Resistance 2 - 9/10
A review by K-Man
Congratulations! You’ve finally defeated and survived the invasion of the Chimeras in London. Yup now you can so back home to the States and enjoy the warmth and comfort of your home. But wait what this? Battleships? Why we thought the Chimerean invasion only occurred in London. It’s 1953, two years after the last Chimera invasion. The invasion has now moved to all the parts of the United States. Your mission: defend you your country from the invading Chimeras and kick some Chimera ass…. Again.
From the creators of the
Ratchet and Clank series and
Resistance: Fall of Man (RFOM),
Insomniac presents
Resistance 2. The game is the sequel to last year’s top-selling PS3 game,
Resistance: Fall of Man and is now bigger and a better. Gamers who first bought the PS3 two years back were presented with RFOM as one of the first PS3 games and were addicted to it right away. In fact, people are still playing the original as we speak! As you know, you return as Lt. Nathan Hale, who has come back to his home country only to find out that another Chimerean invasion is starting to happen. Hale must not only fight off the invasion but on top of that, he has but only 19 hours to live because the Chimera virus is spreading all over him.
"I only have 19 hours to live and have to spent it fighting a bunch of mutated freaks! LAME!!! "
CAMPAIGN
Veteran players from last year’s game will already get used to the controls right away. However there are some things that have changed or improved. For example, you can sprint whenever you like or you can comfortably zoom in when using your gun unlike in RFOM, where you had to use either the L3 or R3 stick to zoom in. Old and new weapons and Chimeras as well have appeared during campaign mode. Familiar weapons like the
Carbine,
Bullseye,
Auger, and a few others have returned. Some old Chimeras like your average Chimera hybrid, Titan, Steelheads, and others have returned as well but like every game sequel, there has to be some new things. New weapons have been added like the
Wraith. A type of minigun that can project a shield and fire at the same time. Kinda like the Auger but with more firepower. Another new weapon added to the mix is the
Magnum. A handgun in which its secondary fire causes the bullets to explode when activated. “Handy” for achieving headshots. These are just two of the many other new guns you’ll be using throughout the game.
As for the new Chimeras, well let’s just say they’re more uglier and sneakier than the ones you’ve been used to fighting a lot. The new Chimeras in the game have gained special abilities or are just plain harder to kill. A new chimera revealed in the game is the
Chameleon. A very tricky and in “your face Chimera” that has the ability to turn invisible and can kill you with one hit so it’s advised to keep your eyes peeled if you see something move and hear thunderous foot stomps coming at you.
The Sentinels are supersoldiers who will be helping you fend off the Chimera invasion.
Story – 9 /10
The story begins right where Resistance 1 ended. You play as Nathan Hale of course who helped London defeat the Chimeran invasion and somehow survived. You end up in a place full of snow only to be found by the Sentinels. The Sentinels are a special type of soldiers who also have the Chimera virus but learned to harness it in order to fend off the Chimeran invasion. The virus does come with side effects where if it’s not treated regularly, it’ll transform you into a Chimera. As soon as you reach North America, you are then attacked by a Goliath realizing that another invasion is happening. Throughout the story, you’ll be working with 3 other soldiers, Capelli, Warner, and Hawthorne. All four of you are on a mission to take down Daedalus, a monstrosity who used to be human but when through a lot of experiments by a certain scientist in the game and is now taking its revenge by fighting on the Chimera side. You must stop him by any means necessary before the invasion of the Chimeras is complete. Daedalus also communicates telepathically to Hale convincing him that resistance is futile and that they’re wasting their time. Hale resists of course and use every bit of his humanity to reach Daedalus.
The Chimeras will stop at nothing to have complete control of the United States.
The story in Resistance 2 answered some questions from Resistance 1 like who were the Black Ops that rescued you or who were really the Cloven. There will be some epic moments like when your squad is in trouble or your facing Daedalus but I must say that the story didn’t get me sucked in immediately unlike Resistance 1’s story. The new characters are admirable and voice acting is top notch but the story was average and mainly focused on how Hale must survive his last 19 hours on Earth. I must say this however, the ending will actually leave you asking even more questions and one main you will be asking is
“Will there be a Resistance 3?”. Overall the story is great but you’ll start having some interest in it once you’re more than halfway through the story. That is unless you’ve never played Resistance 1.
