Title: Resistance 2
Platform: PS3
ESRB Rating: M
Publisher: Sony
Developer: Insomniac
Rating: 
Review by: Bill Jones
Resistance 2 brings the first-person shooter battle with the Chimera to U.S. soil this time around, and in grand fashion. The alternate version of 1953 leaves the United States nearly in rubble, from major cities like Chicago and San Francisco, to the tree-lined towns of Idaho, to the swamplands of Louisiana. The game can be absolutely breathtaking, and everything about it shouts action on an immense scale – from its locales to its skyscraper-dwarfing monsters and its massive firefights – but it is not without its faults.
As large as everything is, the campaign of Resistance 2 feels fairly linear due to level design, with corridor battles leading to open areas with giants and obvious cover/strategy that the game walks players through. Resistance: Fall of Man was the best shooter on the market when it hit, but earned its attention by being a solid showcase for the power of the PlayStation 3. Some of its opening levels were also beautifully frantic, leaving gamers to create strategy in massive, open environments against hordes of enemies. Despite the size of the environments in Resistance 2, that frantic feeling is lost in favor of straightforward battles. It comes close in one level that opens with an ambush of a convoy, but even then it just becomes a straightforward battle down the street. 
The most interesting fight comes in Louisiana, where one first assaults an estate by circling and picking off the Chimera, only to get inside and have another wave of enemies followed by a giant lay siege to the residence.
But this is a rarity, and even the game’s script seems linear, especially coming from the vastly entertaining minds that brought the world Ratchet and Clank. The plot is basically Army Lt. Nathan Hale is ambushed in one place and must fight his way to and through an enemy tower. Then he gets dropped in another state where he must fight his way to and through an enemy tower. And on it goes. The game does little to create more interest in the Chimera or any of the supporting characters. The focus is primarily on Hale, who is infected and becoming more like the enemy every day. Unfortunately, this conversion does little to change gameplay until the very end, and even then in a shallow fashion. Most of the cutscenes also only scratch Hale’s characterization on the surface, relying instead on the first installment for background and sympathy.
But in the scheme of things, these are just a few small problems (possibly due to a studio spread a bit too thin on projects and relying too much on the success of the series’ first iteration) in a game that is otherwise stellar. Going back to scale, while the gameplay may be run-of-the-mill, at worst, in the front end of the stages, the boss battles feel absolutely epic. 
The sheer scale of the enemies can be awe-inspiring in the way it felt the first time playing through Shadow of the Colossus. And though the battles aren’t quite as intelligent, they are varied and provide the real interest in the campaign.
The bread and butter of Resistance 2 isn’t its campaign, however, but rather its multiplayer modes, which are designed to near perfection to keep gamers going long after the campaign is done. The simple addition of on-screen display of XP accruing in real-time is enough to addict any gamer and add a rank/RPG element to the mix of the FPS experience.
It is in the cooperative and competitive multiplayer modes that Resistance 2 makes its case as one of the best shooters on the market. The game’s enormous settings play host to 60-player battles divided into smaller squad skirmishes. The weapons, while mostly culled from the first game, prove to be perfectly balanced in this mode, with plenty of opportunities for both the patient sniper and the heavy artillery. The level design is impeccable, lending itself to non-stop action and great strategy for skilled players and noobs alike, with a slew of match types from deathmatch to capture the flag. It is as fast-paced as Modern Warfare and as endlessly fun as Halo, all with its own spin. There is little more fans could ask for in an online shooter than what Insomniac has provided in Resistance 2.
Title: Resistance Retribution
Platform: PSP
ESRB Rating: M
Publisher: Sony
Developer: Sony Bend
Rating:
Review by: Bill Jones
Resistance Retribution, Sony’s first attempt at bringing its popular console shooter to the handheld realm, is a mixed bag. It begs attention for pushing the limits of the PlayStation Portable, while at the same time drawing attention to its biggest fault and that of the handheld in general.
It has been harped upon endlessly by critics and gamers alike – leaving the PSP with only one analog has to be one of the biggest missteps in gaming platform development history. If the PSP were a niche offering with a bit of a gimmick a la the Nintendo DS, this wouldn’t be a problem. But Sony has endlessly touted the PSP as a powerful machine on the level of the PlayStation 2, with a focus on stunning graphics and action/shooter games. And in the post dual-analog world, one stick just isn’t cutting it.
