Review: Resistance 2 - Nathan Hale vs Marcus Fenix

Mike Bantick
Wednesday, 19 November 2008 09:14

Opinion and Analysis

This is magnificent, and spills over to the multiplayer options which can see co-op squads go up against the Chimera enemy or full on – players everywhere – sixty player death match and team death match games.

As the campaign progresses, Hale will journey over a wide variety of locations, utilising a colour palette that Fenix and his Gears of War buddies could only drool over.  From an under water base, to a city-under-siege.  From a ravaged and deserted (sort of) small country logging town to the decks of a flying enemy battleship.

In only a few of these locations does Insomniac suffer from design stereotyping.  And good level design is to be expected from the crew that brought us games such as Ratchet & Clank.  Taking one example, the floating battleship could easily have been a maze of twisted corridors leading to the goal.  In some parts it is, but for the most part this traditional game design process is eschewed.  Giving us multi level open walkways and the perception of the ability to get anywhere on the ship, with only subtle, almost subconscious clues to guide Hale (and therefore the player) in the required direction.

Yes it would be easy just to stack Resistance 2 up against Gears of War 2 in a PS3 versus Xbox 360 pissing contest, but the reality is, that though they come from the same shooter pedigree, and feature for feature could indeed be compared, both bring an element of sameness and eventually an element of their own to the genre.  It is these differences that distinguish the titles unto themselves, and is why each should be judged in pure isolation.  Which means it is good that they are exclusives on rival platforms then.

8 Auger-toting Hybrids out of 10