Customer Reviews

Resistance 2

5 star:		(113)
4 star:		(51)
3 star:		(45)
2 star:		(28)
1 star:		(20)

 

 

Resistance 2 comes as somewhat of a disappointment to me. I absolutely loved the first Resistance game for the PS3 and it was truly the first "must have" title for the system.

Unfortunately many of the things that endeared me to the first game have been modified or dropped completely in R2. The excellent narration between levels featured in the first game is now completely gone and sorely missed. The story suffers because of it. Now instead of getting a quick update of the fight against the Chimera the game relies on in-game voice acting to move the story. It simply doesn't work for me. The objectives are never quite clear enough, the motivation isn't quite there. I felt like every level was simplified to "kill the guys who don't look like us". Very disappointing considering the first game had such an excellent story.

Another disappointment to me is the graphics. While R2 does add more colors to the originals palette the game is by no means stunning. Graphical glitches are prevalent in everything from evident polygon seams to areas completely missing textures. The environment textures themselves vary from pixilated to blurry. This all stands in stark contrast to in-game bosses which are stunning. The graphical detail from level to level is also uneven. The very first level looks terrible while the next level, situated in a redwood forest, looks great. I can't help but feel that the game could've used another 6 months in development to improve the graphics.

Also cut are the fun vehicle sequences from R1. That's right you won't get a crack to pilot any vehicle of any type at any point in the game. Co-operative offline campaign has also been cut and replaced with random levels that feature no story to speak of. Very disappointing.

Another change to R2 is the weapons themselves. The first game featured a large variety of weapons that were added to the player's inventory permanently. Now, not only has the amount of weapons offered dwindled; but you can only carry 2 weapons at one time. I can understand certain players citing more realism as the reason for the change but it simply doesn't make sense - Resistance isn't about realism.

Changes too have been made to the health system. In the first game the player had a traditional health bar that provided the pertinent information. That has now been removed in favor of a damage system represented by a red screen. The more damage your character takes the more red the outer ring of your screen will become. I don't have a problem with the new system as much as I have a problem with the one-hit instant kills that have been added to the game. Certain enemies retain the capability of stopping you dead in your tracks. Unfortunately this is abused by the developer and you'll find yourself randomly dying at the hands of enemies in what can only be described as trial and error. It's very frustrating to be killed unexpectedly because you're unclear where to go or what to do or by invisible enemies.

One change to the game that I liked is the inclusion of a cast of characters that Nathan actually fights alongside. The first Resistance game was essentially a one man show. While in R2 you have no direct control of your squad-mates they are there and fight along with you. The AI for these characters is moderately capable.

The online portion of the game has clearly received more attention in R2. You now have a slew of options including cooperative and competitive online modes. A big selling point touted by the developer is the ability to fight in 60-player online battles. My experience thus far has been mixed. The massive battles I've played in are unorganized and chaotic. I confess that thus far I'm not a fan. The game attempts to encourage small squad based objectives but it hasn't had the desired effect. In online games I've started it seems that my squad immediately fragments into individuals.

Ultimately, Resistance 2 will probably be liked more by newcomers to the series. Fans of the original game will likely notice the shortcomings and changes all to well. Still, R2 is a proficient enough of an effort and here's hoping the next game realigns with the efforts of the first.

Fall of Man was exceptional in many ways, but most generally because it avoided many dominant tropes of the genre in favor of pure design. It stood out from the crowd. Apparently, Insomniac decided they wanted to be part of the crowd after all, because they actually introduced all the painful cliches they used to avoid into the sequel.

I still think of Fall of Man as the best console FPS I've ever played. The level design pulled off large, open battles and corridor encounters equally brilliantly. They looked great too; the human buildings looked as good as you'd expect, but the alien environments were immensely creative in their design, and all of it was stunningly sharp for a launch title. The weapons were equally creative, and possibly the high point of the entire package. Each was not just fun to use, but distinct in its effectiveness, so that choosing your tool was as-or more-important to your strategy as strafing or seeking cover.

Pacing and difficulty were perfectly balanced, and it's the only game I've ever been able to enjoy and finish up to the highest difficulty setting, because even then, it never felt cheap. The story was mysterious and perfectly underplayed, and contributed to the atmosphere without interrupting the pace of the game. There were few occasions that could be called boss battles, and they came and went fairly organically.

Nearly all of this was undone for the sequel, as if Insomniac thought all the good points of the original were mistakes to be corrected.

