Resistance 2

Gameplay

Resistance 2 is a single-player campaign, with the player controlling protagonist Nathan Hale. The game includes many of the weapons from Resistance: Fall of Man, as well as new weapons such as the "Marksman" and a mini gun called the "HVAP (High Velocity Armor Piercing) Wraith". The weapons are a mix of 1950s human technology and more advanced alien technology. Unlike the first game, where there was no limit on the number of weapons carried, Resistance 2 limited the player to only two weapons at any given time, as well as a more limited number of grenades. Resistance 2 also does not use a health bar in the single player campaign as it did in the first, but instead it uses an automatic regenerative health system, whereby players must keep out of the line of fire in order to recover health.

Multiplayer

Resistance 2 features multiplayer in two variations. Both multiplayer modes track the player's performance, gaining experience and leading to benefits and rewards, as well as assigning the player a skill ranking.

Resistance 2 does not offer co-op for the single player campaign. Cooperative mode features a separate campaign mode set in 1952-53 in the gap in the time line of the single-player campaign. The cooperative campaign supports anything from two to eight players, taking the role of a special forces group called "Spectre Team". Players are tasked with many randomized objectives around the map, while defeating hordes of Chimera in the process. The strength of the enemy forces is altered based on the number of players and their skill levels. There are three classes to choose from: Special Ops — long-distance damage dealers, who also provide ammunition; Soldiers — the "tanks" who endure the most damage; and Medics — who drain life from enemies and impart to teammates.

Competitive mode features support for up to 60 players during the Skirmish mode; which allowed for the greatest amount of players in an online PlayStation 3 game at the time of release, but was last surpassed by MAG. Five games modes are available: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Core Control (Capture the Flag), Skirmish, and released via update, Meltdown. Skirmish has players getting split up into squads of five and take part in objective-based proxy-battles. Players can play as either the Humans or the Chimerans (but due to updates, the player can now be a Cloven, a Female Ranger, or a Ravager), and get to choose their weapon loadout before and during a game while respawning.

Many weapons make a return from the original, most notably the Carbine, Bullseye, Fareye, Auger, Rossmore and LAARK (although this can be only accessed through a berserk). However, the Arc Charger and Dragon did not return, and were instead replaced with the Bellock, Wraith, Splicer and Pulse Cannon. The addition of berserks is a new feature, and can only be accessed if the player reaches a required XP during a game through kills. The berserks give players an additional advantage such as a new weapon or added health but only for a short period of time.

There are a variety of campaign based maps featuring maps of different sizes (10p, 20p, 40p, 60p) with the player choosing their preference. Custom games also made a return, although unlike Resistance: Fall of Man, players cannot receive XP in custom games. The ranking system is also identical to that of Resistance: Fall of Man, with players progressing through 20 ranks with three tiers each from private up to supreme commander (making a total of 60 ranks). As some ranks are gained, players receive unlockables such as different berserks and skins.

As of 2014, Sony has stated they are shutting down the online servers for the Resistance trilogy on March 28. From then on, online multiplayer will be disabled. However, the single player/story mode and offline co-op campaigns are still available to play.

Plot

Following the events of the first Resistance, soldiers from the Special Research Projects Administration (SRPA), led by Major Richard Blake, take custody of Sgt. Nathan Hale. They transport him to an American black site in Iceland, but are soon shot down by Chimeran forces. In a desperate move, Blake releases "Daedalus", a Chimeran leader, ignoring warnings that he cannot be controlled. Daedalus soon escapes and the SRPA are forced to abandon their base. Blake then explains to Hale that he is part of "Project Abraham", a covert effort to create human soldiers infused with the Chimera virus, known as Sentinels. Two years later, Hale is promoted to Lieutenant and given command of Echo Squad, consisting of Sergeant Ben Warner, Specialist Aaron Hawthorne, and Corporal Joseph Capelli.

