Resistance 2: Critics Weigh In

I'm picking up my reserved copy, tonight.

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Last edited by Aftab on 11/4/2008 1:20:43 PM

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Just picked my Collectors Edition too! Pity I have to wait until the weekend to play it. Work, work.

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I have to wait until November the 28th, normally id be pissed but with Dead Space, Fallout 3 and Little Big Plannet to keep me busy.... i cant really complain can i?

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^^ Agreed

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QFMFT Ben.

Games should be praised for trying new things, but there's nothing wrong with giving players more of what they loved the first time. That's kinda the reason they pick up the sequels.

IMHO, a lot of reviewers are trying to look at games from the perspective of art. If its not new, hot, or different, then its just a game -- and their scores show that.

This is not art people. I mean sure, some games are artsy, and that art factor should be judged, but that doesn't stop you from enjoying a game that has no pretenses.

Give me a single level on a well designed standard shooter over an entire glitchy game that's supposed to make me think about how to end world hunger any day.

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Joe: I agree entirely. You'll see that sentiment reflected in PSXE's reviews, certainly.

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Ben: I know, that's why I come here. Despite popular belief, its not just to piss everyone off.

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You nailed it, that whole statement is one that reviewers these days seem to not understand.

I trust psxextreme a lot, these guys really know how to play a game and see what the game is trying to do and how well it does it.

Then they factor in if it's a sequel or not and how the transition plays out.

They did a great review with MGS4, that's the kind of UNDERSTANDING of the game I want to see in reviews.

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i only come here and ign for gaming stuff. The reviews are great here. CAKE MMMMMmmmm

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Since when has art got anything to do with ending world hunger.......

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its an analogy.
For instance, Bioshock did really well because it was a fairly well put together shooter, and it had all the philosophical undertones of Ayn Rand's Objectivism.

If I had to choose between a single level of a well put together generic shooter, or a glitchy shooter with philosophical undertones, i would choose the generic shooter.

Quadruply so since I hate that dumb ho Ayn Rand. Fark Atlas Shrugged.

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I bought the game this morning before going to my classes. I'm really looking forward to playing it when I get home tonight! (I have a 5:30-8:00 class, so, I still have a while to wait)

I do have to say, though, I am extremely upset about the lack of a co-op campaign mode =( The offline co-op that Insomniac put in the game just doesn't cut it....

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cant wait to get my copy tomarrow

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this isnt fair, the uk release isnt til 28th of november, i think they mite lose some sales because of this as cod5 comes out on the 14th of nov in the uk, alot of ppl who would of been on the fence and wanted only one fps this christmas, might go for the one that comes out 1st... me, i'l probz buy off ebay and get it this week, like i did with socom as that still int out for 3 or 4 weeks here in the uk.

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Maybe it was a bad idea releasing it right next to Gears 2.

I know they did it thinking that it would steal the limelight from Gears, but I think it's gonna be the other way around.

While I bet R2 is awesome, the world is going to focus on Gears 2, and in the end, the 360 will have the better reviewed and more popular game. While the PS3 game (R2) will be looked at falling just inches away from being a must buy (in their eyes at least).

R2 for me though, I loved the beta.

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I actually agree with you... It also goes with the whole innovation thing that Ben has been saying. GOW2 is "more innovative" than R2. GOW1 was completely innovative and new. It was a great game and as GOW2 is the sequel to an innovative game I think they will see it more as "the people who invented the wheel are sticking to their formula"... I think reviewers will see the third person shooter aspect in GOW2 as being more innovative than a first person shooter. Enough said in that regard.
On the other hand... Being a PS3 owner and an XBox owner I am still leaning over to R2. (Today by the way ;)) My choice is backed up with a little bit of reasoning. I LOVED Resistance 1 (the story, the guns, the gameplay, and even the characters). I LIKED Gears of War (the gameplay was awesome, the story was like a mediocre action movie, the characters (sorry for offending anyone for this but it IS MY OPINION so don't take it personal) were very dumb. The second bit of reasoning is the view of upgrades. From what I have seen... GOW2 is a lot like GOW1 except for some new weapons. To me, it seems like GOW2 is only a continuation of GOW, (kinda like Return of the King to LOTR) Nothing wrong with that by the way. R2 on the otherhand seems more of a sequel to me. More guns and more story like GOW2 ->GOW1, but a CRAPLOAD of NEW FEATURES. (online co-op, co-op multiplayer, a leveling system) In my eyes the choice is clear, considering I HAVE to make a choice this time around with Christmas looming around the corner and my wallet already being pretty light. (Otherwise, I would get both.) Resistance 2 just seems like more fun to me. Reasoning finished.

