Resistance 2

[Kassidy]

E3 2008: Resistance 2 Impressions
Insomniac gives us a quick taste, but a satisfying one nonetheless.


July 15, 2008 - Resistance was easily the best game at the PlayStation 3's launch, and it remains one of the system's must-have games even as its two-year anniversary approaches. Insomniac is currently working on finishing up its sequel, the aptly-named Resistance 2.

Resistance 2 picks up right where the first game left off. Nathan Hale is picked up by a black ops group and is, against his will, courted off to Iceland for some research testing. While the first game used a lot of stills, animated in a Flash-esque manner, to tell the story, Resistance 2 will feature tons of in-game cutscenes. When the opening happens, you actually watch the ending to the first game, and it seamlessly blends straight into the capture and escorting of Hale, all in realtime.

The game opens up with some action in Iceland, which we unfortunately weren't able to see, and then skips ahead two years into the future. You'll then find yourself perched outside of San Francisco, overlooking the scene from the original teaser trailer. Giant, mile-long motherships slowly cruise through the skies of San Francisco, raining down fire on the city. Burning and mangled, it's pretty obvious that there wouldn't be many survivors there, if at all.

Unfortunately, this tease of the Bay Area level was all that we were able to see here. Fortunately, we got to see some real action in a tiny snippet of the Chicago level. Starting out in the streets of what looks like the outskirts of downtown, you're joined by a squad of soldiers. Each soldier carries a different weapon with them, giving them some variety in how they fight as well as ways they'll be able to help you. As you work through the level, they'll move from cover to cover and set up smartly and defensively.

Turning a corner, we get our first look at Grims, the bone-thin remains of what were once Chicago's thriving population. These are not your normal, gun-wielding Chimera. They have one goal in mind, and that's to run straight at you, very quickly, and devour your flesh. They come in huge numbers, are very fast and are definitely very creepy. This section of the game takes place during the day, but were we to encounter these things at night, it would likely be extremely frightening.

The only other section that we were able to see was also shown during this morning's press conference, which was a battle against the gigantic Leviathan. And by gigantic I mean 300 feet tall or so. Nathan and his squad started out the sequence on top of a roof as the Leviathan rampages through the city in the background. The beast makes its way towards the crew, and Nathan fires back everything he has. Pissing off the monster, it grabs Nathan right off the top of the roof and waves him around. Screaming at him, Nathan takes the chance to fire a rocket into the Leviathan's open mouth. It then gets more pissed and throws Nathan back onto the roof.

A radio tower then falls from a nearby building, forming a makeshift bridge between the two. Running through its center, Nathan heads over to the second building as the Leviathan grabs the metal and rips it to shreds just as Nathan gets to safety. Working his way down the building, Nathan heads out into the open and the Leviathan grabs him again. Nathan fires off another rocket into its mouth, and the Leviathan throws Nathan to the side. The game goes into slow-motion as Nathan crashes through one window of a walkway and out of the other side, giving him a glimpse of its innards. Landing elsewhere, Nathan gets a radio call that he needs to taunt the beast towards the bridge, and then the demo ends.

While each piece was short, the overall glimpse at the game was varied and sweet. It's clear that we've barely scratched the surface and that Insomniac is going to hold a lot of secrets close this time around, which makes us itchy for its release even more.

Trailer
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Gameplay
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[Nation]

I loved Resistance The Fall of Man. Im interested to see what new weapons will be in Resistance 2 and what new chimeras there will be. Microsoft has Gears 2 and we have Resistance 2 so it's even. But yeah Resistance 2 and Killzone 2. You just can't beat these two.

 

[Kassidy]

Killzone 2 better be worth it only been waiting how many years?

 

[btman]

Killzone 2 better be worth it only been waiting how many years?

I don't know I see many people getting excited over Killzone 2... But I think Resistance 2 will still be the better game.

I saw the a boss battle of that huge guy in your pic... Shit looked fun as hell. And considering they wouldn't show footage of the final boss... I can't wait to beat it. Plus the new online looks nice too, 60 people. But then again that's nothing compared to...

MAG - Massive Action Game

256 players? Hell yea!