On May 15, 1953, a Chimeran armada launches an invasion of the United States, overwhelming most of its remaining populated cities. Among the targets is an underwater SRPA outpost in San Francisco, where Hale is scheduled to undergo inhibitor treatment to maintain his humanity. With Blake providing backup, Hale oversees a full evacuation and retrieves inhibitor samples for the Sentinels. The survivors retreat to the Midwest, where they track a damaged Chimeran flagship to Orick, California. Stealing an enemy transport, Hale boards the ship and steals intel while Echo Squad sets explosives to destroy it. Using the intel, they learn that the Chimera are planning to attack the SRPA's Liberty Defense Perimeter in Twin Falls, Idaho. Just as the fleet is set to begin its assault, the Sentinels activate two defense towers, resulting in an artillery barrage that breaks the offensive. Defying orders to return for needed treatment, Hale takes a squad to "Station Genesis", a Chimeran tower in Bryce Canyon, Utah, where an SRPA expedition led by Russian doctor Fyoder Malikov has been massacred by Daedalus's troops. Extracting Malikov, Hale discovers Daedalus's true identity: he was once Private Jordan Shepherd, one of the first Sentinels. Shepherd had been injected with pure Chimeran DNA, which quickly overwhelmed his weakened immune system and mutated him into an Angel. Malikov also warns Hale that the same will eventually happen to him unless he receives treatment.

With his condition worsening, Hale orders an attack on Chicago, where the Chimera have begun to restart their network of towers. Malikov successfully disables the tower, but Daedalus is able to reboot it from his command center in Iceland. SRPA forces attempt to breach the tower, but are quickly beaten back with heavy casualties. Against Blake's order to retreat, Echo Squad enters the tower and initiates a manhunt for Daedalus, during which both Hawthorne and Warner are ambushed and killed. Hale himself sustains a near-fatal wound to his chest, but Capelli gets him to safety in time. Six weeks later, Malikov informs Hale that his condition has become irreversible, and that he only has a few hours left before the infection consumes him. Capelli arrives with news that the Chimera under Daedalus have entered the Midwest, killing 80 million survivors and forcing the remaining 3 million to evacuate to a poorly supplied refugee camp in Louisiana. With Daedalus's army converging on the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan Peninsula for unknown reasons, Hale, Capelli, and Blake infiltrate his ship with a nuclear warhead, hoping to detonate it near the central reactor and trigger an explosion that wipes out the entire fleet. Unfortunately, Blake and his team are intercepted and killed by the Chimera, who take the bomb to Daedalus. Entering the core, Hale kills him via electrocution; while examining the corpse, he inadvertently absorbs Daedalus's psychokinetic abilities. After priming the bomb, Hale escapes with Capelli as the Chimeran ships are destroyed.

After their escape vessel crashes, Capelli awakens and finds Hale, fully succumbed to the Chimeran virus, gazing upon several planet-like structures floating in the sky. Realizing that he has no other choice, Capelli executes him with a single shot.

Beta phase

Insomniac announced they were running a Public Beta in October 2008. One of the ways to give consumers access to the beta involved a pre-order program through GameStop. Gamers who reserved their copy from GameStop received a card that contained a beta registration code. Once registered through the official site, the beta voucher was emailed to the address provided. Users could then download and install their beta from the PlayStation Store. The Public Beta was available from October 24 to October 29. It included three multiplayer maps - San Francisco, Orick (California), and Chicago - and could be played in the 8-player co-op campaign and the 60-player online multiplayer.

Nathan Hale

The main character in both Resistance games has been Nathan Hale, a soldier originally from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Before the events of the games, Hale had been involved in an accident during a live fire exercise that led to serious injury to himself. The accident was blamed on faulty munitions. After being rehabilitated both physically and mentally, Hale returned to active duty. His commanding officers often granted him high-risk missions because of his excellence as a soldier, but concerns were constantly raised about his psychological well-being. Hale volunteered along with Jordan Shepard (who later became Daedalus) in a military project, known as Project Abraham. Outwardly the project was supposed to be experiments to find a cure for the European Influenza epidemic, but it was really testing a vaccine against the Chimeran virus. Hale was the only test subject to survive and therefore developed a limited immunity to the virus. During the events of the first Resistance game, Hale is infected with the Chimeran virus, but is not completely transformed by it. He gains certain aspects of the Chimera, such as yellow eyes and increased strength, but still remains in control of his mental state. In the beginning of Resistance 2 Hale is teamed with others who are semi-resistant to the virus and is tasked with helping to lead the fight to save the United States from the Chimera. Throughout Resistance 2 Hale becomes increasingly Chimera-like until the very end of the game where it is implied that he has fully converted. Was killed by Capelli.

