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Parents' Guide to

Resistance 3

By Marc Saltzman, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 18+

Extremely violent sci-fi shooter best for older gamers.

Game PlayStation 3 2011
Resistance 3 Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

  • Resistance 3 Game: Screenshot #1
  • Resistance 3 Game: Screenshot #2
  • Resistance 3 Game: Screenshot #3

Community Reviews

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age 16+

Based on 3 parent reviews

Mauricio Fernando
Mauricio Fernando Adult
April 3, 2020
age 18+

This game is pure carnage, parent's be aware!

This game puts the players in a post-apocaliptic world, filled with disfigured alien figures and dehumanized survivors. The main character is fighting to protect his family and save the world, but his methods are questionable, that doesn't make him a good role model. - The violence is very gory: Players can use fire bottles to burn their enemies and even a sledgehammer to dismember their bodies (There's a lot of blood and screams). - Enemies can pop out of nowhere in the dark, Which could be scary for some. The cutscene's also shown decapitations and a lot of profanity. Plus the fact that the educational content is zero, and the game is very big, I wouldn't recommend it for kid's and teen's, this game is for adults only!
An Enigma
An Enigma Adult
April 29, 2015
age 14+

Half Life 2 With Prettier Paint and Cooler Weapons

First off, this game is violent. Shotguns blow the fronts off enemies, head hosts make entire heads explode, and persistent fire will reduce enemies to giblets. However, with the exception of a single chapter all of this is directed against an evil alien species, and in that chapter you fight brutal former prisoners. The gameplay is really fun with medkits instead of regenerating health, some of the coolest weapons I've ever played with in video games, and a story that takes you through post-alien apocalypse America to meet a variety of well rounded characters.
See all 3 parent reviews

What’s It About?

Just when you thought things couldn't get any worse for America -- it was all but annihilated by the invading Chimerans in 2008's Resistance 2 -- the relentless alien race is back with a more ambitious plan to destroy humankind in RESISTANCE 3. In case you haven't played any of its predecessors, the series takes place in an alternate 1950s universe. This new game begins four years after the events of Resistance 2, where we meet Corporal Joe Capelli who is hiding underground in Oklahoma with his wife, sick son, and small pocket of surviving fighters. At the conclusion of Chapter 3, Dr. Fyodor Malikov returns with a dangerous plan to venture to New York City to blow up a pivotal Chimeran structure that could cripple the alien's efforts. Played from a first-person perspective, you'll use a number of weapons to take down the various kinds of Chimerans. This includes a classic arsenal of pistols, machine guns, and shrapnel grenades, as well as some alien tech such as bombs that can take down enemy shields and guns that can see and shoot through any object. The more you use a given weapon, the sooner you can upgrade its firepower. Though not tested for this review, Resistance 3 supports the PlayStation Move motion-sensing controller.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (3 ):
Kids say (5 ):

It's not a perfect sci-fi shooter, but this new sequel from Insomniac Games is the best yet in the Resistance franchise. Along with the intense single-player campaign, Resistance 3 offers a few different ways to play with friends, including two-player online (or split-screen) cooperative play through the entire single-player campaign and competitive multiplayer maps for up to 16 people (8 versus 8) in Humans against Chimera skirmishes. The classic "Deathmatch" returns (every fighter for themselves) as well as objective-based competitions. While the graphics don't look quite as good as other first-person shooters -- you can see how fake the tall grass looks when you get close to it in an early farm level, for example -- Resistance 3 boasts bigger set pieces, better-designed environments and smarter artificial intelligence (A.I.) than in previous games. Plus, the game supports 3D play on stereoscopic TVs, should you own one.

It takes a while to get into the action -- we had to wait 40 minutes to download and install an update from the Internet before playing, and then another 12 minutes during an opening story sequence -- but this new sequel will certainly please the series' fans series for its intense action, intriguing story, large set-piece battles, smarter A.I., and wide variety of game modes.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about whether shooting and killing menacing aliens who are destroying humankind is less disturbing than attacking humans. Do fantasy and sci-fi settings somehow lessen the impact of graphic violence?

  • Families can also discuss online safety. What steps should you take if you think you have encountered someone dangerous while playing a game or chatting online?

Game Details

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