Gameplay – 9.2/10
The gameplay is more intense than ever. The reason: there’s always a bunch of Chimeras coming at you and trying to tear you into two. You’ll also be up against the biggest Chimeran bosses you’ll ever face as well as some as the Chimeran technology from Resistance 1.The Goliath and Stalker have returned and sadly you don’t get to control a Stalker this time. Both machines have gone through a new look and are still deadlier than ever. Still, that won’t stop you from trying to take them down. As I mentioned before, the Chimeras are more clever, and by that I mean the way the Chimeras try to kill you like the sneakiness of the Chameleon Chimera and how you must be quick on your feet if you want to kill him before he kills you. Chimeras now duck when they know they’re about to be sniped or jump for cover the second they see a grenade at their feet. You must learn how to take advantage of your guns and know how to use them or you’ll end up dying so many times. The guns and the way Chimeras act on the battlefield pretty much makes the gameplay truly shine.
The Bullseye Gun shown here gets a makeover for Resistance 2.
Speaking of guns, the new guns that were introduced are nothing special. Sure there’s the Splicer gun that cuts your enemies into pieces but most of the new guns didn’t create a WOW emotion for me. Two of the guns that I found interesting is the Splicer (mentioned above) and the Wraith (mentioned way above). The rest of the guns are probably guns you’ve used in past other games but were changed to fit the Resistance gameplay. Insomniac is known to always come up with crazy and badass looking guns but unfortunately, the new ones they’ve created didn’t have that special spark I had during R1. However that does not mean they’ve lost their fun factor. For instance, take the Bellock Grenade Launcher. It’s basically a grenade launcher that also shoots out napalm. It can take out a good amount of Chimera, can kill a Titan (depending how good your accuracy) and you’ll Chimera flying around from the explosion. But besides the guns, there are also the grenades. One unique and creative grenade is the Spider Grenade. What it basically does is create a spider-like web of ooze that cover a lot of land. Not only that it spews napalm making Chimera explode due the overheating of the coolers on their back. One rare grenade that must be used during the emergency times. There are many weapons scattered throughout the game just waiting to be used by you so try to experiment with each to see what gun best fits you.
As for the bosses in the game, unfortunately they don’t prove a challenge. They’re big, scary, and mean looking but that doesn’t mean they’re hard as hell. As soon as you find a pattern in how they attack you, you’ll be killing them in no time. The only frustrating part of fighting them is how you’ll be dying a lot. Due to their large size, their attacks are pretty powerful and can probably finish you off in two moves. But you got to hand it to the developers for creating such ferocious and badass looking bosses that you’ll want to face them the second or third time you play the story again. I know I want to fight the Leviathan again!
"Man, the one time I visit Chicago and its being run down by some overgrown sack of ugly!"
Graphics – 9.4/10
Gore, gore, and more gore. You’ll be seeing lots of gore and lots of blood as well when you start causing a Chimera bloodbath. Insomnia has raised the gore and blood level from Resistance 1 which makes all the Chimera kills more satisfying than ever. You’ll be seeing small intestines, spleens, and the occasional guts splattered everywhere. If you ever do get the chance, pick up the Splicer gun. With it, you can cut off a Chimera’s arm, leg, private part, in a matter of seconds. Explosions will also cause Chimeras to expose some gore so blow up a few cars or barrels every now and then. The good thing about all this gore is that it never disappears (unless you die and respawn again), which is quite disgusting…. In a good way.
As you can see here, the gore level has been raised in Resistance 2 and man, does it look gruesome!
Now, the graphics in Resistance 2 are more than just gore and blood. The graphics have actually improved from Resistance 1. It’s brighter, colorful, and you’ll feel like there’s so much going on in front of you. The graphics are no Call of Duty 5 or Metal Gear Solid 4, but for those have played Resistance 1, this is a big improvement. The appearance of the Characters and Chimeras are sharp and can even see some of their facial features. In short, the graphics have improved and look less bleak but it’s no COD or even MGS graphics.
You’ll be amazed (or probably disappointed) at how the graphics will look in Resistance 2.