The level design is still largely unchanged, but does have problems. The large, many-participant battles that cropped up from time to time in FoM are much less frequent, and levels are often broken up by tedious jumping exercises that punish you with instant death if you fail. The graphics are worse than in the original as well. It's hard to put my finger on why, but everything simply looks uglier. While it's not outright awful, there are a few glaring examples; the Grim pods, for one, look hideously low-res close up, and in the early part of the last chapter, set in a Louisiana bayou, the leafy trees and spanish moss look staggeringly atrocious.

All the subtlety is gone from the story and characters of the first one, and the new style of presentation damages the pace of gameplay. Hale, instead of being taciturn (ok, some might say shallow and undeveloped, but I liked the minimalist presentation that allowed room for interpretation), is now a cookie-cutter gruff commander type. His squad is equally annoying, especially with the painfully lackluster attempts at giving them backstories. That would be bad enough, but the gameplay is frequently interrupted by deliberately protracted elevator rides or waits in hallways while someone hacks/bombs a door. Why? Just so you can listen to your squad bicker or discuss generic objectives at length. The dialogue isn't remotely original or interesting, and sometimes outright painful ("That water's reading as white hot, so I'd keep my distance if I were you." 'White hot water'? Please).

The weapons are still good, but, in perhaps the most head-slappingly idiotic design choice Insomniac has ever made, they instituted the 2 weapon system that's been defiling the FPS genre since Halo. Obviously, I've never been a fan of this system. Some people justify it by saying it's more realistic, or that it introduces a new element of strategy. Firstly, realism does not remotely apply; in Halo, you're a superhuman cyborg fighting aliens on a ring shaped planet; in Resistance, you're a superhuman soldier fighting aliens (or whatever) with super high-tech weaponry. But the idea that one of these superhumans could carry 3 guns is just too outlandish? As for strategy, it's the worst kind of strategy. You come upon a weapon, and have to consider how much ammo you have, how long this weapon will last, if it's appropriate for the next encounter (as if you know what that'll be) etc. It breaks up the pace, requires more backtracking, and leaves you always imagining how much more enjoyable gunfights would be if you had the gun you actually wanted.

Yet, many, many FPSs use this system, apparently for no reason other than the fact that Halo did it and Halo made lots of money. But Fall of Man ignored this trend, and I considered this a minor miracle. Maybe some people thought having all the weapons and a fairly consistent supply of ammo made things too easy, but I don't; the game was still thoroughly challenging. It's just that the strategy was in using the weapons rather than just choosing them. And it was fun. WAS.

The enemy design and AI is, I will say, still above average. The main complaint I have about the enemies in general is that the Chimera start to seem like an absurdly diverse species. In FoM, they were somewhat believable as a humanoid race with a few larger, more monstrous forms. Now, there's a fish Chimera, a few squid-like Chimera, a skyscraper-sized Chimera, and a Chimera that looks like a dinosaur. Okay, it's not the worst thing about the game, but I think if they were trying to build a credible universe around these creatures they shouldn't be so laughably monster-for-all-occasions-ish. The low point of the enemy design, though, is definitely the Chameleon. This is an invisible monster that presents itself with an audio cue, then appears seconds before performing an instant kill move on you. After the first, there's a further sound effect that lets you know there are more in the area, and they almost always come from directly ahead of you in a linear path. However, the first is always more abrupt, and worse than that, if you happen to be looking in the wrong direction at the wrong time, or reloading, you are killed instantly.

This ties into my biggest complaint about the game; Insomniac made a big feature of constant, infuriating and arbitrary death. Chameleons come out of nowhere, you misjudge a jump just slightly, you look the wrong direction for a moment, and you're dead. You advance into an area you've just cleared, and when you're far enough from cover, the next wave of enemies rushes in and overwhelms you before you can find more cover. You spend both clips from all two of your weapons killing half such a wave, then the rest kill you easily when you're forced to reload. Bosses might kill you with one hit, again if you're foolish enough not to be looking in the right direction for a second, or in one case, after it softens you up with an attack you can't avoid. Enemies spawn from the clear area at your back. Compounding this all is the health system. Insomniac ditched the meter in favor of the going-monochrome-near-death thing. This works in some games, but here, where death is so frequent and abrupt, some precision would have been welcome.

The natural reaction to this complaint is to just say I'm just no good at it. I'm sure I don't play to professional standards, but FPS is my favorite genre, and I play them a lot. In particular, I've played through Fall of Man many, many times, including on the highest difficulty, as I mentioned above. At the very least, I know when a death is my fault, be it from carelessness or bad strategy (invariably the case in FoM), or from cheap shots. As far as cheap shots are concerned, the AI in Resistance 2 isn't even to blame; it's all in the cheap, punishing design. You'll die countless times from cheap environmental hazards, one hit kills only avoidable through trial and error, or simply from standing in the wrong place when a wave of enemies spawns. It's a design philosophy that has less to do with your skill and more to do with knowing exactly what will happen next, and punishing you for failing to predict the future. It's incredibly frustrating, and it's worlds apart from Fall of Man.

