A couple of weeks ago, I bought my first real gaming console - PS3. Well, I had an XBox, but I traded something to a friend for it.
The reasons for getting it are complex, and maybe not great: I wanted to do some gaming, and have a dedicated piece of a equipment for all my media playback. I finally have the space and equipment such that I don’t have to watch movies and TV shows on my computer anymore, and so I wanted to make us of actually having a television.
With the box came two games of my choosing, and I chose the goriest-looking titles of those available, Killzone 2
Background: An invading species (the Chimera - MI2 anybody? Also Greek mythology anybody?) utterly obliterated Russia and then Europe in the mid 1940’s, and now, in 1951 it looks as if Britain will suffer the same fate. An US army sergeant Hale turns out to be Britain’s only hope at destroying once and for all the Chimeran forces.
The graphics seemed pretty impressive - 720p and not laggy at any point. It’s been a while since I played any real games, so I may be easy to impress, but all the same, given the complexity if the scenes and actors, it seems very well-made.
The fights are mostly urban combat with traditional projectiles, missiles and explosives in addition to a few futuristic Chimeran weapons. The Chimeran Auger can not be stopped by hard cover, and so the gamer has to develop new skills to actively defend against enemies carrying it. There are a few types of large enemies that can be pretty challenging to take down and in the later levels, they are usually used in conjunction with smaller bogies.
For example, there’s a large flying enemy that fires explosive rounds and packets of poisonous gas while about 6-12 infantrymen take up various positions and begin firing upon you. I found it pretty challenging to combat two types of attackers simultaneously but the only thing that makes it remotely feasible is that the standard issue rifle for the Chimera (the Bullseye) has rounds that take non-negligible time to arrive. That is, they can be dodged.
An interesting weapon of Chimeran design is the Hailstorm, which releases bolts at a high rate of fire that bounce off of surfaces. In sections where Chimeran forces are contained to a small room, or better yet, a short ways down a tunnel, this weapon really shines.
I really appreciate a game that forces you to consider the strengths and weaknesses of your weapons. Resistance does this by limiting ammunition at times (although I found it pretty feasible to stay stocked up except for in some of the larger firefights). When the ammo runs low on your rifles, you’re confronted with limited tools and are forced to efficiently apply those you have. By the end, having been forced to use each weapon, you find yourself switching back and forth between all your arms for specific tasks - the sniper rifle for long approaches, the ironically named “Bullseye” for short-range dynamic fights, traditional rifle for mid to far-ranged combat, this type of grenade for this type of cover and that type for another.
I used to play a new game first on easy, then on medium and lastly on hard, but an acquaintance of mine said that he just plays them on hard right out of the box, and this is what I did. I’m not a super-experienced gamer, and the last real combat games I played were the Splinter Cell series on XBox, but even on hard I found it very manageable. There were a few sections I had to try 3-4 times to beat, but not more than that. In terms of total gameplay hours, I would estimate it took 10-15 hours.
I’m usually a fan of the slow-going tactical games like Splinter Cell where you are encouraged to not rely on your skill with firearms in order to win - you’re encouraged to gain tactical advantage and put yourself in a position that doesn’t demand a lot of skill. With each of the games in the series, after beating the games once, I made it my goal to engage as few enemies as possible and use the cover of darkness, speed, and patience to get through. While Resistance requires the same strategical placement and maneuvering, it also requires quick thinking and a quick trigger finger. Though I disliked it at the beginning, by the end, I was just hoping for the huge battles and firefights.
All in all, it was worth playing, and probably worth, say, US$40.