Insomniac puts the original Resistance to shame with their sequel

I had a lot of fun playing Resistance 2, and when it comes to games, that’s by far the most important thing for me. It is essential that I have fun when playing a game. I can ignore graphics and I can ignore gameplay flaws and I can ignore terrible voice acting as long as I’m having fun. But Resistance 2 doesn’t need to worry about any of that. It’s got great graphics, and it sounds good, and the gameplay works, and even though this is the second time I’ve cleared it, one year after its original release, I wish I wasn’t writing this review right now, because this is time I could be spending on actually playing the game again.

It’s hard for me to talk about Resistance 2 without comparing it to its predecessor, Resistance: Fall of Man, because the two games are so inextricably linked. Look no further than the fact that Resistance 2’s story picks up exactly where the first Resistance stopped, almost to the minute. Insomniac makes no bones about the fact that this is a direct sequel to the first game. And what a better experience it turns out to be. One of the strengths of the Resistance franchise, against all odds, is its story. The story is mysterious, engaging, and the characters are interesting, and the plot is generally well written and thought out, though the dialog and voice acting is usually left begging. Initially after its release, fans of the original Resistance were disappointed by Resistance 2’s story, because, according to them, Resistance 2 does away with a lot of the mystery and answers questions directly. I can find no fault in this. At some point you have to answer questions, and while the delivery may have left many things to be desired about, the story overall is deserving of a Resistance title. It’s just as captivating and interesting as the first. In saying that, I can’t ignore the fact that things do clip along at an extremely fast pace. At times I was left wondering how at the beginning of a level I could be in the middle of a city and then ten minutes later I could be in a Chimeran tower. There’s certainly a little bit of disconnect there.

But the disconnect doesn’t even matter, because the environments are so beautiful. The first Resistance had a similar approach to Killzone 2: the environments were limited, and so was the color palette. But Resistance 2 opens up, and this is completely to its benefit. It has rich jungle environments, urban environments, and it picks colors from all across the spectrum to paint its world with. The textures look polished and are not hard to look at, in contrast with the first Resistance. The characters are well modeled. Gone are the robotic animations that plagued the first game and early PlayStation 3 titles. Chalk this up to Insomniac having more experience with the system, but it’s impossible not to compare Resistance and Resistance 2 and pride the latter over the former in this respect. That said, the menus need a little work. They’re very standard, very stock, and for some reason, the character model that backs the main menu looks terrible. For that to be the first site that greets the player is a criminal offense.

The good work on the graphics pays off with the gameplay. Unlike in Fall of Man, Insomniac put effort into Resistance 2 to make sure that the game feels like its unique. This was not done with changes to the controls. The Resistance franchise is extremely cookie-cutter and off-the-store-shelf when it comes to first-person shooter controls. Were it not for the game behind the controller, you could be playing Halo, or a myriad of other bland first-person shooters – indeed, this was one of the main problems with the first Resistance. Now, Insomniac has integrated things into the levels which make Resistance 2 a little more unique. There are platforming sequences, and interesting environments to traverse. Just to be clear, all these things have been done before as well: it’s just that, unlike a lot of other games, Resistance 2’s special environments (like crossing a flooded city on floating cars and train carriages) and platforming sequences (like trying to outrun a rising water level) actually work, compared to, say, the platforming sequences in the original Half-Life.

There are sequences in each level that players will absolutely hate because of their difficulty. Importantly, after completing each sequence, it’s difficult not to appreciate the thought that went behind it, and, ultimately, it’s hard not to look at that problem-solving time as fun. Each challenge has its own solution – like what weapons to use, or whether to run away and let the enemy chase you as you look for a better position, and so on. A greater importance is placed on skill and getting to know the game, in contrast to how the first Resistance wanted you to perform. In Resistance 2, a clean headshot can take down an enemy that might otherwise take three full clips to destroy. So, strategy, among other things, is very important, and that’s something that I really appreciated.

I also noticed the sound in this game, which is something that I very rarely notice in video games. If it’s well done, you shouldn’t really notice it. If you do notice sound – voice acting, music, sound effects – it’s generally because it’s bad. Very infrequently do I notice sound in games because it’s actually good. But sound plays an important role in Resistance 2. There are invisible enemies that can only be heard, for instance. Don’t fret; this is done so that it’s accessible to everyone. Even players still playing with mono sound will be able to enjoy what Resistance 2 offers in this regard. I also feel like the music took a lot of queues from the television show 24, though I might be wrong in this regard. Certainly, both media have a similar action/orchestral feel to them.

No video game is perfect. Resistance 2 certainly bears its fair share of personal qualms to my mind. For one, I disagree with the move to force the player to go to the menu to read intelligence documents. In Resistance, as soon as you pick up an intelligence document the game pauses and brings up the text on the screen, but in Resistance 2 you have to actually pause the game and look for the document in the menu. This may sound relatively minor, and to be fair it probably is, but the story actually relies on the fact that you’re reading the documents in many respects (important documents are blatantly placed in the player’s trail while less important documents are hidden), and for me I’d rather be forced to read them straight up because I know I’m the type of person that procrastinates over reading those things. Also, it’s almost impossible to unlock the special weapons in the game. This is a real disappointment (in Resistance all special weapons were unlocked after the first playthrough). To unlock the weapons, you have to get five silver trophies. Four are quite easy to achieve, but the fifth more or less relies that you play online, and that’s not a kosher move to make when developing a game. A lot of people don’t want to play online, and you shouldn’t force them to play online if they want to experience something in the single player mode. (I do not play online multiplayer all that much, and for that reason I typically do not cover multiplayer in my reviews – that’s why I have not discussed it here.)

Also, I’m concerned that the game doesn’t know what time period it actually takes place in. the first game took place during an alternate World War II. Resistance 2 takes place during 1950 – you can hear 50s style news flashes and songs from the 40s everywhere you go. Unfortunately, everyone looks like they’re from the 90s, and everyone acts like they’re from the 90s. Furthermore, present-day technology has crept into the game, and this totally alienated me from the setting. Characters talk about video feeds all the time. Video feeds? In the 50s? What is everyone wearing, head cams? We’ve barely managed to integrate that on the battlefield today, let alone in the 50s. I frequently came across buildings that had whole rafts of modern looking computer control panels in them. That’s a problem. So I felt some alienation there – especially when one of the main weapons in the game is a rifle that could be straight from the 1940s. A strange move on Insomniac’s part.

Those three marks against Resistance 2 cannot detract from the whole experience though, at least not for me. I can’t ignore the fact that the game is really good looking, and that it plays well, and that it’s interesting. Above all, it’s fun. I had a blast playing the game, and as soon as I get this up, I’m zipping off to play a few more rounds. I think that’s the strongest statement about Resistance 2, and any game for that matter: if a game makes you want to come back for more even after clearing it multiple times, that’s a very good sign. And Resistance 2 certainly does that.