Post by The Chupster on Nov 17, 2008 0:36:28 GMT -5
I know what you're gonna say. Chupa, it's a shooter! What more need be said?
Well, right off the bat, I gots ta say: plenty. Now, don't get me wrong. Resistance 2 is a helluva ripoff of Halo. By that I'm not saying that it's a carbon copy, but the gameplay is damned close.
The Campaign
Resistance 2 apparently picks up where Resistance: Fall of Man left off. If you're like me, that means exactly dick. I've been playing through a few levels and I still don't really have any idea what's going on, but it's something along the lines of the Halo-esque "alien-looking guys BAD, humans GOOD."
The Chimera- who are either aliens or mutants caused by a disease or something along those lines, I have no idea, the story is so inane and badly-played-out- look pretty vicious, sort of like albino heroin users with funky spider-like heads. And there's a good few other enemies in the Chimera ranks, but you'll mostly be shooting the stick figure guys. They've got some big machines that look pretty, and as the story progresses, you'll get at least one genuine "oh shit" moment per level on average, usually related to some big-ass creature/machine/whatever that you'll not really interact too much with until you have to kill it.
Anyway, basically, story sucks, but everything is pretty good-looking. Not quite on par with Halo 3, but pretty. The story is just sort of force-fed to you, but honestly I got to the point where I stopped paying attention, as none of it really matters at all in the long run. This is very much a corridor shooter, which is where it sort of gets inferior to the Halo series: even when you're outdoors, everything just sort of 'feels' square and rigid. Not that Halo is that different, but they managed to disguise it through the graphics and level design; Resistance 2 doesn't have that to fall back on, and while levels tend to be large, you don't tend to have that "OMFG look at the size of that battlefield w/ bad guys aplenty" moment. Granted, I'm like in the middle of the fourth level or whatever, but there's been a good couple of battles that should've been massive and epic, and the level seemed designed for it, but there just weren't enough bad guys, and the ones that were there seemed to be stuck on "let's run headlong into gunfire!" And that just sort of blows.
Cooperative Play
The game allows for splitscreen local 2-player (and possibly more, but I'm pretty sure you're stuck with 2), or 8-player co-op over the Playstation Network. Honestly, I have no idea how this is, as I haven't tried it, but I'm sort of hoping that they at least have the decency to throw more enemies at you, or maybe just make it a completely different experience than the single-player campaign, because there are definitely not enough baddies to trample through with 7 of your closest friends. If I get around to trying this out, I'll update this section, but for now I'll just say "I have no idea."
EDIT: Just played a few matches and they... are... awesome. Up to 8 people play through a multiple-objective level flooded with enemies. VERY awesome. Each player picks one of 3 classes- medic, soldier and I think special ops, which is basically a heavy gunner. As you level up you unlock new abilities and loadouts (separately for each class), as well as the ability to purchase armor and equipment. TOO DAMNED COOL. Especially the medic, who essentially steals health from the enemy with their primary fire with a beam cannon called the Phoenix, and gives it to their allies with the secondary fire. So awesome.
Competitive
The competitive multiplayer is where this title SHINES. You guys know that I'm a hardcore 360 supporter, but let me say this clearly: the 360 couldn't do this if it wanted to. You heard me right.
This game manages to look pretty and support up to 60-player- that's right; 60-PLAYER competitive multiplayer. 60... fucking... players. And I have no problem telling you that 60-player team deathmatches just kick ass all OVER the planet.
Never is there a framerate hitch. Never is there any slowdown. I haven't even seen a hint of lag, and although the PlayStation Network is very barebones- well hell, it's free- but I never expected the level of absolute badassness that makes up online play with the few games I've been fortunate enough to try.
60 players. That's some massive shit. And let me tell you, it gets hairy real fast, but this game is AWESOME online.
Multiplayer Details
As you progress through online multiplayer, you gain experience, through which you unlock different loadouts (weapons to start a match with) and items to customize your online persona. You don't get much to start with, but you get a good variety of weapons with which to kick the ass. It's sort of like Call of Duty 4, but there's no easy setup/lobby deal like CoD4 has to get everything working together, but it's really not a big deal.
Weaponry
Naturally, the meat of any shooter is in the weapons, and let me tell you, the guns in this lil game are no slouch.