ONLINE
Now for the main course you all mostly care about, online multiplayer. Online multiplayer is more addicting and epic than ever. Insomniac has pushed the envelope on this when they announced that they were having a limit of having 60 players online. The ranking system is pretty simple and not that hardcore like Call of Duty 4. The highest level rank you can achieve is at 30. However it does take a long while to get to that rank but that’s a good thing because it makes playing online last longer. Through online, you can play with two different kinds of modes,
Competitive and
Co-op. Competitive is your regular online mode that has 4 different kinds of ways you can play it. They have the classic
Deathmatch and
Team Deathmatch. However if you’re looking for something new, there’s
Skirmish and
Core Control. Skirmish is an object-based game where you must capture a node and you either have to capture or protect it. Core Control is basically like capture the flag, however you cannot shoot while you have the core so you better pray your feet don’t fail on you.
During Completive mode, you can either play as a Chimera or Human.
If you decide that you don’t like playing solo and like working in a team, then Co-op mode is for you. During co-op, you can play with up to 7 other players making it a total of 8 players. The setting you’ll be playing is actually a side story from Resistance 2 so it’s not a co-op game where you play Campaign but this time you’re just playing with other players online. No, co-op mode has its own side story so it makes everything fresh. As you have heard, co-op has a class system, which means you play from three different classes. The three different types of class you get to choose is Soldier, Spec Ops, and Medic. Solider is the head-on and firepower, Spec Ops is the stealth and ammo carrier, and Medic is heal provider. All three are made to help each other out so try have the players have good balance out of all the three classes. Co-op also means that you must work as a team at ALL times so if you decide to go Rambo on somebody’s ass, you’ll die in no time so it’s better to stick with your group. There is something repetitiveness about co-op. Through all the missions you’re playing in, it’s basically a cycle of being attacked by a swarm of enemy Chimeras, eventually killing them all, and reach the destination goal. There are occasionally some boss battles but like the boss battles in Campaign, they too don’t prove a challenge. Just the frustration of how many times they can kill you.
Overall co-op is loads of fun but will get repetitive once you finish completing all the missions.
Teamwork is everything in co-op. Through teamwork, you can take down a Stalker with ease.
The abilities you’ll have during online makes playing online all worthwhile. For example, there’s a perk you can have called
Berserk that is available on both Competitive and Co-op. They are special abilities you can have that let you have the upper hand for a short time. You can activate them when you have killed an amount of enemies or players. There are other berserks for you to use when you level up so try to unlock them all. The way you can earn XP (experience points) can differ. You can obviously get them from playing in Competitive or in Co-op but playing in Campaign mode will also give you XP. Playing Campaign will give you that extra boost you’ll need if you want to reach the highest rank. You’ll want. And for the first time, there’s now a wide variety of how you can customize you character, even for the Chimeras! However, you’ll need to level up a lot if you want unlock more customization parts.
There will be a variety of guns you can use; luckily most of them are available at your disposal. However, the strongest weapons like the LAARK or Pulse Cannon are locked and having a high rank will allow you to use them. Overall, online is FUN. Insomniac has tweaked it so that it lasts longer and provides total addiction to it. The only problem with online is connection problems where you would be disconnected from a game which totally frustrating because you’re kicking ass all of sudden you’re disconnected. Hopefully there will be a patch to fix it.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
So after waiting a long while and desperately wanting to know what’s in store for Hale, the waiting for Resistance 2 was definitely worth it. The Campaign mode while not as interesting as Resistance 1’s story, it was still a joy to play and seeing how much Hale transform into the very thing he’s fighting against. Gameplay felt like everything was coming at you all at once and you couldn’t keep track of what you’re shooting at but the new variety of Chimeras and even guns made up for it. Graphics weren’t breathtaking but they weren’t the worst you’ll ever see. Seeing all the gore and blood just makes you want to giggle. As for online, regardless of disconnecting issues, online is still awesome and will leave you wanting more. I haven’t felt the excitement of playing online since the days of Resistance 1. The score I’m giving Resistance 2 is a
9 out of 10.. A few points off for average storyline, some disconnecting issues, easy boss battles, and other stuff i mentioned in my review. =P
Thanks for reading!
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