First off, a couple things -
- I am not biased, or a hater. I am on record calling Resistance 2 my E3 2008 Game of the Show, which was not a popular opinion, at the time. If anything, I had a positive bias, going into the game.
- I am not saying R2's single player is "overrated" or "just good, not great." I am saying it's terrible. Like, truly bad. Below average, when compared to ALL FPS titles, not just the top-tier.
How have I formed this opinion? Let me count the ways:
1) The pacing is all over the place. The game opens with a bang, with you taking down a HUUUUGE enemy construct. It's a cool opening. The problem is that the game never really settles into a rhythm, after that. It just seems to throw a random mish-mash of enemy squads, bosses and mid-bosses at you seemingly at a random.
In one particular level, you complete a climactic boss encounter, defeating an enemy that has been terrorizing you the whole stage. Immediately afterwards as you're making your escape, you have to defeat two titans (essentially mid-bosses) simultaneously. Who in the WORLD decided it would be a good idea to place an encounter of this type after the level's boss? WHY did they do it? I would love to hear their reasoning.
2) Dozens of cheap, unpreventable deaths. Invisible enemies are a big "fuck you" to begin with. Invisible enemies that kill you with ONE HIT? Jesus, Insomniac. This is a 100%-real scenario that happens more than once over the course of the game:
You're walking along, and an invisible enemy pops out and kills you. OK, it's annoying, but no big deal. You know he's there. So you revert to the checkpoint, kill the enemy, and DURING YOUR RELOADING ANIMATION ANOTHER ONE POPS OUT AND KILLS YOU. It's like Insomniac intentionally timed it, skipping a beat, so you'd be caught unawares while reloading.
Other unpreventable deaths include rocket-wielding enemies that approach from off-screen. So you can ONLY learn by dying.
3) Unclear objectives / scenario progression triggers. How to progress is often vague.
At the start of the game's last mission, your listed objective is to defuse a bomb, which is unspecific and unhelpful. You begin the level with a sniper rifle. The enemy is holed up in a big house. So, naturally, I'm sniping. This goes on forever. Guys come out, I snipe,
I finally figure out that they're respawning, and to stop that I need to *enter* the house. So I do, and I clear it out. It's only then that the next scripted segment begins, and the house is assaulted. Do I just need to survive a set amount of time? Is there a finite amount of enemies and when I kill them all I move on? Do I need to take the fight to them, as I had to a moment ago? This is all unclear.
4) Plot is incoherent. I dunno what it is about Shooters this gen, but almost without fail, WHY you're doing what you're doing in every stage is very difficult to follow. Halo 3, COD4, Gears 1 & 2, they all suffer this, to varying degrees. I'd put R2 among the most difficult to follow however, along with with Gears1.
This is especially disappointing, because I found Resistance 1's plot to be absolutely excellently constructed, and it was weaved together with the level design brilliantly (ie when you're escaping the Chimara factory towards the beginning).
5) Boss encounters lack appropriate feedback, and lead to needless frustration. They're often poorly designed encounters, to boot.
The boss designs themselves are imaginative, varied, intimidating, and all-around top-notch. But the actual encounters are unfun and sometimes very frustrating, due to a few basic game design oversights.
Chief among these is the lack of feedback. You fight one boss at the top of a tower. This boss follows a simple pattern it repeats over and over, and you only have access to your normal carbine. So, I assumed you just had to shoot him till he died, simple.
But this is never confirmed. Can he only be damaged when he opens his mouth? His legs are armored, but they still bleed when I shoot them. So am I doing any damage? I eventually defeated the boss, and I still don't know the answers to these questions. I just shot him up like mad. Encounters like this NEED feedback. When you do something right, the boss needs to flinch. When you're not damaging him, he needs to not react. If you run around for x # of minutes someone needs to come over the radio and say "try hitting him in the back!" (or whatever).
The sad thing is the reveal of this and many other bosses is great, as is their overall concept.
It's also worth noting that SOME of the boss fights do give appropriate feedback.
6) Removal of vehicle segments & mine dodging segments
This is sort of a damned-if-you-do/don't situation for Insomniac I admit. Because any vehicle segments would be dismissed as "obligatory" in reviews, and I'm guessing most people disliked the mine-dodging in the original (although I found it exciting).
The thing is, what these segments accomplished in the original was to break up the action and the pacing. The lack of them in R2 makes the entire game feel same-y from start to finish. It ties into point 1 - R2 has a terrible sense of pace compared to R1.
7) Two weapons only leads to incredible frustration
R1 had a weapon-wheel, allowing you access to all weapons at all times. R2 limits you to two. I want to be CRYSTAL CLEAR, here: LIMITING PLAYERS TO TWO WEAPONS IS NOT, IN AND OF ITSELF, A PROBLEM. Lots of games that I love do it. And it works.
