Resistance 2 (PS3)
- Publisher:
- SCEA
- Developer:
- Insomniac Games
- Release Date:
- 04.11.2008
- Number of players:
- 1 - 8
- Type:
- Action
- Reality Factor:
- Science Fiction
- Age:
- Modern Times
6 movies
We play Resistance 2...
Resistance: Fall Of Man was arguably PlayStation 3’s biggest launch title and was meant to show off the next-gen grunt of Sony’s new machine. What emerged was a competent if slightly hollow first-person shooter lead by a protagonist with all the charisma of a breezeblock. Still, as Insomniac’s first stab at the genre after several highly successful instalments in their Ratchet and Clank series, Resistance stood up incredibly well to some seriously stiff competition. In short, the game exhibited masses of potential for a sequel and so finally, here it is exploding onto PS3 with all the subtlety of an atomic mushroom cloud.
Apparently no one told Insomniac that sometimes less is more as Resistance 2 represents the very epitome of more is more with the action coming thick and fast from the very moment you insert the disc and start a new game. Your very first task is to take down a towering Goliath walker marauding its way through fields, stomping through everything in its path. It’s an incredibly daunting introductory mission, but one that sets the tone for the rest of the game. It’s a massive opening set piece that makes way for another set piece, and another and another and another. As a matter of fact, the game plays out as one continuous, unrelenting set piece of explosive action that never lets up for a second. Huge bosses, several screens high are not uncommon and vast landscapes filled with enormous Chimera motherships stretching far into the horizon provide some truly jaw-dropping visual moments.
Insomniac have clearly been doing their homework since the previous Resistance as there’s a whole melting pot of influences from the best action games you can care to think of. Sniping has had an injection of Gears of War gooiness, with a satisfying squelch and decapitation following an accurate headshot. There’s the sequence of pitch darkness through an abandoned railway tunnel aided by the light from a flashlight a la Half Life 2 and the huge boss battles from the likes of Quake, Doom etc all make a welcome appearance. While you can easily identify these references if you look hard enough, Resistance 2 makes them its own, stitching them together to create a satisfying whole. Like Gears of War, you’re aided by a squad for certain parts of the game, but there’s virtually no entertaining dialogue between them and no attempt to imbue the game’s characters with the kind of personality that makes Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird such memorable - if a tad one-dimensional - action heroes. Hale talks this time round, but none of the dialogue proves particularly interesting or memorable.
None of this really matters though as Resistance 2 just about manages to stand up on its own merits, which are numerous. First of all, the fundamental mechanics of the game have been tweaked and refined making Resistance 2’s core gameplay a lot more solid. The whole product just feels far more accomplished and complete this time round with a high level of polish applied to every last inch of the entire experience. For instance, the gunplay feels a lot more tactile and less floaty than before, with a greater degree of impact to the weapons. In Fall Of Man, the weaponry didn’t really have much character, and in an FPS, your bobbing gun is the main character as it’s all you ever really see of the protagonist for the game’s duration. In Resistance 2, each weapon is far more distinctive and recognisable and due to the new tactical approach of only being allowed to carry any two weapons at once, you’ll be juggling between a lot of different guns throughout the course of the game.
Thankfully, each of Resistance 2’s weapons are inventive and markedly different enough to encourage experimentation. Fall Of Man’s original arsenal has been aesthetically tinkered with and slightly bolstered by several new and interesting additions. The first new weapon you’ll encounter is the HE Magnum, which allows you to fire sticky explosives to enemies that are then detonated remotely. From then on you’re bombarded with all manner of exotic weaponry, most of which is ingenious, cutting edge Chimera technology. Of these, the Auger still stands out as a firm favourite of ours, as it allows you to see your enemy’s heat signature through walls and then shoot through them. Brilliant.
Resistance 2 has been designed to fulfil the criteria of PlayStation 3’s big, balls-out blockbuster of the year and as a piece of pure popcorn entertainment, Insomniac’s sequel delivers in spades. Eight-player co-op, sixty-player competitive multiplayer – the numbers speak for themselves. Yet, despite the impressive numbers – and they are most definitely impressive – the game does throw up the odd AI issue and doles out some pretty punishing difficulty spikes. While the instances where the enemy AI can prove to be a little dodgy, with Chimera getting stuck on scenery or running headlong into red hot laser-flavoured death, the moments where the difficulty suddenly soars to sky-high levels of teeth-bending frustration can be quite frequent.
