Resistance 2

In my opinion, Resistance 2 was not going to be particularly great. Apparently you've seen some movies, some presentations enriched with the traditional messianic message associated with every original Sony production on PS3 - but the image of the "generic" shooting remained. But what turned out? Ultimately, the game presents a pretty high, neat level. While it doesn't deviate from the genre's patterns, it remains a nice experience and essentially stands out in the crowd. Finally succeeded? I think so.

This game has to be considered on two separate levels: single and multi. Although, of course, the mechanisms governing the game are identical in both cases, the proportions between their quality are already a topic for discussion.

The single player campaign starts exactly when the first Resistance ends. For the uninitiated: the series introduces us to an alternate history, where in the 1940s Europe was attacked and later overrun by mysterious creatures called Chimeras. The army of these mutants was mostly made up of people infected with something like a virus. The first part of the game presented the fate of the Battle of Great Britain, in which American troops participated. Only one soldier, and at the same time the main character, Nathan Hale, survived the entire Yankee relief - it turned out that he was immune to mutations. We play it in the sequel, where the action moves to the territory of the besieged and ruined United States. The situation of humanity hangs in the balance - but as usual in games for the survival of our species, a squad of brave fibroids will fight.

The authors gave up on the numb narrative of the first one, in which instead of cutscenes we only had a series of static pictures and an uninteresting commentary. This time, the story is guided by full-fledged cutscenes and dialogues, we also meet some new characters. In total, we have 7 chapters that take a little over 10 hours to complete. The story of Nathan on his way to self-destruct is not very engaging, but it has its moments. The journals found here and there are certainly helpful in appreciating it, but I still have the impression that a bit more fictional meat would not hurt here. Ah, and I must admit that the ending itself is fun. Unconventional, to interest you.

There are no elements in the game that would make the standard FPS skeleton strange. Basically, we go around with the gun and shoot all the time. We are protected from boredom by the stylistic diversity of levels, which comes to the fore when we talk about the advantages of Resistance . An interesting idea is to introduce a new type of monsters - something like zombies that run at us in large groups and attack in close combat. They are easy to kill, but the higher the number becomes a problem. During the campaign, 3-4 times we will come across cool sequences built on this idea. This is a nice stepping stone from the standard Chimeras, which are the most typical opponents imaginable in this type of game. The only annoying exception are the so-called Chameleons - a type of mutants that attack from hiding, and we only have a fraction of a second to defend ourselves. The idea is so-so, because usually scenes with their participation end up going through them by trial and error. Boss fights are brilliant - they are big, terrifying and inventive.

We play a large part of the campaign with a group of AI-controlled commandos. In misfortune, the company is always a consolation, but in this case it is terribly stinging that our colleagues are just a dummy: their shots do not want to hurt their opponents too much, and there is no question of their own death. It is known that NPCs cannot play the game for us, but it could have been done somehow more discreetly. Especially since one of them carries one of the stronger weapons in the game all the time - while we sew to the enemy with a pistol, he runs with a minigun and picks his nose.

All missions are rather predictable from start to finish. We go from room to room, bumping into several enemies repeatedly. I liked the fact that the authors quite often "use silence", that is, throw into the mission moments when we are not attacked by anyone. Even the noticeable part of the last mission is carried out in this way and it is a perfect counterbalance to the moments of tiring hordes of mutants. I really like games in which not every room is a miniature of the entire game. And from my other horses - there are frequent checkpoints here, so the level of frustration rarely increases to a noticeable level. The game is smooth.

One of the few advantages of the first Resistance part (I'm not a fan, excuse me) were the very original gun types. It is similar here. Generally, guns are divided into products of human technological thought and products of mutants. In the first category, we find cool, hard-digging poppers with a slightly archaic design (in a positive sense - remember that the action takes place in the 50's!) In the second one, we have some attractions, but transferred from the first one. Auger shooting through walls, Marksman sniper rifle or energy Wraith minigun that cuts everything in a few seconds brighten up the gray, shooting reality. Each weapon has traditionally 2 fire modes - there is a lot of fun here, which we are additionally encouraged to do with Trophies (e.g. for tagging 30 enemies with Bullseye or killing 50 with a Hedgehog grenade).

Let's move on to multiplayer. Here, in principle, we need to break the subject into two again: we have a choice between co-op and competitive. Contrary to appearances, the first one is not the equivalent of a singles campaign, but a completely separate mode in which players form teams of up to 8 people, choose character classes (Soldier, Medic, Special Forces) and then run around the maps, trying to perform the tasks assigned by the game works. While the missions themselves are of course nothing unexpected (kill 100 opponents, kill 100 opponents), the idea of dividing players into classes is a very good patent. The situation is this: the soldier is the only one with a sensible weapon, the medic is the only one who can regenerate his health and his companions, and the "specialist" provides ammunition to the previous two classes and makes him a sniper. As you can see, everything complements perfectly and all three characters are needed in any serious match. It is very fun to play, with one reservation: it is worth organizing a team among friends. Fortunately, match-making works relatively quickly, but it doesn't take into account the class we prefer. We are thrown with 7 strangers to the lobby, where we get about 15 seconds to talk about "who takes whom". The disproportion is in the air, and for example, undertaking a mission with one medic in 8 people is a poor idea (although he himself will earn a cosmic amount of experience in such a party).

Competitive is nothing but a standard multiplayer, the same as in any other modern shooter. There are counterparts of Capture the Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, as well as an ingenious Skirmish mode, a bit similar to the co-op discussed above (divided into opposing teams and dynamically assigned tasks). In terms of gameplay, we have a rather standard running and shooting - nothing very thrilling, but also without any clear drawbacks. I would stick to the not very intuitive view of the results lists and the lack of motivation to play the team in Team Deathmatch (the bonus for team victory and assists is nothing compared to points for individual frags).

Our profiles in co-care and competitive are separated from each other, and we gain experience in both modes. It allows you to buy other outfits, character models, etc. We get them not only for direct fulfillment of mission objectives (in Deathmatch it will be killing enemies), but for practically every demonstrating combat instinct - each accurate shot is worth several points. Thanks to this, even by playing a weak match, you can gain something from it.

The Resistance 2 luminaire deserves praise. It may not be the pinnacle of current technology, but it is usually something to look at. Large, open areas are definitely the best - the interior is a bit less impressive, but not all of them (mutant ships sweep with design in places). We often have a lot of opponents on the screen (in the case of zombies, it can be dozens), and the framerate is very brave. The music is a typical American war soundtrack - it is pompous and stiff, but also with an atmosphere. The only thing that irritated me was the orchestra's prelude at the time of the hero's death. Each time it reminded me of the "Dramatic Look" video from Youtube (the one with the squirrel or whatever it was).

Resistance 2 surprised me pleasantly. In combination with MotorStorm and LittleBigPlanet, it creates a very strong set of the end of the year for Playstation 3 owners. This is not a game for those who like originality and design flavors - it's just a solid portion of good FPP shooting, made according to art. I am very curious what will happen with Killzone 2, which in my opinion promised to be a more interesting title from the beginning. One thing is for sure: Sony saw the sunrise.

Krzysztof "Lordareon" Gonciarz

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