Obviously, this is all about the campaign. I don't go in for multiplayer, but if that's all you're interested in, I hear R2 is terrific. Maybe they put so much effort into perfecting it that it explains why the single player is so painfully inferior to the original. The only reason gave it 2 stars rather than 1 is that there are moments, however rare, where there are echoes of the engrossing fun and exhilaration of Fall of Man. But then the echoes fade, and it's back to yammering squad mates, cheap death, and ludicrously aggrandized monsters. Insomniac, I can get that dreck from every other shooter on the market. I thought you were different.

It was very obvious from day 1 Sony and Insomniac focus was on PSN/multi-player. We heard a lot about it. Now the game is out, every bit that was promised is delivered. My most favorite parts in the game are the co-op missions. It is so much fun to play with buddies split-screen, the game levels are randomly generated. The experience is never the same any time you play back the levels.

Co-op missions are class based. Dont try to run around and get killed. You need to be organized and push inch by inch. Every one has a role to play and all of them are fun. You can play with upto 8 people online. The game completely suits itself for the number of people playing at a time. I like it when there is a minimum of 4 people, with a good medic. It is so satisfying and epic.

They have also pushed the competitive bar to 60 players. It gets really crazy at the last min when every one converges to the center. It has a similar feel to UT3 warfare mode. If you are tired of the vanilla kill count based games, R2 is the decisive answer.

We are going to be talking about R2 for a long long time to come. This has set the bar for multi-player. We are going to see a lot copy cats too. The engine has been revamped a lot from R1. The game never slows down with all the explosions and 60 people running around. It is a amazing technological achievement. Even PC games couldn't do what R2 has done on a console. Competitive levels are much more methodical than run and gun. It takes a few shots before the person dies. So you can always move away and find a better flanking position.

Competitive multiplayer levels are very well balanced. It is not winner takes all. If you play well you become a bigger bulls eye in the map. So every one has a chance. It also increases the challenge for higher skill palyers. It is a win-win. Very well thought out maps. Take your time and play slowly. It is a very enjoyable game. If you are looking for a simple bunny hop and shoot multi-player; you are in for disappointment.

The game is slightly different from R1. No more weapons wheel. You can just carry two weapons at a time. You also get a Uncharted style fully recovering health. Some of old weapons are tweaked to make it more interesting to use. Art direction also has changed. Now visuals have a pop. Forest is no more the post apocalyptic gray burnt one.. it is a green lush forest. Every thing feels fresh and natural.

Resistance 2 is in direct competition with LBP for its massiveness. I don't think there is any other games that packs so much content in a single disk. I have a strong feeling Insomniac filled up the entire Blu-ray disc.

Single player mode much more narrated. The game walks you through a very cinematic presentation. The games takes control of the camera to several times to show all the glorious backgrounds and set pieces. Boss battles are huge. Some of the levels are just one single big boss battle. You are just circling around slowly taking the health of the big behemoths.
So far I have killed more than 1000 enemies in single player. The game sincerely makes you feel helpless. AI is stunningly smart. My winning formula is survey, find a safe position, move & fortify, then survey again. Run and gun doesn't seem to work. I was able to be finish R1 without thinking this much.

Audio in this game is amazing. This time it feels lot more like Hollywood. Weapons pack a punch. If you have a 7.1, close all the doors and crank up the volume. You will be in the edge of the chair through out the entire mission.

The franchise has solidified its base now. Iam very eager to see what they have under their cloak for R3. I would love to see the weapons wheel back in R3.

To tell the truth there's not much I can say about Resistance 2 except that it blows away Resistance:Fall of Man as far as more intense action and the graphics are a very nice update from the first.The only thing I don't like about Resistance 2 is you can onlyy carry 2 weapons at a time,in Resistance:Fall of Man you carried every gun you found.But Resistance 2 did take it up a notch with more unique guns for Chimera killing mayhem!And the bosses you fight...absolutely HUGE!If you liked the first Resistance you'll love the 2nd:)

Either I've gotten much better at first person shooters since the original Resistance came out 2 years ago, or Resistance 2 is just a lot easier and shorter than Resistance 1. Unfortunately, I can confirm that I have NOT gotten any better at FPS games...as much as I love to play them. Therefore, Resistance 2 is simply easier and shorter than Resistance 1.

