PLATFORM: PS3
RELEASE DATE: 11/2008
DEVELOPER: Insomniac Games
PUBLISHER: Sony
ESRB RATING: M for Mature
Progress: Finished
The Chimera are back! Or, have they been here all along? Insomniac Games fuels the cannons of war once again with the sequel to our Gamedae Fav Resistance: Fall of Man. Four years has passed since we blew up a key Chimera tower and the story picks up from where the after-the-credits cut scene left off. Our hero, Nathan Hale, alien-hater and super-soldier, is captured by some black ops soldiers. Nathan awakes to find his wounds treated and he has been given an inhibitor injection to fend off the Chimeran virus. Hale is quickly drafted into the ranks and sent back into battle. It's time to join the front lines once again.
SPOILERS AHEAD (If you haven't played Resistance 1)
DEVELOPER: Insomniac Games
PUBLISHER: Sony
ESRB RATING: M for Mature
Progress: Finished
The Chimera are back! Or, have they been here all along? Insomniac Games fuels the cannons of war once again with the sequel to our Gamedae Fav Resistance: Fall of Man. Four years has passed since we blew up a key Chimera tower and the story picks up from where the after-the-credits cut scene left off. Our hero, Nathan Hale, alien-hater and super-soldier, is captured by some black ops soldiers. Nathan awakes to find his wounds treated and he has been given an inhibitor injection to fend off the Chimeran virus. Hale is quickly drafted into the ranks and sent back into battle. It's time to join the front lines once again.
SPOILERS AHEAD (If you haven't played Resistance 1)
The story in Resistance 2 hands out a few more morsels to chew on but not quite a full meal. In the last game, we found out that humans infected with the Chimeran virus are evolving into the four-eyed Chimeran soldiers. This time around, we learn more about the virus-infected Nathan Hale. A military experiment infected him with the Chimeran virus, a desperate attempt to give their soldiers an edge. With the virus inside him Nathan possesses extra senses and incredible strength. It's controlled using inhibitor injections that need to be taken at regular intervals.
The graphics are better and the explosions are bigger. This campaign travels across the major cities in the United States. Sadly, I didn't notice as many references to the 1950's as the original had to the 1940's. Perhaps this is because as the war continues, the landscape is being terraformed by the Chimera. One nice touch was listening to the stories of "Henry" on the radios found in some towns. While the cut scenes look great they could be from any heavy, armor-clad extraterrestrial shooter title and weren't as welcoming or memorable as the first game. This underdog story feeds off your desire to learn what is going on. After a hard battle, you are rewarded with a taste of the plot. You will discover more about our foreign enemy. There are some big moments and reveals but never quite enough.
Updates are in synch with other first person shooters on the market interestingly making Resistance 2 more like them and less like the original. There are no health canisters to collect; you can now regenerate by staying out of harm's way. This regeneration is explained as a benefit from being infected with the Chimeran virus. With no weapon wheel, choose carefully which two weapons your going to hold onto. Having no weapon wheel means not being able to carry every weapon you want, however, I found the game tends be fairly lenient in disbursing the weapons you will need just as you will need them. Some fav weapons have returned like the new and improved Auger (an alien tech rifle) which can shoot through walls. The Auger's rate of fire is much faster and more accurate, and really, a pleasure to use. Being able to carry less weapons also means having less disposable ammo which definitely increases the difficulty over the original game. This forces you to stragize which weapons you will carry into the next fight.
The levels feel a little longer and world maps larger. You will definitely find yourself in some heated scraps; fighting up to 20 or so enemies at a time. The boss battles aren't all that difficult and basically involve finding the perfect set of moves to win. This can seem unfair as you continuously die until you memorize the right moves to survive. The new giant Chimera beast is something to see.
While I think I enjoyed the first game slightly more, there is nothing wrong with R2. None of the changes in style should be deemed as bad, just different then what you may have expected. In fact, I'm looking forward to diving back in and playing through the co-op campaign; something that wasn't available in the first Resistance. I do think the story is very interesting and could be pushed further. I get keeping the mystery, seeing from the characters point of view but sometimes I just want to know more.
B+
Loved me that weapon wheel but this works
The graphics are better and the explosions are bigger. This campaign travels across the major cities in the United States. Sadly, I didn't notice as many references to the 1950's as the original had to the 1940's. Perhaps this is because as the war continues, the landscape is being terraformed by the Chimera. One nice touch was listening to the stories of "Henry" on the radios found in some towns. While the cut scenes look great they could be from any heavy, armor-clad extraterrestrial shooter title and weren't as welcoming or memorable as the first game. This underdog story feeds off your desire to learn what is going on. After a hard battle, you are rewarded with a taste of the plot. You will discover more about our foreign enemy. There are some big moments and reveals but never quite enough.
Updates are in synch with other first person shooters on the market interestingly making Resistance 2 more like them and less like the original. There are no health canisters to collect; you can now regenerate by staying out of harm's way. This regeneration is explained as a benefit from being infected with the Chimeran virus. With no weapon wheel, choose carefully which two weapons your going to hold onto. Having no weapon wheel means not being able to carry every weapon you want, however, I found the game tends be fairly lenient in disbursing the weapons you will need just as you will need them. Some fav weapons have returned like the new and improved Auger (an alien tech rifle) which can shoot through walls. The Auger's rate of fire is much faster and more accurate, and really, a pleasure to use. Being able to carry less weapons also means having less disposable ammo which definitely increases the difficulty over the original game. This forces you to stragize which weapons you will carry into the next fight.
The levels feel a little longer and world maps larger. You will definitely find yourself in some heated scraps; fighting up to 20 or so enemies at a time. The boss battles aren't all that difficult and basically involve finding the perfect set of moves to win. This can seem unfair as you continuously die until you memorize the right moves to survive. The new giant Chimera beast is something to see.
While I think I enjoyed the first game slightly more, there is nothing wrong with R2. None of the changes in style should be deemed as bad, just different then what you may have expected. In fact, I'm looking forward to diving back in and playing through the co-op campaign; something that wasn't available in the first Resistance. I do think the story is very interesting and could be pushed further. I get keeping the mystery, seeing from the characters point of view but sometimes I just want to know more.
B+
Loved me that weapon wheel but this works
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