Resistance 2

(Resistance 2 Looks Pretty Gay)
File:Resistance 2 cover art.jpg PAL region box art.
Developer(s)	Insomniac Games
Publisher(s)	SCEA
Engine	Insomniac's Proprietary PS3 Engine
Platform(s)	PlayStation 3
Genre(s)	First-person shooter
Mode(s)	Single-player (1 player) Online Co-op (1-8 players) Offline Competitive (1-4 players) Online Competitive (1-60 players)

Resistance 2 is an upcoming Alternative History first person shooter video game in development by Insomniac Games and to be published by SCEA for the PlayStation 3. The game is the sequel to the best selling PlayStation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man.

Overview

The game was officially announced in the February 2008 issue of Game Informer with a North American release of November 4th 2008 and a later announcement for a European and Australian release in November 2008. The first teaser trailer had its debut during the April 11, 2008 edition of GameTrailers TV, which also told of a trailer featuring gameplay to arrive on June 13, 2008 only on GameTrailers. Despite the claims of the marketing boss of SCE, Scott Steinberg, and SCE Worldwide Studios President Shuhei Yoshida, Insomniac has not confirmed that the game will be put onto a 50GB Blu-ray DL.

In Resistance 2, the Chimera have launched a full scale invasion on both the east and west coasts of the United States, with Nathan Hale joining "The Sentinels", a special task force group put together by the Special Research Project Administration (SRPA), who are also resistant to the Chimera virus. Hale will fight the Chimera through various locations in the United States as he fights the Chimera virus inside himself.

Gameplay

Resistance 2 will feature two campaigns. A single player campaign which will follow the story of Nathan Hale, and an up to eight player online co-operative (or two player split screen) campaign that will have a storyline running parallel to Hale's campaign. In the co-op campaign there will be three classes which are, medic, soldier and special ops, each different from each other. The player will then get to level up their characters to unlock new berserks, guns and clothing. A player can play as any three and will not lose any progress if they switch class. Both campaigns will also include boss-battles. One of the bosses is the Leviathan, a Godzilla-looking monster, which is the biggest boss, standing over 300 feet high. The co-operative campaign will support up to 8 players online with classes including a medic class, a heavy weapons class, and a special ops class. The online multiplayer aspect of the game will support up to 60 players online in squad based groups in a mode called "skirmish". The game will also feature 12 new Chimeran enemies, Three of which will be called the Chameleon (which can cloak itself completely, charge toward you, and kill the player in one hit) and the Grim (which is a melee fighter that attacks in hordes, similar to the Gray Jack in the first game). It will also feature an enemy known as the "Fury," a creature that lurks in the waters. During the E3 2008 trailer a new enemy was shown. This enemy is called the Ravager (which slaps the player and has a shield.). Also enemies like the Stalker will be returning with modifications. Plus the Hybrids will have advanced armor seen in some images. There are ten currently known weapons in Resistance 2. These will be wielded in pairs instead of getting to choose from multiple weapons. The L23 Fareye, Bullseye, M5A2 Folsom Carbine, Auger, LAARK and Rossmore 236, will be returning with some new modifications. The XR-005 Hailstorm, however, will not be returning. New weapons include a long range semi-automatic rifle called "The Marksman", a .44 Magnum revolver with explosive bullets as secondary fire, a Chaingun called the Wraith that has a secondary fire option that allows it to act as a shielded sentry gun, and "The Splicer", a rifle-like firearm with a large circular blade on the front which the player can rev up to launch deadly spinning and superheated blades that slice through multiple enemies. Also announced by Ted Price is that Resistance 2 will support PS3 trophies when released. The online maps for Resistance 2 can be up to four times larger then the online maps of Resistance: Fall of Man.

Plot

The player will face the Chimera once again.

