Dumbed down the SP part of the game to buff MP. Resistance got '' Halo 2'ed ''.
I'm going to concentrate on the single player campaign, and NOT on MP. Why ? Because I didnt like the R1 MP at all. It was too frenetic for me and still, I loved the single player portion of the game to death and still played it until last week.
The game got '' Halo 2'd ''. That's about the best thing I can say to identify it.
While the game's scenary is now vastly improved, they butched down the gameplay on some aspects. You can now only carry two weapons. It means you won't grab any special weapons for casual use, you'll just grab the versatile ones, wich are the assault rifles and something else to fill the blank spot. You won't find ammo at all for the less-comon weapons, lets say the sniper rifles, or the marksman. So you'll be forced to stick with your bullseye most of the time. While in the first title, you could carry everything and have fun with your whole package of weapon without fear. Also, the health regen is now total. Not segment-based like the first game.
In the MP aspect, I agree that carrying 81234 weapons is stupid. 2 is fine online, but during the main campaing, it's a shame.
The game this time around is much shorter. Gamespot's main R2 page claims the game comes with two '' full '' campaings. I've heard people saying that the online campaing is just some 4 people raid mowing down enemies in the same areas we've visited. It's not bad, but doing that to kill off the longevity of the single player campaing is dull. As for the single player campaing, it's a mixed bag.
R2 is a lot of trial and error. You'll walk into a zone, and then get one hit killed by an invisible enemy. Check. You reload, kill him because you know he's there, and proceed. Next zone, you'll get nuked by two gigantic chimeras. Check, You reload, you grab a more convenient weapon for it. This breaks the game's pacing, and can transform good levels into a pain. The boss fights are superb, and the game really gives you a great sense of scale.
The game's graphics are a good. Just like the first resistance, the backgrounds and enemy design are superb, but the textures left to be desired while looked up close. The game's graphics are vibrant and the framerate is solid. Althought, the gamma of the game is way too dark, and there's no way to adjust it, wich is dumb. Most people have HDTV's these days, and they should take that under consideration. Still, it's not game breaking, but it gives the game a not-needed Doom3 feel.
To me it feels like Insomniac went Bungie on their game. They killed the single player longevity to just throw everything in MP. In a way, it's great for competitive players : they got an online game. But for people like me who enjoys sitting on our couch and chill on a good single player game, it's very disapointing.
Based on the single player campaing, I give this game an 8 out of 10. Playing R2 made me want to play R1 again and enjoy the fact that it wasnt a trial-and-error game and that I could actually enjoy the new weapons. I'm not going to keep my copy for long, most likely going to trade it in next week.
PS : Those who will complain about the fact that I didnt try the online aspect, it's just because I don't like 50 people online fire fights. So I decided to play fair and to not include it in my review, otherwise, if I took it under consideration, i'd lower the score because it moved its roots to the MP side.