The problem is that the game CONSTANTLY presents you with scenarios where you'll be absolutely fucked if you don't have the right loadout. And what's more, they sometimes even HIDE the gun you need around a corner or somesuch. A particular scenario against a couple titans where a rocket launcher is out-of-sight comes to mind.
In one section you're defending an area with your squadmates, against dozens of weak, melee-only enemies. I literally ran out of ammo in both my guns and was reduced to running laps around the room, turning around and quickly slicing one with the knife, and then resuming running. My squadmates stood there, literally unmoving, like statues, with their guns at the ready. It wasn't until after this section that I found the weapon that would have been perfect for that encounter lying on a console.
It's frustrating because it made the section much more difficult than it needed to be, but ALSO because the section would have been really fun with that weapon, instead of stupid.
There will be sections where you'll die and die, and so you backtrack a bit and find the gun you're INTENDED to have, and then suddenly the encounter is much more manageable (and fun).
8) Squad AI
This is another point I want to be crystal clear on, because when I say "squad AI" I'm not talking about AI in the sense that it doesn't act human-like (Halo 3), or gets hung up on walls or does other stupid things (Gears).
The problem is that the AI in Resistance 2 shows the hand of the developer so obviously that it almost leaves me speechless. There are lots of times when the AI will not fire it's weapon. At all. A Chimara could be literally close enough that they could reach out and touch each other, and the AI will stand, completely still.
This usually happens if I take longer with an encounter than I'm intended to (like the example in #7). I think the AI is designed thusly - "20 enemies will appear, and the AI will battle and kill 10 of them, leaving 10 for the player." So, once the AI has done its bit, it stands there, unmoving.
~~~
HOW IN THE WORLD did this game get a 95 from IGN, a 91 from GameTrailers, and 90s from GameSpot and Gamespy? Maybe they judge multiplayer more highly than I do? Regardless, I have NEVER, EVER found a game's critical reviews fail so entirely to match up with user reviews. It's not like reviewers are calling R2 a 9 or 10 and I'm calling it a 7. That's splitting hairs. I'm calling R2 TERRIBLE. It's a 4, in my book.
EDIT: I am removing the metacritic scores from this OP, as that seems to be what people are focusing on. Not, you know, my point.
- I am not biased, or a hater. I am on record calling Resistance 2 my E3 2008 Game of the Show, which was not a popular opinion, at the time. If anything, I had a positive bias, going into the game.
- I am not saying R2's single player is "overrated" or "just good, not great." I am saying it's terrible. Like, truly bad. Below average, when compared to ALL FPS titles, not just the top-tier.
How have I formed this opinion? Let me count the ways:
1) The pacing is all over the place. The game opens with a bang, with you taking down a HUUUUGE enemy construct. It's a cool opening. The problem is that the game never really settles into a rhythm, after that. It just seems to throw a random mish-mash of enemy squads, bosses and mid-bosses at you seemingly at a random.
In one particular level, you complete a climactic boss encounter, defeating an enemy that has been terrorizing you the whole stage. Immediately afterwards as you're making your escape, you have to defeat two titans (essentially mid-bosses) simultaneously. Who in the WORLD decided it would be a good idea to place an encounter of this type after the level's boss? WHY did they do it? I would love to hear their reasoning.
2) Dozens of cheap, unpreventable deaths. Invisible enemies are a big "fuck you" to begin with. Invisible enemies that kill you with ONE HIT? Jesus, Insomniac. This is a 100%-real scenario that happens more than once over the course of the game:
You're walking along, and an invisible enemy pops out and kills you. OK, it's annoying, but no big deal. You know he's there. So you revert to the checkpoint, kill the enemy, and DURING YOUR RELOADING ANIMATION ANOTHER ONE POPS OUT AND KILLS YOU. It's like Insomniac intentionally timed it, skipping a beat, so you'd be caught unawares while reloading.
Other unpreventable deaths include rocket-wielding enemies that approach from off-screen. So you can ONLY learn by dying.
3) Unclear objectives / scenario progression triggers. How to progress is often vague.
At the start of the game's last mission, your listed objective is to defuse a bomb, which is unspecific and unhelpful. You begin the level with a sniper rifle. The enemy is holed up in a big house. So, naturally, I'm sniping. This goes on forever. Guys come out, I snipe,
I finally figure out that they're respawning, and to stop that I need to *enter* the house. So I do, and I clear it out. It's only then that the next scripted segment begins, and the house is assaulted. Do I just need to survive a set amount of time? Is there a finite amount of enemies and when I kill them all I move on? Do I need to take the fight to them, as I had to a moment ago? This is all unclear.
