Solid but no surprises here
'Let's not bother!'
Yes, Insomniac has stuck with what they know sells and created a solid but uninspired game about shooting aliens in the '50s. As with many launch titles pretty graphics and recognisable gameplay have won the day, but punishing Insomniac for not pushing the genre forward is too harsh as what they have created is a fun, slightly repetitive, handsome piece of software. The plot revolves around an alternate past where The Second World War never quite happened and a strange plague has infected most of Russia turning the population into angry mutant/aliens with a grudge against you and your allies. The Characters are fairly rudimentary ranging from the strong, silent lead who lets his brooding nature do the talking to the attractive and ever so British female intelligence agent, who is for ever whispering in your ear to watch out because you might be walking into a trap! All present and correct here.
The combat, which makes up the bulk of the game (being a shooter and all) is far better when set in a tighter environment. Creeping through a deserted installation with only your torch for guidance reveals itself much more rewarding than a pitched battle against your foe with allies providing support. This is all down to the A.I of the NPCs not really being up to the standard of Resistance's contemporaries. Battles can be fought as many ways as you want but the lack of variation with the level configuration or the lack of creativity shown from the enemy's thinking lead to the best solution being at the rear of the battle taking pot shots with your rifle. It is when the combat takes a more focused approach that it becomes much more intense and tight. Luckily these environments are not in short supply and far outweigh the pitched battle set pieces.
The weapon set is as creative as you'd imagine from the creators of Ratchet & Clank. The creators have found great pleasure in stretching the ragdoll physics to it's realistic boundaries by giving the player a range of weaponry that can destroy a squad of enemies in the blink of an eye. The highlight of this range for me had to be the sniper rifle whose secondary function is a deep focus, which can slow down time for a brief period leading to some split second headshots from some distance. One issue I feel the creators could have looked at is the fact that after it has been found for the first time, a weapon can be carried for the rest of the game. This I feel gave the player too much freedom to just play the game the whole way through with their favourite gun instead of experimenting and understanding the full use of the weapons available to them.
Visually the game gets much better as it progresses. Interestingly the early levels are the poorest in the game, the disappointing lack of variety within the set pieces is matched by the blandness of the lighting and effects of the early levels. Just simple changes to the environment would have set the northern towns apart, as opposed to them all blending into one. Making it rain, setting it at night anything to create some nice effects to show off some Sony grunt would have done. It's not until the last third of the game does the alien architecture come into play and the lushness of the lighting and textures really come into play. A missed opportunity I feel.
Overall, and with many issues within the game, I feel it has been one missed opportunity after another. The game has the scope to be huge, but never quite delivers on it's promise. The level design and enemies have no sense of the epic invasion the opening sequence details. As a player I never did feel over run with enemies nor did I feel I was out of my depth as the lead character is reassuringly tough and capable. I never at any time witnessed an event the PS2 could not handle be it level design or NPCs on the screen at once. Perhaps this was due to time constraints and the pressure of releasing the game as a launch title. Even so the game is worth more than the sum of its parts and I spent more time being delighted than disappointed. A good effort, but not a classic.