Resistance 2
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Resistance 2
Resistance Fall of Man was and still is one of my favorite first person shooters on any gaming platform (including the PC). I loved the story, gameplay, the concept and the potential the series had to be one of those game series everyone must have and play. So I anxiously awaited the sequel and expected it to be an ever better experience. Finally Insomniac released Resistance 2 and the game has been burning a hole in my Playstation 3, but was the wait for the game worth it?
Resistance 2 takes place soon right after the first game, in 1953, as we retrieve Nathan Hale wandering through a snow covered field outside of London after he escapes the destruction of the Central Tower holded by the Chimera. Believed dead by the British and Americans armies, he’s picked up by black ops from the Special Research Projects Administration and meets Richard Blake, director of Advanced Tactical Operations, as he knows Hale is a survivor of a SRPA confidential project .
From there, you’ll be taken in to a quest to save humanity while battling against your own demons...
Resistance: Fall of Man was by far one of the best gameplay launch titles of all time and still is one of my favorite titles on any platform. But for some reason Insomniac dropped or changed certain great gameplay features such as the weapon selection has changed from a simple button press which shows all of your weapons and then you can select them to now a button press that switches weapons. Fall of Man’s original design for weapon switching was far superior.
The single player game is also lacking in the normal Insomniac quality we are used to as gamers. The game suffers from this annoying trial and error gameplay where you will often die for no reason, and then you will know something there will kill you such as invisible creatures which spring on you with almost zero warning and take split second timing to kill. Some rather dumb A.I. for the Chimera and the rest of your team who will become stuck in the environment, but do not worry about that since they will automatically pop in front of you steadily. Story wise the single player is very cliché and not the same quality we saw in the first game, and while it is something we have seen in movies and games it is still good.
Co-operative games are all the rage now days and Resistance 2 has one of the best ones on the market with its own campaign in which you and up to 7 more players for a total of 8, join forces to complete tasks on a map. Just like other co-operative games this is very fun and worth playing over and over again with your friends since you start out with a class such as medic or spec-ops and you will rely on each other to survive and basically level up, unlock new weapons and continue on.
Multiplayer is just as good as the original game, but if you did not like the beta or the first games multiplayer this one will not impress you. But if you like multiplayer games this one is fun and one of the best on the Playstation 3 and luckily more people have headsets so talking is more common between players. One feature that Resistance has over all other multiplayer games, even most those on PC are the 60 player matches which can be very intense.
Insomniac has an uncanny ability to make some of the best looking games on any of the Playstation platforms, Ratchet & Clank and the first Resistance were all great looking games. Most of the graphics in Resistance 2 are just as good or even slightly better then their previous games, but there are times when the graphics just are not the level of quality we can expect. Such as some of the level design is just bad at times, especially in the multiplayer levels and some of the special effects are down right bad looking for what is technically a 3rd generation Playstation 3 game. If this was a game made from almost any other company the graphics would be impressive, but after seeing what we have in the past from Insomniac, it is disappointing.
The audio in Resistance 2 is almost entirely some of the best we have heard on the PS3 especially if you have a good stereo system. Most of the voice over work is great, except for two voice actors, the first is the actor who speaks for Nathan Hale and the second is the actor who speaks for the main doctor who works with Nathan in the game. Other then those two cases, the rest of the voice acting is very good. Sound effects and music wise Insomniac has done a great job, just as well as the rest of their Playstation 3 titles and if you played any of those you know the quality I speak of.
If you have friends who are going to play the Co-op campaign with you, the value of the game is very high and if you enjoyed the first Resistance games multiplayer the multiplayer in Resistance 2 is worth your while. But if you only play single player games, this is not a high value game as you only need to play through the game once to get your fill.
While this is not Insomniac’s best work, in fact it almost seems they slept their way through some of the development, if you only own a PS3 (and no other consoles or a PC) this is a great game to play and own, but if you play on other systems you may not as impressed. The single player campaign feels very off at times and not fun, the multiplayer is fun in you enjoyed the original and if you like co-operative games, the co-op campaign is excellent and worth checking out. Resistance 2 is good though and worth a single play through and a few times on the co-op but I expected so much more of it.
Editor-In-Chief’s Take
Resistance 2 sits in a grey zone between a simple good game and an excellent "Game of the Year" type game. After seeing what Insomniac Games was able to put on the market after two successful games (Resistance 1, Ratchet & Clank Future), seeing this game being released makes me ask myself if the game was really ready to go. While it remains one heck of a cool game to play, I found myself going back and forth between the first game and this one in order to understand what happened. Was it because our expectations were too high? Maybe.
Know this, Resistance did bring some cool things this time around and the game is bigger as the sense of "grandeur" is really present during certain battles but it feels more like gravy than actual part of the whole experience. I don’t see how a PS3 user can’t have this game in his collection but if you were a huge fan of the first, you might have issues with this sequel.
Pros
+ Graphics and audio are good
+ Story is ok, barely
+ Most of the voice overs are well executed
+ Co-op ’campaign’ is interesting
Cons
- Single player campaign isn’t as good as the first Resistance
- Why does the lead character talk? He didn’t in the original and it worked there and in this game he has zero personality
- Uninspired level design, very linear at times
- Crouch and Run are the same button?
- Trial and Error gameplay
- Not Insomniac’s best work by far
Final Verdict
Here's a small guide to help you understand our evaluation of games.
PRESENTATION GRADE
Can be from the game's box to the contents of the booklet, and even the game introduction. (Intro, menus, options, etc)
GRAPHIC GRADE
Up to what point the graphics have been worked on my the developper. The design type, the effort used for textures and environments, as well as animations and framerate.
AUDIO GRADE
Is the soundtrack a good match to the game's style, he ambient sounds keeping with the gameplay and the sound effects clear and convincing?
GAMEPLAY GRADE
Placement of the controls and the inferface that the player with be using during the game.
REPLAY VALUE GRADE
The most important factor in the evaluation of a game. It identifies the lifespan of the game and the fun of coming back again and again.
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