Fyodor Malikov

A major character in Resistance 2, Fyodor Malikov (Russian: Фёдор Мaликов) was the Russian scientist who was mainly responsible for the development of the anti-Chimeran serums used on the Sentinels, and is also responsible for the creation of the Cloven. Having grown up in Russia, he secretly worked with the Russian government to find ways to combat the Chimera; it was at this time that he discovered pure Chimeran DNA in the crater from the Tunguska Event and took a sample. Using this DNA as well as DNA from lower strains of Chimera, he attempted to develop a vaccine against the Chimeran virus for Russian soldiers. The first serum Malikov developed was named I-8 (the Alpha series), and he began testing with it on January 1, 1927. Initially, the vaccine worked perfectly, inoculating the several thousand Russian soldiers it was administered to. By November of that year, however, the subjects began acting strangely and experiencing horrible nightmares. They called Malikov their "father" and thought of themselves as his children. A few months later, towards the beginning of 1928, the unofficial leader of these people (dubbed "the Cloven"), Andrei Vezenskiy, met with him to try to explain what was happening to them; after Andrei went insane during the meeting and attacked him, Malikov fled the oncoming Chimera and his failed experiments on April 20, 1928. Soon after, he spent 16 years defending a Russian city named Karachev from the Chimeran onslaught before being "liberated" by SRPA agents. After Russia fell to the Chimera, Malikov began to work with SRPA.

After joining SRPA, he continued his work with Chimeran vaccines, developing a Beta series, which was hardly effective, and later a Gamma series, which worked much better. Malikov was the orchestrator of Project Abraham, where volunteered subjects were injected with a vaccine and then injected with the virus. One of the subjects, Jordan Shepherd, who had a weakened immune system, reacted adveresely to the injection of pure Chimeran DNA and mutated into the being known as Daedalus, who would come to command the Chimera. Malikov had Daedalus shipped to Station Igloo in Iceland and studied him there for a time, until he was freed by the Chimera. Using the Gamma series of vaccines, the Sentinals were created.

During the two years following Daedalus's escape, Malikov acted as Nathan Hale's physician and developed inhibitor serums to prevent the Sentinals from succumbing to the virus, and also attempted to reverse engineer some Chimeran technology. It was around this time as well that he discovered that the Chimeran towers were in fact millions of years old and also realized the significance of "Gray tech", advanced technology from a race other than the Chimera that he believed to have been part of what he called the "Promethius Weapon". He believed this weapon was the cause of the pure Chimera's downfall millions of years ago.

After the Chimeran invasion of America began on May 15, 1953, Malikov worked with Nathan Hale to counteract Daedalus's plans, going with him to Chicago to deactivate the tower there; unfortunately, the tower was immediately reactivated by Daedalus from a tower in Iceland. After this, he watched over Hale during his 6-week comatose that resulted from his encounter with Daedalus, and began work on a Zeta series of inhibitors that he hoped would save Hale (whom the Gamma series was having less and less effect on); however, Hale was needed for an operation to destroy the Chimeran fleet stationed over the Chicxulub Crater and had to be awakened before the new series could be completed. Malikov informed Hale that he had 3 hours left to live and that he eventually went on to commit suicide by injecting himself with 4 vials of morphine, probably because of the immense guilt from indirectly dooming mankind. This however is contradicted by the fact that Dr. Malikov is set to appear as a character in Resistance 3.

Chimera

Because of the multiple strains of Chimera, their physical appearance can vary widely based on the original host of the virus. Generally they have six bright yellow eyes and beige to brown skin. They also possess extreme speed and strength, as well as regeneration abilities due to their super fast metabolism, roughly 12 times that of a human. This element does have a downside, as the Chimera are known to easily overheat, sometimes fatally: therefore their ideal habitat is in extremely cold environments. To combat this the Chimera are fitted out with cooling systems that are fused to their backs just after they are converted in Chimeran Conversion centres.

