Once again, aliens have taken over the planet and humanity is an endangered species in Insomniac Games’ stellar new Playstation 3 title, “Resistance 3.”

The latest entry in the Resistance series, Resistance 3 follows Joseph Capelli, a former special forces member, as he is asked by a former officer to protect him on one final mission to destroy a wormhole the aliens have opened over New York City.

Mechanically, the game is a shooter like “Call of Duty.”

The twist comes with the game’s arsenal of 11 weapons, all of which upgrade through use and are distinct from each other.

These weapons include a sniper rifle that can also fire a laser that explodes enemies and a pistol that fires spores that painfully turns enemies into explosive blobs.

Many of the weapons will appeal to your inner sadist and, obviously, are definitely the best part of the game.

The single player’s greatest weakness is the plot. While the overall journey held my interest for the games five-to-seven hour length and there are some nice plot twists, the characterization is awful.

In particular, the game seems to try to make the player care about Capelli as he may never see his wife and son again.

However, his family appears on screen about half an hour total and barely speak; while Capelli cares, I found it hard as a player to care about his extremely underdeveloped family.

Otherwise, the single player is really fun and never boring. Luckily, the game has nice variations encountered throughout the campaign; these switch-ups include being on a boat besieged by aliens or hunting a giant monster in a mine.

Since this is a modern shooter, there’s also  a progression-based online multiplayer mode, which has been scaled down from “Resistance 2.”

A two-player co-operative version of the single player mode returns, and the competitive mode has been dropped from 60 players in “Resistance 2” to 16 players, more in line with “Call of Duty: Black Ops.”

The smaller multiplayer is definitely less chaotic, and the weapon selection is more balanced than in “Resistance 2,” which let combatants choose to start a match with a mini-gun or a rifle that shoots through walls.

The multiplayer is great but I don’t see it winning people over from “Black Ops.”

Still, this is one of the best games on the PS3.

The interesting visuals, the refined online mode, and the extraordinary arsenal are barely bogged down by the uninvolving-yet-interesting story.