay mechanics, narrative importance, weapon variety and how well each entry holds up today. While not every game hit the same high mark, even the lowest-ranked title still contributed to the wider lore of one of PlayStation’s most underrated series.
5Resistance: Burning Skies
The Chimera Can’t Be Killed with Touch Controls
Resistance: Burning Skies
Released for the PlayStation Vita in 2012, Burning Skies was the series’ first foray into portable first-person shooters – and the results weren’t great. It took place between Fall of Man and Resistance 2, showing the Chimeran invasion of the United States through the eyes of Tom Riley, a firefighter who accidentally becomes a soldier after picking up an alien weapon and joining the fight.
Instead of embracing the Vita’s hardware strengths, the game doubled down on forced touchscreen gimmicks. Basic actions like throwing grenades or swinging melee attacks were mapped to the front screen, breaking the pacing during combat and making the moment-to-moment shooting feel clunky and disconnected.
The story, despite its interesting setting in New York and early-war timeline, failed to capitalize on the emotional stakes of a father trying to find his family in a crumbling world. To its credit, the game did retain some of the series’ signature weapons, like the Bullseye and Auger, and had full dual-stick controls – a rarity for handhelds at the time. But even that couldn’t mask the rushed development and poor execution.
It was the final nail in the coffin for Resistance as a living franchise.
4Resistance: Retribution
Britain Falls, and a Psp Rises
Resistance: Retribution
Set shortly after the events of Fall of Man, Retribution was a third-person shooter developed by Sony Bend for the PSP. It followed former British Marine James Grayson as he hunted down Cloven bases across Europe after the Chimera executed his brother during a failed experiment.
Surprisingly, the game adapted well to the PSP’s limitations. The cover system worked, the aiming felt snappy thanks to an auto-targeting assist, and the campaign ran at a stable frame rate. It also introduced a twist with the “Infected Mode” – a bonus feature unlocked by connecting to Resistance 2 on PS3. This allowed players to control a version of Grayson infected with the Chimeran virus, which gave him access to new paths, dialogue and gameplay changes.
While it didn’t have the same intensity or mechanical depth as the mainline entries, it expanded the lore in meaningful ways and shined a spotlight on the European front of the war. The inclusion of multiplayer, though modest, was a nice bonus. It couldn’t compete with the console shooters of its time, but as a portable extension of the universe, it did more right than wrong.
3Resistance: Fall of Man
Church Bells, Steel Rain and One Hell of a First Shot
Resistance: Fall of Man
As a PS3 launch title, Fall of Man carried a massive burden. But Insomniac delivered a gritty, if rough-around-the-edges, alternate history shooter that introduced players to the bleak reality of the Chimeran invasion. The game was set in 1951 England, where U.S. Army Ranger Nathan Hale joined British forces to push back the alien scourge after the fall of continental Europe.
Though the visuals showed the limitations of early PS3 hardware, the core gameplay laid the foundation for what would become a hallmark of the franchise – creative and deadly weapons.
The Auger could shoot through walls, the Bullseye tagged enemies for homing shots, and the Hailstorm ricocheted bullets like a turret gone rogue. These weapons gave the game a distinct flavor compared to other shooters at the time, even if the movement and level design felt stiff by today’s standards.
Fall of Man also made abold narrative decisionby killing off its protagonist in the final minutes, setting up a larger arc that would continue through the next two mainline entries. The campaign was steeped in melancholia, especially in its depictions of British cities torn apart by the Chimera. Despite some outdated mechanics, it remains a raw and vital introduction to the series’ world.
2Resistance 3
The End of the World Is Personal
Resistance 3
Resistance 3 was themost emotionally chargedentry in the series, focusing on Joseph Capelli – a former soldier who appeared briefly in Resistance 2. Set four years after Hale’s death, the game dropped the military spectacle of its predecessor for a more grounded, survival-driven story. Capelli, now living in hiding with his family, sets out on a cross-country journey to deliver a weapon to New York that might stop the Chimera for good.
The shift in tone was deliberate. Unlike the war-torn battlefields of the previous games, Resistance 3 painted a picture of a dying world where scattered human settlements fought just to stay alive. That smaller scale made the story more intimate and allowed for quieter moments that stood out – like passing through flooded towns, abandoned farms and ruined cityscapes filled with dread.
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Mechanically, the game refined nearly everything. Health no longer regenerated, which brought back a classic survival feel. The full weapon wheel returned, letting players carry and upgrade every weapon rather than just two. And the weapons themselves were better than ever – the Mutator, for instance, caused enemies to explode into infectious clouds, changing how players approached each encounter.
Multiplayer was scaled down from Resistance 2’s massive battles but remained solid, with balanced maps and progression systems. It wasn’t the loudest entry, but it was the most human.
1Resistance 2
Hale’s Final Stand and the Franchise’s Biggest Swing
Resistance 2
By the time Resistance 2 launched in 2008, Insomniac had pushed its ambitions sky high. Picking up right after Fall of Man, the sequel followed Nathan Hale across the United States as he led the Sentinel squad against a full-scale Chimeran invasion. The scale was enormous – battles spanned entire cities, with massive Leviathan enemies stomping through downtown Chicago and skies filled with warships.
The campaign saw Hale slowly succumb to the Chimeran virus infecting him, and the final moments – where he is executed by Capelli to prevent full transformation – remain the series’ most defining scene. It also marked the end of his arc, closing out the franchise’s only real protagonist before a soft reboot in Resistance 3.
Mechanically, Resistance 2 made some controversial changes. It limited players to two weapons at a time and added regenerating health, which stripped away some of the series’ identity.
But what it lost in that transition, it made up for with its unmatched multiplayer suite. The game supported 60-player online matches, which was unheard of for console shooters at the time, and introduced an eight-playerco-op modewith distinct classes and objectives – a precursor to modern PvE multiplayer formats.
Between its scale, narrative payoff and cutting-edge multiplayer, Resistance 2 captured the franchise at its peak, even if it wasn’t the most consistent moment to moment. It swung for the fences, and even with a few stumbles, it landed something unforgettable.
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