Most Chimera start out life as human beings, but are converted in a four-stage conversion process. First, humans become infected by the Chimeran Virus by Chimeran bug-like creatures known as Crawlers. These bugs come out of Chimeran spires (specially adapted missiles that unleash thousands of Crawlers upon impact)- Chimera can infect entire cities in minutes with multiple spire attacks. After infection with the virus, the humans fall into a coma, and they are then carried to conversion centres by Chimera known as Carriers (creatures that resemble huge airborne jellyfish), where humans are then wrapped in cocoons where the Chimeran virus changes them from the inside out. The resultant Chimera that emerges from the cocoon is dependent on the strain and strength of the virus: the lowest form of Chimera are the Hybrids, the ones that closely resemble humans and fulfill the basic role of foot-soldiers in the Chimeran army, which have the shortest gestation period, being converted and birthed in a matter of hours, while other, larger Chimera take months to create, and are made of multiple human bodies. The final stage is the birthing chamber, where Chimera are taken out of their cocoons, and then have their cooling apparatus fused to their bodies.

In Resistance 2, the conversion center process is not used and the cocoons are made on the spot by bug-like Chimeran creatures called Spinners (since the events of Resistance: Retribution have made Crawlers and Carriers redundant). The Chimeran technology is vastly superior to human technology, with weapons that are able to sophisticatedly home in on enemies, even going so far as to pass through walls. The true origins of Chimera remain a mystery: for example, Chimera do not build most of their buildings, but simply excavate them from the country side, as seen in Somerset where Hale and Cartwright find a Chimeran tower being excavated.

New elements of the Chimera introduced in Resistance 2 feature 'spinners' which supposedly infect humans as the Chimeran crawlers do, but also proceed to wrap the infected in a tight cocoon, which carries out the gestation period on the host internally. Chimera that come from this form of conversion are known as 'Grims' - Grims are human-like in build, but have the distinguishing features of the human/chimera hybrid (fangs, yellow eyes, elongated limbs)- Grims attack the player in a zombie like fashion, swamping them in great number or bursting from cocoons when the player gets near enough. Because they are not equipped with cooling devices, Grims have a short lifespan of only a few hours: their primary purpose is to serve simply as shock troops.

There are many more strains of chimera present in Resistance 2 - Furies, Kraken, Ravagers, The Leviathan, Spinners, and Grims. But many were dropped too - Angels, Widowmakers, Crawlers, Grey Jacks, Slipskulls and Howlers (due to Daedalus's efforts to streamline and improve the effectiveness of the Chimeran army).

Vehicles used by the Chimera still include the Stalker, Goliath, and Dropships.

Another important change is the leadership pattern of the Chimera - in Resistance: Fall of Man the Chimera were led by "Angels"; the Chimera now fall under command of Daedalus (a soldier named Jordan Shephard who also took part in Project Abraham but succumbed fully to its effects). In the multi-player cooperative mode, another system is shown, consisting of Chimeran troop leaders known as 'Primarchs' and 'Overseers'.

One other thing is the Chimeran drones - a new set of units which are not Chimeran, but are automated search-and-destroy robots designed and built by the Chimera. Interestingly, they seem to recognize targets and neutrals by their genetic makeup- in one of the final parts of the game (when Hale has almost succumbed fully to the Chimeran virus) Hale and a squadmate approach a group of drones, who read them as neutral and do not attack. This is probably because of their genes being so similar to the Chimera's genes.

Project Abraham

The marketing campaign for Resistance 2 centered around an alternate reality game named Project Abraham, a top-secret military project under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of War.

Initially, specific details on the nature and purpose of the project were bare and mysterious, though additional content was added to the website (in concurrence with the project's latest developments) that reveals the purpose of the project. It was revealed to be a research initiative designed to eradicate the Chimera virus that is currently infecting Europeans by the millions. It lasts over the next two months, with a SRPA team of biochemical experts formulating several permutations of serums to be used on human volunteers in an attempt to discover the vaccine against the plague. The findings were ultimately inconclusive. Other purposes are to learn more about and better understand the virus. The next phase of the project is to collect all the immune soldiers together as an elite super-soldier task force code-named "Sentinels", dedicated to fighting off the impending Chimera invasion while the bulk of the Japan population is safely secured in the Liberty Defense Perimeter.