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Dont quite get the lord of the rings analogy...return of the king is the third book of lord of the rings. The lord of the rings is a three book set, Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and the Return of the King. Thus, games try to follow the whole trilogy thing as far as story. Resistance is also supposed to be a trilogy. Of course the developer is going to add on to and perfect their work with each installment. The same as how the Return of the Jedi was vastly superior in special effects to a New Hope.

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Last edited by JPBooch on 11/5/2008 12:44:38 AM

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looking forward to it. I might pick it up on ebay coz i live in uk and im not patient. The graphics could be better tho.but the 300 ft thingy looks incredible.

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For Some reson when i play online i get disconnected..... its pissing me off

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And the scores keep dropping for R2...it's at 88 now.

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i who gives a crap man, form your own opinion on a game. i bet you get every game over 90 on metacritic. BTW got it on ebay should b cuming soooooonn

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Gears is being pushed like crack cocaine, so it will probably get all the attention. It's even getting a segment (not a commercial) on the show Futureweapons. But the R2 commercials aren't bad at least. R2 FTW anyway!

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ouch. Gears is raping R2.

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How so fanboy? Wait until all the reviews are in, will you. There are more total reviews for Gears 2 than R2 right now.

Besides, who cares? I'll be playing both games, will you?

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got ma collection edition and its a sweet game pure action. loven it.

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Um, I'm not a big FPS guy (R2 is on my Gamefly list anyways) but isn't 8-player co-op campaign and 60-person online multiplayer "innovative?" What more do people want? Do they want the game to give them a literal cookie for completing a stage?

-Arvis

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how is 60 player online innovative? UT back in 98 had 64 players...

Just cuz a console can now do what PCs can doesn't make it innovative. Neither does increasing the scope of things already done.

Innovative would be to create a new feature. Like...umm...if it...umm...I can't think of something brand new. but if they were to add new game modes or something, that would be innovative for that platform.

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@Joe_III

Why was GoldenEye innovative for the N64? It didn't do anything PCs weren't doing for years already.

Anyway, 60 player is innovative on a console. Why do I think if Gears 2 offered 60-player online you'd be claiming it WAS innovative.

As far as the the eight-player co-op, that, too, is innovative BECAUSE it gives you a full-fledged separate campain that eight players can go through together.

From the GameSpot Preview:

"The class system works out logically during gameplay, and it's clear that all groups will need some healers, ammo droppers, and damage dealers. The mix of players depends on the size of your group. While the mode supports as few as two and as many as eight players, the fewer people in your group, the less wiggle room you have for class choices. We played the available mission with each class and were impressed by how it played.

While the different character class types may sound like Team Fortress 2, R2's co-op feels more like an instance run in World of Warcraft with no ninja looting. Coordination is key to success, especially as you're directed through the environment to different objectives. The closer a group is to the full eight players, the better the odds that one or two weak links can be compensated for. Smaller groups will need all players to play their classes to perfection. We're pleased to see that Insomniac has left the mode open-ended in the sense that there are no restrictions to group combos in the mode."

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Last edited by Orvisman on 11/5/2008 9:57:59 AM

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Totally agree with you Ben and Joe.
What does Gears 2 bring new to the table, looks like a bunch of the same to me? I think R2 does bring some innovation though - 60 player online competitive and 8 player online coop are both innovative features for a console.

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Gears 2 at least brings new features like Horde mode. Yes, Horde mode is not something new, but it is somewhat different than the regular "arcade mode" you see and its new to the series, and therefore cool.

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8-man co-op and 60-man online vs are new to the Resistance series...

You confuse me with your statements. They feel like double standards, but... you're generally reasonable, so I'm sure I'm just misunderstanding...

-Arvis

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But coop and multiplayer aren't. Hence expanding current features vs. adding new ones.

But I will say this, making the coop as a seperate side story from the campaign is a new feature to R2, and a really good one at that. The making the coop maps/paths random is also very cool -- even innovative.

