Resistance 2 beta hands-on impression: part 1
Resistance 2 is the sequel to the PS3 launch title, Resistance: Fall of Man. I’ve had the opportunity to play in the trenches for about a week now and I can say with certainty that Resistance 2 looks to be a serious contender for the best first person shooter of the year title.
The original game was well received, managing to get high scores from the big three: IGN (9.1/10), GamePro (9/10) and GameSpot (8.6). The original game went on to sell an estimated three to four million units, which isn’t too shabby for a launch title.
Among a sea of first person shooters, Insomniac Games aimed to make Resistance 2 stand out from the other top notch shooters. I believe they may have stumbled upon something very promising.
Co-op campaign
Resistance 2 does something that I have never seen in another FPS – throw eight players into a massive online/offline co-op campaign. The co-op offers all of the features one would find in a full on multiplayer mode plus more. Instead of tacking the co-op onto the single player story, Insomniac Games took it one step further by creating a whole new game for it. The co-op lobby allows you to find games in progress as well as create them. It also displays all of the specs you would normally see in a competitive online mode, such as: user stats, levels, number of players, etc…
You can also just hit ‘play’ and the matchmaking system will find a game for you and drop you into the co-op campaign in progress. There are three distinct classes you can choose from: medic, spec op and soldier.
Soldier - basically is your tank. This player has the heavy duty firepower, with huge amounts of life but lacks range and capabilities the other two classes have. The soldier can create a portable force field for close quarter attacks.
Medic - will be the person that you rely on to heal you by creating a field called ‘the ring of life.’ The medic can deal massive damage by using a weapon that drains the enemies’ health.
Special Ops - is your long range and ammo dispenser. When you are running low on ammo this person is the go-to player.
The co-op forces everyone to work together, creating that comrade feeling which is usually felt in long lived clans. Let me give you some examples of how my co-op games went down while playing with complete strangers. During a fire fight, if my life was running low a medic would see that on that player’s screen. The player would then run towards me and execute a ring of life, replenishing my heath. Also, if I see that most of my team-mates are dead and there are 30 Chimera troops flanking me, I will run like hell to survive long enough for my other teammates to spawn (which takes about 30 seconds) to prevent the game from ending with my death.
The best way to describe the co-op is to compare it to an MMO. There are huge bosses with an incredible amount of life. Literally eight players will fight massive Chimera bosses, usually surviving by the skin of their teeth. There will be matches where all eight members are squeezed within a narrow passage way fighting against a huge boss that will throw your soldiers around, causing at least two or three of your teammates to run to the fallen soldier to speed heal together to continue the epic battle.
Overall the co-op mode was very satisfying, offering an alternative online mode to the competitive play. The graphics and coloring are excellent. While many shooters try to hide it’s faults with dark and dingy shadows, Resistance 2 goes in the opposite direction by using bright and brilliant colors.
Keep an eye out for part 2, where I will talk a bit more about the competitive portion of the beta as well as leveling up.
Writer’s Note:
Hi folks, as you may have noticed we are currently beta testing the login registration feature. Please be patient as we work through any technical difficulties. If you are experiencing issues with the password retrieval give this a shot to receive the email confirmation.
http://gamer.blorge.com/wp-login.php?action=lostpassword
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20 Responses to “Resistance 2 beta hands-on impression: part 1”
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October 23rd, 2008
Sweet too bad i don’t have Qore yet, to get the beta damn me LoL. This game is gonna be so good i can’t wait to play it. Thanks for the feedback on R2.
October 23rd, 2008
Ahhh the login system works (Check your junk email folder for password folks, mine was in there and i use hotmail).
Mike where did you get your beta code from?!? I’ve been trawling the internet to find one and no matter where i’ve looked they’ve all been out. Glad to see its getting the thumbs up. I cannot wait to get my hands on this, although i hope the beta doesn’t spoil anything…
October 23rd, 2008
I can’t wait for R2. It’s looking mental so far.
Mike, can you confirm whether split-screen online play will be an option? Then I can invite one of my less fortunate friends / stranger over to play online with me.
October 23rd, 2008
looks awesome. Damn…I’m going to be broke this holiday!
October 23rd, 2008
@Bourne,
To be honest, I am not sure how I got the beta code. Sometimes game publishers send me beta codes to preview it, or it could have been from Qore.
