So, when I knew I was getting a PS3, I ordered Resistance 2 from Amazon before it'd even arrived. Though Little Big Planet was the game that was going to make me get a PS3, R2 was the "showcase" that I thought the system would need - something ridiculous in scope, with huge diversity in gameplay - a blockbuster that would knock my socks off.

No.

I mean, maybe it's just that I played the incredibly well-paced and drop-dead gorgeous Gears 2 campaign. Maybe it's that I'd played the incredible Call of Duty 4 last year, whose campaign has spoiled me for any other single player shooter.

While Resistance 2 has scale, it's not pretty. Textures look look relatively bland - hell, the Chimera, close up, look muddy. From afar, they look plain. Environments are nice from a distance, but bland close-up. Weapons lack punch. They're not particularly intuitive, as their alternate-fire modes often don't really make a huge amount of sense.

The game is DARK. Really dark. Not "moody" dark but pitch-f**king-black-all-the-goddamn-time dark. This is probably the trend that I hate the most in modern gaming. Playing a game like Valkyria Chronicles (which EVERYONE WITH A PS3 MUST OWN), the difference between being able to see things (fun) and not (not fun) couldn't be more clear.

Worst of all, though, are the one-hit kills, or moments where you can be killed in less than three seconds. The game has no cover mechanic - you can duck behind stuff, and you're told to do so, but if you're in cover, you can't shoot them AT ALL. So if you poke your head up to shoot, you get shot at. So cover sucks. But you're INCREDIBLY delicate, and get killed REALLY fast.

If someone's shooting an Auger at you, they can hit you through cover. Three shots, and you're dead. Miss a tricky platforming jump, end up in the water, and the shark-things kill you instantly. Invisible dude charging at you and you don't see him 'till it's too late, or you had the wrong weapon equipped? Instant death. Get in the way of a Hellfire turret? Instant death. Three flying drones catch you out of cover? Instant death. Big swarmy thing catch up to you? Instant death. Fail to run fast enough through something you couldn't possibly have known was coming? Instant death.

Death, death, death. There are so many one-hit kills in Resistance, it's mindboggling. It's as if the designers said, "We don't know what to do here," and the answer was ALWAYS, "Just kill the player."

I'm not done with the game (I'm in Chicago), and I'm sure I'll finish it eventually, but I'm not sure I want to. It feels like work. It's tedious, frustrating, and not very rewarding. The co-op mode and competitive modes, in contrast, are a blast. I've only played the co-op mode with one friend, and it's a mode that really doesn't work all that well with only two players, but it was STILL fun. And the competitive mode is great for sort of stupid deathmatch-style play.

But the single player campaign just doesn't work. It's a giant pain in the ass, with lots of cheap deaths, frustrating reloads, and lame design decisions.

I hate saying it, but I wouldn't recommend this game. Valkyria Chronicles or Uncharted would be better uses of your $$ by far.

11 people found this interesting. Did you?

Yes  ·  No