PlayStation Day: Resistance 2 first look

The battle against the Chimera intensifies in Resistance 2 on PlayStation 3.

At PlayStation Day, games fans got their first look of what is sure to be one of the standout games of 2008: Resistance 2.

Coming to America

Following on from where Resistance: Fall of Man left off, Resistance 2 transports players across the Atlantic to a besieged 1950s America. From the sneak preview unveiled so far, it looks like there will be bigger battles, spectacular landscapes and an even more gripping narrative told from the perspective of Sergeant Nathan Hale, the hero of the first game. Having destroyed the London command centre of the invading alien Chimera, Hale returns to the United States where he becomes part of a special programme known as the Sentinels - a secret weapon against the Chimera assault that the US government knows is imminent. When the Chimera launch a full-scale aerial assault on both coasts, Hale and the Sentinels find themselves at the forefront of the counter-attack.

Introducing the game to the packed crowd Ted Price, President and CEO of Insomniac Games, revealed that Resistance 2 was to focus on what he called the four C's:  community, campaign, co-op and competitive. Price's focus at PlayStation Day was very much on the multiplayer features, and it is clear already that this is one area in which Resistance 2 is going to break new ground.

In addition to an unprecedented eight-player co-operative mode featuring a fully independent online campaign built specifically for co-operative play, players can also look forward to vast 60-person online battles in which they join squads with distinct battlefield objectives and fight it out on PlayStation Network. So you and your friends can be fighting together in a demolitions or infantry squad, with your squad being part of a larger army, all parts of which have to pull together to achieve victory.

That's not all either. MyResistance.net is being given a drastic overhaul to include social networking features like those seen on Facebook and Flickr. Players will be able to create their own profile pages to network with other Resistance players with similar interests and objectives, all of which will feed into Resistance 2's in-game clan system, where playing with a team will earn you persistent rewards such as new weapons and equipment.

Guntastic

Of course, all these multiplayer features are in addition to a single-player campaign that is shaping up to be epic in scale, with a host of new Chimera for you to battle and an arsenal brimming with the kind of inventive weaponry that Insomniac is famous for. Two new guns on show at PlayStation Day were a handheld, chain-fed mini-gun useful for dealing with crowds, and a fully automatic sniper rifle perfect for long-distance attacks.

Despite being an early, pre-alpha version of the game, Resistance 2 is already looking incredibly impressive. Retaining the gritty, realistic visuals of the first game, its new setting in the United States of America has given the level designers a much wider range of environments to work with. The level on show at PlayStation Day was set in a heavily wooded encampment, dotted with log cabins, high cliffs and dense undergrowth, providing ample cover and ambush opportunities for the canny player.

From what was on show at PlayStation Day, it's clear that Resistance 2 is shaping up to be one of the game events of 2008. Its combination of an ambitious, story-driven single player mode with truly ground-breaking multiplayer modes that manage to be epic and intimate at the same time means that this is one game it should be impossible to resist.