I haven't played either yet, so I don't know what innovations they're talking about for GoW2. I'm trying to avoid all the buzz I can for both R2/GoW2...

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@Frenchy17,

Actually, you don't agree with Joe_III.

@Arvis,

No, you're right, Joe_III is using a double standard.

In the above post, Joe_III writes this about R2:

"But coop and multiplayer aren't [new and innovative]. Hence expanding current features vs. adding new ones."

Then, in the post preceeding that post, he writes about Gears 2:

"Gears 2 at least brings new features like Horde mode. Yes, Horde mode is not something new, but it is somewhat different than the regular "arcade mode" you see and its new to the series, and therefore cool."

LOL. Joe_III not only contradicts himself on what he considers innovative and new for Gears 2/R2, but he also contradicts himself about whether or not Horde mode is new and innovative.

Then, Joe_III circles back in his logic that while "... coop and multiplayer aren't [new and innovative]," he does believe "... making the coop as a seperate side story from the campaign is a new feature to R2, and a really good one at that. The making the coop maps/paths random is also very cool -- even innovative."

So, you see, that while Joe_III doesn't think R2 is innovative and Gears 2 is, he does think R2's co-op is innovative ... even though he thinks it isn't.

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Last edited by Orvisman on 11/5/2008 10:14:44 AM

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Scores slacking yeah right what bullshit, ign 9.5, eurogamer 10, what low scores, & g.o.w2, ign AU 8.8, ign UK 9.2, wait till psx & psu review it, more good scores. Anyway quit coplaining abou the reviews & judge 4 urself...Nuff said

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i sorry but why are people calling the to games rivals
the reason gear 2 is getting higher reviews is because its a TPS a genre that hasn't been done to death (yet)
while resistance 2 being a FPS. is a genre thats alot harder to get good reviews for and im damn proud of insomniac for getting the reviews they got

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@Fatcat3788
Well said.

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I'm looking forward to Resistance 2 more, as a series its seems to have evolved tremendously, i mean in every aspect. GoW2 seems pretty much a bit of an advancemnt over the previous title but not pushing the boundaries like R2.

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I've always liked resistance better, Gow was way too short, overrated. I hope they do better with gears 2.

I got R2 this morning and I love it. Except for the fact that you can only carry 2 guns. WTF!!!

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be reasonable, honestly u don't expect to carry the entire united states arsenal on your back :P 2 weapons sounds good to me.

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IGN

Gears of War II - 9.5/10

Resistance II - 9.5/10

LittleBigPlanet - 9.5/10

........which one should we play LMFAO?!?!?! oh yeah duhh....it's of course

METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS 10/10!!!!!!! MASTERFUL IN YOUR FACE!!!!!!MUHUAHUAHUAHAUHAUHA LMFAO!!!!!!!!!

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didnt LBP get a 9.7

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i have to admit the game deserves a solid 9. the absolute minimum of a 9

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Resistance is nice. I don't have any complaints. If u love the 1st one, go out and buy this one immediately. I can't wait to jump into a 60 player deathmatch!

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The only thing I dont like about r2 is u can only carry 2 weapons n when I jump online I keep getting kick off, hope they release a patch for it. The best thing I like about it you can play 2 players coop online with the same system n the 60 players deathmatches online splitscreen the only drawback is if I want to change my class or weapon loadout it interferes with his game at the bottom, but other than that very satisfied with R2 they did a good job.

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I was gonna go get R2 first thing after work...BUT I can't think of anything else but Obama taking it.

Tomorrow will be such a great day, Obama as the next president and a great game :)

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what a great week yeah?

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Last edited by aaronisbla on 11/5/2008 12:23:13 AM

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Obama's policies are about as good for america as Spore's DRM policies are good for consumers.

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I actually agree with Joe_III here.

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Lets not let our political diffrences sully a great game noe guys lol.

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I love Resistance 2. Its even better than the first in every possible way.

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This game is freakin amazin, the scale and scope of the game is massive, great job insomniac on the fantastic game!

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@ ultimadream; spot on bud ;)

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I played the game last night, I'm loving it, Favorite gun so far for me is the Magnum. Only complaint I've got at this point is I'm not quite sure what to make of the colour scheme they're using. Does anyone else feel that the game has been washed with a lot of Orange colour? Maybe it's me...

