User Review : Resistance 2

Ups

• The most innovative weapons from a FPS except from Halo are back and improved.{Nathan's narrative. Chimera fleshed out more...then some.{.Best cliffhanger in a game series for a while.

Downs

• Less battlefields, no mines, no vehicle sections{No co-op campaign, but would make sense to have one.{Graphics haven't advanced enough since R1, not enough innovation for an IG title

I finally got around to completing Resistance 2's campaign. Will undoubtedly contain SPOILERS.

Wow. Resistance 2's credits are running at the background as I type this.
I know that Resistance 2 has been getting average scores left right and centre, but I feel all these low scores are undeserved. I think Resistance 2 is under fire for the fact it does nothing DIFFERENT, which is really the only reason Insomniac are under fire, because Insomniac usually create some great innovation and gameplay mechanics and in not doing so, (or at least not significently) they have let down the usually pleased critics.

Resistance 2 is certainly one word; Epic.
After the cinematic right from the get go, you are shot, shot and shot over and over again. This makes it difficult to procede, seeing you get shot everywhere. It was like this in the first game, but being almost trod on or shot by a giant tripodean robot is a not what you'd expect when about 10 minutes through the game, but I personally loved the sudden difficulty change.

From then, I found the game slowed down once inside the base where you meet up with the games main NPCs, set a good time later. Until I got back outside and saw a great vista of Chicago being attacked by diamond shaped Chimera ships, (which will go next to Uncharted's waterfall for the most visually attractive scene reveal in a PS3 game, imo)
Running back into the base crumbling apart felt like Insomniac were somewhat influenced by COD4s first level on the ship, which I could only see as flattery from Insomniac.
The first boss was easy and all relied on timing due to the cannon and I have never had so much tension waiting to see a little red blip light up before.

By a few levels later, I had decided on one thing; Insomniac find it hard to illustrate reality. As purely brilliant and top of the game Insomniac are with cartoon based worlds; Insomniac struggle to create a convincing real world, I personally don't think its because of the engine, its because Insomniac haven't had the time to polish up the game as much as over developers have had.
Any level in Chimerian territory was brilliant, full of odd angled shapes and blue, yellowish hue glows and I would of preferred the majority of the games to be set on Chimera ships. I can only think this is because of Insomniac having Ratchet and Clank's designs for practice.

The weapons are equally entertaining, but I think that like Halo1, Resistance 1 defined the weapons you would play the series for, I'm talking about the amazing Bullseye and the Auger, as good as the other weapons introduced are, I don't think that the new additions will be a staple of the Resistance franchise from this point.
However, the Bullseye is improved by actually highlighting the target when the secondary shot is fired, the Auger is also improved due to the pretty snazzy X-Ray system, instead of the cursor just going red. I loved seeing the green hued animations of Chimera falling down due to being riddled with projectiles both these allowed much more strategical ways of shooting the enemies.

Most of the levels see Nathan's team slowly reclaiming areas of america or destroying Chimeran technology and have very COD-like gameplay and a base set in what reminded me of the location of Halflife's 'Black Mesa'.
However Resistance 2 has significently less huge battlegrounds unlike the first game, but a few can be found, especially in the Chicago chapter. The mines from the previous game are also absent, but are replaced with very irritating to destroy drones with blue hexagonal shields, the most welcome new addition to the Chimerean onslaught is the Grims, which essentially slap you to death and later...explode, like the headless bombers from the Serious Sam games. Insomniac has basically plonked a weapon in Resistance 2 which no doubt is Ratchet and Clank 2's Chopper weapon.
The boss'es are not as epic as I expected, but use the firing of weapons at the right time, much like QTEs in God of War.

The character of Nathan isn't explored much more, except in a intel document found in the game, which generally makes him sound like the average marine stereotype.
If Resistance 1 was about Nathan surving the virus, Resistance 2 is about Nathan losing battle to the virus and attempting keeping his humanity and not converting. Winning one battle in place of another.
Also, the Chimera are a bit more fleshed out than just being a 'virus'.

