Review: Resistance 2 (PS3)

Resistance 2 starts off directly where Resistance: Fall of Man left off. You continue the story at Lieutenant Hale where you get airlifted out of Europe. A lot has changed for this game, versus the first Resistance. The first thing that you will notice is the graphics. HUGE improvement (as you would expect since the first was a launch title)! Everything is far more detailed than in the first game (especially the character models). The very next thing that you will notice is that this game is VERY BIG. Everything about this game is huge! The environments are bigger and better, the enemies are bigger and better, and the game itself is bigger and better. And the third thing that you will notice very quickly is that you can only hold two different guns at a time. While that last one may seem like a downer to some, it actually makes the game better (in my opinion) and more realistic (have you ever seen a soldier carrying 8 guns like you can in Resistance 1? Didn't think so).

The game is very much improved from the first, almost to the point where it makes Resistance 1 seem bad. There is a single player campaign mode as well as a co-op campaign mode. There is a 60 player multi player mode that is almost lag free! Insomniac really brought their A game for this title. Aside from the things mentioned already, they ditched the crappy four bar health system for the regenerative health system that almost all fps's now use (thank god). There is a much bigger variety of enemies and many of them are massive! It is a lot like Gears of War 2 with battle sizes and enemy sizes. Not only that, but they also brought many theme changes to the game as well. Most fps's are either run and gun (halo) style or hide and gun (gears of war) style. Resistance 2 provides a nice blend of the two, where sometimes you will have run and gun action sequences and sometimes you will have large battles in which the duck and cover method is required. Not only that, but some parts of the game even left you with a sort of survival horror feel to it. At one point you have to go through a large train tunnel which has hundreds of Chimera eggs throughout. Needless to say, you don't have nearly enough ammo to destroy all of the eggs, so you have to slowly creep through the tunnel and random eggs hatch and attack you as you do so. It gives a feel much like Dead Space during those sequences.  Just before that event in the game, you get a sort of Left 4 Dead feel when travelling through a neighborhood in which all of its' inhabitants have been turned into Chimera eggs, ready to hatch.  When you get to certain areas, a lot do hatch and they attack you.  Because these Chimera have just hatched, they do not have guns so they sprint towards you and beat you to death (much like in Left 4 Dead) and yes, there are a lot of them, much like in Left 4 Dead when a boomer vomits on you.  Anyway, enough with other game references!

The game proves itself to be a serious competitor in the intense competition of FPS games.  With the combination of new elements (controls, guns, enemies, environments, etc) it really shines especially if you've played the first Resistance title.  They even got rid of the boring narrative story telling of the first for a more personal truly FPS style of story telling.  In the end, Resistance 2 gets a 9 out of 10.  I'd say it's a much have for PS3 owners.  And if you play this game before the first and think you want to go out and buy the first... you might be left disappointed because it is THAT much better than the first.

9/10

-CA

Mini Review: Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3)

Well, before I can post a review on Resistance 2, I figured I should at least do a small review of the first.  Please note that the score at the end of this review is the score that would have been given at this game's release, not what it would be rated now.  The reason for this is because games have evolved quite a bit in the past few years and it would receive a lower rating if it were reviewed by today's standards.

Resistance: Fall of Man is a game that probably 90% of PS3 owners have played at one point or another.  It was the system's first exclusive game that made an impact.  You play an American soldier named Lieutenant Hale that has been sent to Europe along with thousands of other American soldiers because there has been some sort of alien attack.  The game takes place about when World War 2 would have taken place if aliens hadn't attacked, so you get a nice alternate reality scenario.  In the beginning of the game, you are captured by the alien race (called Chimera) and are taken to a huge containment facility where the Chimera run people through machines that transform them into a Chimera.  Your character (Hale) is started into the process of turning into a Chimera but is then rescued by fellow soldiers before you could really "change".  Because of this, you gain traits and abilities that make you better than the average soldier.  You can heal using the Chimera health devices, etc.  

Overall, the story is well written and is told from a narrative perspective (kind of like the call of duty series).  The game is a pretty generic first person shooter in that it doesn't really bring too much innovation to the table.  The game does have its moments where the battles really shine and you thoroughly enjoy the experience, but for the most part, it's an average fps.  There are plenty of guns, all with secondary fire functions (nothing new).  The only real flaw the game has besides the lack of innovation, is the health system.  When this game was made, fps's were starting this new trend of regenerative health.  Insomniac decided not to use this system.  Instead you have a 4 block health bar.  Bad choice, with the large number of enemies in the game and intense battle sequences, the health system works in the enemies favor as there are not a lot of health pickups throughout.  As far as the story goes, it definitely helps bring the game up and out of its mediocrity, as it is very good.  With a so-so multi player mode (again, nothing that bad, but nothing new either), I'd score this game (when it was new in 2006) an 8 of 10.

8/10

-CA