Resistance 2 Review PS3

Ah, Resistance 2 on the PS3, the indirect competition to the XBOX 360 game, Gears of War. Mind you, I have only played a demo of the first Resistance game, so I cannot compare the entry title to this one, except to note the fact that the sequel has no true co-op mode for the campaign as the original did. The story takes place in an alternate 1940’s where the Chimera have taken over Europe and are now fixed on invading North America. The single player campaign is one that I was completely satisfied with and did not seem like it was just thrown in as an after thought a la Gears of War/Gears of War 2. The focus of course is the multiplayer as in most FPS games, but the single player can hold its own with its enormous bosses, intriguing story line, and wonderful gameplay.

Graphic and sound:

The graphics in Resistance 2 are amazing, with highly detailed characters, weapons, and environments. Each staging area has a unique feel to it such as the beginning stage where the large mechanical robots are rampaging through the countryside, or the downtown city area with the Godzilla sized boss character. The player will feel the immense scale of the world and its inhabitants from the large environments to the enormous bosses. An enormous amount of enemy players both in online and offline mode are displayed with minimal or no lag at all. This is a game that visually, can only be appreciated on a high-definition television. The sound effects are on par with most first-person shooters although some of the alien weapons do sound a bit weak compared to the amount of damage they do. The musical score is the average run of the mill soundtrack that is quickly ignored.

Gameplay and controls:

Resistance 2 is divided between a single player campaign and multiple online multiplayer modes. The player continues the story from Resistance: Fall of Man with Nathan Hale in 1953 America. The United States has been invaded by the Chimera. One major difference with this sequel is that the player can only hold two weapons as opposed to cycling through various weapons in the previous entry. Also, the health bar has been eliminated and replaced by regenerative health system similar to Halo’s shield. Another major feature eliminated in Resistance 2 is cooperative play in the main campaign. The game seems more dedicated to multiplayer than the single player and as such, the campaign is short, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Multiplayer has two main modes, cooperative and competitive. Cooperative mode focuses on a player based team with mission objectives against CPU controlled Chimera. The teams can be from two to eight players with offline split-screen available as well. The player classes to choose from are medic, soldier, and special ops. Five game types exist for competitive mode which are deathmatch, team deathmatch, core control, skirmish, and meltdown (available through a Playstation 3 download). Deathmatch is every player for himself. Team deathmatch is similar to deathmatch except that teams face each other instead of every player for themselves. Core control is basically a capture the flag mode with the player carrying a core instead of a flag. Skirmish is a 60 player match in which players are split into smaller squads with specific objectives to complete. Meltdown is the classic multiplayer mode from Resistance: Fall of Man. Players gain experience from battles in both cooperative and competitive modes that allows access to better weapons and skills. Controls in the game are very easy to use and similar to other FPS games. There are also contextual instructions in game for certain boss battles.

Overall thoughts:

Resistance 2 is much better than Gears of War in terms of story and gameplay. I’ve owned both games and I play Resistance 2 more. The game has many multiplayer modes to entertain most types of players and if one owns Resistance Retribution for the PSP, the game can be linked to the PS3 Resistance 2 for a special bonus. Between the epic boss battles in the single player campaign to the multiplayer modes, the game is a positive improvement over the original with one exception, coop mode for the single player campaign. I enjoy the fact that the player can gain experience from playing online which unlocks better weapons and skills, but the ranking system is still flawed. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone who is looking for a solid FPS on the PS3 and for the collectors, there is a limited edition version that includes an art book, a behind the scenes DVD, and a Chimera statue.