 

[Nation]

August 22, 2008 - One of the meetings I was most looking forward to here at this year's Germans Games Conventions was a private presentation on Insomniac's next big hit: Resistance 2. I was disappointed that the demo on the show floor was a very short affair we had seen several times before, so I was expecting this private demonstration to go beyond that and perhaps hint at some new information. Fortunately, that was the case as I was treated to a bunch of new tidbits by Ryan Schneider, Community Director at Insomniac Games.

The structure of the presentation was very unique, considering how it didn't have any particular focal point but instead was a rich mix of game history, trailers, screenshots and bullet points. Schneider started the presentation by noting that there would be a new weapon revealed by the end of the demo, and then commented -- almost casually -- that most of Resistance 2 is done and Insomniac is in the final polishing stage of production. That's sure to please Resistance fans who have their eyes on the countdown clock.

Schneider then jumped into a brief overview of the game's alternate history and debuted a new trailer for the game that lays out a timeline of events leading up to Resistance 2 -- all portrayed with vivid, constantly evolving graphics and icons. Certain plot points were discussed as Schneider touched on the Sentinels, S.R.P.A., Dr. Fyodor Malikov and even Project Abraham. Although he tried not to divulge too much information about these very intriguing story elements, I couldn't help but wonder what sort of surprises await Resistance fans come November.

Moving on, Schneider reiterated the primary points that govern Resistance 2 and its sense of scale. It's all about campaign, cooperative, competitive and community. If you hadn't heard about it before, the co-op mode in Resistance 2 will feature a separate parallel story to the campaign which expands the experience even more. But the real meat of the multiplayer experience, it seems, comes from the competitive portions of the game.

"Massive battles, greater intimacy" was one of Schneider's points for describing the competitive mode. Teamwork will be a huge part in Resistance 2 but also individual player progression, squads and a constantly growing XP pool are tremendous additions to the mix that are sure to delight fans. Schneider also touched on a few specific elements of battle, including Berserks (temporary power-ups like invisibility and speed boosts) and weapon load outs, which both add layer upon layer to the complexity of the multiplayer dynamic. There will be hundreds of character class and weapon load out combinations for players to consider.

The levels in Resistance 2 are up to four times larger than those of Resistance: Fall of Man and there will be around 70 different map/game type combinations to experiment with. Clearly, Resistance 2 has an incredibly deep multiplayer that's sure to extend the title's life significantly.

Schneider brought the presentation to a close with a new weapon reveal: the Splicer. A rifle-like firearm with a large circular blade on the front instead of a barrel, the Splicer launches spinning blades at your enemies with highly gory results. You can rev up the blade before launching it, which not only makes it superheated by also keeps it spinning through your opponents even after impact. Yikes. This weapon, while groovy, reminded me a lot of the Buzz Blades from Ratchet and Clank. Although the weapons from Tools of Destruction are awesome, I want to see new items in Resistance 2, not the same things.

But I think it's safe to say that I'm going to have a blast with Resistance 2. I can't wait to find out more about what's going on with the elusive Nathan Hale later this year.

 

[Wordlife]

this game is going to be great, the first one was a great multiplayer shooter for the ps3 with an almost perfect campaign... and with the addition to different weapons, and a SHITLOAD of more people in one multiplayer game, I could see this up there for top spot in Game of the Year imo... cant wait

 

[Solid Stinger the Big Boss]

I got invited to the private beta. This game is awesome first day buy for me.

The co-op multiplayer on beta was very fun.

I hope you guys have been keeping up with the many Resistance 2 ARG sites or else this game will 50% confuse you.

 

[Nation]

I got invited to the private beta. This game is awesome first day buy for me.

The co-op multiplayer on beta was very fun.

I hope you guys have been keeping up with the many Resistance 2 ARG sites or else this game will 50% confuse you.

WHAT!?

 

[Solid Stinger the Big Boss]

If you're talking about private beta: I'm a loyal Playstation fan since 1996. I subscribed to everything they basically have to offer. I subscribed to Qore and I have an account on all the Resistance ARG sites. I really can't get into to much detail about the beta. I agreed to that and besides public beta is available in September =)

If you are wondering what Resistance ARG is: They show whats happening with Hal and other stuff I don't wanna spoil.

