Resistance 2

Resistance 2 is a sci-fi first-person shooter video game for the PlayStation 3 developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. The game was released in Europe on November 28, 2008, and on November 4, 2008 in North American. The game is a sequel to the 2006 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man. The first teaser trailer had its debut on the April 11th edition of GameTrailers TV, which also tells of a trailer featuring gameplay to arrive on June 13 only on GameTrailers. The game includes an astonishing multiplayer cap of 60 players in one match.

Gameplay
Resistance 2 is a single-player campaign, with the player controlling protagonist Nathan Hale. The game includes many of the weapons from Resistance: Fall of Man, as well as new weapons such as the "Marksman" and a mini gun called the "HVAP(High Velocity Armor Piercing) Wraith". The weapons are a mix of 1950s human technology and more advanced alien technology. Unlike the first game, where the player was able to carry as many weapons as they could get their hands on, Resistance 2 limited the player to two weapons, as well as a more limited number of grenades. Resistance 2 also does not use a health bar in the single player campaign, but instead uses an automatic regenerative health system, whereby players must keep out of the line of fire in order to recover health, much like Call of Duty 4.

Multiplayer
Resistance 2 features multiplayer in two variations: cooperative and competitive. Both multiplayer modes track the player's performance, gaining experience and leading to benefits and rewards, as well as assigning the player a skill ranking.

Unlike its predecessor, Resistance 2 does not offer co-op for the single player campaign. Cooperative mode features a separate campaign mode which runs parallel to the single-player campaign. The cooperative campaign supports anything from two to eight players, taking the role of a special forces group called "Specter Team". Players are tasked with many randomized objectives around the map, while defeating hordes of Chimera in the process. The strength of the enemy forces is altered based on the number of players and their skill levels. There are three classes to choose from: Special Ops - long-distance damage dealers, who also provide ammunition; Soldiers - the "tanks" who endure the most damage; and Medics - who drain life from enemies and impart to teammates.

Competitive mode features support for up to 60 players at any given time; the highest number of players for any PlayStation 3 online game as of Resistance 2's release. Four games modes are available: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (Core Control) and Skirmish, while involved players getting split up into squads of five and take part in objective-based proxy-battles. Players can play as either the Humans or the Chimerans, and get to choose their weapon loadout when before and during a game while respawning. Maps have varying sizes and layouts for the different game modes and number of players.

Plot
After destroying the Central Chimera Tower in London in 1951, Nathan Hale is extracted by Black Ops soldiers in a VTOL aircraft, and is sedated. When they arrive at the Special Research Projects Administration (SRPA) "Igloo" Base in Iceland, the VTOL is attacked by a Chimera Goliath and only Hale and Major Richard Blake of the SRPA survive. As the two make their way to safety, they encounter and knowingly unleash Daedalus, the being that is apparently controlling the Chimera, but it escapes before they can stop it. Hale and Blake find the Russian scientist Fyodor Malikov who has been working with the SRPA investigating the Chimeran virus, and are able to safely extract him to America. Hale is introduced to the Sentinels, others like Hale who have been exposed to the Chimeran virus, giving them superhuman strength and regenerative abilities, but take regular injections of an inhibitor to prevent them from fully succumbing to its effects. Over the next two years, Hale is promoted to Lieutenant and becomes a part of the Sentinel force in charge of Echo Squad, and put on the same regimen of inhibitors to prevent the virus from changing him further.

On May 15, 1953 the Chimera launch a full-scale invasion of the United States, attacking the country from both the east and west. Hale, Malikov, and the other Sentinels escape from the destruction of San Francisco. Near Orick, California, they manage to board a Chimera battleship and destroy it from the inside, but during their escape, they are shot down and crash near Twin Falls, Idaho which lies on the Liberty Defense Perimeter. After Hale and other Sentinels successfully reactivate two defensive towers to repel the Chimera fleet, Hale refuses to return to base for his Inhibitor Treatment, regardless of the fact that he is long overdue and, instead, takes a squad to 'Station Genesis' in Bryce Canyon, Utah, in order to extract Malikov from the base. Hale is able to successfully retrieve Malikov from the base but not before encountering Daedalus again. Malikov explains to Hale that Daedalus used to be a human known as Private Jordan Adam Sheppard, but, along with Hale, was part of "Project Abraham", a military program designed to try to create Chimera-human hybrids such as the Cloven. Sheppard was part of Malikov's tests, and one of the two (the other being Hale himself) who was injected with pure Chimeran DNA. Unlike Hale, who had the DNA go into submission, Sheppard's injection morphed his body into the barely human form of Daedalus, and gave him knowledge of the Chimera's origins and goals.

