Resistance-Fall of Man was one of the launch titles for the Playstation 3 back in the fall of 2006. Being released on a new over-priced console, Resistance had to find its own voice in an era flooded by other FPSs. In some ways, it does. But mostly, it can be compared to most other World War II shooters that everyone else plays. The story of Resistance takes place in a world where World War II never happened, instead, the world had to fight a threat other than goose-stepping bookburners: The Chimera. Almost alien in nature, the Chimera used their advanced technology and vastly superior numbers to decimate Russia and mainland Europe. The first game takes place in England, and tells the story from the viewpoint of Army Sargeant Nathan Hale, in the struggle to stop the Chimera from destroying the Brits. Suffering from both predictable narrative and many unanswered questions, Resistance was hadly able to stand against falling along the wayside in the time when Gears of War was king. Graphically, it came through as being asthecially pleasing, being one of the first games on the PS3. Control-wise, Resistance wasn't amazing, but it was indeed fun just to fire the weapons, either Human or Chimeran. The game wasn't horrible by any means, but there was just something missing. As I said, it was trying to find a voice, but how can one do that when you have 100 other people screaming to be heard?
Resistance 2 expands on the first game quite a bit. The location moves from jolly old England to the good ole U.S. of A, circa 1953. Taking place two years after Resistance, Hale and the US Army continues to rebel against the onslaught of technologically advanced bipedal viruses. Hale has become part of the Sentinels, a covert team of other people infected by the Chimeran virus, but who have not converted. The story-telling hasn't been improved on for the most part. It is still a very predictable war story, but it does open the avenue for new options gameplay wise.
The first real improvement you’ll see to the first game are the levels. Graphically, they come to life, giving great detail to 1950s-era America, though it is war-ravaged. It is a good advancement to the first game, but it not a too sharp of a contrast like, say, the contrast between Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2. The levels also provide quite a bit of diversity that those encountered in the first game. The game takes you to several different locations within the United States. Your war with the Chimera will be fought in more diverse surroundings. Instead of the uniquely English urban areas, you will be wage carnage in urban, maritime, desert, and forest areas, having to adjust your way of playing along the way. In the urban areas, I encountered more direct combat, as opposed to the forest areas where the terrain provided me a wider area where I could find cover easier and outflank the enemy. As I said, the levels provide a great diversity to gameplay, making a vast improvement to the previous title.
Overall, the control scheme hasn’t changed dramatically. R1 still fires primary fire, R2 fires secondary. The only huge change is the L2 button, with is used in two instances. The first, as with the first installment, is tap the button to crouch. The second, which is the change, is to hold down the button to sprint. I found myself sprinting quite a bit, as certain portions of the game require you to do a bit of running. The controls are tight and fluid, a great carry-over from Fall of Man. You won’t find yourself cursing the game because “the controller did it”.
One thing that you will find yourself cursing quite a bit is the enemies. Several sections of the game require you to fight great hordes of enemies. Taking inspiration from recent zombie movies, you’ll be faces with an onslaught of Chimera running directly at you. Luckily, there are also parts where you will have squad mates to help out. The AI on the other characters is good, definitely better than other FPSs out there (cough Halo cough), but it doesn’t do one any good when the only character that the Chimera are gunning for is you. I found that I could have a squad of three other NPCs fighting along side. Sure, they kill some of the enemy, but those enemies were too busy shooting or bum rushing me to pay them much mind. There are also instances where the Chameleons (invisible Chimera) will “de-cloak” right in front of you, already in mid-charge, at which point you will have to shoot them immediately; otherwise, they will kill you in one hit. They developers prepare you early on for this. After several deaths at the hand of this foe, it will become almost second nature to anticipate their approach. Luckily, they don’t sneak up behind you, but be prepared at all times for a frontal assault by an unseen foe. Most of the enemies do not provide a lot of a challenge to actually kill. There are times where some might be intimidated by there size of some enemies, such as the Leviathan in the Chicago level. These enemies are not difficult to conquer, and require very little actual strategy. The AI is not very advanced either, so while you may find yourself overwhelmed, you can always outthink them. Most can be handled by two or three rounds, but what makes the chimera a formidable enemy is not their tactics, but their sheer numbers. The health bar is gone, replaced by a more Halo-esque approach. After taking a few hits by fire, your health will become critical, and you must find someway to avoid enemy fire, otherwise the next shot will take you out, making you start over from the last checkpoint. A lot of time will be spent trying to find cover to avoid death, to the point that shots will be fired in anger.
Most of the weapons make a welcomed return in this game. Part of the zeal of the first game was the almost fun quality of firing off the weapons. There are two types of fire: primary and secondary. For example, the carbine will shoot standard bullets for primary and grenades for secondary. There are also great additions to the inventory, such as the Magnum pistol, which will fire powerful primary rounds, and using the secondary fire will make those rounds explode when lodged in an enemy. The great change to the weapons is that you can only have two firearms at a time, excluding the various grenades, whereas the first game had all weapons accessible whenever you collected them. This adds a bit more of a challenge, but also adds to the fun of ammo conservation.
Multiplayer makes a grand return to this series. As for that aspect, I can’t really say all that much. The maps are diverse, much like the campaign, adding an extra level of gameplay, the same that drew a lot of people to Fall of Man. The awesome aspect of the multiplayer is the epic nature of it. Online battles support up to 60 players, ensuring that there won’t be times where you will have to hunt for enemies in the larger maps. Resistance 2 also provides a co-op campaign, separate from the story. While I didn’t get a change to tinker with co-op by the time of this writing, I anticipate that this will only add to the value of the game.
There are some folks out there that get detracted from first person shooters where story and character development takes away from the thrill of just shooting things. Resistance 2 is for those people. Being surrounded by enemies, you will not be short of carnage. While the campaign does not seem as long as the first game, there are other features, such as co-op and multiplayer, to extend the time you will spend fighting the Chimera. As the first game was one that had great potential, Resistance 2 is one step closer to fulfilling it, even with its flaws.
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