 

[Nation]

I remember looking this up. I found getawarjob,projectabraham,terminal, and americafirstamericaonly. Any others?

 

[Solid Stinger the Big Boss]

Thats all of them except for that secret one I can't reveal :shifty:

Being loyal to Sony does payoff

 

[Nation]

New weapon The Splicer http://www.g4tv.com/trailers/videos/28151/Resistance_2_Splicer_Footage.html and here's footage of multiplayer which reveals more new weapons http://www.g4tv.com/trailers/videos/28148/Exclusive_Resistance_2_Multiplayer_Gameplay.html

Holy shit that's awesome.

 

[Solid Stinger the Big Boss]

The beta has gone public! Link up in a few

 

[Nation]

September 23, 2008 - If you own a PS3, you most likely have experienced one of the best titles for the system: a war epic where mankind didn't fight the Second World War, but instead fought for their survival against a daunting alien menace. Resistance introduced the Chimera, a mysterious alien race that decimated the human resistance of Europe and almost devastated Great Britain were it not for the combined actions of UK and American soldiers. But just like any great villain, the Chimera won't be eliminated so easily, and have regrouped to launch an assault on the defenseless shores of North America. The only man that can stop them is the hero of the first game, Nathan Hale, but as we've seen in images and videos released so far, even that looks like quite a daunting task. A few days ago, myself and a few other journalists were given the opportunity to check out an almost finished build of the game to see what Hale's fight on American soil would be like when it's released on November 4.

Taking place two years after the events of the first game, Resistance 2 picks up immediately where the first title left off and will focus once again on the actions of Nathan Hale fighting against the Chimera. Hale joins a group of super soldiers known as The Sentinels, powerful warriors who seem to have the same immunity to the Chimeran disease as he does. However, if you were hoping that Rachel Parker would be returning to narrate the story and what happens to his newly found allies, you're out of luck. This story is solely from Hale's perspective and develops through a series of in-game briefings, cutscenes and collected intel to establish the story as it unfolds before Hale's eyes. The result is a narrative that is designed to draw the player into both the larger than life scale of the attacks on America and the grand scale of the monsters themselves.

The first opportunity that we had to experience this was in the tutorial mission, which is designed to "ease" you into the gameplay by throwing you directly into the midst of battle. This level is set in Iceland, where The Sentinels have set up a base to watch over the threat that could expand from Europe at any time. Unfortunately for them, the Chimera launch a surprise attack upon the base, forcing Hale's squad to attempt to save the remaining soldiers and repel the hordes. This is much easier said than done, because leading the strike is a gigantic half-Chimeran/half-metallic creature known as a Goliath. Packing machine gun turrets, rocket launchers and gigantic claws, the Goliath is an extremely dangerous monster to battle out in the open. Couple this with new Chimeran flood tactics, and you can only imagine just how easily overrun this base, and defenseless towns must be.

Lucklily for you, you won't have to take this monster on by yourself; you'll have some help from a fellow squad member who will give you tips on how to play and where to aim to inflict the most damage, such as taking out the enormous monster's power coils with a LAARK rocket. Although you'll discover familiar weapons like the aforementioned rocket launcher, new firearms will also be introduced, such as the new Magnum, which fires extremely powerful rounds that can take out most enemies. These rounds have a secondary benefit in that you can pull the secondary fire button and detonate any round fired into a Chimera, causing radial damage to nearby threats. You'll also find that a number of the older weapons have received a facelift in how they work, such as Bullseye tags that make the targeted creature glow as you blast away at it from safety.

"Safety" in many ways feels like a relative term, because you really get a sense that monsters are constantly coming at you from all sides. In fact, Ted Price, President of Insomniac, specifically mentioned that the development team wanted to provide a sense that you can be attacked at any time. This was particularly true within the Orick, California level, a stage that was only recently revealed a few days ago on our site. Set about three levels into the game, the setting of the level was placed immediately after Hale and his squad of Sentinels had managed to somehow take down one of the gigantic Capital ships that we've seen in previously released trailers. The gameplay picked up immediately after Hale and his convoy of Sentinels are ambushed in the redwood forest by a large force of monsters. While taking out Chimera that rushed the injured and confused was nothing new, and sniping Chimera up on a ridge was somewhat familiar, this comfort level was immediately removed as we attempted to regroup with our squad and ran into a new enemy known as the Chameleon.

