Mario did it, Halo did it, and now Resistance has done it: They were the must-buy games at launch that totally defined the best features of the console. Sony has a surprise must-buy game out for the PS3 at launch in the form of Resistance: Fall of Man.

Like a massive iceburg, it only a small amount of what makes this game interesting is visible at first glance.

More after the jump ...

Insomniac kicks off the game slowly, dropping you into the American invasion of England in an attempt to help the Brits take on the monster menace of the Chimera.

The story is mildly interesting at best, though the voice actors and actresses aren’t bad.

The weapons are one of the big draws here, with selections that range from the mundane to the bizarre -- stuff like the auger, which gains even more power with every piece of solid debris that it shoots through (try firing it down an alleyway filled with chimera and cover) and the Bullseye, a weapon that locks onto enemies via a tracer round and directs following rounds, Fifth Element-style, towards the target for a short period of time or until the target is destroyed.

The equipment is fun to use and you’ll find plenty of opportunities to do so.

A single complaint might be that often it feels like some weapons just don't get the necessary amount of ammo to really feel effective. Augers are rare, and clip size is small, so you might pull it out for a few seconds total over the course of the level hoping to have enough ammo next time to make better use of it.

Another nice touch is the amount of destroyable items the game contains and how realistically they can come apart. While most games would stop at a few boxes, RFOM allows just about every piece of major cover to be torn apart over time, meaning that If I keep my weapon trained on it long enough, I can even blast apart "hard cover" like low cement walls. Also, kudos to Insomniac for making glass behave like real glass when shot, instead of trying to get by with the sugar-pane effect of titles like Half Life 2. Seeing materials deconstruct like they would in real life is a minor detail, but does go to show how the PS3's physics processing can go a step beyond other consoles in simulating a real environment.

Sadly, for the rest of the game, things are a bit more ho-hum. Well-designed levels feel derivative of other games, especially Half Life 2 and the Call of Duty series. Not bad inspiration by any stretch, but a bit more originality would have been nice. The story is mostly forgettable, and the cinematics have a tendency to take you out of the game experience

Wait a minute. You said this was the must-buy game on the level of Mario and Halo. So far, this sounds pretty boring!

And right you are. So far

Where the game really takes off is in multiplayer -- 40-person jaw-dropping multiplayer.

The controls are tight, the weapons are excellent, and the large, detailed levels are designed for furious FPS action. This seems to be what the game was really made for, and you can expect that over the next year or two Resistance will be a common joy amongst most PS3 owners.

Despite being infantry-only (unfortunate, as there are several vehicle segments in the single player mode), multiplayer makes massive team combat fun with large levels designed for huge fights. Matchmaking is pretty easy, but I have a tendency to end up in small groups. Custom games are often made up of larger groups of thirty or forty. Setting up friends lists can be done from the main multiplayer menu, or by selecting a name from the player list at the beginning or end of each game. You are also able to search for and join friends from the menu. Similarly, you also have the ability to block or ignore players.

Overall, Resistance is definitely the game to get if you have a PS3. But it is sadly not the reason to get a PS3. While games like Armored Core 4, Motorstorm, Warhawk and MGS4 are going to really add value to the console in just a few short months, no single title is going to justify a $600 price tag. But if you already have one, or if you're looking to get more than one game when you eventually do, Resistance is definitely a worthy selection.

Despite my initial interest in selling the system to assist with college tuition, I decded to keep my PS3 after prices fell to a point where I wouldn't even get a free month of gas out of the deal. So expect to see reviews and news on the PS3 front of this console war for the forseeable future.