Retribution seemingly pushes the PSP to its very limits in its third-person shooter action. It contains six chapters divided into 23 total sections, providing a longer single-player experience than its console brother, with solid graphics throughout, though not quite as good as that achieved by Ready at Dawn with Chains of Olympus. 
Its level design over the course of those chapters has a few visual similarities but the variety in layouts is fantastic, forcing the gamer to think up new strategies throughout. And the difficulty has a solid ramp as well.
And that’s just single-player. In addition to this, Bend somehow found a way to also cram a rather robust multiplayer mode – which contains team deathmatch, free-for-all, capture the flag, containment and assimilation – onto the UMD. It plays well and without much lag over the handheld’s wireless connection, and the modes, capture the flag and assimilation especially, can be genuine fun with a full room of eight of the right people. The last of that bunch splits teams, but once a human is killed by the Cloven, he becomes one of them, until all humans are converted or the time limit is reached. The levels here are also well-designed.
But the game has its problems. The plot at large is passable, but the dialogue is an atrocious stream of clichés, including the many “witty” quips of protagonist James Grayson. His dialogue, combined with general character-building through the script, make him a rather unlikable character. When done right, a rogue attitude can make a male hero super-cool, a la Wolverine, but when done wrong, in the case of Grayson, that hero just comes off as an obnoxiously, unintelligent jerk with a penchant for hearing himself talk. Add in a needless sex implication scene that plays into an unnecessary after-the-credits twist and Retribution has a mild script disaster on its hands.
It would all be excusable because of the solid gameplay, but even that is hampered by the platform’s control limitations. Without that second analog, gamers are forced to either move or aim (by default) with the PSP’s face buttons, which brings gameplay back to the age of Goldeneye after the shooter world has long-since moved on from its primitive scheme. 
Bend gets on the right track by offering an auto-aim feature that offers a box about half the size of the screen, wherein any enemy is subject to auto targeting.
An intelligent move would have been sticking to this plan and doing the best possible job of masking the handheld’s shortcomings, but Bend decides to celebrate the faulty controls by making them a gameplay challenge. Boilers are enemies nearly invulnerable below the neck, but prone to death by two shots to the head. The problem is, auto-aim focuses on the center mass, meaning gamers must switch to manual aim and struggle with the buttons to pop the creatures in the head. This is painful enough when an endless stream of them are pouring down corridors, but the game also throws in other monstrous enemies at the same time, turning things into a hand-cramping battle where one must switch back and forth between weapons and views in a frantic effort to survive. And it isn’t even worth bothering with a sniper rifle in more than two locations, because it is just too cumbersome to aim.
Resistance Retribution ultimately has the potential to be fun, and the entire package raises the bar for what is possible on the PSP. But the developer makes a major mistake in celebrating, rather than working around the handheld’s weaknesses. Sony could take a queue from Nintendo in this category, and think about what works and does not work well on its handheld. As Retribution proves, the device has a hell of a lot of power, but maybe it isn’t ready to take on shooters, at least until someone figures out a better solution for its shoddy control layout.
The Connect Content
Connecting a PSP with Resistance Retribution to a PlayStation 3 running Resistance 2 via USB cable unlocks two extra features – Resistance Retribution Plus and “Infected” mode.
The former allows the game to use a DualShock 3 controller to play Retribution on the PSP. It sort of solves the problem of aiming with a second analog, but controls feel sluggish and a new problem is created in the process. When in this mode, auto aim is turned off, but scurrying villains were designed with auto aim in mind, so it can actually be harder to hit certain creatures. It is also a bit silly sitting in front a TV that serves no purpose once connected, and then setting the PSP down to control it with the DualShock. One can put in the extra effort and play it on the TV using the PSP’s video out capabilities, but it really shouldn’t take another $400 console, controller and USB cord to get the controls this much closer to right.
“Infected” mode lets the gamers play through campaign mode (while connected and until powered down afterward), with regenerative health, underwater breathing capabilities, more intel and the .44 magnum added to the mix. All of these additions are welcome, and it feels great to blow away Chimera with the magnum and then use the second-function explosion to blast its cohorts. Sony also gets kudos for doing something more than the usual character transfer provided by handheld/console connections, but still, Infected mode doesn’t feel like anything that requires the connection of a PS3. It is simply another weapon and a different way to play the game, nothing on the level of what Four Swords did for the Gamecube and Gameboy Advance, and nothing yet close to what Sony has shown at expos with connectivity between the devices. But it’s a step in the right direction.
For more info, http://us.playstation.com