The primary characters are Colonel Grant Thompson and Doctor Cassandra "Cassie" Aklin (Katee Sackhoff, and is also the protagonist; with all written and recorded content either directed towards or generated by Aklin so far), but other characters, civilian, military, or otherwise were mentioned. The other main characters are seven soldiers who volunteered for the project from different army units, all brought together at the Project Abraham Compound in Alaska (the specific location is classified). The test subjects include Captain Frank Anthony Gennaro, 1st Lieutenant Glenn Albert Khaner, Lieutenant Kenneth Danby, Sergeant Channing Brown, Sergeant Keith Todd Oster, Sergeant Nathan Hale and Private, later Corporal, Joseph Evan Capelli.

Apart from the project itself, the files and videos reveal the personal situation with the project's personnel; the soldiers, willing to endure the possibility of death, have detailed history, military careers, and personality profiles (collected by Aklin), which is often reflected in their actions towards others. More information about Hale's history, family, and military career are revealed as well, along with allusions to a romantic relationship between Hale and Cassie.

Other websites

A second website named America first America only is the website of an organization called the "Alliance For American Autonomy". The Alliance is a group of radicals bent on exposing the U.S. Government and its secrets to the public. The site shows a small dark area with a printing press, and an office containing a news board, news clippings, the alliances newsletter/paper, file cabinets, and a "tip box". The Alliances newsletter/paper is published every Friday. When a new article is posted the old ones are stored in the file cabinets for reference and can be viewed at any time. The newsletter/paper gets most of its information from "agents," people who have submitted SrpaNet codes through the Tip Box. A recent update for the site has seemed to have ransacked the area and shows a letter that seems to have been written in a hurry. The latest updates show a typewriter with various American cities listed on it. When a "dead-drop" has been reported in a city, fans may go to the given location to retrieve a canvas bag containing a personal item of one of the Project Abraham participants, a compass, a SRPA T-shirt, and a card listing a serial number. This serial number is used to unlock two comic panels at the second new addition to the AFAO website, Metastasis.

A third website named Get A War Job has been discovered and can be accessed directly from Project Abraham. On the site a typewriter is shown along with pro and anti-war posters, cards, pamphlets, and a document which the player can fill out and possibly cause events to happen in the future such as a phone call or further information about the site/sites. The business card to the left may be called, toll free, to hear an inspirational recruiting message for the military. The latest update for the site seems to have burned nearly everything in view and the registration form is no longer available.

A fourth website named SrpaNet has also been discovered. It is an old computer interface used by the Project Abraham staff and the U.S. Government. So far hidden and overt serial codes, found in various places on Project Abraham, have led to hidden documents and images relating to the Chimera and what is known about them.

Collector's Edition

The collector's edition includes a hardcover art book, special cover art, an in-game weapon skin (a Chimeran HVAP Wraith called the Brute Minigun, the same kind Ravagers use), and an action figure of the game's "Hybrids", the Chimera. It also includes a bonus Blu-ray Disc with a behind-the-scenes featurette, a video detailing the game's alternate historical timeline, a digital copy of issue #0 of the Resistance comic book, and a preview from the upcoming Resistance novel "The Gathering Storm". The collector's edition was only sold in North America, and not in Europe due to the hassle of translating each aspect of the Collector's Edition to the various main languages in the continent, such as English, French, Spanish etc. as said by SCEE in a Press Conference prior to the game's release. The Collector's Edition Blu-ray also contains a hidden Easter Egg which can be accessed by watching the "scale" featurette, pressing Left on the arrow keys upon returning to the menu, and then pressing right.

PlayStation Home

On March 26, 2009, Insomniac Games released a Resistance 2 SRPA suit for the male avatars. The SRPA suit is purchasable in Home's shopping complex.