The final level of the game is a massive level set on a mothership with a bomb (Mmhmhmh...the RESoNatOR) to be self destructed to take down, which by far is the best level in the game, which reminded me of MDK, but I personally see no reason why most of Resistance 3 couldn't be set in this fantastic alien environment.

All I will say is; Once again, Insomniac have come up with a brilliant cliffhanger, much like in Ratchet and Clank: Future and Quest For Booty, Insomniac have just become the masters of cliffhangers and you will have to indeed wait to see what the next big installment in the franchise brings. It also explains the title menu screen.

And yes, the multiplayer modes are also greatly entertaining.
So Resistance 2 was a controversial blend between Halo, Halflife2, CoD4 and of course, Resistance. But I think it worked, just could of had better level design, perhaps outback America wasn't the right choice for everyone.

Score

7.5

Graphics

70% of the core gameplay of Resistance 2 is here. Vehicle sections have been removed and large battlefields are rare to come by. Most of the arsenal brings no keepers to the future of Resistance. The new recharging health mechanic works and its absence is actually explained in the game.

8.8

Sound

Insomniac need more practice at refining realistic visuals. I personally think Insomniac's finest is the visuals of the Ratchet and Clank series. Levels on board Chimeran ships are excellent, the last level pulls out all the stops and out-does Halo's Forerunner technology design.

9.5

Gameplay

Perfect all the favourite sounds from Resistance 1 and more, gunfire everywhere and a symphony symbolising the downfall of America and Man. On the penultimate level, watch out for a radio on a bridge where the host bids farewell to his life and humanity, its very poetic.

9.0

Fun Factor

Nothing more is satifying than taking down a chimera through a wall and seeing a green hued figure die. If you like trigger-happy FPS games that want you dead from start to end, you'll like this. Put mark down to an 8 if you get irritated by dying regulary.

9.5

Online

A solid, entertaning deathmatch with the likes of UTIII and a great spin on the normal online Co-Op mode in games.

Overall

8.8

[baum]

However I don't agree that the arsenal brings no keepers. I think the arsenal is actually better than the last game's, dropping the gimmicky watermellon launcher and adding some more realistic weapons while still maintaining the feel that they have some sort of chimeran technology integrated into them.

I did miss vehicle sections, they could have added chimeran ship transportation as another section in the game instead of just a lame ass short cinematic. I also hated how there were too few cinematic moments, nothing on the life of Nathan Hale and his memories and his family and the rest of the sentinels' too, and the direction the game took. Seriously, looking for Intel to know what the F*** is happening? F*** you, Insomniac.

Insomniac either needed more time, or should have focused on single player only and afterwards released Co-op and/or competitive. Hell, they should be sold separately. That way the single player story, campaign and cinematics (or lack thereof) wouldn't have been so disappointing.

This is NOT 2008's "Orange Box", because the Orange Box contains mostly quality games, and that happened because they were all made separately. Insomniac tried to cram as much content as they could in a single disc in just two years and failed by delivering a jack of all trades. I would rather buy Bioshock(SP), Warhawk(competitive MP) and an MMO(Co op) separately than a half assed game all in once.

The game was a lot of fun anyway and a great improvement in tech, gameplay and content over the first game. It just happens that the story is not as good, cinematic or long as the first game's was. I'd give it an 8.7.

[mll09]

How can you say that you would rather spend like £100 on buying separate games, and then give it 8.7?

8.7 is classed as "impressive".

[baum]

First of all, the Orange Box is a whole lot cheaper than a hundred pounds and it's a lot of games in one. Second, 8.7 is "very good" in my opinion, and in the end it is subjective. Third, R2 is a very good game, but not as good as everyone thought it would be considering all it offered.

Great gameplay, very good graphics, impressive environments, varied enemies, awesome boss fights, innovative co-op mode, pretty short campaign and disappointing story elements... Yeah, 8.7 seems about right.

[TheColbertinator]

8.8 sounds generous to me.I would go with a 7.8