@Royzy,
Yes there is split-screen in both co-op and in competitive multiplayer. It’s especially great in co-op as you can have someone that is sitting right next to you jump in to a online game in progress.
You can also just do local off-line co-op game as well.
October 23rd, 2008
Oh yea. Co-op is a BLAST! Love it very much. I’ve played it a bunch of times. The first two times I played it (was in the very beginning of the Beta) people didn’t know what to do. Now I go in people know how to work. Soldier in the front lines, Medics in the back and Spec Ops right behind the Soldiers feeding them ammo.
Competitive is super-awesome, nothing like any other shooter I have experienced. Super fast, crazy, powerful, lots of things going on. My brother and I are switching from CoD4 to Resistance 2 as soon as it comes out. He’s a hardcore shooter (on his 8th or 9th badge in CoD4) if you guys ever see Mouretsu that’d be him or me.
I canceled a bunch of other shooters, with all the nice games coming out … I won’t have time to spend on all the games. Besides, I only need a couple to crunch my gaming thirst.
October 23rd, 2008
I am in the beta also. The beta works really well. I have not experienced any lag or slow down at all. This game will have tons of content to play between the single player, co-op, and competitive modes.
The Co-Op is like nothing else I’ve seen so far. It defiantly plays like a MMO, with members on the team having different classes and abilities to work together. I was really impressed with it. I should also point out that the competitive is amazing also. 40 player battles taking place in a large map works like a charm. It’s very intense and lots of fun.
October 23rd, 2008
ahhh all these beta testers. Anyone know of any keys available? I tried IGN and they ran out. Im hoping they launch more, but when does beta end?
October 23rd, 2008
I checked the file and it doesn’t have an expiration date, so I’m not really sure. The only way I ended up getting in was from GameStop. You had to put down $5 to preorder, and as a result they emailed a beta code.
I have read (thesixaxis) that they may be opening up the beta to all. Making it a downloadable demo form the PSN.
October 23rd, 2008
Incase anyone is interested in what “the future sega” is up to?
http://www.ps3daily.co.uk/20081023/ps3-daily-wishes-to-apologise-for-acting-like-fanboys/
October 23rd, 2008
lol what a pest. He ought to be exterminated form his router. Someone on that website has my enitials as well…
October 23rd, 2008
when I heard this game was going to have on line split screen action in both co-op and competitive, I was hooked, I dont care about any defects or imperfections people might find, this feature alone draws me in. No other game has this available, this game is truly putting any standard from which all future FPS should stand by.
October 23rd, 2008
People are still encouraging Future Sega Boy? I thought we’d all figured out trolls like him.
Also, if PS3Daily feels the need to apologize, then XBoxer.tv really owes everyone an apology.
ALSO also… is that pic in this article of the soldier with the pistol an in-game shot?? If so, that’s pretty sick…
-Arvis
October 24th, 2008
So Sega boy was the identity thief??
Ivan, where’s my apology?
October 24th, 2008
LOl harry, you created a singlemuslim.com dating page for Ivan, i think you can kiss your apology goodbye…unless it gets him a date.
October 24th, 2008
lol.. you did that harry?
awesome!!!!!!
Anyway. This game is looking more and more like a potential game of the year!!!! At least the MP aspect of it…….
October 24th, 2008
Oh I don’t know Bourne, he’s actually doing awfully well on that site. Only problem is they want the user to pay $60 USD a month just so they can retrieve their messages.
October 24th, 2008
harry sachz:
I apologize if you weren’t the one that posted those idiotic comments on the PLAYSTATION 3 god.
Bourne:
What you talking about if he did that i take my apologies back. And wow if he did do that, just because i said those things about PS3 kicking Microsoft’s Xbox 360 outer the gaming world it just shows that Xbox 360 are gamers are all immature and will do anything for Microsoft but Microsoft won’t care about them anyways.
Paying for that weird.
Resistance 2 is looking jaw dropping mind blowing super good i think this game is going to revolutionize the FPS genre once and for all.
October 24th, 2008
Lol how many times have we been thru this Ivan. I own a PS3, not a Wii, not a 360, not a Sega genesis. I also own a PS2.
October 24th, 2008
Bourne:
I know you own a PS3 i never said you own anything else.