On May 21, 2009, Insomniac Games released a dedicated space for Resistance 2 in the PlayStation 3's online community-based service, PlayStation Home in the Asian, European, and North American versions. The space is called the "Resistance Station" and is modeled after the Chicago level in Resistance 2 and features a video screen showing the trailers for Resistance 2 (Asian Home) and Resistance: Retribution (North American Home) as well as a mini game titled 'Four Barrels of Fury' in which users takes control of a turret that appears as a turret version of the game's HVAP Wraith. The player must shoot down incoming Chimeran ships varying in size. The game is divided into waves. The player must shoot down ships for points. Occasionally the player must defend 2 incoming VTOL transports one carrying health the other carrying modified ammo. If the VTOLs are defended the player's turret is repaired and the damage dealt by the turret's shots will be strengthened as long as the ammo lasts. There are three different rewards for reaching a certain wave or score in the mini-game. The first reward is a male and female Resistance 2 T-shirt for beating Wave 4. If users beat Waves 1 to 4 with a score of 100% on each wave, they get a hat that is modeled after the Chimeran flagship in Wave 4 and if users obtain a score of 1,000,000, they get a male and female Resistance 2 hoodie. For a limited time in the European Home, in the place of where the video screen is in the Asian and North American versions, there was a poster with a promotional code on it. The first 3,000 users that redeemed the code received a male and female Resistance: Retribution T-shirt. The trailer for Resistance: Retribution has replaced the poster. This space was released to the Japanese version on September 10, 2009. Outso developed the Resistance 2 Game Space for Insomniac Games.

In addition to the space, users can fully game launch into Resistance 2. Game launching lets users set up a competitive or co-op game in Home, have people join the game, then launch directly from Home into the game. Users can set up a competitive game of up to 32 players and up to 8 players for co-op.

Reception

Resistance 2 was well received by critics, aggregating review websites GameRankings and Metacritic gave the game an aggregate score of 86.71% and 87/100.

It garnered a score of 9/10 from the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, who said it was, as they would have liked, "prettier and shootier", and 9.5/10 from IGN, elected there for an Editor's Choice Award. It also earned a 9/10 score from Official PlayStation Magazine Australia. IGN in particular praised the game for its single player campaign and online multiplayer, as well as the scale and detail of the level design, stating that the bosses would "make your jaw drop." GameRac gave Resistance 2 an 8/10, saying that the game had "amazing graphics and the single player was improved", also electing it for both the Editor's Choice Award and Most Anticipated Game Award. Resistance 2 sold about 409,270 copies worldwide in its debut week.

Other reviews include Gameplayer, which rated the game 9/10, NZGamer, which rated the game with a 9.2/10, Gamepro, who rated the game 4/5, proclaiming it was "bigger, bolder and better than the first" and an "improvement upon the formula set by its predecessor in almost every way", and X-Play, which rated Resistance 2 a 5/5 in high praise. Game Informer gave the game an 8.5/10, saying that it wasn't as good as the original, "the slower movement is noticeable" and "the lack of a weapon wheel limits strategy," but praising the "absolutely gorgeous" graphics and the variety of multiplayer modes.

Despite the widespread praise from critics, some fans were not as enthusiastic about the game, primarily complaining about the unnecessary changes and exclusions, as well as a not-so-appealing campaign mode, which also lacked the acclaimed local co-op. Senior community manager James Stevenson of Insomniac said that the game "was a failure" for the hardcore followers of the series and admitted that gamers's negative feedback had weighed on him. Insomniac stated that they would take this as a lesson for the development of its sequel. Insomniac CEO Ted Price similarly accepted that some of the changes to the core mechanics of the franchise had surprised players and may have not been a good thing.

Resistance 2 sold 598,000 units in North America through 2008, 200,000 units in the United Kingdom, and 65,191 in Japan.

Sequel

Resistance 3 was officially announced at Sony's Gamescom 2010 press conference on August 17, 2010, after a billboard ad was spotted in Shreveport, Louisiana almost a year earlier. A trailer for the game was also shown during the conference. A trailer with gameplay was shown at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards event on December 11, 2010. Resistance 3 was released on September 6, 2011.