Resistance 2 Beta Impressions

I have been waiting for this game since it was announced because I loved the first one's storyline, the battles were very intense, the environments were humbling, and the weapons were very original. As far as the beta goes, I'm very impressed with almost everything and have very few complaints, but I will only know if they are valid or still apply until the final game is released. Here is my preview of the game, where I talk about both the competitive and co-ooperative components of the game.

As for competitive, I felt I had more advantage with the turret than with other guns for killing my enemies. The rest of the guns were cool but this one was easier for me to get the rest of people killed. Other guns were slow, not as deadly, didn't have as much amo, or don't have a range for attacking as wide as this one. But then again I was killed a lot by guys with other guns or with grenades =(

I think there aren't as many new guns as I would have liked aside of the splicer which is evidently made to compete with Gears' chainsaws. The turret is predictable, the new mid-range rifle doesn't amaze me, the splicer is awesome, the old guns have great new looks but work almost the same as the last game (i.e. the carbine, bullseye, fareye, auger, and the rocket launcher). I wish it had more guns =( I mean this is insomniac we're talking about, the devs from ratchet and clank.

Another complaint I have is that in the first resistance you could carry with you all of the guns available in the game which I really liked because it made you think very strategically on what guns to use in which situations, and now that you can only carry two guns I feel they eliminated a bit of the strategy in this one, but then again, that makes the game more realistic and I have yet to see how it plays out in the campaign. Maybe the element of strategy is still there by letting you choose which guns to drop and which to keep, I'll know once the game launches.

Another aspect of MP I disliked is that one level reminded me a lot of Halo, but that's just because I don't like generic FPS like Halo. Then again, I honestly only saw that level on youtube and didn't play in it since I haven't focused as much on MP as I have in co-op. I'm not sure if what I saw was the private beta or what, since the co-op has only the Orick level and I don't know if the competitive also has that level, so I'll save my final judgment on competitive for the final game.

Anyway, as for Co-op, this is one of the most entertaining FPS I've ever played. No wait, *the* most entertaining, I just love to co-operate with other guys to achieve the mutual goal of slaughtering the chimera! You can notice how well the game scales the difficulty depending on the amount of players.

You could say the game is still getting balanced as it is still noticeably more difficult per capita as the amount of players in the game, but that could also be for the same reason that you do need to co-operate. If you don't stick together, you fail. If you don't have a well balanced team (i.e. 3 medics, 3 soldiers and 2-special ops, for example) then you're likely going to fail. If your teammates are noobs that won't revive you and will not stick with the team or do stupid mistakes, you will fail.

This is definitely a game on its own as it has storyline elements, and it would take you a very long time to level up all of the classes in the game and get all of the items to facilitate your progress in the co-op campaign. Ambitious is the best word to describe this section of the game, and it delivers. I mean seriously, different classes, XP, buying upgrades... the only thing I'm missing is extra scenarios, but I guess that won't happen until the final game is released.

Bottomline is, this is a "AAA" quality game with excellent graphics, and I can't wait to give my final opinion, review and score of the final version of this game. As of now I would give it a 9.2 out of 10 (compared to an 8.7 overall I would give the first one), and consider the game is still in beta tests and in the process of being balanced and getting the glitches out of the game. It looks great, but I have yet to play it on an HDTV to truly appreciate its looks, but so far the water effects have impressed me the most. The storyline is what excites me the most, so who knows, perhaps I might end up liking the game even more. Anyway here are my thoughts.