Resistance 2 (2008) (VG)

User Rating:

8.6/10   

Writers:

Todd Fixman (screenplay)
Brian Hastings (story)

Release Date:

4 November 2008 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Sci-Fi

Cast

Troy Baker	...	Major Richard Blake
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
David Boat	...	Cappelli
Dan Brown	...	Chimera
Marshall Cook	...	Kenneth Danby
Gideon Emery	...	British Commando 3
Brian Gross	...	Keith Oster
David Kaye	...	Nathan Hale
David Paul Olsen	...	Black Ops
Rick Pasqualone	...	Black Ops Soldier
Khary Payton	...	Benjamin Warner
Katee Sackhoff	...	Cassie Aklin
Tony Sears	...	Doctor (as Anthony Sears)
Mike Vaughn	...	Zombie #3
Jared Ward	...	Channing Brown
Travis Willingham	...	Black Ops Soldier (voice)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:18 | Australia:MA (2008) | New Zealand:R16

Company:

Insomniac Games

Movie Connections:

Follows Resistance: Fall of Man (2006) (VG)

An OK game, but a very disappointing sequel

Two years ago Insomniac made Resistance: Fall of Man. Turns out it was a different kind of breed of FPS for me at least. The only FPS I've ever truly liked. It has a special kind of flair about it that other FPS games don't have in my opinion.

Fast forward 2 years and we have it's sequel. A direct continuation of the story from the first. Succeeding in some areas and a let down in most. The story is told through Nathan Hale's perspective this time instead of a Narrator character. It does give Hale more meaning as a character, but ultimately he's just a clichéd tough ass gung ho soldier type that we've seen so much before already. The story feels a bit hollow.

The shooting isn't bad, but the crosshairs on some of the weapons are not good at all. Particularly the carbine. That's a personal preference of mine, so take it for what you will. Gone is the weapon wheel. You are only allowed to carry two weapons at a time in this game. Where as you could carry all of them in the first at one time.

Some might say this adds strategy to the game. No doubt that it does, but it strips the game of it's fun factor and variety in favor of realism and strategy now. In the first one you could dispatch of the Chimera in many different ways in one battle. Now that is gone. With the lack of the weapon wheel I use the two most convenient weapons and skip all the rest. That's just my preference though. Limitations aren't good. I like to use all the weapons at my leisure. Not have the game developer hold my hand on how to play the game.

Insomniac also makes things predictable even with the first time through as always you'll find a weapon best suited for the upcoming battle. Which if you're like me you'll catch onto this pattern soon and be able to predict when you'll be facing mass amounts of enemies or one big enemy with whatever weapon you find laying at your feet as you progress. Axing the weapon wheel is my biggest disappointment with the game.

Next is the weapons themselves. Insomniac created some unique weapons in the first game. Some old weapons make returns. The new weapons are the Splicer a saw blade shooting gun, Bellock grenade launcher, A wraith mini gun, Revolver, Marksman, Pulse Cannon. Marksman being a hybrid between a assault rifle and a sniper rifle. The focus of most of these new weapons are based in realism. Except for the Splicer. There's that "realism" word again. Which is disappointing. Insomniac being a developer known for creating unique weapons dropped the ball here.

Online stuff is a mixed bag. The new addition is online co-op and is the game's saving grace. You have three classes Soldier, Special Ops, and Medic. Each can be leveled up to 30 with different armor to "buy" for each of them and each takes around 18-20 hours to completely max out with levels. It takes a little longer if you want gray tech which is the equivalent of money to buy all the armor. When everyone clicks as a team then co-op is the best thing about the game. It's addicting with 5 maps and plenty of missions. It's up to 8 players online and 2 players offline. There is no single player co-op. Offline co-op is the same as the online co-op. Just only with two people and the second players stats can't be saved. As many faults as I have with this game the co-op redeems a lot if it.

Competitive is different compared to the first game. First off weapon spawns have been taken out. Now you find weapons on the battlefield from dead players. Second there are berserks which are like Call of Duty's perks. Personally I feel that berserks break the online gameplay. Makes it unfair and doesn't belong in a Resistance game. Aside from maybe 1 exclusive berserk each race is pretty much the same now. Their uniqueness has been stripped.

Competitive only has four modes compared to the first game's six. Meltdown, Breach, Coversion, and Capture the Flag has been taken out. Capture the flag has been replaced with a different mode called Core Control. Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Skirmish are the other modes with Skirmish being the other new one. The online lobby from the first game has been changed for the worse. There is no more convenient in game messaging. Now it's all done through the XMB. Not good at all.

The graphics are scale of the game are a definite step up.

It might sound like I loathe this game, but I don't. Like I've already said co-op is where it's at with this game. I've already put close to 30 hours into co-op. Being a huge fan of the first I'm just disappointed that they changed so much.

If this weren't a sequel to Resistance: Fall of Man then it would get an easy 9 out of 10 from me. Looking at it as a sequel though makes it a underwhelming let-down. I had a hard time It doesn't hold that same flair that the first one did. Marred by Insomniac's extreme want for realism. Insomniac went out of there way to copy other flavor of the year games on the market and with that they lost a lot of what made the first Resistance so great and it's identity. It plays just like every other shooter out there now. If you weren't a fan of Resistance 1 then you might like this game. If you're looking for a sequel that holds the same spirit as the first then you might be disappointed, but if you can look past the fact that this is a Resistance sequel then you'll have fun with this.