We speak to Resistance 3 writer Jon Paquette and lead designer Drew Murray about the upcoming title.

Can you give us some idea of the time frame for Resistance 3? How much time has passed since the events of Resistance 2?
Jon Paquette: Resistance 3 starts on 9 August 1957 – approximately four years after the end of Resistance 2. The game takes place over several days as Joe Capelli and Dr Malikov journey to New York City.

Oh look, a beard. How surprising.

Has Joe Capelli changed significantly in the intervening years?
JP: Yes (spoiler alert for those who didn’t finish Resistance 2). When Joe Capelli killed Nathan Hale, he became a pariah. Of course it was something he had to do – he saw Hale turning into a Chimera, and he knew how powerful Hale had become. In a way, it was a heroic choice for Capelli. But the rest of the military didn’t see it that way. Capelli was dishonourably discharged and cast out.

No longer was Capelli the brash, muscle-bound tough guy of one of the world’s elite fighting forces. He became a common survivor, and found that there was more to live for than just fighting a futile battle against the Chimera. He fell in love, got married and had a son. When Resistance 3 starts, Joe Capelli is a changed man, both physically and mentally. He is much thinner, and he survives not by fighting, but by hiding. But he still has a mean streak.

Capelli always gave the impression of being a reluctant hero when compared to Hale. Was this one of the reasons why you chose him as the main focus of Resistance 3?
JP: That is certainly part of Capelli’s character. But in Resistance 3, his reluctance to fight has more to do with the events around him. In the past four years, the Chimera have essentially won the war. Humans no longer have an organised military force. There are no ‘safe zones’ left. The Chimera have stopped trying to convert humans – now they just outright kill. The only way that Capelli can survive, and also keep his family alive, is by staying away from the Chimera. So when he’s forced back into action, like an old gunslinger, it is natural that he is reluctant to not only leave his family, but to take on a seemingly unbeatable foe.

This is Susan Hale, the foster sister of Nathan Hale and wife of protagonist Joe Capelli.

Would we be right in thinking that Nathan Hale’s foster sister Susan will have a large role to play in the game?
JP: If you read the Resistance novel A Gathering Storm, you know that Nathan Hale’s parents died young, and he was brought up in a foster family. His foster sister, Susan, played a large role in the novel. And she returns in Resistance 3 as Joe Capelli’s wife.

This is a very different form of ‘resistance’ to the first two games. Has that impacted on the gameplay at all?
Drew Murray: With human industry and manufacturing nonexistent, players will be using a lot more Chimeran and improvised (read: exotic) weapons than they did in the first two games. Certain Chimeran species have ‘gone native,’ creating unique ecosystems within the ruins and rubble of destroyed America that are separate from the organised Chimeran military.

And we’ve put a lot of time and effort into prototyping and iterating on unique scenarios for the player to break up our core combat – there will be a lot more variety to the player experience in Resistance 3 than there was in the earlier games.

Watching the teaser trailer from gamescom, the first comparison point that sprung to mind was Left 4 Dead. Are you looking to capture a similar feeling of survival at all costs?
DM: We definitely share some thematic similarities – small groups of survivors in a hostile world, battling against overwhelming odds – although that one-line description could apply just as aptly to Half-Life 2 as well. I think it’s a key difference from the first two Resistance games that Resistance 3 isn’t a military story, following best-of-the-best super-soldiers on their military campaign.

Some of the set-pieces are promising to stand out more than the previous entries into the series.

Resistance 3 is the story of one man, fighting against nearly impossible odds for purely personal reasons. It’s also the story of how ‘normal’ people are surviving, and the myriad ways that different groups are coping with the fact that their world has been utterly overtaken by a malignant alien force. In any event, we’re huge fans of Valve here at Insomniac and consider the comparisons nothing but flattering.

Can you tell us a little bit about the way co-op works in Resistance 3? Will you be playing as some of the other survivors?
DM: We’re bringing back two-player co-operative mode through the campaign for Resistance 3, which you can play split-screen or online. We had a very vocal group speak up when we didn’t have campaign co-op in Resistance 2, and there is something very special and unique about playing back-to-back with your buddy through the campaign. There will be several unique co-operative mechanics to allow you to assist and rescue your co-operative partner that won’t exist in the single-player campaign. The second co-op player will play as a character from Haven, Oklahoma, Capelli’s adopted hometown where Resistance 3 begins.

To what degree do you consider the main story to be a solo affair? Will it be as potent when played with others?
DM: The campaign is one man’s story – the story of Joe Capelli and the lengths to which he’ll go in an attempt to create a future for his family. That said, a significant theme of the game is that, now that the war against the Chimera has been ‘lost’, the remaining survivors have to help one another or no one will survive. From that perspective, playing co-operatively is a literal manifestation of ‘we fight together or we die alone.’

Managing to release an entire trilogy of games in a single generation is also a great achievement. Was this an aim you had set yourselves?
DM: It wasn’t an explicit plan, but given Insomniac’s history with the Ratchet & Clank and Spyro franchises, it’s not too surprising that we’re releasing a trilogy within a console generation. Resistance: Fall Of Man was a significant departure from what Insomniac had been doing for the previous eight or nine years, both thematically and genre-wise, and our focus was on putting out an amazing launch title. We’ve been deeply honoured by the fan and critical response to the Resistance franchise and couldn’t be more excited to have the opportunity to continue telling the Resistance story.

It's still a year away, but cinematically many of the standout moments shine. Get it? Shine?