TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Video Game Review: Resistance 2

Image from Sony

"Resistance 2" supports online multiplayer action featuring up to 60 competitive players or eight cooperative players.

ADVERTISEMENT

By ROMMIE JOHNSON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: January 14, 2009

System: Sony PlayStation 3

Publisher: Sony

Reviewer's rating: ***

ESRB rating: Mature

Game type: First-person shooter

Kind of like: "Halo 3"

Best feature: New cooperative mode lets you play through the campaign with up to seven friends online.

Worst feature: Weak story.

The bottom line: We've said it at least a hundred times before: Narrative doesn't matter in video games. Just give us a weapon and we're ready to dive right in to the action.

Head-first, like Pete Rose ... or George Michael Bluth.

Of course, as with most things we've said, we were wrong. Dead wrong. In fact, narrative does matter, and "Resistance 2" proves it.

Because no matter how much we enjoy the game's action — and we do, a lot — we simply can't get fully immersed in the game. Its story and characters just fall completely flat.

Bear in mind, there's a difference between "story" and "storytelling," and the latter is where "Resistance 2" most notably falters. A plot summary of the game is no more or less absurd than "Gears of War 2," "Halo 3" or pretty much any other sci-fi shooter you've ever played. An alien conflict arises. Machiavellian political machinations ensue. A lone solider steps forward to lead humanity against impossible odds, unforeseen technological nightmares and really bad voice acting.

Yeah, yeah. Hemingway it ain't. But cheesy as it is, how a tale unfolds can make all the difference. For all its cornball trappings, "Gears" at least featured characters with some degree of depth, people you could relate to or empathize with on a human level. And maybe "Halo 3" contained way more thinly-veiled metaphors than unexpected turns, but you have to admit Bungie knows how to take a player by the hand and lead them down a predictable path at just the right pace.

With "Resistance 2," neither is true. After countless hours with the game (as well as with its predecessor), we still can't bring ourselves to give a damn about Lt. Nathan Hale, his Echo Squad mates, the Chimeran virus to which he's been exposed, or his genetically altered malefactor Daedalus (so named, presumably, because you need overt references to Greek mythology simply to make heads or tails of what's going on).

We're not sure why, exactly, but we just don't care.

Maybe it's just that we've played through too many of these things. (On second thought, scratch that — we've definitely played through too many of these things.) Or maybe it's this: Maybe "Resistance 2" simply wasn't developed to be a single-player experience.

Welcome To The Next Gen

Think about it. The online-equipped Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 have been on the market a couple of years now, but in terms of software development we're still sort of rounding the next-gen corner. Early games on the new consoles shipped with perfunctory online components simply because they had to. Maybe it's the other way around now.

That would certainly explain why every time Sony PR calls me about "Resistance 2" (sorry it took me so long to get around to this one, gang), they ask if I've had a chance to try out the multiplayer modes.

They know. "Resistance 2" is a mediocre single-player experience because the single-player campaign is an afterthought. It exists because it has to.

For another recent co-op-comes-first example, look at "Left4Dead." Sure, you can play it solo, but if you do you're missing out on half the fun.

Of course, there's a whole separate debate to be had here about the wisdom of the game industry focusing on software that requires friends to fully enjoy. Let's face it, gamers aren't exactly the most socially adroit demographic. (And, yes, I count myself among that group.) But let's save that discussion for another time.

Don't Go It Alone

Instead, let's talk about those multiplayer modes.

Mostly they rock. There are the usual deathmatch and capture-the-flag type games for traditionalists, but with an important new twist: Up to 60 players can play in a single match. Yep, you read that right. Sixty. Six-zero. That's 30 players per side in team games. Remember when 16-player teams seemed big? Yeah, that was barely over a year ago.

Additionally, "Resistance 2" offers squad-based skirmishes with on-the-fly objectives that require considerably more strategy and teamwork than your typical kill-or-be-killed fragfest.

But what really stands out is the game's cooperative multiplayer action. "Resistance 2" is hardly one of the first shooters to lean heavily on co-op play (see "Army of Two" or the aforementioned "Left4Dead," for a couple of recent examples), but it's easily among the best. Get this: The cooperative mode was so important to the developers at Insomniac (of the wildly underrated "Ratchet & Clank" franchise) that they designed a whole separate storyline for it, a 10- to 15-hour branching yarn that runs parallel to the single-player campaign. (See what I mean about the single-player mode being sort of beside the point?) Oh, and this, too: You can play through it online with up to seven friends.

And somehow that makes all the difference, which — when you think about it — kind of makes sense. After all, what are your friends if not characters in your own life story? Put them in control of your squad mates and suddenly the characters come alive, the game's 1950s alternate-reality America seems more real, and the whole experience takes on deeper meaning.

What's more, the co-op experience is ingeniously designed to encourage teamwork. You know that one annoying friend of yours who always charges off ahead of everyone else trying to steal all the kills? Yeah, that guy. He's going to be pissed.

In co-op play, each player must select one of three classes — Soldier, Medic or Spec-Ops — which are as brilliantly balanced as Paper, Scissors and Rock. None can really survive without the others, so if your buddy tries to be the hero, he won't last long. (Cue Barbra Streisand: "People … people who need people ..." Actually, stop. That's annoying.)

On the other hand, the kill-hogs on your friends list will love MyResistance.com, which features stat-tracking comparable to what "Halo 3" players find on Bungie.net. We'll spare you our usual rant about how stat-tracking causes players to worry more about maxing out their kill/death ratios than having a good time.

Because isn't that the point? It's a game, for cripe's sake. It's supposed to be fun. And whatever you might think about "Resistance 2's" narrative powers, you can't deny that playing it — grabbing a Pulse Cannon and blasting away at a massive Kraken, or firing an RPG straight down the throat of an enraged Leviathan — is a damned entertaining way to waste an evening.

The only problem comes when you put it down. As with any artlessly forgettable literary potboiler, you file it away and move on. When you're done with "Resistance 2," that's it. You're done.

Games are rated on a scale of 0-4 stars.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT