Resistance 2
I liked Resistance. Probably because I love first person shooters. Resistance didn’t have many faults. But it also wasn’t very inventive. And it lacked the polish that seperate awesome games from the “just good” ones. Still I liked it.
In Resistance 2 you leave the battlegrounds in England, which are now overrun by the beasts, and head to the United States to fight against the extinction of the human race. The gameplay has been slightly altered. You can only carry two weapons at a time which makes up for some difficult decisions at some points in the game as some weapons are better suited than others. Although the right weapons are usually placed around in the area that you’re in. The weaponry is balanced very well and the controls support the overall good feeling. Unfortunately it may take some time to get into the controls when coming straight from playing some XBox games. The PS3 controller feels a lot more nervous but this is just a minor complaint and not exactly the fault of the game.
Storywise the game developes quite slowly. A little bit too slow in my opinion. It takes a couple of missions to actually understand why the fight has moved from the UK to the US and how the story from the first game ties into Resistance 2. Also, story and the game itself are not very consistent. Nathan Hale, the player’s character, is the product of an experiment to use some strenghts of the virus, that is the reason for the existence of the beasts, for human supersoldiers. While the story evolves, Hale’s condition gets worse. Unfortunately this declining condition isn’t represented in the game itself. Even when Hale is almost dead at the end of the game there are no limitations to what you can do. Unused potential I’d say.
Still the game is thrilling. At it’s prime, Resistance 2 blends a lot of different shooter concepts in to one. The big scale combat from the Call of Duty series, the duck and cover cambat from Gears of War and the perfect balancing from the Halo series. Most of the boss fights are awesome. Especially one in the middle of the game where you have to fight a gigantic monster, tall as a skyscraper. Imagine you’d fight Godzilla and you get the picture. Too bad that the final boss fight is rather disappointing. Too easy and too short. Also there were situations where I was tempted to throw the controller out of the window. When hordes of those stupid zombies run towards you and your AI buddies do nothing but standing around.
See, the AI of opponents and teammates is a mixed bag. Sometimes it works and squadmates are really helpful. But other times you happen to be in situations mentioned above. Also the AI of the opponents can get quite unfair. Imagine standing amidst a big battle doing nothing. In such moments the AI won’t care about you, there is not one shot directed at you. But as soon as you’ll fire the first shot all hell breaks loose and everything is shooting at you as if your squadmates don’t exist. Now imagine there are 30 zombies running towards you and 3 teammates, your teammates doing nothing and the AI only attacking you. Not much fun.
A big plus in favor of Resistance 1 was it’s artwork. The idea to let you roam through the England of the past was good and well executed. Although Resistance 2 is set in San Francisco of the 50’s, the idea of the first game is soon left behind. Now and then you’ll hear a radio station or wander through abandoned towns, but the overall concept has shifted to a more scifi inspired setting. Nothing wrong with that but the setting of Resistance 1 was really unique and I missed a similar execution here.
Technically Resistance 2 shows what’s possible on the PS3. It looks pretty awesome and there is never a moment of stuttering. Enemies are very detailed and at times super huge. Really, there is nothing more to ask for in that regard. I didn’t have the time to play the multiplayer portion. But judging from the first game and the flawless technical execution in Resistance I have no doubt that it works well.
Really, if you love shooters and have a PS3, get that game. It has everything you’d expect from a good first person shooter, has just a few minor shortcomings and is overall a fun experience although it doesn’t reinvent the genre. Just make sure you’ll play it on the hard diffculty setting to make it challenging.