With Hale now limited to two weapons, he isn’t the one-man arsenal he was in the previous game. Throw in the fact that ammunition becomes increasingly thin on the ground as the story progresses and Resistance 2 becomes a pretty tough challenge. One such moment saw us locked out on the streets with no ammunition, limited cover, no exit strategy and three huge Goliath Chimera bearing down on us with rocket launchers. Hardly fair really. Still, after a few minutes of dodging rockets and exploding cars, we managed to pick up a grenade launcher and fire off a few projectiles in blind panic. In Resistance 2, there’s always a solution to even the most hopeless looking situation.
Though dying is a regular occurrence, restarts are thankfully almost instantaneous so being fatally slashed to ribbons by an invisible Chameleon class Chimera may make you want to take a bite out of your controller, but the frustration levels never rise beyond the level of minor pad mutilation. This leads us neatly onto the next of our gripes with Resistance 2 – the trial and error nature of some sections of the game, especially where those sneaky Chameleons are involved, can soon grate and prove extra tricky without a suitable weapon to hand. Certain sequences inhabited by said invisible scoundrels invariably descend into annoying repetitious bouts of dying and restarting, requiring an accurate blast with a shotgun at the right moment to avoid being killed instantly. The fact that these encounters take place in various enclosed spaces only serves to exacerbate the annoyance, but then these are mercifully few and far between.
Overall, these are just minor complaints in an otherwise very polished and exciting FPS that completely surpasses its predecessor by a country mile. Insomniac have not only addressed and fixed almost every issue that marred the first game, but they’ve also liberally dolloped in massive steaming ladlefuls of spectacle in the towering boss battles and huge skirmishes with vast armies of Chimera or the frightening assaults from stillborn gangly Grays. The environments are both believable and haunting, with white picket fenced suburbs littered with abandoned cars, decaying corpses and crackling radio broadcasts. Unlike Fall Of Man, you actually feel like you’re part of something that is a genuine threat to mankind and this enforces the feeling that you really do have a responsibility to kick ET’s ass and send him packing. And what could be better than that?
Top Game Moment: During the first boss battle with the Kraken, the tension is palpable as you wait for your Pulse Cannon to charge before the enormous tentacled nasty swallows you whole. Beep…beep…beepbeepbeep…fire! Phew.
Apparently no one told Insomniac that sometimes less is more as Resistance 2 represents the very epitome of more is more with the action coming thick and fast from the very moment you insert the disc and start a new game. Your very first task is to take down a towering Goliath walker marauding its way through fields, stomping through everything in its path. It’s an incredibly daunting introductory mission, but one that sets the tone for the rest of the game. It’s a massive opening set piece that makes way for another set piece, and another and another and another. As a matter of fact, the game plays out as one continuous, unrelenting set piece of explosive action that never lets up for a second. Huge bosses, several screens high are not uncommon and vast landscapes filled with enormous Chimera motherships stretching far into the horizon provide some truly jaw-dropping visual moments.
 |
 |
|
| This is the opening level. Intimidating much? | Here's one Goliath. Now imagine being surrounded by three with no ammo. Welcome to Resistance 2 |
Insomniac have clearly been doing their homework since the previous Resistance as there’s a whole melting pot of influences from the best action games you can care to think of. Sniping has had an injection of Gears of War gooiness, with a satisfying squelch and decapitation following an accurate headshot. There’s the sequence of pitch darkness through an abandoned railway tunnel aided by the light from a flashlight a la Half Life 2 and the huge boss battles from the likes of Quake, Doom etc all make a welcome appearance. While you can easily identify these references if you look hard enough, Resistance 2 makes them its own, stitching them together to create a satisfying whole. Like Gears of War, you’re aided by a squad for certain parts of the game, but there’s virtually no entertaining dialogue between them and no attempt to imbue the game’s characters with the kind of personality that makes Marcus, Dom, Cole and Baird such memorable - if a tad one-dimensional - action heroes. Hale talks this time round, but none of the dialogue proves particularly interesting or memorable.
