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Name: Resistance 2

Insomniac Games have now brought us the follow up to their first foray into first person shooters and continued the tale of Nathan Hale with Resistance 2, an unsurprising and uninspired title to one of the best PlayStation 3 launch games, Resistance: Fall of Man. If you're familiar with Nathan Hales first adventure then the first thing you'll notice is the brighter nature of the graphics, unlike the first game which, while wasn't dull, had a much more gritty war-torn look. Resistance 2 on the other hand has plenty of colour plastered around the place, some might say that it's too much, and you probably wouldn't relate the original game with this one based on a casual look, however, what Insomniac have done, has been done rather well, and to great effect.

The Chimera are still waging war with the Human Race, they've upped their attacks and have now reached the United States, taking on both the East and West coasts. The Chimera virus is still ravaging the world turning humans into the Chimera, though questions about their origin still remain. Fans of Fall of Man will be pleased to know that this new title picks up exactly where the last one ended, not wishing to give away too many spoilers, Nathan Hale finds himself on an SPRA (Special Research Projects Administration) airship where he is sedated after the events of the first game. The ship is on its way to the SPRA base in Iceland when it is shot down by Chimeran forces, leaving only Nathan Hale and a Major Richard Blake alive after the crash. As they try to survive the aftermath they accidentally let loose a powerful and deadly Chimeran creature known as Daedalus; this creature is apparently in control of the Chimera (as opposed to the Angels from the first game) and before they can make up for their wrong doing Daedalus escapes back into the wild.

Two years later and Nathan is part of an elite group of soldiers known as The Sentinels; Hale has been promoted to Lieutenant following the death of their original leader, and he's been placed in charge of Echo squad. The group is all comprised of soldiers like himself who have been infected with the Chimera virus and each have super human abilities such as their strength and their ability to regenerate. They keep the virus at bay by using inhibitors, these allow them to use their strong powers but stop the virus from taking over there bodies completely, being a cross-breed allows them to be a strong defence against the Chimeran threat, well, normally; they need regular doses of the inhibitor or they'll carry on with their transformation into something unnatural, so they're closely monitored and action is taken if the virus takes over completely, and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to work out what that means.

As the Chimeran army is now attacking the US this time - the action is transferred from good old Blighty over to the US of A. The action properly starts in San Francisco where Hale and his motley crew are once again under attack from the Chimera, you have to wonder sometimes if the only reason the humans haven't yet won the war is the fact that they sit around drinking tea and coffee till the Chimera pop round. The gang manage to escape and make their way across America in search of Daedalus, along the way doing whatever else they may need to do to help neutralise the threat of the Chimera. Like the first game each of the locations is based on a real part of America and as such certain land marks crop up from time to time to remind you of the real world setting, these locations are pretty varied and inspiration is taken from Idago, Utah, Chicago and Louisiana to name but a few.

With a new game comes new stuff to replace the old and Resistance 2 is no exception, as well as new Chimera to fight you get to take them on with a whole host of new weapons, as well as some of the returning favourites from Hale's first adventures. Still a mix of 1950's and Chimeran tech old favourites such as the Carbine, Bullseye, Reapers, Augers, and the Fareye Sniper, return pretty much as they were, new weapons include the Magnum, Bellock Grenade Launcher, along with a whole new bunch of projectile weaponry to play with. For some reason Hale has lost the ability to hold more than two guns at a time; in his first excursion he could keep hold of any guns that he found and providing that he had ammunition for them could use them whenever he wanted. Not so with Resistance 2, instead, the weapons you enter a battle with better be the ones you're wanting to stick with or your going to quickly find yourself a smear on the floor and Chimera laughing at you as they walk over your body to decimate the rest of the human race.

There is actually quite a selection of new Chimera to fight; these have replaced some of the ones you might be more used to in Fall of Man, so whole new techniques are going to have to be used to fight the new guys. The official explanation for this change is because Daedalus has made efforts to streamline the structure of the Chimera, doing away with the dead weight in their army and has done away with the Grey Jacks Widowmakers and Crawlers amongst others. They've been replaced with what Daedlaus considers better soldiers, Furies, Ravagers, Spinners, Leapers and Grims, all attack you throughout your mission; there's also plenty of new kinds of bosses to fight as well, naturally. The Chimeran army is as consistent as it has always been, though recognisably the Chimera have undergone minor changes and are all still incredibly well drawn and animated, especially some of the larger creatures; one set piece has a creature known as The Leviathan attacking a US city, it's simply huge, and you won't fail to be impressed as you embark on your mission to destroy it, this mission will likely become one of the key moments you'll remember about Resistance 2.

Multiplayer levels are also back, there are competitive and co-operative modes to take advantage of this time; although gone is the option to play though the single player campaign with a friend. That said, it does have a nice replacement, separate co-op based levels that compliment the single player campaign nicely. These levels put you in the role of one of the members of Specter Team; you and upto 7 other players (8 in total) have to compete with killing hordes of Chimerans while doing pretty much random tasks around the map. The player can elect to play as one of three different classes of solider in the game, Soliders are the grunts that can take far more damage than the other two, while Medics have the option of taking the life force from the Chimera and pumping it into their team mates, and the Special Ops guys that can give swift punishment from a distance whilst making sure that the rest of the team is stocked up with a healthy supply of ammunition.

Five competitive modes are available, there is a Deathmatch and a Team Deathmatch mode, following it is a mode known as Core Control which is essentially a Capture the Flag game, finally the Skirmish mode. In Skirmish the players are split into two teams of five and each are given objectives to complete as well as taking part in various battles. Whats great about the deathmatch mode is that an unprecedented sixty players can take part in a match at any one time, that's a huge amount and more impressively is that the game engine handles the carnage quite well at all times. Whilst playing most modes online the player gains experience points for their actions, as more points are gained then so the player will rank up and more gear will be made available to them, such as extra skins for their characters, new weapons, grenades, and other abilities. There are 20 ranks to climb through and take you from the rank of Private right up to Supreme Commander, although you don't gain any experience if you take part in a custom game with friends.

Resistance 2 is a tight game, it's well presented and continues the story of Nathan Hale quite well, it's perhaps not the game that fans of the original had hoped for, indeed it almost seems to have taken a backwards step in ideas and themes from Fall of Man. Notably one of the other things you'll instantly notice are the missing dulcet tones of Captain Rachel Parker narrating the story, something else that is sure to cause an initial disappointment as it was a novel feature to the first game and one which a lot of people enjoyed, fair enough not to include Captain Parker, but they could have had someone else telling Nathan's tale. Not that the tale is not told well, Insomniac have proven time and time again they know how to keep someone interested in their stories and Resistance 2 is no exception, the plot unravels at an even pace throughout and subsequent replays will allow you to take more in. There is also a good deal of notes, or intel as it is known, that can be collected during the campaign which will reveal more of the story, for those who pay attention to such details then they in themselves can be a rewarding experience.

The new graphics however won't be to everyone's tastes, this has been a point in contention since it was first shown and almost everyone who took part in the public beta testing for the game also made at least one comment that they hoped the graphics would change, unfortunately they haven't, but that doesn't make Resistance 2 any less enjoyable. If you enjoyed the first chapter in the tale then there is no doubt you'll enjoy this one, perhaps not as much, but it can be a very enjoyable game and one that should easily come recommended.