Posted by Shaver on November 27, 2008


Resistance 2: Final Report - 9/10

Categories: Final Report, Latest Reviews, Resistance 2 | 717 responses

r2_boxI’m ashamed of myself.  I really am.  In the wake of my mild GOW2 “Horde” addiction, I almost forgot about the OTHER best shooter out there right now, Resistance 2.  I’m going to blame this one on the fact that I felt unneeded pressure to hurry through R2 in order to get to GOW2. And then I’ll then blame my newly found, maniacal obsession with acquiring Xbox achievements for my short-term memory loss and procrastination of my R2 review.

I’ve returned to Resistance 2 for a few hours now and I have to admit, I was pleasantly (re)surprised and actually did forget how balls-out awesome this game is.

You shoot a LOT in R2.  Maybe not quite as much as our juice-monkey GOW2 brethren, but I still am surprised Nathan Hale’s shoulder hasn’t been dislocated from the perpetual kickback of the many, many guns you will use (and need) to make your way through this game.

I won’t bore you with Resistance 2’s story because, well quite frankly, it a) is the same old, same old and b) sucks worse than the same old, same old.  I lost interest after the first chapter - the one where they throw you into the action by having to outrun the biggest fackin’ boss I’ve ever seen in a game (with the exception of the other biggest boss I’ve ever seen in a game that really IS the biggest boss in any game ever on about the 4th level) when I fully realized this game wasn’t about story. That’s what we had Rachel and Resistance: Fall of Man for, right?

R2_biggest

A few key story points I did pick up on; however:

  1. Nathan Hale SPEAKS! Even though the strange ginger prick didn’t say a word in the first one he seems to have found a voice in America.  Maybe he was embarrassed about his North American accent in Europe the last time around.
  2. Where the hell is Rachel? I don’t know! I don’t know!  And it’s really too bad.  Her story telling and narration in Resistance: Fall of Man is what gave the story substance and, in my opinion, an epic feel more along the lines of playing through a movie rather than a game.
  3. Friends! This time around, you have a squad called the Sentinels because they couldn’t think of a better name so just borrowed one from the Matrix.  Kinda like GOW2 made their Reavers look a lot like Matrix’s Sentinals… following?  Oh, and your teammates suck. They’re not funny, they look like they’re made of plastic and they’re pretty much useless.  They are most definitely not Dom, Baird and Cole; my new best friends.
  4. Star Spangled Banner. You’re in the US this time and you travel everywhere trying to kill all the Chimera, the alien terrrorists.  I can hear the Homeland Security warnings at the airports going from Orange to Red… go paranoia!

So basically, what I took from the story is that you’re the only person who survived Europe, the Chimera have all but eaten North America, you’ve been recruited to a new squad of dudes who look like they’re made of Plasticine (one of which has a raging hard-on for hating you for some odd reason) and you need to kill everything.  Good enough for me, how about you?

Creative:

This is where it gets good.  The game looks and sounds outstanding.  With the exception of the seemingly 2D space stations textured into the backgrounds with a glue stick, the game itself is amazing.  Insomniac pushed the limits of the PS3 hardware, indeed.  The first couple of levels are not bad but the artists found their stride somewhere around Chicago.  The city is terrifyingly devastated and you can’t help but meander through the streets in shock and awe thinking “Is this REALLY what would happen?”

R2_Chicago

Your trip to Idaho is equally as impressive and realizing.  Tripping over pods that you can only assume used to be humans, you can’t help but feel bad for the used-to-be-kid in the bed and crawl at a snails pace through the backyards and homes HOPING to find someone alive and also hoping these pods don’t errupt into an onslaught of creepy almost-Chimera flooding you like a baby in a full bathtub at any given moment…

Insomniac has also delivered some seriously creepy shit-meet-pants moments.  Crawling through a mansion with a flashlight vaguely illuminating only the 10-15 feet directly ahead of you while hearing the terrifying screaming of Chimera (or their prey) in the rooms above, beside and below you has to be one of my favorite gaming moments in recent history.