Each weapon has a primary and secondary fire mode. There are some mundane choices- the machine gun that fires grenades as the secondary, or the shotgun that fires a double-barrel blast as secondary, for instance- but there are a ton of awesome choices as well. The human sniper rifle is pretty regular in online multiplayer, but in campaign mode, holding down L1 not only pops up your scope view, but slows down time. The Chimera sniper rifle fires off 3-round shots and the secondary fires a little electric ball that follows enemies and continuously shocks them. A sawblade gun's second fire acts as a chainsaw-style melee move. The auger- basically a railgun- has a secondary energy shield. The list goes on and on, but basically, the weapons are of the kick-ass variety.
My fav has to be the magnum- it has some stopping power, but it fires incendiary rounds that explode when you hit the secondary fire. Now THAT kicks ass!
Add these guns to a 60-person fight and you know the shit done hit the fan.
And there's also a selection of different grenades and mines that sort'a rock. And just like in Halo, you can only hold 2 guns at once, so you know you'll be switchin' and a' tradin'!
Sound/Rumble/Settings
I hate to say it, but the sound is sort of lacking. It's not really bad, it just isn't anything to write home about- you just know that they could've done better. Additionally, for you folks with a DualShock 3, you'll notice that the rumble implementation is pretty weak. For one, it doesn't have much kick, but you'll find that you really only feel it pretty much when you're firing- the rest of the time, if it's there, you don't notice, because it's just that frickin' weak, and that really detracts from the game a bit.
The initial settings for the game suck as well, combining the crouch and sprint functions into one button. You can change this in the options, so that sprint is L2 and crouch is L3, but I can't for the life of me figure out why they would have those two for the same buttons- it just doesn't make sense.
Additionally, the initial look sensitivity SUCKS. You won't even have time to turn around before you get zapped 83 ways from Sunday, and you really have to crank it up at least half of the rest of the bar to get any good response. And that's just weird as hell for an FPS.
Overall
Overall, if you like FPS's at all- and especially like online play with them- you owe it to yourself to give Resistance 2 a try. I doubt that there's a better shooter on the system, at least until February (Killzone 2, w00t), and the action gets fast and furious really quick.
60 players with no lag and no framerate drops. With a game that looks this good- not great, but damned good- c'mon, that's a pretty phenomenal feat.
Resistance 2. It's PS3's Halo for real.
Well, right off the bat, I gots ta say: plenty. Now, don't get me wrong. Resistance 2 is a helluva ripoff of Halo. By that I'm not saying that it's a carbon copy, but the gameplay is damned close.
The Campaign
Resistance 2 apparently picks up where Resistance: Fall of Man left off. If you're like me, that means exactly dick. I've been playing through a few levels and I still don't really have any idea what's going on, but it's something along the lines of the Halo-esque "alien-looking guys BAD, humans GOOD."
The Chimera- who are either aliens or mutants caused by a disease or something along those lines, I have no idea, the story is so inane and badly-played-out- look pretty vicious, sort of like albino heroin users with funky spider-like heads. And there's a good few other enemies in the Chimera ranks, but you'll mostly be shooting the stick figure guys. They've got some big machines that look pretty, and as the story progresses, you'll get at least one genuine "oh shit" moment per level on average, usually related to some big-ass creature/machine/whatever that you'll not really interact too much with until you have to kill it.
Anyway, basically, story sucks, but everything is pretty good-looking. Not quite on par with Halo 3, but pretty. The story is just sort of force-fed to you, but honestly I got to the point where I stopped paying attention, as none of it really matters at all in the long run. This is very much a corridor shooter, which is where it sort of gets inferior to the Halo series: even when you're outdoors, everything just sort of 'feels' square and rigid. Not that Halo is that different, but they managed to disguise it through the graphics and level design; Resistance 2 doesn't have that to fall back on, and while levels tend to be large, you don't tend to have that "OMFG look at the size of that battlefield w/ bad guys aplenty" moment. Granted, I'm like in the middle of the fourth level or whatever, but there's been a good couple of battles that should've been massive and epic, and the level seemed designed for it, but there just weren't enough bad guys, and the ones that were there seemed to be stuck on "let's run headlong into gunfire!" And that just sort of blows.
