Resistance 2

Insomniac have recently released their third game on the Play Station 3 from Ratchet and Clank: tools and destruction, resistance: Fall of man, and now Resistance 2. Resistance: fall of man was one the first games to be released on the console when it was first introduced.

The game had its issues from the beginning however with the latest version, Resistance 2 it seems as though insomniac have gone over it with a fine tooth brush.

The story sets off from where the last one finished, you play as Sergeant Nathan Hale from where after you destroyed th

e generator in Resistance: fall of man, you are seen walking in a forest by a nearby V-Tol which then stops to pick you up. The game starts off by re-showing this part and then also everything that happens whilst you are on it.

Resistance two sees you fighting off the army of chimera, however this time you are fighting them in the America, it seems the creatures have managed to cross the Pacific and are ready to attack. Simply put the V-tol that picks you up is flown by American troops which have heard about you and require your services.

Once you are in America you see a creature called Daedalus is like the angles in resistance: fall of man, it has some mental affect on Hale. The story seems to be well thought, however character motivation is always explained and there is no commentary to explain levels and parts of the game that were confusing, like the first one.

The first game was talked about because it was one of the first games to have a sort of single bullet re-action, basically each bullet or action that was performed by the user made its own and unique affect on the objects around them the perfect example of this was when you shot into a glass window. Each bullet would make its own hole and its own crack in the glass.

And Resistance 2 carries this. The same affect has been brought along however this time it seems to be slightly refined to make each affect more realistic and crisp. The games has improved in the way that objects such as boxes can be moved around and this can be used to your advantage if you are good. Dead bodies in the game also react better to explosives.

In Resistance: Fall Of Man and explosion on an enemy was good however it was never satisfying enough and the explosions never seemed to be real, this time each explosion is better and causes more damage and affect on all of the objects around it.

The game now seems to make a big deal out bodies blowing, they never make it obvious however it does seem to be in your face most of the time, whenever enemies or comrades are blown up their organs seems to be the things that are splattered around the place, this is also what makes blowing up enemies fun and good.

The AI from resistance: fall of man was good and was one of the best of its time, the enemies made smart moves and new exactly when and where to take cover. So you would imagine ‘how could insomniac possibly make the AI better than it already is, and if they could what kind difficulties would you end up with?’

Well you would end up with this, the best AI I have ever played. Your enemies are almost real now; it does not feel like you are playing a computer but it feels like you are playing online against real people. And even though the AI is easy to kill when they are not taking cover, it is difficult to kill when it is.

However do not think that this is a bad thing, this makes the AI more satisfying to kill and makes each shot that you get on your enemy that much worthwhile.

And do not just think that only the enemy AI has improved the, AI of your team mates has also improved and in times you can just take cover whilst they can go around killing the enemies and if they ever need you they would always shout, this means that you can actually treat your team mates like actual teams mates and let them kill for themselves whilst you ‘watch their backs.’

The weapons and gadgets from the last game were very good and the M5A2 carbine especially as it was the weapon that almost seemed perfect small wonder that they kept that gun for the new one, however they also kept some of the other guns that we thought were just great, such as the: Bullseye and the Bullseye Mark 2 (which you never get to really use in the other one), an improved version of the Rossmore 236 and finally the LARK, there are others that have been kept however they are not as special.

The New weapons in the game seem different yet still as fun to use as the old ones. the weapons that stood out for us are, the Revolver this gun is simply a basic revolver however each of the bullets that are used are explosives and once fired you can set the bullet off by using it secondary function.

The pulse cannon is a new addition to your arsenal now and it does pack a lot of punch, think of it as the LARK but with more ammo and that is all there is to know about it. Also a new rifle to mix is the marksman this seems to be the chimera’s attempt to copy the L23 Fareye, however this weapons range is smaller than the L23 and it shoot a 3 bullet burst. The weapon however is one of my favourites in the game and is very fun to use.

The single player campaign is good and although the game is fairly short the fun that you more than makes up for it. The campaign is set in America in which like the first one you find yourself shifting from point to point.

In the game you are mainly accompanied by three other soldiers, as a group you will find yourself moving around and which each member of the group being a different class from anyone else you would find that the game in that sense is very enjoyable, each character as their own skill, for example one of your comrades has the ability to call forth a shield which you can hide behind when you are taking damage however this does not work when you want it to so it can sometimes be annoying.

There are also some missions in which you have to go by yourself to do now these can be very fun or very scary, this all depends on how you normally play the game. I found that running in all guns blazing does work sometimes however not always.

Seeing as now you do not have a health gage it is difficult to determine when you are about to die, this make the game harder to play as now you cannot just run around hoping that you would just manage to pick up health. This time your health fully recovers by itself and it does not require you to pick up health.

The story to the game is very well thought out however, unlike the last one there is no commentary to explain missions so, character motivations are clearly seen and at times missions may not seem to have an objective to them. Apart from this the story is very well done and the graphics makes everything seem realistic, the only problem with the story is the ending, not to give it away but it just sort of ends.

Offline multiplayer is good as it offer different campaigns that can be done; these campaigns are specifically designed to be player with two players.

The only problem is that resistance 2 no longer offers you the chance to play the whole of the single player campaign in co-op, this slightly lets resistance 2 down a bit the old one was fun to play in co-op and I was hoping that this would have it as well, the fact that there are different maps that can be played using co-op is good however, they should have done a completely new campaign that can be played in co-op.

Online however is a lot better the new 60 player online games that are offered are just epic, the online is one of the best I have ever played. Resistance: Fall Of Man offered an amazing online experience and you would think that they would not try to improve it however, they did and I am glad that they did.

It seems as though Resistance 2 kept all of the stuff that we loved from Resistance: Fall of Man and it improved all of the stuff we didn’t. There are two different ways the online can be played there is competitive and there is cooperative. And now you can play online either by yourself or with a friend with the new split screen online feature that is in the game.

Competitive is where 60 people can fight it out online in four different ways, there is the obvious Death Match, Team Death Match and Capture the Flag but there is a new type of game called Skirmish, this involves player get split up into groups of six and taking part objective based battles.

Cooperative is where games have a maximum of 8 players and the group of 8 have to complete small objectives as a group in specially designed maps, these are exactly the same as the co-op games that you have offline.

Resistance 2 has kept all of the things that we loved from Resistance: Fall of Man although, it has missed some of things that would have made it better for example the narration. The game is still well laid out and maintains a simplicity to the game play. The only thing that lets it down is the co-op campaigns and the ending to the story.

There is no way to play the story mode in spilt screen however the fact that you can play online with a split screen option does make up for this, but the story line is still a problem, however it does set the scene very nicely for Resistance 3.