Resistance 2

Resistance 2
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Developer(s)	Insomniac Games
Publisher(s)	Sony Computer Entertainment
Engine	Insomniac Engine v.2.0
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player, co-op, online co-op, multiplayer, online multiplayer

Resistance 2 is an alternate history first person shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games, and is to be published by SCEA, exclusively for the PlayStation 3. The game is the sequel to the best-selling PlayStation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man.

In Resistance 2, the Chimera have launched a full scale invasion on both the east and west coasts of the United States. Protagonist Nathan Hale joins "The Sentinels," a special task force of soldiers who are also resistant to the Chimeran virus. Hale will fight the Chimera in various locations in the United States with "The Sentinels" as he fights the Chimeran virus inside himself.

Gameplay

Resistance 2 will feature two campaigns. A single player campaign which will follow the story of Nathan Hale, and an up to eight player online co-operative (or two player split screen) campaign that will have a storyline running parallel to Hale's campaign. In the co-op campaign there will be three classes: the medic, the soldier, and special ops, each with different specialized abilities. The player will get to level up their characters to unlock new guns and character skins. The player can play as any three and will not lose any progress if they switch class, the max level one of the classes can reach is 30. Both campaigns will also include boss battles. One of the bosses is the Leviathan, a massive Chimera that stands over 300 feet tall. The cooperative online campaign will support up to 8 players online. The online competitive multiplayer aspect of the game will support up to 60 players online in squad based groups in a mode called "Skirmish."

The Chimera return in force in Resistance 2.

The game will feature 12 new Chimeran enemies, including the "Chameleon" (which can cloak itself completely, charge toward you, and kill the player in one hit) and the "Grim" (a melee fighter that attacks in hordes, similar to the Gray Jack in the first game), and the "Fury" (a creature that lurks in the waters). During the E3 2008 trailer a fourth new enemy was shown, the "Ravager" (which has both an Auger-like weapon and an energy shield). In addition, enemies like the Stalker and Hybrids will be returning with modifications.

There are ten currently known weapons in Resistance 2. These will be wielded in pairs instead of getting to choose from multiple weapons. The L23 Fareye, Bullseye, M5A2 Folsom Carbine, Auger, LAARK, and Rossmore 236, will be returning with some new modifications. The XR-005 Hailstorm, however, will not be returning. New weapons include a long range battle rifle called "The Marksman," a .44 Magnum revolver with explosive bullets as secondary fire, a Chaingun called the Wraith that has a secondary fire option that allows it to act as a shielded sentry gun, and "The Splicer," a rifle-like firearm with a large circular blade on the front which the player can rev up to launch deadly spinning and superheated blades that slice through multiple enemies. There is also a type of launcher called the Pulse Cannon, thats fires high-compacted energy bursts, similar and comparable to the LAARK, only instead of projectiles, it fires energy. Resistance 2 will support PS3 trophies when released.The trophy list has been revealed with a total of 39 trophies, these cover single player, co-op and online competitive. The "Intel" from the first game returns as a collectible to provide insight into the game and its enemies. There is also a new collectible, "Gray-Tech" which allows upgrades to be purchased in the Co-op campaign. Co-operative Mode will be split into several "regions" which will then have a certain set of missions for each. The online maps for Resistance 2 will be up to four times larger than the online maps of Resistance: Fall of Man.

Plot

Setting

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The Chimeran invasion of the United States.

The plot is a direct continuation of the Resistance: Fall of Man storyline. The game begins from the ending of Resistance Fall of Man; Upon successfully destroying the Central Tower in London, England, breaking the Chimera's hold on the country, Hale is able to escape the destruction of the tower, and ends up wandering aimlessly through a snow covered field outside of the city, unaware that all of his British friends and comrades have presumed him KIA. Suddenly, a VTOL aircraft spots Hale and lands; depositing a team of five Black Ops soldiers who surround Hale at gunpoint. Hale considers using his sole-remaining grenade; his only weapon, to kill the soldiers as well as himself. Hale decides against it, however, and drops the un-primed grenade and willingly steps aboard the VTOL. Upon boarding the aircraft, Hale begins to struggle and attempts to escape, only to be brought down and injected with a sedative. Hale once again makes an escape attempt; only for a Black Ops soldier to pull out a pistol and "suggests" he relax. Hale does so and, the sedative taking effect, passes out.

Hale wakes up with the VTOL en route to its destination, and is met by an officer who is leading the Black Ops. The officer introduces himself as Major Richard Blade; Director of Advanced Tactical Operations for Special Research Projects Agency ("SRPA"). Blade knows Hale was a survivor of Project Abraham; a confidential project undertaken by the SRPA, and so Hale monitored during his part in the battles against the Chimera, and when his immunity was discovered, they arranged to pick him up. The VTOL lands at Dan Aric Johnson Air Force Base in Iceland, and Hale is ushered inside and finds a large collection of soldiers who have similar Chimera-related traits. Blade reveals Hale is not the only semi-resistant human to the Chimera virus; the SRPA has collected the men from around the world and formed them into a top-secret elite task force; code-named "The Sentinels", and trained and equipped them for the purpose of defending the United States of America from the Chimera invasion that is sure to come. Hale accepts a place among the Sentinels and so, Blade promotes him to Lieutenant and made head of Echo Squad; the Sentinels' vanguard unit.

