In the opening moments of Resistance 3, you're informed of a fairly unfortunate development that dictates the tone of the campaign which follows: In the war for the fate of humanity, the home team has lost. Despite your valiant efforts during the series' first two installments (or perhaps, troublingly, because of them), the invading Chimera have taken over large swaths of our mid-20th Century Earth, pushing humanity - our protagonist included - deep underground.

No matter how powerful leading hero Joseph Capelli and his bottomless knapsack of devastating ordinances become, that feeling of defeat never quite dissipates. Whether you're being overrun by a flood of savage troops or watching your traveling companions be butchered by an agent of insensate evil, you can't help but feel like you're losing ground; even though the passage of chapters indicates that you're moving forward.

Put simply, Resistance 3 exchanges the genre's all-too-familiar bravado for a pervasive and relentless air of desperation. It's a subtle substitution, but it's singlehandedly responsible for making Resistance 3 one of the most compelling shooters I've ever played.