One thing is for sure: Resistance 2 is at minimum as much fun to play as Resistance 1. So why, you may ask, would my overall rating of the game be only 3 stars? Because Resistance 2 was: 1) too short, 2) too easy and 3), most disappointingly, did not allow for co-op play (like Resistance 1 did) of the campaign. There are indeed on and offline multiplayer co-op modes...but not of the campaign. And that's a big minus for me. I played through the campaign of Resistance 1 in co-op mode several times with my kids and friends and that option is sorely missed in R2.

Don't get me wrong...playing both on or offline co-op in R2 is indeed very fun. There are various missions that you can set up and play with friends. But it's just not the same as playing through the campaign...it's just not.

The campaign consists of (only) 7 levels of exhilarating battles against a plethora of creatures that you use a plethora of weapons to defeat (and they'll use most of them against you too). To really put the campaign plot of the game in context (if you care about the plot), it's well worth the visit to the official Resistance web site; there's a ton of story there that I'd bet 90% of the people who start the game are unaware of. For me, the story helps me "get more into character" for the game, and R2 picks up right where R1 left off.

Your campaign weapons in R2 are as plentiful as they were in R1. HOWEVER, and I actually liked this better, you are only able to carry 2 weapons at a time instead of stockpiling every weapon you come across. Most of the R1 weapons are back...some slightly modified. The Bullseye Mach II is readily available right at the early stages of R2 versus only in the very latter stages of R1; it's very useful on the enemies that you encounter most throughout the game. You also get several mean weapons that are new to R2 (like the Wraith and the Chimaran Marksman). I found that grenades were not as key to survival in R2 as they were in R1. There were level in R1 that were virtually impossible without grenades; I didn't find that was the case in R2.

Perhaps the most improved feature of R2 is the health system. In R1 everyone who's played it will recall the annoying system of having to find health syrums throughout the game. R2 has moved to a more Call of Duty 4 like system where finding cover immediately replenishes your health. Although, now that I think of it, this probably contributed heavily to how much easier R2 seemed than R1. The controller's aiming and meleeing schematic was also rearranged a bit to be more Call of Duty-like.

Again similar to R1, there are no maps in R2, which at times was frustrating. Let me tell you that if the phrase "the best route is not always the most obvious ever applied to trying to get from here to there" it applies in this game on more than one occasion.

Finally, unlike R1, in R2 you'll never be required to control any vehicles or Chimaran craft.

If you just like wasting nasty beasts without regard to a story, then my concerns about a short game and no co-op to enjoy with others won't affect you as much as it did me. Rest assured, the story won't help you beat the enemies or evade the barrage of defenses that will be fired at you by them. I'm glad that I played R1 before R2, and I recommend starting with that (and R1 is cheap on Amazon too Resistance: Fall Of Man). But playing R1 first certainly isn't necessary to enjoying R2.

Resistance 2 has an M (mature gamers only) rating just as Resistance 1 did. There's a bit more cursing in R2 than R1, but both Resistance games really only deserved T (teen) ratings. But I'm perhaps a bit more liberal when it comes to what I think will warp a kid's mind, so you'll need to use your own discretion if you're thinking of this as a gift for someone under the age of 18.

Multi-player is cool too. Multi-player is not like co-op where you play missions with friends. In Multi-player you battle (with or without your friends) against other onliners.

You've been promoted from Sgt. to Lt. Nathan Hale. As far as you know, up to the start of R2 you've been the only one with a Resistance to the Fall of Man. But things may be different than what you thought before being introduced to R2's Doctor Malikov...very different. Prepare for some surprises and some serious battle.

The fact is I loved the first Resistance because me and my 12 year old daughter could play co-op through the whole game. I ordered this one because I just figured it would have the same game experience as the first. It does not. The local co-op game is hard to even figure out how to get too and is way too hard on the easiest level for my daughter and I to play. Plus there is no way to do local co-op through the story mode. I think this one is made more more online multi-player rather than local. So if you are looking for a local co-op game the best thing you could do is to get something else.

We bought this thinking that it was going to have the same type of campaign mode as the first, where you can play with two people in the story mode. Sadly the makers decided to only have a single player story mode. The online play with larger groups of players is fun, but I wish they would have left the multiplayer campaign mode intact.

Like one of the above reviewers I also was eagerly awaiting Resistance 2. Me and both my daughters had a fantastic time playing the original in split screen.

Huge disappointment in offline split screen co-op. A real deal breaker for me personally, but the game does look and sound much better than the first.

I was just hoping for split screen co-op gameplay as good as the first, but with better graphics and sound.

