When it came to putting together all of the components of the Resistance series, Insomniac Games just wasn’t sure how they wanted to approach multiplayer. While the first game featured a traditional set of deathmatch and objective-based options, the second game focused its efforts on a cooperative campaign that ultimately disappointed a lot of fans.

With Resistance 3, Insomniac has in some ways taken the series back to its multiplayer roots, while still mixing in some of the more popular elements from today’s multiplayer shooters.

First off, Resistance 3’s multiplayer is 8-on-8 Chimera versus human action. Gone are the large scale 30+ gamer battles, and in their stead is a much more focused multiplayer experience. Part of that focus comes from Resistance 3’s level progression system, an element that has been done before, but perhaps not quite like this.

As players makes their way through the ranks of the multiplayer, they will be earning XP much like they would in a variety of other multiplayer titles. Similar to Killzone 3's progression, XP earns new ranks, and with those new ranks come unlock points that can be spent on attributes and abilities.

Among the abilities that Insomniac was willing to talk about were a Bubble Shield, an Ammo or Radar Beacon, a Doppelganger ability, and a Dash ability. While most of these are pretty self-explanatory, the one that seems the most interesting is the Doppelganger ability. Unlike Halo: Reach’s hologram power-up, the Doppelganger ability of Resistance 3 projects an image of the player alongside them that mimics their movements.

In addition to the aforementioned abilities, players will also be able to spend their unlock points on personal and combat attributes. While not directly advantageous, some of these attributes, like having leapers burst from your corpse or reloading at a faster rate, can provide a strategic advantage for each type of multiplayer participant.

How these abilities and attributes will be combined, and how many of them a player will be able to have active at any one time, was unclear. Players can likely expect that Insomniac is currently fine tuning those issues.

Certainly a conscious move to appeal to those who might have become fatigued by Call of Duty or Halo: Reach, Resistance’s multiplayer looks to pack in enough customization to appeal to a wide variety of gamers. Using many of the alien weaponry and gadgets seen throughout the campaign could make for a unique and compelling multiplayer experience. What do you think?

Gamers will get to see for themselves when Resistance 3 releases September 6, 2011, for the PlayStation 3.

Source: PlayStation Blog Europe