Cooperative Play
The game allows for splitscreen local 2-player (and possibly more, but I'm pretty sure you're stuck with 2), or 8-player co-op over the Playstation Network. Honestly, I have no idea how this is, as I haven't tried it, but I'm sort of hoping that they at least have the decency to throw more enemies at you, or maybe just make it a completely different experience than the single-player campaign, because there are definitely not enough baddies to trample through with 7 of your closest friends. If I get around to trying this out, I'll update this section, but for now I'll just say "I have no idea."
EDIT: Just played a few matches and they... are... awesome. Up to 8 people play through a multiple-objective level flooded with enemies. VERY awesome. Each player picks one of 3 classes- medic, soldier and I think special ops, which is basically a heavy gunner. As you level up you unlock new abilities and loadouts (separately for each class), as well as the ability to purchase armor and equipment. TOO DAMNED COOL. Especially the medic, who essentially steals health from the enemy with their primary fire with a beam cannon called the Phoenix, and gives it to their allies with the secondary fire. So awesome.
Competitive
The competitive multiplayer is where this title SHINES. You guys know that I'm a hardcore 360 supporter, but let me say this clearly: the 360 couldn't do this if it wanted to. You heard me right.
This game manages to look pretty and support up to 60-player- that's right; 60-PLAYER competitive multiplayer. 60... fucking... players. And I have no problem telling you that 60-player team deathmatches just kick ass all OVER the planet.
Never is there a framerate hitch. Never is there any slowdown. I haven't even seen a hint of lag, and although the PlayStation Network is very barebones- well hell, it's free- but I never expected the level of absolute badassness that makes up online play with the few games I've been fortunate enough to try.
60 players. That's some massive shit. And let me tell you, it gets hairy real fast, but this game is AWESOME online.
Multiplayer Details
As you progress through online multiplayer, you gain experience, through which you unlock different loadouts (weapons to start a match with) and items to customize your online persona. You don't get much to start with, but you get a good variety of weapons with which to kick the ass. It's sort of like Call of Duty 4, but there's no easy setup/lobby deal like CoD4 has to get everything working together, but it's really not a big deal.
Weaponry
Naturally, the meat of any shooter is in the weapons, and let me tell you, the guns in this lil game are no slouch.
Each weapon has a primary and secondary fire mode. There are some mundane choices- the machine gun that fires grenades as the secondary, or the shotgun that fires a double-barrel blast as secondary, for instance- but there are a ton of awesome choices as well. The human sniper rifle is pretty regular in online multiplayer, but in campaign mode, holding down L1 not only pops up your scope view, but slows down time. The Chimera sniper rifle fires off 3-round shots and the secondary fires a little electric ball that follows enemies and continuously shocks them. A sawblade gun's second fire acts as a chainsaw-style melee move. The auger- basically a railgun- has a secondary energy shield. The list goes on and on, but basically, the weapons are of the kick-ass variety.
My fav has to be the magnum- it has some stopping power, but it fires incendiary rounds that explode when you hit the secondary fire. Now THAT kicks ass!
Add these guns to a 60-person fight and you know the shit done hit the fan.
And there's also a selection of different grenades and mines that sort'a rock. And just like in Halo, you can only hold 2 guns at once, so you know you'll be switchin' and a' tradin'!
Sound/Rumble/Settings
I hate to say it, but the sound is sort of lacking. It's not really bad, it just isn't anything to write home about- you just know that they could've done better. Additionally, for you folks with a DualShock 3, you'll notice that the rumble implementation is pretty weak. For one, it doesn't have much kick, but you'll find that you really only feel it pretty much when you're firing- the rest of the time, if it's there, you don't notice, because it's just that frickin' weak, and that really detracts from the game a bit.
The initial settings for the game suck as well, combining the crouch and sprint functions into one button. You can change this in the options, so that sprint is L2 and crouch is L3, but I can't for the life of me figure out why they would have those two for the same buttons- it just doesn't make sense.
Additionally, the initial look sensitivity SUCKS. You won't even have time to turn around before you get zapped 83 ways from Sunday, and you really have to crank it up at least half of the rest of the bar to get any good response. And that's just weird as hell for an FPS.
Overall
Overall, if you like FPS's at all- and especially like online play with them- you owe it to yourself to give Resistance 2 a try. I doubt that there's a better shooter on the system, at least until February (Killzone 2, w00t), and the action gets fast and furious really quick.
60 players with no lag and no framerate drops. With a game that looks this good- not great, but damned good- c'mon, that's a pretty phenomenal feat.
Resistance 2. It's PS3's Halo for real.
