Resistance 2

Review from Jae - Tuesday, 02 December 2008 @ 12:16pm

When Phil Harrison, former Sony guru, claimed Motorstorm would be the title to look out for during the Playstation 3 launch my heart sank a little. Then it started beating a steady 75 bpm (that’s healthy speak for normal) when Resistance took the stand as a pillar title for the black beast. I was so eager for Resistance I bought a Japanese copy in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, even though blood graphics were removed for the Asian regions. Two years later and Insomniac Games revive the franchise for a larger than life experience. After looking forward to this game since E3 this year, I have some mixed opinions of the final product.

Resistance, according to the dictionary, is defined as a force that tends to oppose or retard motion. Retard is a fairly strong word that is seldom used in games . A first person shooter definitely doesn’t oppose motion so I see the use of this title being a moot point. A fitting name would be something like Chimeran Wars, Invasion or Get the *&^% Off My Planet. Anyway Resistance 2's single campaign takes place immediately after the ending of the first. You follow Nathan Hale, an American fighting in Europe for the good of the world, who has survived a Chimeran infection and become stronger, tougher and more proficient with weapons. He’s done a bang-up job defeating groups of the Chimeran in the mother country that by the time he reaches the US, they’ve launched a full scale attack. The amazing difference is the terrain that you get to cover while trekking through the US. In the original Resistance the environment had a dark and muddy feel to it whereas now you get to see the Golden Gate bridge, lush green forests and suburbia.

Do you talk to your mum with that mouth?

You will like this game if you liked the first title. That’s not to say that you won’t like this game if you didn’t fancy the original or if you never played it. For those that did play Resistance you will get the feeling that the sequel genuinely deserves the number “2” next to its name. The game seeks to improve well on every aspect but still falls short in some areas. I’m a big fan of campaign co-op split screen offline multiplayer (CCSSOM – new acronym copyrighted by me). The original Resistance offered this feature for up to 2 players but was flawed with the fact that the split screen was vertical and that the second character was never included in the story line. Still my partner and I enjoyed this game thoroughly and were able to spend countless hours playing through normal, hard and expert modes. In Resistance 2 this feature has been abolished, I’ll admit it’s been replaced by a robust co-op mode but it doesn’t follow the main story arc of humans versus the Chimera, an alien race invading Earth. This annoyed me considerably as I had less time spent playing games with my partner and more time with her in the bedroom. Sleeping your dirty minded folk.

I’ll try to explain my other gripes with this game with an analogy. I love Vietnamese Beef Pho, a noodle soup with lots of monosodium glutamate for extra flavour. Every time I have it they always put chopped up coriander in it and I hate coriander. So when I have delicious Pho I always get tiny bits of coriander that spoil the overall taste of MSG. Sometimes it’s not too bad, I can scoop the coriander and place it on the side, but sometimes the coriander is so small and spread out it makes the Pho taste like smelly feet. Now relate this back to Resistance 2, the raw game is great but the tiny parts of coriander spoil your overall experience. Coriander comes in many forms including uneven game play. A pet hate I have with many games is the inconsistent difficulty. You might cruise through two hours of the game without dying then suddenly hitting a roadblock in which you continually die more than ten times. There was one moment where you and 2 NPCs enter a movie theatre only to be overcome by what feels like 1000s of Spinners. This breed of Chimera is unarmed and dish out lethal fury swipes when they get all up in your face. So imagine entering a room where numerous Spinners ignore your NPCs and come directly at you. I died over 10 times at this point, on normal mode, which made me feel less of a man. Also there are a vast array of weapons in Resistance 2 but unfortunately they’re not that readily available. The game will shove the most appropriate weapon in your path when you’re about to fight a certain Chimera which takes away the suspense. The single player campaign is flooded with Bullseyes, the Chimeran soldier weapon with slick homing bullets. The weapon gets tiring easily, I would’ve preferred a lot more of the Auger which allows you to view and shoot through walls as well as set up temporary shields with it’s alternate fire button. Unfortunately they only appear a few times in the entire campaign.

The visuals and sounds are slightly above that of the original. If you only have stereo sound streaming from your PlayStation 3 then make sure you try and adjust the voice volume as it can sometimes get lost in the music. I set up the 5.1 system specifically to get into the mood of this game which works perfectly.

"They dress better than me."

I truly think multiplayer enthusiast will appreciate Resistance 2 more than I ever will. When it comes to online multiplayer I’m more casual than the fifteen year old boy working at Kmart for $7.85 per hour. Even more casual than the chick at work that takes casual Fridays a little too far, I could go on. The co-operative online multiplayer can be related to the likes of Team Fortress 2. You pick a class which determines your attributes and you embark on a Chimera kill fest with up to 7 other players. The idea of this mode is to make sure you stick together and gain a maximum amount of experience points which then help you gain new weapons and class specific powers. It is a great mode if you have the time to invest into it. Add to this all the bells and whistles that Insomniac Games have done to raise the bar in the FPSMMO scene; 60 player online matches with well made objectives, solid generic modes like deathmatch and capture the flag as well as an active community support site through MyResistance.net. I don’t believe any other FPS out there have offered so much in the way of online multiplayer.

Bubbleshield?

If you’re stuck for the rest of the holiday season with nothing to play on your PlayStation 3 consider Resistance 2. The multiplayer alone will keep you invested for many hours. Try to look past the small faults and appreciate the entire package for what Insomniac Games have put together.

Pros

A great online multiplayer experience, better than any I’ve come across on a console. Up to 60 Players in one online match. Nice selection of weaponry at your disposal.

Cons

No offline split screen for campaign makes our partners in crime cry. Inconsistencies in difficulty throughout the campaign mode. Too much coriander.