Resistance 2

This was my first time emulating the PS3. It's a good FPS, albeit it doesn't do anything exceptional. It's surely better than Resistance Fall of Man. Unfortunately, it lacked some better appeal. It offers the basic FPS experience, but doesn't do much beyond it. The art and theme were the best parts, at least for me. I felt like dropping it but I beat it just to do a proper playthrough and write a review after seeing how it ends.

The first Resistance felt like a rushed prototype game to be released together with the PS3. I dropped it because all it offered was the basic, walk forward and fire at enemies. The second game is way better. It improved in every way over the first, including better graphics and this is due to their engineers having a better understanding of the PS3's hardware. Resistance 2 begins with the classic tutorial that teaches you how to aim, how to use the weapons, how to run, so on. They've changed the buttons and adopted a better scheme. The storytelling was improved with better scripted events, dialogues and NPCs. One thing that I didn't understand was the decision to drop the vehicles from the first game. Maybe it was for the better because in Halo 2 and 3 for example the levels with vehicles were better than in Resistance. I also didn't understand why they've removed all the turrets. The classic turret that many FPS games have to fight hordes of enemies.

The level design in Resistance 2 is good, it doesn't leave you lost. The environment art department was really good and I'd dare to say that it rivals Gears of Wars and Halo in terms of sci-fic. Whoever worked as a encounter or combat designer was good. The level design includes cover, well designed spaces, enemies come in hordes and you have tactical options available. There is one level in a forest that seems to a reference to the movie Predator due to the hostile enemy with camouflage. They've copied Halo by limiting the player to two weapons at a time. It wasn't a bad idea because it avoids repetition by forcing the player to choose weapons according to the situation. To carry a sniper and the wallhack gun in all levels would surely make the game way too easy. Both Resistance games are linear games that don't do much beyond firing, taking cover and throwing grenades.

I imagine how the devs must have suffered with the first game. A launch title, tight deadline and Sony had a lot of trouble with their hardware. The second Resistance has many more enemies on screen and much better visual effects. They've learned how to take advantage of the PS3's hardware and built larger levels, larger enemies and giant alien bosses. There are more enemy types than in the first. The level design is way better. I liked the levels that had hellfire turrets that you had to take cover and find a way to disable them from behind. They tried very hard to improve the first game adding zombie like hordes, new weapons, new environment hazards, new enemies with shields. Unfortunately, the bosses and sub bosses are all bullet sponges without much to do beyond firing at will.

I think that this game's biggest flaw is that they didn't plan better objectives and combat situations. It's all about run and gun till the end. In the beginning of chapter 4 there is a helicopter scene where you fire from it on enemies below. Unfortunately, it's a short sequence. Another good example was the level where you have to avoid a swarm of flying insect like aliens that devour everything in its path. That was a good level which tried something different from the rest of the game. From all the locations in the game I think that the most fun for me was Chicago. In there you have a buzzsaw weapon that was really fun to play with. That level also had the hellfire turrets and it presented a good challenge to overcome. The end of chapter 5 had a giant alien boss which felt like a prize, the icing on the cake, for the long journey through Chicago.

I appreciated the attempt to add variation to the missions such as having to turn on the power, plant a bomb and so on. However, what else did Resistance 2 offer beyond firing at enemies and progressing to the end of the level? They added more types of enemies but they resorted to making the game harder and last longer by means of too giving enemies too much health (or lowering the weapon's damage?).

I think that part of the success of this game stems from its mixture of science fiction and horror. The only other similar that that I can think about is F.E.A.R. Resistance was creative in telling the story of an alternate world reality where, during the course of WW2, aliens emerged and took over the planet. The plot in R2 tells that there was a top secret plan to create super soldiers by means of a virus (where haven I seen this before?). It also seems to draw a lot of inspiration from the movie "Independance Day". I can understand why many fans would like to revisit this game's world. I doubt it'll ever happen because Resistance is very much based on cliche stories.