Resembling the Predator from the movies, complete with cloaking abilities, the Chameleon ran through our ranks, picking off and eviscerating NPCs one by one until we were alone. While it was somewhat tricky to pick them up from a distance, the shimmer of the creature before they attacked was the only clue that I and others were given before they were charged and cut to pieces, forcing a reload. However, once all of us got used to seeing these creatures, we knew exactly how to approach and eliminate them safely. Reassessing our tactics quickly became a vital survival skill, because while we could charge ahead and blast our way through drones floating overhead or other creatures, such as the Augur-wielding monsters from the first game, would erect large energy shields and use them to charge forward and smash us.

These weren't the only Augur-wielding enemies that we had to worry about, because the Chimera had set large computerized turrets in the motor lodges of the small Californian town that had been infested with Chimera. These turrets rapid fired Augur bolts at anything that moved, and quickly honed in on your location. Impervious to damage, the only weakness to the machines was by using your cover and getting around to the rear of the machine, where you could eventually turn it off. However, even using cover was somewhat of a daunting prospect at first glance, because some of the walls, barricades and other structures had been covered with flesh-like pods that pulsed and shivered as we approached them. While it wasn't apparent whether or not the creatures inside were threats that would attack, it did seem as though the things inside were the remains of the unfortunate humans that were captured and converted by the Chimera on the spot, which was a rather unpleasant thought to move past as we blasted our way to the end of the level.

While the playthrough of the two single-player levels was awesome, checking out the Co-op mode was just as cool. After receiving a large amount of comments in their forums regarding the lack of co-op in the first title, the team decided to implement the mode in Resistance 2, providing up to eight player co-op with three primary features as the key to its success. The first element was keeping the scale of the battles and monsters exactly the same as it would be in the single player experience, so players will face off against the same giant creatures that I previously mentioned in the single player campaign as well as many smaller Chimera. Additionally, the game will intentionally scale the size of the encounters to match the number of players in the co-op game at one time, so if you go in with one friend, you'll probably face off against individual large Chimera that are tricky to defeat, but possible with some skill. On the other hand, if you move into battle with the full compliment of eight soldiers, Insomniac plans on having up to 100 enemies on screen at once swarming and attacking you. All of these enemies can be of different sizes and shapes, giving your squad a significant challenge.

The second element the development team wanted to work on was the story elements, which run parallel to the single-player story of Resistance 2. The players in the co-op game are part of a separate squad of Sentinels dispatched behind enemy lines to track down and steal special Chimera equipment known as Gray Tech. Finding these items within the game will change as you move through each location, performing tasks like powering down Chimeran spires and machines before you move toward your eventual "end zone" with your final objective. However, progress within the co-op mode won't be a linear affair; the development team went out of their way to make sure that the playing paths were constantly randomized so stages didn't look the same from play to play. What's more, the story of the Co-op mode will branch in many different directions, allowing players to determine their own squad's tale against the Chimeran threat.

The final element the team focused on was breaking out character classes for players to specialize in and use within the game. Three separate classes will be included in the Co-op game, each with their own separate abilities: Soldiers are the tanks of the group, with more health than any other class and the power to deploy energy shields to soak up damage. Spec Ops are the power of the squad, inflicting more damage than anyone else and replenishing the ammo of everyone's weapons. Medics are obviously support, but have weapons that leech the health of enemies and convert it into healing power for your squad. Medics can also revive fallen soldiers much faster than anyone else, which is important because there is no health regeneration in this mode (Plus, while anyone can revive someone in battle, the medics are much better at it). While players initially choose what class they want to be, they're not locked down in that position for the rest of the round. In fact, you're given the opportunity to switch back and forth between any one of the classes, gaining experience and leveling up your troops based on the actions you perform.

