The Chimera is attacking on the US home soil and Nathan Hale is the best we have to stop them. Resistance 2 picks up where Resistance: Fall of Man left off after Hale blew up the London tower and slowed the Chimera attack in Europe. The game has gotten bigger and more intense while adding a new terrific co-op mode. But is there enough here to make it the best shooter on the PS3 this Holiday?
The first Resistance wasn’t a graphical powerhouse and neither is the sequel. While the look of things has definitely improved, it’s not the best visual title you’ll be seeing this year. Sound-wise, however, the game is stunning. Weapon sound effects, dialogue, and enemy Chimera screams sound amazing in 7.1 channel surround sound. Make sure you keep the receiver cranked for this one.
As I mentioned, the story picks up right where Resistance: Fall of Man left off with Nathan Hale being picked up by the SRPA forces to transport him back to the United States. Your first stop is the SRPA base in Iceland where you have to get checked out to make sure your Chimeran infection doesn’t spread. Right off the bat, you encounter huge and numerous enemies as the base is under attack and you immediately feel the scale and grandeur of the game. From there, the story jumps forward a couple years as you’re being treated in San Francisco to prevent the spread of the Chimera disease you were injected with during Project Abraham. Huge battles ensue as Nathan Hale travels across the country to take down the Chimera. I don’t want to spoil any of the story (although it’s not the best story you’ll come across), but you’ll be fighting some ridiculously huge boss battles.
Resistance 2’s single player campaign took me about 9-10 hours to finish and was fairly fun, albeit frustrating. Aside from the invisible walls that pop up in a few locations, you’ll be dying a lot. The game employs a “kill you until you figure out the proper way to complete this task” mentality. It doesn’t matter what difficulty level you play, you’ll kick the bucket one too many times until you figure out just how the developers decided you’d complete this task. Most of this happens with the larger enemies and boss battles, which somewhat takes away from the epic scale of these creatures. Your idea of flanking an enemy may quickly get thrown out the window. One thing I loved about the first Resistance was playing through with a friend. I understand the addition of the co-op campaign as a separate mode, but why take that away from the standard campaign as well? All in all, the single player campaign, while fun, the weakest of what Resistance 2 has to offer.
Online is where the real fun begins. You are given the menu choices of Cooperative and Competitive, both of which will provide hours and hours of gaming enjoyment. In the Cooperative campaign, there are elements of MMORPG raids mixed with first person shooters, something not seen before. You can team with up to 8 players to take on the Chimera in various levels of play. Each player chooses a class before heading into battle, with damage dealers (Special Ops), damage takers (Soldiers), and healers (Medics) all being necessary to get through the levels. You get experience points (XP) by killing the Chimera creatures along the way. After completing the campaign, this is where I found myself spending most of my time.
On the Competitive front, you can play online with up to 60 people with zero lag. In every match I’ve played, I noticed no lag, no matter how many players were crammed on screen. The larger battles become frantic shoot-em-action action as most times the fights end up in one spot on the map. You can choose to play in standard Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Skirmish, and Core Control. Most games you’ll find online tend to be either Team Deathmatch or Skirmish, but there are always thousands of people online killing each other for you to enjoy.
With the countless hours you’ll spend online with Resistance 2, it’s hard to not recommend picking up this title immediately. If you’re looking mostly for a single player experience, the campaign here will frustrate at times while providing a good deal of fun. Even with the issues, Resistance 2 is the shooter to own on the PS3.
Overall: 9 out of 10
the single player campaign, while fun, the weakest of what Resistance 2 has to offer…Even with the issues, Resistance 2 is the shooter to own on the PS3.
Nice said… but what other issues has this game, but the short single player campaign?
Look … It took only 10 hours to pass thru it. And this is the weakest point. Weak enough to give the game 9 out of 10.
Then please note that it takes 5-6 hours to complete GeoW 2’s single mode on normal difficulty… Will you give GeoW2 8 out of 10 or less (it is twice shorter then R2) according to your scales?
@gunnar2906 – The length of the campaign had no impact on it getting a 9 or me saying it’s the weakest part of the game. The fact that there are multiple invisible walls, that the developers force you into a certain game style by die-repeat-die-repeat, and the game’s sub-par graphics all contributed to its score.
Our Gears of War 2 review hasn’t run yet, but it will not get a lower score than Resistance. The campaign, by far, does not take 5-6 hours on normal. I suspect you haven’t played the game. Both Gears of War 2 and Resistance are very very solid titles.
well I am officially addicted to Online Co-op. R2’s online mode is like playing MMO’s but with guns and easier to access. Its awesome playing with 7 others and working all together as a real team, there is no trash-talking and all members are actually needed to accomplish the goal.
Dear Matt!
I dont want to disapoint you but GeoW’s single compaign 2 DOES take about 6 hours on normal and 1 hour less on easy mode. Did I play it? Yeah! And it is easily checkable in my achievments list (my LiveID is dimun81).
I played both games (I bought american version of Resistance 2 in Moscow, Russia only 1 day ago – as fast as it became available in Russia) and haven’t complete R2 yet.
I do love both franchises but can you pour some more light about issues I must meet during gameplay. I’d like to know what’s hidden behind your words “Even with the issues…” Unfortunately I haven’t find any yet.
From my side I can share my expierience of GeoW 2. I enjoy it with 50″ Pioneer plasma panel, using separete Farouja HD upscaler and video enchancer built in HK AV355 receiver that repairs the most of glitches and ugly visuals of Unreal 3 engine.
The best wishes and stay unbiased as we know you
gunnar2906
@gunnar2906 – I did tell you my issues with the game in my previous comment. “The fact that there are multiple invisible walls, that the developers force you into a certain game style by die-repeat-die-repeat, and the game’s sub-par graphics all contributed to its score.”
Also, if you completed Gears 2 in 5-6 hours on normal, you must be a master gaming wizard. No one I know, including developers at Epic, can do that. We’ve all played Gears 2 campaign here. I’m more than 5 hours in, Al beat the game in 10 hours. You are the only person, literally, that says the game can be beat in 5-6 hours on normal.
I thought this was a fair review!
my thoughts exactly.
hry loot.
do you guys have any idea about when you go into a ranked match why it’ll never seem to fill up to 60 players?