Resistance: remembering the blockbuster video game set in Grimsby Blockbuster video games, like their movie counterparts, often opt for exotic settings. South American jungles. North Africa. Perhaps even distant, […]

Blockbuster video games, like their movie counterparts, often opt for exotic settings.

South American jungles. North Africa. Perhaps even distant, fantastical realms and planets.

But not Resistance: Fall Of Man. Instead, this 2006 Call Of Duty rival set a good portion of its action in York, Manchester – and a run-down warehouse in Grimsby.

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‘We were looking for a foreboding place’

Insomniac Games are a well-respected game studio based in California.

Ten years ago, they were primarily known for their colourful Ratchet and Clank platform series. But then they moved into the realm of the first-person shooter with sci-fi action title Resistance: Fall Of Man, on the PlayStation 3.

The unusual locations of Resistance: Fall Of Man York Grimsby Manchester Nottingham Cheshire Cheddar Gorge Bristol Bracknell

Based around an alien invasion of the UK, it’s clear the company wanted to do something different with the genre.

And setting it among some of Britain’s less internationally-known towns and cities accomplished that.

“I remember looking at a map of Britain with team members, and trying to chart out a logical geographical progression,” says Insomniac founder and CEO Ted Price.

“Using London would have been the expected choice and we wanted to do something different. Plus, when we researched places like York and Bristol, we found they had backdrops that worked well for both our gameplay and were visually unique.

“We have several Insomniacs from Great Britain who made it clear that Grimsby was well-named,” adds Price. “We were looking for a foreboding place that would serve as an appropriately creepy backdrop.”

Unintended consequences

While Resistance’s settings may appear totally out of the ordinary for a blockbuster of any kind, you wouldn’t expect them to cause much more than a slightly confused expression on the faces of oversees players.

But one level caused outrage with the Church of England, which was a “complete surprise”, according to Price.

The mission in question sees a mass gunfight break out between soldiers and the alien menace in and around Manchester Cathedral, and was criticised by the Church for its depiction of violent acts within the building.

“Since the game’s story is about an alien invasion in an alternate-history version of our world, we assumed most people would recognize it as fiction,” Price says.

“Clearly, the Church of England didn’t.”

Goodbye Grimsby – hello world

Resistance: Fall of Man was critically praised upon release, with some reviewers hailing it as a potential ‘system-seller’ for Sony, and their newly launched PlayStation 3 console.

It went on to sell millions of copies.

Resistance in sales Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) – 4.3 million Resistance 2 (2008) – 2.5 million Resistance: Retribution (2009) – 0.9 million Resistance 3 (2011) – 1.5 million Resistance: Burning Skies (2012) – 0.4 million

That success meant a sequel was soon in the works, and Resistance would eventually become a full-blown gaming franchise.

But the following releases upped sticks from the UK entirely, with Insomniac instead choosing to set them within the relative familiarity of the US.

“Plot-wise we felt like this was a logical move…since the US was the last major nation fielding a military force,” explains Price.

“While we did use San Francisco and Chicago, we also featured a number of [American] places I’m pretty sure haven’t been used often in videogames, if at all.”

Still, even such locations as Twin Falls, Idaho and Bryce Canyon, Utah feel highly exotic in comparison.

Ten years later, the Resistance series now appears to have run its course, with Resistance: Burning Skies – a spin-off game for the handheld PS Vita in 2012 – suggesting a console future for the franchise is unlikely.

As a result, we’ll almost certainly never see an alien invasion of Grimsby in a video game again.