The plot is a direct continuation of the "Resistance: Fall of Man" storyline. The game begins from the ending of Resistance Fall of Man taking place just outside of London, England, with Hale walking through a snow covered field, armed with only a single grenade, when a "VTOL" Aircraft spots Sgt. Hale and lands to bring him to the Dan Aric Johnson - Air Force Base, Iceland, which may also be the "Special Research Project Administration", or "SRPA". When the VTOL lands the U.S. Special Ops Soldiers attempt to subdue Hale. When Hale willingly gives in and goes with the soldiers he is once again subdued, this time in the aircraft. Hale resists this time until one of the soldiers pulls out a pistol and is told to relax. Hale arrives at the base and discovers that there are others like him that are resistant, or at least semi-resistant, to the Chimeran virus. These men have been collected here from around the world, by SRPA, to help protect one of the few safe remaining countries. These men are called the Sentinels, a highly trained task force. At some point the base comes under attack by the Chimeran Forces. On May 13, 1953, the Chimera launch a full scale invasion of the United States , attacking with their huge aerial fleet of battleships, transports, and fighters on both the East and West coasts.

The plot of Resistance 2 will drop the third person narration and follow the role of Nathan Hale, who is now a lieutenant and leader of Echo squad, much more closely, as well as shedding new light on the Chimeran origins and goals. Also Captain Rachel Parker will not be returning in Resistance 2 and the Cloven are involved in the war against the Chimera, but will not be in the United States.

File:944521 20080226 screen011.jpg

The Chimeran invasion of the United States.

Locations

Resistance 2 will be set in the United States, although the first level takes place in Iceland. As of now, the only confirmed locations in the game are Chicago the Californian Redwoods; Orick, and San Francisco. San Francisco was revealed at E3 2008. During E3, Ted Price also revealed two new locations; Twin Falls, Idaho, and a Chimeran Warship (Which is most likely boarded during the San Francisco level.). Orick and Chicago have been the only online confirmed maps yet, and Orick will feature 4 map sizes and may include more. Due to a Logging Company situated in the Redwoods, the location "Scotia" had to be changed for legal reasons. The location is now known as Orick.

Marketing

It should be noted that all of these sites [as of August, 8th, 2008] are based in November 1950, only eight months before the events of Resistance: Fall Of Man.

Viral Website 1

The marketing campaign centers around Project Abraham, which is a top-secret military project, while originally initiated by the U.S. Government, is under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Department of War.

Initially, specific details on the nature and purpose of the project was very bare and mysterious, though with time additional content added onto the website (in concurrence with the Project's latest developments) that reveals the purpose of the project: It is a research initiative designed to eradicate the Chimera virus, that is currently infecting Europeans by the millions. It lasts over the next two months, with an SRPA team of biochemical experts formulating several permutations of serums to be used on human volunteers in an attempt to discover the vaccine against the plague. The findings were ultimately inconclusive. Other purposes are to learn more about and better understand the virus. The next phase of the project is the collect all the immune soldiers together as an elite super-soldier task force code-named "Sentinels", dedicated to fighting off the impending Chimera invasion while the bulk of the U.S. population is safely secured in the Liberty Defense Perimeter.

In terms of characters; the primary characters are Colonel Grant Thompson and Doctor Cassandra "Cassie" Aklin (played by Katee Sackhoff, and is also the protagonist; with all written and recorded content either directed towards or generated by Aklin so far), but other characters, civilian, military or otherwise are mentioned. The other main characters are seven soldiers who volunteered for the project from different army units, all brought together at the Project Abraham Compound in Alaska (the specific location is classified). Test subjects include;

• Captain Frank Anthony Gennaro
• 1st Lieutenant Glenn Albert Khaner
• Lieutenant Kenneth Danby
• Sergeant Channing Brown
• Sergeant Keith Todd Oster
• Sergeant Nathan Hale
• Private Joseph Capelli

Apart from the project itself, the files and videos reveal the personal situation with the project's personnel; the soldiers, willing to endure the possibility of death, have detailed history, military careers and personality profiles (collected by Aklin), which often reflects in their actions towards others. More information about Hale's history, family and military career are revealed as well. It is also revealed that Aklin, suffering increasing emotional guilt over the continued deaths of the soldiers, gradually became more emotionally involved with Hale, who she admired for his strength and his de-facto leadership of the soldiers. Eventually, Aklin admitted on a recording she had fallen in love with him, feelings he reciprocated