If I have one complaint about the game it’s the fact that you spend too much time in Halo; oh sorry, I mean an alien ship made of metal and purple plastic with way too many reflections on all surfaces.  Apparently, alien ships don’t get dusty. Or maybe their alien bitches just keep ‘em nice and clean.  Although I’ve yet to run into a single female alien in any of any of these alien games… hmmmm….

Enemies/Guns:

Resistance 2 qualifies a separate category for enemies and guns… I’m putting them in the same category because, well, without one, you wouldn’t have the other, right?

The weapons in R2 are some of the best weapons in any game.  I mean, it’s Insomniac, how could we go wrong.  Hey guys, maybe give us some of Ratchet & Clank’s weapons as a cheat code next go around, what do you say? THAT would be cool and I’d buy that game for sure…  So anyway, you have some old favorites like the Carbine (SUCKS), Bullseye, Auger and the Sniper Rifle.  There are a couple new ones like the shit-kicking-I’m-a-muthafuckin-gunslinga Magnum and the Marksman that SUCKS until you figure out the best part about all of the weapons… the secondary fire!  What the hell?!  Magnum bullets that explode remotely when they’re already INSIDE the enemy??  Crazy laser thingies that taser enemies like an out of control state trooper?? And my all-time favorite game-gun feature… when you snipe, the rifle magically slows down time so you can aim better! Man, I love this game!

Originally, when I played Resistance 2 I was pretty upset that Insomniac decided to remove the ability to hold 8 weapons at once and opted instead to only allow Nathan to carry 2 weapons of choice. Then, as I progressed, the weapons I needed (and would have chosen anyway) were very conveniently ‘dropped’ by the Chimera in the middle of the path ahead of me.  Nice!

R2_fight

Oh ya, the Chimera.  Although all the aliens/crossbreeds in games nowadays are starting to look like each other, Insomniac has introduced some haul-ass enemies that appear many, many times in the game in many, many numbers. Splicers, Goliaths, Kraken and the usual 4-eyed, energy-backpack carrying freaks.  Oh, did I mention the biggest boss ever followed by another bigger biggest boss ever mid-game?  And there are a lot of them.   As in frustrating amounts of a lot of Chimera but it’s OK because you have an arsenal of weapons that couldn’t possibly have been available way back in, like say, the 1950’s… oh wait, this game is set in the 1950’s… I forgot because the weapons, clothing, enemy ships, lack of humans and ‘timeless’ set pieces never, ever seem to remind you of such.  But there is an old car or 2 and a gas station with an old neon sign here and there that might look like it’s from the 50’s so I’ll bite.

Gameplay:

This game throws you into the action fast.  You have no choice but to figure out your controls ASAFP and the intensity never relents.  The pacing is perfect and Insomniac has truly impressed with the variety of locales you are blessed to visit during this epic adventure.

After you get used to the 2-guns (oh wait, you’re already used to it from every other shooter out there) and the new ‘regenerating health system’ (oh wait, you’re used to that as well from the same other games) you’re well on your way to probably the best gaming experience on the PS3.

I, at first, was a bit upset with a few sections in the game that forced me to die-by-trial-and-error-multiple-times-to-progress to figure out how to get to the next checkpoint… and then I realized this is exactly what we did on our Nintendo’s back in ‘86.  It’s a modern day throwback to what gaming really is.  Some might say otherwise but I give props to Insomniac if this was indeed their intention.

Apparently, multiplayer is equally as impressive of an experience but I’m not going to lie to you, I haven’t even tried.  If you want a multiplayer review, go see the others.

Conclusion:

This game is epic.  It truly is a game all PS3 owners not only should, but need to experience to fully realize and appreciate why they dished out the $400 in the first place.  Level designs are immense in every sense of the word, each of which subtly giving props to obvious sources of inspiration (Predator, Doom, Survival Horror or Halo anyone?).

Play this game.  I know for a fact I’m gonna let my Xbox 360 rest tonight while the PS3 screams at me for forcing it to work as hard as it must in order to get Resistance 2 to play at a smooth frame rate.  Thanks Insomniac for giving me, uh, insomnia… clever.

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