It's been a while since I've played the Resistance 2 single-player, but after I the relatively disappointing Killzone 2 left me with nothing new to play, I turned to an old (er) favourite, in Resistance 2.
To date, the game has sold over 3 Million copies, and it's easy to see why. The visuals may not be pace setting, in fact, there no where near the best to grace the PS3, but every other aspect of the game is spot on.
Ill start my review with the Single-player experience. Unless you've played the original, Fall of Man, you probably won't have a clue what's going on in. Resistance 2 does little to explain prior happenings in the series, but does go a fair way in introducing a solid enough storyline for itself.
Unless you don't know, the Chimera is the protagonists in the Resistance series. They originated in Russia, and spread throughout Europe in the first game, infecting or destroying Human civilization along the way. Now, they've spread deep into the America's, where the Human race begins its last stand for survival.
You play as Nathan Hale, a British man who helped battle the Chimera in Europe. My memory of the game is a bit hazy, but the game starts with Hale entering a V-TOL and being sedated, with no explanation given as to why (You'll probably be able to guess if you've played Fall of Man). When he wakes up, he is with Major Richard Blake of SRPA, and is forced to escape from, and then destroy a truly massive Chimeran 'Goliath'. Next you will encounter the Daedalus, who manages to escape. You just know you'll meet him at some point further on.
For most of the campaign, you and your comrades will be forced to react to Chimeran onslaught after Chimeran onslaught. But they Grim's are by far the most fun of the enemies. They are basically zombies, but lay waiting for you in cocoon style objects. Without warning, if you get to near, they will pop out and attack you. The first time this happened to me, it scared the crap out of me, and you never quite get used to it.
Throughout the campaign, you are treated to some amazing spectacles. The stand out for me is the full blown aerial assault that the Chimeran's set upon San Francisco. Their ships just ooze superiority, but don't look entirely practical to me.
Later on, it starts to get serious. Two of your closer teammates get killed, and you yourself are stabbed in the stomach by Daedelus, and pass out. When you finally wake up, it's six weeks later, and America is in ruins. 80 Million are dead, 3 Million are left. To make matters worse, after going to long without taking an inhibitor, you have now contracted the Chimeran virus, and have 19 hours to live. He decides to spend his remaining hours recovering a nuclear warhead to blow up Daedelus' ship. To cut a long story short, you plant the Bomb, but have to get your way out, where you encounter Daedelus, and are forced to kill him. Upon killing him, Hale makes contact with Daedelus, and is suddenly overwhelmed by its strong Psychokinetic abilities.
Now it gets cool. You've only got a short while left to life, but hey, now you have inFamous style powers which let you blast things with your hands. After blasting your way out, you meet up with Capelli, who finds you engulfed by the virus. At this point Hale repeats Daedelus' ominous mutterings, "It is beautiful, this is just the beginning." Capelli solemnly replies, "Forgive me sir, it was an honor.", and regretfully shoots Hale who he had just grown to respect in the head.
If you thought that sounds good enough, the multiplayer is on another level. With 8-player online Co-Op, and up to 60 player Competitive action, there is something for everyone.
Co-Op has been done brilliantly, and it even helps explain the background, and the bits you may have picked up on already in greater detail, in the form of Intel, which you acquire for successfully completing a round. There are about 10 maps, each with a wide array of missions, all amazing fun. The 3 kits you can choose from, Soldier, Medic and Spec Ops, are pretty balanced, but Medic will let you get the highest score most often, and I found to be the most fun.
Competitive also has many different modes and maps. There are the standard Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, but also interesting takes on Skirmish, Core Control, and the recently released Meltdown, which is a variation of a Fall of Man game mode. Personally, the best option is to play unranked Team Deathmatch. Having 60 players on a server, and a kill-limit of 1000 gives you plenty of time to find form, or get the upper hand on someone who had it over you at the start. The level of difficulty you get on these servers can be a bit leisurely, but I found it to be much more fun. It is however a good idea to play ranked for at least a while, as this gets you stuff like extra berserks, new skins etc.
A few other things I forgot to mention earlier that make the game just that much better, are the easy to use clan system, and the ability to host your own servers. Any player can create his/her clan, and set about inviting whoever they wish. As a clan leader, you get good control over your clan. Hosting is also a breeze to do, and there is some satisfaction to be gained in having your very own server. You have just about complete control over the server (up until you begin playing). Co-Op servers are all user hosted, while the Competitive servers will only be non-ranked, as Sony are the only ranked hosts.