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Its hard to innovate in such a saturated genre! I can totally see Bens insight. I really don't think the acclaimed CoD4 brought much new to the table but a tighter feel and great gameplay. Thats all we can ask for in FPS and as easy as it sounds we have more misses than hits (HAZE).

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so far 6 10s for gears 2 and just 1 10 for R2

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Sorry for the length of this, but Tom Chick over at tech site fidgit dot com did a GeoW2 V. R2 comparison that is a fairly interesting read. I thought you guys might like it:

RELATED SECTIONS : Playstation 3 / Shooters / Xbox 360
Shooter vs. shooter: the battle between Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2

By Tom Chick

Gears of War 2, featuring Marcus Fenix (above left), and Resistance 2, featuring Nathan Hale (above right), were both released this week. Now they're sitting on the retail shelves casting their grim manly-man alien-killing gazes at each other. Each is an exclusive on its particular system and a darling of its publisher, Resistance 2 for Sony's Playstation 3 and Gears of War 2 for Microsoft's Xbox 360. They're both tough, established, grizzled, and heavily armed.

But who would win in a fight?

Find out which is the better game after the jump.


I should point out that I'm not a super-big fan of either game. They're both corridor crawls with embarrassingly bad stories, but solid multiplayer. If I was to rate them on a 1-10 scale, I'd maybe give them both 7s (which is an 8 on the usual 7-9 scale used by videogame reviewers). But what if we break down each game by category and compare them? Who would win the most categories? Which game is ultimately the higher 7 (or 8)?

Single player
They're both strictly linear rat-in-a-maze trips through dynamic battles against handfuls of enemies. Neither has much replay value, and I can't imagine anyone caring enough to collect the silly collectibles. Gears has the occasional fork in the road and it does a much better job with its set pieces, but Resistance gets the slight edge for massive wide-open firefights.
Winner: Resistance 2

Lead character
Marcus Fenix from Gears of War is so bad ass that he talks like he has throat cancer, which would explain the doo rag. He's so bad ass that he doesn't even need to spell "phoenix" correctly. He's so bad ass that no actor could possibly play him in a Gears of War movie, so Marcus Fenix will have to be entirely CG. Nathan Hale from Resistance is...you know, I can't remember a single thing about that guy except that he has the power to receive three or four telepathic messages from a floating octopus. I'm not even sure I got his name right. Wasn't Nathan Hale one of the Founding Fathers? Or is he the guy who wrote Last of the Mohicans?
Winner: Gears of War 2

Back story
Resistance 2 is aggressively incomprehensible. I was lost from beginning to end, and I'm pretty sure the big spoiler has something to do with a scientifically engineered floating octopus. Also, for some reason, the Cloverfield monster is running around in Chicago. But in the 1950s. Also, pods turn people into zombies. Also, soldiers have to take drugs or their eyes turn yellow and they die from advanced hepatitis or something. The back story in Gears 2 is nearly as incomprehensible, but it has a much better sense for world building, complete with silly names like razorhail, rustlung, grindlifts, and beastbarges. And since the beastbarge is one of the coolest bits of videogame design I've seen this year, the award for back story goes to Gears, since I'm sure the beastbarge figures in there somewhere.
Winner: Gears of War 2

Manliness
Gears is the most homoerotic game since 300, which wasn't technically a game so much as a cutscene without a game. Gears is full of men being suspiciously overmanly with each other. Consider Dom's stuff about his wife (beard!), the way soldiers call land carriers by female names and attribute to them aspects of female anatomy (compenstation!), and a revealing instance of dream confusion in which Dom imagines Marcus Fenix is his wife (paging Dr. Freud!). Gears is so manly that it can totally be gay. In Resistance, on the other hand, the dudes just remind each other to make sure they have full clips while the next level loads.
Winner: Gears of War 2

Monster design
If I had a nickel for every time I shot Dom full of lead, or imulsion, or plasma bolts, or torque arrows, or whatever I was firing at any given time, I'd be able to afford the collector's edition of Gears of War 2. At least the monsters in Resistance stand out from friendlies and are therefore easier to shoot. Plus, the artists who made Resistance get a lot of mileage out of how weird it is when a monster has six eyes. Aughhhh! That's just plain freaky. Also plus, the name of the monsters in Resistance is better: "chimera" is a much cooler name for an alien race than "locust", which is particularly stupid for aliens that only appear a handful at a time.
Winner: Resistance 2