On May 15, 1953, the Chimera finally launches a full scale invasion of the United States, attacking with their huge aerial fleet of battleships, transports, and fighters on both the East and West coasts.

Characters

The plot of Resistance 2 will drop the third person narration and follow the role of Nathan Hale, who is now a lieutenant and leader of Echo squad. The plot will also shed new light on the origins and goals of the Chimera. Captain Rachel Parker will not be returning in Resistance 2, and the Cloven are involved in the war against the Chimera, but will not be in the United States.

Development

The game was officially announced in the February 2008 issue of Game Informer with a North American release of November 4, 2008 and a European and Australian release of November 28, 2008. The first teaser trailer had its debut during the April 11, 2008 edition of GameTrailers TV, while the first gameplay trailer arrived on June 13, 2008 only on GameTrailers. Despite the claims of the marketing boss of SCE, Scott Steinberg, and SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida, Insomniac has not confirmed that the game will be put onto a 50GB Blu-ray DL.

Resistance 2 was showcased at Sony's E3 2008 press conference, with a live gameplay demonstration of the Leviathan boss battle. The game's multiplayer was playable on the show floor, and single-player was shown in Sony's lounge.

The game previously featured a prototype weapon called the Tapper, which "would shoot tubes, and when it hit it would create a blood fountain," but this weapon was ultimately cut from the game.

On October 16, 2008 a new trailer entitled "Last Hours" was released, which mixes clips from old trailers with new footage from the game. It also shows changes in Nathan Hale's appearance.

Marketing

Project Abraham

The marketing campaign centers around Project Abraham, which is 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 was very bare and mysterious, though with time additional content added onto the website (in concurrence with the Project's latest developments) that reveals the purpose of the project: It is 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 the 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 U.S. population is safely secured in the Liberty Defense Perimeter.

The primary characters are Colonel Grant Thompson and Doctor Cassandra "Cassie" Aklin (played by 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 are 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 Joseph 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 often reflects in their actions towards others. More information about Hale's history, family and military career are revealed as well.

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 you 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, which will include a hardcover art book, special cover art, an in-game weapon skin, and an action figure of the game's alien-human hybrid race, the Chimera. Also included is a bonus Blu Ray disc with a behind-the-scenes featurette, a video detailing the game's alternate historical timeline, and a digital copy of issue #0 of the Resistance comic book from DC Comics subsidiary Wildstorm. This collector's edition is only for residents of North America.

Trophies

Resistance 2 will support PS3 Trophies. The game will feature 40 trophies (including the platinum), a full list can be seen at www.ps3trophies.co.uk

Resistance 2 open beta

The makers of Resistance 2 announced they were running a public beta, and one of the ways to give consumers access to the beta will involve a pre-order program through GameStop.

Once the pre-order program went live, gamers who reserved their copy from GameStop received a card (which stated redeem by 10/22/2008) that contained a beta registration code that was to be entered at myresistance.net. Once the open beta was available, the beta voucher would be emailed to the address that was provided when registered which would allow users to download and install the beta on their PlayStation 3.

E-mails for those who pre-ordered the US version of the game from GameStop have been sent out on 10/16/08, however, as of 10/17/2008, multiple users who pre-ordered their games through GameStop, and Qore 3 have yet to receive their voucher codes so they can download the beta. In the United Kingdom the BETA is due to end on 13th November. For non-UK BETA players, the download servers will shut down on Wednesday, October 29 at 5 p.m. PDT meaning you will not be able to download the BETA after this date and time, and the servers will shut down Thursday, October 30 at 11:59 p.m. PDT meaning that you will not be able to play the BETA after this date and time so you will have to purchase the retail version of the game which comes out November 4, 2008 to continue to play this shooter.

It was possible to sign up for a beta code via [2] and some chosen were sent codes via email.

The Resistance 2 Public Beta went up on October 24. People received the beta code in their e-mails which would be entered into the PSN redeem code section. The Resistance 2 Beta is a 2.2 GB file which includes 3 online multilayer maps (San Francisco, Orick and Chicago) and can be played in a 8 player CO-OP online or 60 player online battles.

Reception

Pre-release reviews have so far been positive. The game has received a score of 9/10 from the Official UK PlayStation Magazine and a score of 9.5/10 and the Editor's Choice Award from IGN, praising the single and online multiplayer gameplay, the scale and detail of level design and the bosses that will "make your jaw drop". Gameplayer gave it 9/10. The game has recieved a score of 9.2/10 from NZGamer. Gamepro has given it a 4/5 saying that Resistance 2 is bigger, badder and better than the first, Resistance 2 improves upon the formula set by its predecessor in almost every way.

External links

• Resistance 2 Official Website
• Resistance 2 at PlayStation.com
• Insomniac Games Website