Overall, I don't think Insomniac could do much to improve this game. The graphics could be a bit sharper, some of the voice work is a bit lame (but for the most part excellent), and there could have been some weapon customization for online (as it stands, there are heaps of weapons to choose, but it would be nice to be able to mix and match strong points).
I'm looking forward to the next installment in the series, and hopefully another one after that as well. So long as they can continue to add new features to the series, and fix the minor flaws in number 2, they could easily make the best shooter ever. AS it stands, Resistance 2, for me, just misses out on that title, but the massive soft spot I have for Crysis and the Battlefield series delegates it to an impressive 3rd (behind Crysis and Battlefield: 2142 [which I will a 'reflection review' of in the near future])
So, as both of those games are currently PC only, I believe that makes Resistance 2 the best shooter to grace any Sony home console to date.
While it's been on ice for as long as it was around, the Resistance franchise has no shortage of quality.
My take:
Single player
3, 2, 1
Multiplayer
3, 1, 2
Overall
3, 2, 1
I beat the lengthy single player in 1 multiple times and spent hours in the online too. Plus 1 featured my home town! Special mention to the audio design in 1: playing that with surround headphones blew me away.
Note: I have the platinum for Resistance 2.
Resistance 1 MP will always be my favorite. Call it nostalgia or whatever, but that was my jam, felt more balance, natural.
i have the platinium too , 10k kills in online ranked matches was no joke . Took me 3-4 months straight grinding but it was fun . To put it in perspective you only got like 25 kills per match if you were 1st place every match that's at Least 400 matches in 1st
I only played the 3 main Resistance titles. My ranking would be;
1. Resistance 3
2. Resistance: Fall of Man
3. Resistance 2
Man I loved 3's campaign. Another gem stuck on the ps3 and who knows if insomniac will go back to the franchise.
Resistance, Warhawk, MAG, Motorstorm, there's so many first party gems on PS3 that Sony has just left to die...
Burning Skies was about 3 hours long and rather inconsequential. You haven't missed anything
Honestly, Burning Skies was shit. There's no two ways about it. At first I thought it looked terrible, then I second guessed myself. Big mistake.
Retribution has this really cool feature where you could use a PS3 to link a controller to it and play. So if you had a 2000 or 3000 hooked to a tv, you can use a real controller. All of this predates the PSP Go's ability to sync a sixaxis to it via bluetooth.
While the studio is best known for Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet, and Clank, and Spider-Man back on the PS3 the studio broke from creating platformers and made one of the highest regarded science-fiction first-person shooters of all time. This was Resistance and it remains one of Sony's most acclaimed and dormant franchises.
Agreed. Until they do a new entry, I'd love to get the two portable games remade into console versions. Maybe in a nice compilation with the mainline titles.
Burning Skies wasn't a great game.
It was only a couple of hours long and there was nothing memorable about it.
I'd love a new entry
Resistance 3's campaign was gorgeous for the time - and an awesome game to boot.
I remember being put off by it because McHale wasn't the MC but it turned out to be my favourite campaign
by and large though the Resistance IP featured many protagonists (4 altogether I think if you include the portables). One of the reasons I enjoyed it was not being shackled to individual story arcs. Very rare for a major franchise.
My favorite resistance game as well! It seriously had creepy, scary a$$ moments bro! It made me want an action horror game from insomniac!
Remember playing this through online co op with the move controller and gun attachment! What a game!
I've said in the past I'd like to see this series return and have it take place years later, like in the present.
I'll give you an example if I'm not mistaken the last game ended in the 50s, so if it was to take place some time in the 2020s you'd have an opportunity to see how the world changed after the fall of Chimera and all the new technology that came out of that war.
Just like in our universe we all know WW2 happened, but we never experienced it, so if the next Resistance game takes place years later so too would people in that universe know a war look place against the Chimera, they just wouldn't know what it really was like.
So getting to see how that universe would respond to the Chimera reemerging would be interesting.
Imagine a little kid talking with his grandfather about the war and the kid just thinks it was just a made up bed time horror story and what was said was worse than what really took place, but now that the Chimera come back the kid will find out why years later the old timer adults were still waiting for the Chimera to return.
I think there is great potential for this series still and I really believe the best way forward for Resistance is make it have a time jump too.