After recovering Malikov, Hale and Echo Squad are ordered to go to Chicago in order to deactivate one of several Chimera towers that have been activated and are slowly building up energy. Malikov is able to deactivate it, only to find the tower is shortly reactivated remotely from Iceland, and the only way to shut them down is to travel there. The Sentinels launch an assault against the Iceland Tower (Holar Tower map in multiplayer), but find it to be a trap, with many of the forces being lost. However, Hale and Echo Squad are able to enter the tower, only to find Daedalus waiting for them. During their time in the tower, all of Echo Squad is killed, with the exception of Hale and Capelli, though Hale is stabbed in the stomach by Daedalus and passes out. Hale wakes up and finds that it is six weeks later; the Chimera have overrun the American defenses, killing over 80 million people, and forcing the 3 million remaining survivors to America's last stronghold in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Hale also discovers that because he went so long without the inhibitor, his body has succumbed to the virus, and he has only three hours before it fully consumes him; Capelli, the only remaining Sentinel other than Hale, asks Hale if he's going to make his last few hours count. Hale decides to use this time to take part in an attack on the majority of the Chimera fleet currently hovering above the Gulf of Mexico around the Chicxulub Crater on the Yucatan Peninsula. Hale and Capelli are able to recover a nuclear warhead and deliver it onto Daedalus' ship, but Major Richard Blake and his squad, who are taking the warhead to the ship's central reactor, are killed, and it is taken by Chimeran forces and brought to Daedalus. Hale makes his own way to Daedalus and defeats him; though upon touching its corpse, Hale is suddenly overwhelmed by strong Psychokinetic abilities. Hale escapes with Capelli after activating the bomb; the explosion wipes out most of the fleet, and Hale and Capelli barely avoid incineration, only to have their ship malfunction, forcing them to crash land. When they emerge, they find that space has turned red with three planet-like spheres where the Chimera flagship once was. Capelli discovers Hale has become engulfed by the virus and in awe of the objects; Hale recalls Daedalus' words:"They are calling to us, can you hear them?... It's beautiful", he finishes by saying, "This is just the beginning". After paying respects to his former officer, Capelli shoots Hale at point-blank range in the head with a M1911 handgun.

Development
The game was officially unveiled in the February 2008 issue of Game Informer, detailing the 8-player cooperative campaign, 60-player online multiplayer, and Fall 2008 release. The first teaser trailer debuted during the April 11, 2008 edition of GameTrailers TV, while the first gameplay trailer arrived on June 13, 2008, again on GameTrailers.

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

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

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

Beta phase
Insomniac announced they were running a Public Beta from October 2008, and one of the ways to give consumers access to the beta involved a pre-order program through GameStop. Gamers who reserved their copy from GameStop received a card that contained a beta registration code, and once registered through the official site, and the open beta was available, the beta voucher was emailed to the address provided. Users could then download and install their beta from the PlayStation Store. The Public Beta was available from October 24 to October 29. It included three multiplayer maps - San Francisco, Orick (a forest-type map) and Chicago - and could be played in the 8-player co-op campaign and the 60-player online multiplayer.

Project Abraham
The marketing campaign for Resistance 2 centered 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 to 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, along with a romantic relationship that is alluded to between Hale and Cassie.

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 the player 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 includes a hardcover art book, special cover art, an in-game weapon skin (a Chimeran HVAP Wraith), and an action figure of the game's alien-human hybrid race, the Chimera. It also includes a bonus Blu-ray Disc with a behind-the-scenes featurette, a video detailing the game's alternate historical timeline, a digital copy of issue #0 of the Resistance comic book, and a preview from the upcoming Resistance novel "The Gathering Storm". This CE was for North America only, as SCEE found it too expensive to translate the extra content into the many European languages.

Reception
Resistance 2 has been well received by critics, with a current Metacritic aggregate score of 87 out of 100, based on 74 reviews, and a Game Rankings aggregate of 87%, based on 55 reviews.

It garnered a score of 9/10 from the Official UK PlayStation Magazine, who said it was, as they would have liked, "prettier and shootier", and 9.5/10 from IGN, elected there for an Editor's Choice Award. It also earned a 9/10 score from Official Playstation Magazine Australia. IGN in particular praised the game for its single player campaign and online multiplayer, as well as the scale and detail of the level design, stating that the bosses would "make your jaw drop." GameRac gave Resistance 2 an 8/10, saying that the game had "amazing graphics and the singleplayer was improved", also electing it for both the Editor's Choice Award and Most Anticipated Game Award. Resistance 2 sold about 403,000 copies worldwide in its debut week.

Other reviews include Gameplayer, which rated the game 9/10, NZGamer, which rated the game with a 9.2/10, Gamepro, who rated the game 4/5, proclaiming it was "bigger, badder and better than the first" and an "improvement upon the formula set by its predecessor in almost every way", and X-Play, which rated Resistance 2 a 5/5 in high praise.