Obviously, the easiest way to gain experience is by killing Chimera and accomplishing your objectives, but the Insomniac guys wanted to also provide bonuses for players that work as a team. For example, medics that focus on healing players or soldiers that constantly erect shields receive bonuses for performing their class-specific duties. Experience is important because not only will it level up your soldiers, allowing them access to new weapons and gear, but it will power special powers known as Berserks. Berserks are incredible skills that can turn the tide of a battle, strengthening your squad with supernatural abilities. The Medic, for example, can generate a regenerative area of effect around them, healing any team member nearby, while Spec Ops will provide ammunition that is much stronger than before and soldiers will create stronger shields. By defeating enemies, the experience goes into a Berserk meter, and once it's full, players are able to trigger their particular skill, with the draining meter dictating the duration of the ability itself.

If you were looking for fast and furious gameplay, it's definitely found here, as I dropped into a battlefield with three medics, three soldiers and two spec ops. Playing as a medic was an interesting experience, as you drained enemies with your Phoenix energy gun with primary fire and redistributed that health with secondary fire to your allies. It didn't feel like a tame support role as it can sometimes be in other titles, as you'll be able to weaken the enemies for your allies to take out, and even kill some outright if they've been heavily injured with consistent draining. However, the game definitely tossed a large handful of Chimera at us, including numerous rocket launching creatures known as Titans at checkpoints known as nodes.

These "Node Bosses" tried to defend their "bases" as best they could, which would force us to re-examine how we'd approach a location, even establishing choke points to strip away the weaker Chimera to leave the stronger one isolated and exposed. However, our squad also noted that the Chimera would try to do the exact same tactics to us, which made battles against three dozen or more monsters a heated and tense exchange of fire. Even more challenging was the fact that not all of the creatures were the same; some of them had one or more stars above their heads, indicating that they were elites and much stronger than typical chimera. Not only did those become a priority to eliminate quickly before they could inflict damage, but they also provided more experience for the squad as a whole, boosting our levels accordingly.

There's one other thing that I want to note regarding the experience collection, which is that Ted Price pointed out that the points, ribbons and medals collected in Co-op will carry over to the other modes as well, meaning that you can get to a certain point in co-op and notice that you've unlocked a new weapon in the single player campaign, or that your multiplayer soldiers are stronger.

Speaking of multiplayer, the battlefield was extremely pitched, with the 60 player battles raging across the various maps that we played on. Even with watching about two or three rounds and playing a few myself, I was struck by the fact that it didn't seem as though I was watching the same location twice. I was informed that combined across the traditional multiplayer modes (like Deathmatch) and the squad-based Skirmish mode, there will be more than 70 maps for players to fight across, which could be one of the largest multiplayer experiences ever made.

Considering that scale, it's no wonder that the Skirmish mode splits players into five man squads and delivers objectives to them as the battle rages on. While you'll sometimes gain the exact same goal as that of another squad on your side, you'll always have a sense of what you need to do and where you'll need to go, primarily because those objectives seemed to reflect the conditions on the battlefield. For example, pushing forward as a squad, my team captured an objective just before the enemy arrived, but were quickly forced to defend the checkpoint from incoming attacks for a period of time. Fortunately, we were able to use a number of berserks to improve our damage and our speed to help us in the repelling of our opponents.

The use of these abilities turned the tide of the battle, although we found that players were easily able to combine these skills with different weapons to create some deadly combinations for their side. One of those included using the expanded size of the Augur shield to protect their squad along with the healing ring effect to turtle at a base, while another was using the invisibility berserk along with the new saw blade weapon known as the Splicer to become a deadly assassin.

Although I only had a few hours to play all three modes and check out Resistance 2, it struck me as phenomenally deep -- much more than we'd ever expected. Essentially three full games in one cohesive Blu-ray package, Resistance 2 could easily be one of the largest games of the year and definitely in contention for Game of the Year honors when it is released at the beginning of November.

 

[Solid Stinger the Big Boss]

This game is such a huge step up from Resistance 1. I FINALLY bought Resistance 1. I'm having fun, and despite Hale being plain and looking generic. He feels so badass like Master Chief.

Also Nation we are most definitely doing the co-op story mode together. Then i'll do horde in Gears 2 with J-Dawg, Kassidy, and Diesel.

Now to go hype LittleBigPlanet