So hopefully this series will return.
Great Idea. I'd play that version.
Resistance was a great game and of all the remasters.... I would play a great remastered version of resistance series as well
I was blown away when i played for the first time Resistance on the PS3. Great Game. Also liked very much an played for hundred of hours the Co-op of R2. The SP campaign of R3 is also excelent. I really hope that Sony and Insomniac annouced the Remaster of the Series and a new chapter. They got story to do that.
Resistance 2 was one of the first few games i played on ps3 and I loved it, would definitely finish that again :D
I loved all the Resistance games. But part 2 online was amazing. The Marksmen for the Spec Ops type class when it was fully upgraded was such an amazing weapon. Oh man I wish they release all the games again and let us play part 2 online again.
With Insomniac Games now under the Sony Worldwide Studios umbrella, the studio could bring a new Resistance game to life.
Insomniac didn’t feel all enthusiastic at continuing the series after the third installment
I don’t see how them getting bought out would encourage them to make a fourth game when they could work on another new IP or a sequel to Ratchet & Clank or Spider-Man.
Plus the third game ended on a deserved bittersweet note with a sense of finality against the Chimera. It’d be soul crushing even for this series to make all those sacrifices go to waste
Nah. Just a new killzone from guerilla games please.
Let insomniac do a platform game..
Thing is, there can be multiple teams doing multiple projects. One Insomniac team can do Spiderman, another can do Ratchet and Clank, another can do Resistance. It just depends on whether Sony is willing to grow the team enough and pay for more offices to do more work.
Fluttershy, Insomniac isn't Bioware, dummy.
There are plenty of publishers with multiple teams running multiple projects. Sony has several studios with numerous ongoing projects and teams. I don't know why this is such a difficult concept for plebs to grasp but the disagrees keep coming in lol
I want a semi-open world(think GoW) greedy, violent and super heavy atmosphere Killzone with KZ2's controls/feel with the best weapon audio possible and full on stealth elements for additional choice of approach.
As for Resistance (boy do I love this IP) I think Insomniac could do this game justice if they rebooted or continued the story with a different character. I just crave for Insomniac's weapon design ingenuity! As for multiplayer, they can go all out on a BR mode with some asymmetric PvPvE elements thrown in there like huge Chimera beasts dropping into the map at some random point and the team who kills it gets legendary loot.
Man just thinking about a modern Resistance game with a proper AAA BR made by Insomniac makes me salivate.
I love doing so too, but there has to be context behind it.
Killing the Helghast for example is entertaining gameplay wise as much as it is narrative wise because of all the lore behind it all.
The Chimera were said to have been defeated for good after killing of converting 90% of humanity’s population as well dramatically changing earth’s climate. If after all that the Chimera came back even stronger than ever, then would be far too bleak for there to ever be any reasonable chance of defeating them for good.
Dafuq? Killzone 3 was received just as well as Resistance 3 was.
And Killzone: Shadow Fall sold more than the last mainline Resistance game, showing that there’s more interest in the former series than the latter
KillZone Shadowfall was a borefest. GG has wrote themselves into a hole with the story for that game. I don't know how they're going to fix that.
Resistance has much better gameplay, world building, story, enemy designs, weapon variety, campaigns, etc. In terms of campaigns, Resistance is leagues better. But in terms of online multiplayer, I'd give that trophy to KZ.
I'd like to see them reboot it and go back to what Fall of Man was like
They could always do a reboot retelling like they've already done with Ratchet and Clank then do something completely new with a sequel
I'd love if they could restructure Nathan Hale and make him a better all rounded, developed character spanning the entire trilogy. At the end of the second one he could be transported to their world or something
Resistance 3 had a nice ending that closed the book on everything so I wouldn't want them to spoilt that, too many games come back and do the whole "Oh that great evil you got rid of? Yeah it's back"
I'm still amazed at how little recognition is given to the first resistance from "fans" esp the narration of RFOM during custscenes. Cornelia Hayes did an excellent job as Rachel Parker she gave the world an authentic sense of atmospheric urgency and dread that I haven't seen matched since Halo, It was even more engrossing at times then gears. The multiplater on Resitance 2 though just looked like saints row 3 version of gears...
https://www.youtube.com/wat...
The sound design in RFOM blew me away. Playing that with surround sound headphones was and probably still is awesome.