Six of the seven soldiers were selected for injection:

• Capelli: He became withdrawn over a span of several hours. He then flew into a psychotic rage and appeared to exhibit superhuman strength. The staff were able to subdue Capelli after an intense struggle, at which he descended into a coma from which he has still not emerged. Capelli was then moved for further study to SRPA Headquarters & Central Operations at Base Station Genesis in Bryce Canyon, Utah.
• Brown: The serum had disastrous effects on his system. Brown began vomiting uncontrollably, eventually losing several pints of blood and suffering a breakdown of major organs, making him the first PA test subject to die.
• Oster: He was unwilling to cooperate, and attacked an orderly in an attempt to stab him with the hypodermic needle and was gunned down as a result. Oster did not survive.
• Khaner: The serum administered to him soon ravaged his flesh. The tissue cells in his head, neck and lungs began dividing at an alarming rate, thus cutting off his air supply and suffocating him to death.
• Hale: Instead of being injected with the latest viral load configuration, PA staff received an urgent memo informing them that the testing protocol had changed; they were to use Doctor Fyodor Malikov's serum instead. This decision may have saved his life - Hale endured a short-lived coma, yet survived the ordeal.
• Gennaro: He received the final injection at the Alaskan base. His core body temperature rose to lethal levels and, in his delerium, Gennaro mutilated his own body in an attempt to cool himself down.
• Danby: He was spared from participating in Project Abraham, as operations have now been relocated, in their entirety, to Base Station Genesis.

The project has also shed light on some mysteries of the Chimera, the "Cloven" (who are revealed to be a version of Chimera, but are more human-like in appearance and possess their individuality, and were created and controlled by Malikov), and even the tenuous political situation in the United States.

The Alaskan facility was attacked by Chimera, but its personnel were able to escape. The base was left in destruction and frozen over, with certain research left behind. Aklin escaped, but sometime before (revealed in a surveillance video), she met Hale for the last time in her office. Hale, by this time, has fully recovered to the point he is being shipped out to Britain (leading to the events of Resistance: Fall of Man), and Hale is intent on, not only finding out the truth of what is transpiring in Europe, but also to find out what he now is, as the injection has "changed" him. The dialog between them implies Hale and Aklin shared a romantic encounter, explaining Aklin's reluctance to say goodbye.

Viral Website 2

America first America only is the website of the "Alliance For American Autonomy". The Alliance is a group of radicals bent on exposing the U.S. Government and its secrets to the public. The site shows a small dark area with a printing press, and an office containing a news board, news clippings, the alliances newsletter/paper, file cabinets, and a "tip box". The Alliances newsletter/paper is published every Friday. When a new article is posted the old ones are stored in the file cabinets for reference and can be viewed at any time. The newsletter/paper gets most of its information from "agents," people who have submitted SrpaNet codes through the Tip Box. The latest update for the site has seemed to have ransacked the area and shows a letter that seems to have been written in a hurry.

Viral Website 3

A third website named Get A War Job has been discovered and can be accessed directly from Project Abraham. On the site a typewriter is shown along with pro and anti-war posters, cards, pamphlets, and a document which you can fill out and possibly cause events to happen in the future such as a phone call or further information about the site/sites. The business card to the left may be called, toll free, to hear an inspirational recruiting message for the military. The latest update for the site seems to have burned nearly everything in view and the registration form is no longer available.

Viral Website 4

A fourth website named SrpaNet has also been discovered. It is an old computer interface in which the Project Abraham staff and the U.S. Government use. So far hidden and overt serial codes, found in various places on Project Abraham, have lead to hidden documents and images relating to the Chimera and what is known about them.

E3 2008

Resistance 2 was showcased at Sony's E3 2008 press conference. A trailer was shown with footage of the Leviathan boss battle. The game's multiplayer was playable on the show floor, and single-player was shown in Sony's lounge.

External links

• Resistance 2 Official Website
• Insomniac Games
• Resistance 2 Viral Marketing Website 1
• Resistance 2 Viral Marketing Website 2
• Resistance 2 Viral Marketing Website 3
• Resistance 2 Viral Marketing Website 4