4) Plot is incoherent. I dunno what it is about Shooters this gen, but almost without fail, WHY you're doing what you're doing in every stage is very difficult to follow. Halo 3, COD4, Gears 1 & 2, they all suffer this, to varying degrees. I'd put R2 among the most difficult to follow however, along with with Gears1.
This is especially disappointing, because I found Resistance 1's plot to be absolutely excellently constructed, and it was weaved together with the level design brilliantly (ie when you're escaping the Chimara factory towards the beginning).
5) Boss encounters lack appropriate feedback, and lead to needless frustration. They're often poorly designed encounters, to boot.
The boss designs themselves are imaginative, varied, intimidating, and all-around top-notch. But the actual encounters are unfun and sometimes very frustrating, due to a few basic game design oversights.
Chief among these is the lack of feedback. You fight one boss at the top of a tower. This boss follows a simple pattern it repeats over and over, and you only have access to your normal carbine. So, I assumed you just had to shoot him till he died, simple.
But this is never confirmed. Can he only be damaged when he opens his mouth? His legs are armored, but they still bleed when I shoot them. So am I doing any damage? I eventually defeated the boss, and I still don't know the answers to these questions. I just shot him up like mad. Encounters like this NEED feedback. When you do something right, the boss needs to flinch. When you're not damaging him, he needs to not react. If you run around for x # of minutes someone needs to come over the radio and say "try hitting him in the back!" (or whatever).
The sad thing is the reveal of this and many other bosses is great, as is their overall concept.
It's also worth noting that SOME of the boss fights do give appropriate feedback.
6) Removal of vehicle segments & mine dodging segments
This is sort of a damned-if-you-do/don't situation for Insomniac I admit. Because any vehicle segments would be dismissed as "obligatory" in reviews, and I'm guessing most people disliked the mine-dodging in the original (although I found it exciting).
The thing is, what these segments accomplished in the original was to break up the action and the pacing. The lack of them in R2 makes the entire game feel same-y from start to finish. It ties into point 1 - R2 has a terrible sense of pace compared to R1.
7) Two weapons only leads to incredible frustration
R1 had a weapon-wheel, allowing you access to all weapons at all times. R2 limits you to two. I want to be CRYSTAL CLEAR, here: LIMITING PLAYERS TO TWO WEAPONS IS NOT, IN AND OF ITSELF, A PROBLEM. Lots of games that I love do it. And it works.
The problem is that the game CONSTANTLY presents you with scenarios where you'll be absolutely fucked if you don't have the right loadout. And what's more, they sometimes even HIDE the gun you need around a corner or somesuch. A particular scenario against a couple titans where a rocket launcher is out-of-sight comes to mind.
In one section you're defending an area with your squadmates, against dozens of weak, melee-only enemies. I literally ran out of ammo in both my guns and was reduced to running laps around the room, turning around and quickly slicing one with the knife, and then resuming running. My squadmates stood there, literally unmoving, like statues, with their guns at the ready. It wasn't until after this section that I found the weapon that would have been perfect for that encounter lying on a console.
It's frustrating because it made the section much more difficult than it needed to be, but ALSO because the section would have been really fun with that weapon, instead of stupid.
There will be sections where you'll die and die, and so you backtrack a bit and find the gun you're INTENDED to have, and then suddenly the encounter is much more manageable (and fun).
8) Squad AI
This is another point I want to be crystal clear on, because when I say "squad AI" I'm not talking about AI in the sense that it doesn't act human-like (Halo 3), or gets hung up on walls or does other stupid things (Gears).
The problem is that the AI in Resistance 2 shows the hand of the developer so obviously that it almost leaves me speechless. There are lots of times when the AI will not fire it's weapon. At all. A Chimara could be literally close enough that they could reach out and touch each other, and the AI will stand, completely still.
This usually happens if I take longer with an encounter than I'm intended to (like the example in #7). I think the AI is designed thusly - "20 enemies will appear, and the AI will battle and kill 10 of them, leaving 10 for the player." So, once the AI has done its bit, it stands there, unmoving.
~~~
HOW IN THE WORLD did this game get a 95 from IGN, a 91 from GameTrailers, and 90s from GameSpot and Gamespy? Maybe they judge multiplayer more highly than I do? Regardless, I have NEVER, EVER found a game's critical reviews fail so entirely to match up with user reviews. It's not like reviewers are calling R2 a 9 or 10 and I'm calling it a 7. That's splitting hairs. I'm calling R2 TERRIBLE. It's a 4, in my book.
EDIT: I am removing the metacritic scores from this OP, as that seems to be what people are focusing on. Not, you know, my point.