Ah RFOM! The multiplayer was SO smooth at the time. Even with a 350 mo- 500 mo connection. That was my first online experience back then!
Agree. I think the series has run its course. I'd rather see a great new IP.
they can start with an easy one. Resistance Trilogy Remaster for PS4 and includes trophy patch for RFoM. there is so much win in THAT. BUT...ONLY if they let us have back Resistance 2 MP...THE WHOLE THING!
that would be one hell of a housewarming gift for the fans!
"It’d be soul crushing even for this series to make all those sacrifices go to waste"
I have always felt that there is room for more. For instance the Chimera could have sent out a distress signal just before the tower/ship blew up to the real threat to humanity or what if thanks to the virus Nathan Hale somehow survived?
There are five games in the Resistance series. I think they could at least take the two portable ones and give them a proper big screen remake, like the GoW portables on the PS3 got.
No. let them work on what they want. I loved Resistance, but Insomniac proved they can work on New Ip and are hitting their Prime with the release of Spiderman, so let them work on what they want, and have a smaller 3rd party remake or remaster Resistance, and see if there's an audience for it.
Agreed. A new IP would be welcome. They've proven they can make a solid FPS, so let's make a new one!
Insomniac should do whatever they want, they deserve every freedom to deliver the game they want.
This.
When developers do what they want their products turn out better and we all benefit. When they're ready to do Resistance they'll do Resistance.
That's why they were independent and claimed to want that independence. If they wanted that freedom they should've stuck to their guns. Not took a payoff.
You're making it sound nefarious when this is hardly the case. There's a mutual trust here.
They know they'll be free to do what they want under Sony. Total autonomy - of course not, but Sony will likely approve and back anything they do.
This isn't to say Sony won't have any say - they'll likely encourage the immediate continuation of Spider-Man, but I doubt they'll mind and the fans sure won't.
Overall Insomniac is happy and trust Sony, or they wouldn't have taken the deal.
TheUndertaker85 - Haha, c'mon mate - Sony will let them do what they want. This acquisition makes sense on every level.
There needs to be mutual respect between publisher and developer.
They'll find that respect at WWS, this is good for Insomniac. WWS has a huge talent pool and they share knowledge and resources amongst each other.
Very excited to see what Insomniac can achieve under WWS.
https://www.polygon.com/201...
“ "It's hard for people in any industry to accept change, especially when you've been focused on doing things one way for so long," said Ted Price, Insomniac's president and CEO, in a recent interview with Polygon. "But as an industry, we're being forced to become comfortable [with], or at least accept, that change will be a constant for us."”
“ According to Price, Insomniac's independence is crucial to its ability to continually adapt to changing circumstances and try new things in all areas of game development. "We've always loved the opportunity to experiment with ... early on, game design models; now, delivery mechanisms and new platforms," he explained. And Insomniac's corporate culture ensures its employees are always challenged to "think creatively about not just game design, but how [they're] delivering [their] games and what audiences [they're] addressing with [their] games."”
“ Insomniac attempted to combine its history of creating hardcore games with a new platform, Facebook, when it began developing Outernauts in 2010. Price explained that the studio wanted to try a new business model but still deliver an experience that core gamers would appreciate. The company turned to Electronic Arts for help with the first half of that equation, and it didn't work out because, as Price put it, "the monetization and viral features that we had put in turned off a lot of the audience that we were hoping to attract."”
“ "I'm very proud of what we did with both those games because we took creative risks," he said. "And I think as a developer, taking creative risks is something you have to continue to do, even if people are telling you that all they want is the same recycled stuff over and over again."”
I think he means that sony shouldn't be too involved when they are making a game, just trust them to deliver if they want to make a new ip
Fair chance any remaster would be done by BluePoint. They've done amazing work this gen.
Good review ! And i agree with the single player storyline..
I have no idea why people bash it.I think it's an amazing game all'round.
I knew I wasn't the only one who preferred Resistance 2 over Killzone 2.
Good review
I really hate the R2 single player, it is sooooooo boring. Feels like a chore trying to complete it.
However, i think the multiplayer is really, really well designed from all angles. I wouldn't give it a 9.7 - but it is still a good game.
yeah online is really fun, and the campaign was better designed than Killzone's in my opinion but Killzones experience felt better for me.
P.s How do you know it sold over 3 million???
even know the game broke a million. This game is IF NOT, the worst game this generation. killzone easily smokes it.