None of this really matters though as Resistance 2 just about manages to stand up on its own merits, which are numerous. First of all, the fundamental mechanics of the game have been tweaked and refined making Resistance 2’s core gameplay a lot more solid. The whole product just feels far more accomplished and complete this time round with a high level of polish applied to every last inch of the entire experience. For instance, the gunplay feels a lot more tactile and less floaty than before, with a greater degree of impact to the weapons. In Fall Of Man, the weaponry didn’t really have much character, and in an FPS, your bobbing gun is the main character as it’s all you ever really see of the protagonist for the game’s duration. In Resistance 2, each weapon is far more distinctive and recognisable and due to the new tactical approach of only being allowed to carry any two weapons at once, you’ll be juggling between a lot of different guns throughout the course of the game.
 |
 |
|
| Nathan Hale now says stuff unlike before, but he's still one of the most boring game protagonists around | Now this is a little too close for comfort. Luckily you have a COD 4-style knife melee attack for this kind of close encounter |
Thankfully, each of Resistance 2’s weapons are inventive and markedly different enough to encourage experimentation. Fall Of Man’s original arsenal has been aesthetically tinkered with and slightly bolstered by several new and interesting additions. The first new weapon you’ll encounter is the HE Magnum, which allows you to fire sticky explosives to enemies that are then detonated remotely. From then on you’re bombarded with all manner of exotic weaponry, most of which is ingenious, cutting edge Chimera technology. Of these, the Auger still stands out as a firm favourite of ours, as it allows you to see your enemy’s heat signature through walls and then shoot through them. Brilliant.
Resistance 2 has been designed to fulfil the criteria of PlayStation 3’s big, balls-out blockbuster of the year and as a piece of pure popcorn entertainment, Insomniac’s sequel delivers in spades. Eight-player co-op, sixty-player competitive multiplayer – the numbers speak for themselves. Yet, despite the impressive numbers – and they are most definitely impressive – the game does throw up the odd AI issue and doles out some pretty punishing difficulty spikes. While the instances where the enemy AI can prove to be a little dodgy, with Chimera getting stuck on scenery or running headlong into red hot laser-flavoured death, the moments where the difficulty suddenly soars to sky-high levels of teeth-bending frustration can be quite frequent.
With Hale now limited to two weapons, he isn’t the one-man arsenal he was in the previous game. Throw in the fact that ammunition becomes increasingly thin on the ground as the story progresses and Resistance 2 becomes a pretty tough challenge. One such moment saw us locked out on the streets with no ammunition, limited cover, no exit strategy and three huge Goliath Chimera bearing down on us with rocket launchers. Hardly fair really. Still, after a few minutes of dodging rockets and exploding cars, we managed to pick up a grenade launcher and fire off a few projectiles in blind panic. In Resistance 2, there’s always a solution to even the most hopeless looking situation.
 |
 |
|
| Only when you see this frightening image do you realise the scale of the Chimeran invasion | Wipe that toothy smile off his face! Go on! |
Though dying is a regular occurrence, restarts are thankfully almost instantaneous so being fatally slashed to ribbons by an invisible Chameleon class Chimera may make you want to take a bite out of your controller, but the frustration levels never rise beyond the level of minor pad mutilation. This leads us neatly onto the next of our gripes with Resistance 2 – the trial and error nature of some sections of the game, especially where those sneaky Chameleons are involved, can soon grate and prove extra tricky without a suitable weapon to hand. Certain sequences inhabited by said invisible scoundrels invariably descend into annoying repetitious bouts of dying and restarting, requiring an accurate blast with a shotgun at the right moment to avoid being killed instantly. The fact that these encounters take place in various enclosed spaces only serves to exacerbate the annoyance, but then these are mercifully few and far between.
Overall, these are just minor complaints in an otherwise very polished and exciting FPS that completely surpasses its predecessor by a country mile. Insomniac have not only addressed and fixed almost every issue that marred the first game, but they’ve also liberally dolloped in massive steaming ladlefuls of spectacle in the towering boss battles and huge skirmishes with vast armies of Chimera or the frightening assaults from stillborn gangly Grays. The environments are both believable and haunting, with white picket fenced suburbs littered with abandoned cars, decaying corpses and crackling radio broadcasts. Unlike Fall Of Man, you actually feel like you’re part of something that is a genuine threat to mankind and this enforces the feeling that you really do have a responsibility to kick ET’s ass and send him packing. And what could be better than that?
Top Game Moment: During the first boss battle with the Kraken, the tension is palpable as you wait for your Pulse Cannon to charge before the enormous tentacled nasty swallows you whole. Beep…beep…beepbeepbeep…fire! Phew.
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