Resistance: Fall of Man is a game near and dear to the hearts of any Resistance fan. It's the game that started it all; the PS3 launch title is still considered by many to be the first good game for the system. While fans have expressed their displeasure to the changes that the sequel Resistance 2 -and to some extent, Resistance 3 - have made to the franchise's formula, many should be happy to hear that two integral characters from Fall of Man, Rachel Parker and Stephen Cartwright, will return in the upcoming sequel, Resistance 3.

While characters won't be able to interact with Cartwright and Parker as they did in the Resistance PSP title, Resistance: Retribution, both characters still play an integral role in the game as players can listen in to their radio chatter, helping to fill in some of the back-story in Resistance 3. This is similar to Henry Stillman, the radio announcer from Resistance 2 who would tell grim stories about the Chimera's actions as they invaded America.

In Resistance: Fall of Man and Resistance: Retribution, Rachel Parker took on the role as narrator, telling the stories of Nathan Hale and James Grayson respectively, while Stephen Cartwright helped both characters in their respective fights, even if he was at first suspicious of Hale for his Chimeran-yellow eyes and disliked Grayson.

Resistance 3 will also make some reference to the upcoming Vita title, Resistance: Burning Skies. No details were given, but as with Resistance 3, Burning Skies takes place in New York, though it is set before Resistance 2, when the Chimera first began their invasion of America.

"I will say that there is some reference to Burning Skies — that I can't talk about. And there is only tangentially some tie-in with Retribution — in that some of the characters in Resistance 1, that also appeared in Retribution (like Cartwright and Parker), can be heard on the world wide radio system, and you'll kind of tie stuff like that in."

The Cloven also played an important role in the back story of Resistance: Fall of Man and the actual plot of Resistance: Retribution. The Cloven were always shrouded in mystery, and despite all of the intel documents found in the games little is still known of them. And it looks like Resistance 3 will not change that.

"We didn't go with the Cloven largely because they were mostly a European story point — Russian in particular story point. Ultimately, it was almost like Jaws. They became like Jaws for us. We mentioned a little bit about the Cloven, and everyone just kind of wrapped their head around the idea of this thing — even though it's under water and you can't see it. It became much more interesting in its vagueness, and we kind of felt like more we kind of made these guys tangible the less interesting they were going to become. So we wanted to leave them as mythology for other people to explore."

Resistance 3 is looking to emulate Resistance: Fall of Man, both in gameplay and in terms of the game's grim setting. While the changes in to the franchise formula may concern some fans of the original title, the return of both Parker and Cartwright is sure to elicit both a postive response and some nolstagia from Resistance fans.

Resistance 3 launches September 6th, 2011 for the PS3.