Insomniac did a great job of improving on the original Resistance and provides a great FPS experience.
GAMEPLAY (9.0) - Developer Insomniac Games again provides fast and fluid gameplay with almost non-stop combat. Resistance 2 starts right at the end of Fall of Man, with protagonist Nathan Hale being picked up by the military in England and brought to America for its last defense against the Chimera. Things get a bit more interesting in that Nathan will be fighting alongside "Specters", others who have been infected by the Chimeran virus but are able to slowly combat the strain. Hale is able to wield a decent assortment of weaponry, each with their own individual primary and secondary firing modes. There is a bit of a step back from the first game in that now Hale can only carry two weapons at a time. Of course this is more realistic and requires a bit more strategy as choices have to be made on whether to carry the powerful weapon with limited ammo or the basic guns where ammo is usually plentiful. Still, how much realism one wants in a game like this can be debatable, and I did miss the opportunities to try out the many different exotic weapons on the various enemies I'd encounter.
The battles steadily progress in difficulty, preventing a feeling of being completely overwhelmed. However, the enemy A.I. is very good and there were more than a few battles I had to attempt several times. Equally impressive are the gargantuan bosses found at the end of most levels. Boss battles include a skyscraper-sized Godzilla, a monsterous kraken, and a disturbing swarm that shreds apart its victim within seconds. Every boss encounter is epic in scale and it's a treat to see what lies waiting at levels end. Not all of them go down with raw firepower either. A few require a small amount of strategy to take them out and some of the bosses can only be killed using environmental damage. Every boss in the game seems to be more interesting then its previous incarnation though admittedly the final battle was a bit of a letdown compared to the others. At any rate FPS fans will find little to complain about the gameplay as the combat stays fast and furious from beginning till end.
GRAPHICS (9.0) - Probably the area with the biggest improvement over the original. The environments are much more detailed and they look great. The overall quantity and quality of textures, atmosphere and lighting are top notch. Hale will go to the caverns of Utah, downtown Chicago, the redwood forests of California, and high in the sky aboard Chimeran motherships. Time and again there will be areas where the scenery is so epic and grand in scale that some time has to be spent looking around and taking it all in. The game consistently runs on a smooth framerate, which is quite an achievement considering how many things can be going on the screen at any one time. It was also nice to see that this game contained more cinematic scenes to convey the story as opposed to the original which relied mostly on a narrator. The cutscenes helped to bring Nathan and the other major characters to life, giving the story more meaning.
AUDIO (9.0) - Resistance 2 has a larger supporting cast than the original and every character provides solid voice acting. There are numerous and distinct sound effects from the weapons and a decent sound setup will make the player feel he's in the middle of an epic battle. The above-average musical score adds to an outstanding audio experience.
VALUE (8.5) - The campaign, while never boring also is not exceptionally long, taking about 10 hours to complete. As to be expected there are reasons to go back and play again if one is interested in gathering the various trophies. Insomniac did put some effort into providing unique online experiences. Competitive multiplayer can support up to 60 players and the co-op, which is just a series of scenarios as opposed to playing together through the campaign, can support up to 8 friends playing together.
SUMMARY - In the end Resistance 2 is simply bigger and better than the original, and the original was a very good game in its own right. While it's not absolutely necessary to have played Fall of Man first the story in Resistance 2 will certainly be more enjoyable if it follows playing the original. Regardless, any FPS fans that own a PS3 will find Resistance 2 to be a very worthwhile purchase.