The most obvious difference is scale. America is massive and consequently, so are the battlefields found here. The invasion is of an unprecedented scale and you, as Hale, will always be battling against seemingly insurmountable odds including Chimera bosses that stand 150 feet tall as they smash their way through urban decay and across sprawling plains. The Sentinels have developed immunity to the alien virus, but they’ve still got a fight on their hands on a scale that the PS3 has never seen. There are more enemies on screen, a greater variety of enemies and boss fights to break up the run-and-gun gameplay.
Resistance 2’s campaign can also be played as a parallel story with either two players on the same screen or with eight online in co-operative combat. The online co-op game will log your position and, more importantly, your skill level as defined by your previous performance. You can log on and match up withpeople who have fought to the same point as you and form groups comprised of players whose abilities are on par with your own. Meaning you won’t be forced to make sure the same crack troop of soldiers meet up, again and again, to reach the campaign’s conclusion. Co-op mode will provide at least the same play time as the main game.
You’ll also get to fight online using your own customised combatant that’s based on one of the three unit class templates. The heaviest unit comes armed with a chaingun that can rip through enemies at a ferocious rate, while each kill charges up a deployable shield that can be set up in front of you and more importantly your team. The special-ops soldier carries a modified version of the original game’s Bullseye rifle that now comes equipped with extra zoom modes, makingit bothmore accurateand more powerful.
But it’s the medic that offers the most interesting inclusion. Usually in class-based online shooters, the player who chooses to perform medical duties spends most of their game time being shouted at by other players who bitch and bawl that medics aren’t there immediately on-site to patch up their wounds. Fortunately Resistance 2’s medics aren’t going to be stuck wiping the bloody brows of reckless gamers, but instead can take a more proactive role thanks to the Medicator gun. This weapon can fire deadly red shots at enemies that with each kill charge up a meter. Aim the same weapon at a friendly unit and when you pull the trigger, you’ll automatically shoot a healing balm of blue energy at them and so be able to fix their broken bodies without having to be in danger. Best of all, medics have a real excuse to get into combat since if they haven’t killed they can’t offer medical aid.