This ain't it.

Count me among the many gamers disappointed with Resistance 2. Like most others, I loved the original R:FoM and have replayed it many times. I was greatly anticipating a second go round with this title release. Unfortunately, my hopes weren't realized.

Is R2 a bad game? No. But is is a significant step back from the original R:FoM. I would also say that R2 is no more than a very average PS3 title at best. Its shortcomings definitely smack of a game rushed to market in time for the holidays.

The problems? Whereas RFoM had a great backstory, R2 barely has one at all and what's there is very underdeveloped. R2 kind of just leans on what was told in the first game more than advancing the story.

Next, and this is the biggest problem with R2, is level design. It's terrible. It looks like very little time and thought was put into them. RFoM had tremendous level design that was well thought out and allowed for individuality in your approach to tackling enemies and completing missions. R2's levels however, are so terribly restrictive and linear that there is very little room to stray off the beaten path laid out for you, and thus offers very little replay value.

Another disappointment is the graphics and game camera. I have a 60" 1080P television and RFoM looks fabulous on it. I was rather shocked at how little effort was put into graphic details of R2. This was one of the most anticiapted games on PS3 this year and I expected much more than what I saw, which was average to below average visuals. As far as the camera goes, it's terribly frustrating and awkward compared to the original. You get used to it and adapt your tactics to your limited vision in R2, but it's always annoying you in crucial moments of the game.

All in all, R2 is highly forgettable and a let down compared to the first installment. This is definitely a renter.

Resistance 2 is the first game this generation that has truly surprised me. I'd heard mixed reactions to the game, the negative being mostly from fans of the first game, Resistance: Fall of Man (a game I greatly enjoyed), who had alluded to the fact that Resistance 2 had lost its identity that was so well established with its predecessor. Also, the removal of two key features of the first game, the weapons wheel, and the way in which the narrative was told (which was through narrated flashbacks), seemed to bring particular ire to these same fans. Now that I've had the chance to play through and complete the campaign myself, I can confirm that Insomniac did make some significant changes with the second game, and it does feel quite different from the first game in several ways. But you know what? Insomniac has made the game bigger, badder, louder and completely epic in every way. Resistance 2 is a much better game than its prequel, and is one of the best action first person shooters I've ever played.

Let me address two things...even though I'm completely accustomed to playing FPSs that only let you carry two weapons at once (most FPSs these days), I did miss the weapons wheel from Resistance: Fall of man....a little. The story here is very much along the same lines of the first game, but it doesn't have the same charm that you get when a British female narrator is guiding you through the tale via 1950's-esque cut scenes. With these two things aside, in pretty much every other area, Insomniac has upped the ante. BIG is the key word here. Insomniac seems like they set out to make the biggest game they possibly could. And for this gamer, they succeeded with flying colors. Resistance 2 boasts some of the most incredible set pieces I've ever seen in a video game. There were several moments (such as seeing the Golden Gate Bridge circa 1955 in a Chimera-occupied San Francisco) that literally left me stunned at how incredible they were. Creature and set design seems like its coming from some of the best science fiction visionaries alive (those Chimeran ships....WOW). The huge battles between humanity and Chimera forces are back and even larger and more chaotic this time. The scope of some of the boss battles was bewildering. Insomniac clearly set out here to blow the minds of gamers. If it doesn't work for you, then I can understand how the game might almost seem obnoxious at times. But it worked for me. When it comes to delivering a sensory experience, this game was stunning and did just that with the very best of them.

The gameplay feels like a slight upgrade from the first game, similar but a little better in the right places. The main difference I noticed is that the weapons feel more powerful and meaner (not to mention the addition of some incredible new weapons, and the scrapping of some of the lamer ones found in the first game). The game is a technical marvel, with incredible graphics and art design, and crisp, powerful sound. The story continues directly after the events of the first game and like its predecessor's narrative, succeeds in being intriguing and keeping you interested in what happens next. Like everything else in Resistance 2, the story culminates into the epic, with caps it off with an ending sequence that you'll never forget. Another area of note that I have to mention is the new enemies in the game. They are simply awesome! One of them, known as the Grim, attack in fast-moving hordes and conjures up eerie feelings of the running "infected" in 28 Days Later, except now, they're actually coming after you!

I think that your reaction to Resistance 2 will depend on whether the changes Insomniac has brought to the series work for you or not. For me, I feel that what they've done here is some brilliant work, and that Resistance 2 is a significant step up from Resistance: Fall of Man. If Insomniac can take the best parts of both games can combine them into the upcoming Resistance 3, it could end up one of the best action FPSs we've ever seen.