The alien plan
In Gears of War, the aliens come up from underground. There are some new reveals in Gears 2 about their insidious plans to abduct people (boo!) and the mechanics of how they sink entire cities underground (cool!). But all that pales in comparison to the convoluted alien plan in Resistance. It seems to go a little something like this: arrive on earth via the Tunguska meteorite, spread a virus that converts people into monsters who further convert people into zombies, conquer Russia in the 1950s (suck it Stalin!), then go through Europe (Marshall Plan revoked!), then across the English Channel (suck it, Hitler!), then to America (suck it, Eisenhower!), then to Mexico (Mexico?) where there's some Halo-esque stuff about ancient towers or artifacts or bases or something that I wasn't quite clear on because I wasn't really paying attention when the floating octopus explained it. But what mostly cinches the deal is that the aliens in Resistance establish air supremacy. Have aliens learned nothing from military history.
Winner: Resistance 2

Basic gameplay
Resistance 2 is a lot of running backward and shooting. I hate running backwards and shooting, but I do a lot of it, even in otherwise excellent games like Fallout 3 and BioShock, where I must have done several marathons' worth of running backwards and shooting. Running backwards and shooting is the stupidest videogame contrivance since med kits, so the nod goes to Gears' stop-and-pop cover-based gameplay.
Winner: Gears of War 2

Weapons
The weapons in Gears are certainly distinct and they each have very definite roles. But they don't hit very hard. Combat in Gears feels like trying to take down a gorilla with a BB gun, and I can tell you from experience that's not a good idea (don't ask). The weapons in Resistance, on the other hand, draw from the developer's experience with Ratchet & Clank where lots of stuff gets killed in crazy ways. The Resistance guns are a mix of the conventional and the outrageous, with each weapon having some sort of wacky secondary effect.
Winner: Resistance 2

Most improved
Gears 2 adds poison gas grenades, a flame thrower, and human (well, inhuman) shields, but it's mostly a retread of the original Gears. Resistance 2 cuts out the med kits and health bar in favor of the now popular Call of Duty system. I cannot overstate how much this makes Resistance 2 an improvement over Resistance 1, which was a game mostly about trying to find another one of those damn glowing health canisters.
Winner: Resistance 2

Bossage
Both games have really big bosses that look cool at first. Then they kill you for the tenth time while you're trying to figure out the pattern to get past them. But if you're going to have a tedious boss battle, at least make it as spectacular as Gears manages to do. In fact, both games have a battle fought against a water monster while you're stranded on a little floating platform. It's a great study in contrasts for how Gears does bad boss fights better than Resistance.
Winner: Gears of War 2

Death
When you die in Resistance, it plays the same DUM-dum-dum tune and then a reload to the last checkpoint. It happens a lot. A lot. When you die in Gears, it plays a sad etude or some such thing with the piano. But instead of Resistance's die-and-retry gameplay, Gears gives you a second chance by letting your AI buddy resurrect you. Marcus and Dom 4 eva!
Winner: Gears of War 2

Multiplayer (competitive)
Both games increase the number of players supported. Gears goes up to 10, Resistance goes up to 60. The really big news for Gears is the addition of bots, which is pretty nifty. Although Gears has a number of modes, they're mostly variations on deathmatch and there's nothing approximating the grand map-wide free-ranging skirmish mode in Resistance. Also, Resistance has a persistent leveling system that goes along with a mix-and-match scheme where you choose a weapon and a special "berserk" ability. It's wonderfully addictive.
Winner: Resistance 2

Multiplayer (co-operative)
Only Gears lets you play the single-player campaign cooperatively, but that assumes that you actually like the single-player campaign enough to share it with someone. Gears' new horde mode lets players team up against waves of monsters, which is the new hotness (Call of Duty 5 and Left 4 Dead, anyone?). The bots also let players set up matches against AI opponents. These are all great features. But none of them is as great as Resistance's co-op campaign, which is like an MMO, complete with classes, character leveling, randomization, and even a lite loot system.
Winner: Resistance 2

The overall tally:
Gears of War 2: 6 points
Resistance 2: 7 points

The winner is Resistance 2! Congratulations! Now go to Disneyland.

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Last edited by Orvisman on 11/8/2008 3:32:35 PM

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