As Stephen pointed out in his diary entry yesterday, plenty of criticism has been leveled at the single-player in "Resistance 2."
I enjoyed my time with the story-driven side of "Resistance 2." The issue some critics have had is that Insomniac Games' ditching of narrated cut-scenes in favor of mostly in-game storytelling, ala "Half-Life" or "BioShock," seemed to result in a loss of detail.
But … I discovered that's not entirely true.
Everything I wanted to know about "Resistance 2"'s story is there, but Insomniac hid it away as "intel" most players will collect mostly for the trophies. When I found one, it shocked me. There's lots of story in "Resistance 2"!
There are many questions left unanswered when "Resistance 2" opens. SPOILER ALERT: When you start the second mission, the game jumps ahead several years and to San Francisco. We miss the entire invasion of North America by the Chimera. You never witness it happening, not even through an epic cut-scene.
You wouldn't even really know why you're fighting the game's final boss unless you picked up some optional intel
If you are attentive enough to pick up most of the intel in "Resistance 2," however, the blanks are somewhat filled in. You find out where the virus in the original "Resistance" originated and you learn several theories about these giant structures the Chimera have been digging up -- including hints there's a third race we don't even know about!
Many of these things don't make a lick of sense -- or are even introduced -- through the in-game storytelling. You wouldn't even really know why you're fighting the game's final boss unless you picked up some optional intel along the way. That's criminally offensive to the amount of work that went putting the game together, and gives off the vibe that the single-player side didn't get as much love this time around.
It's too bad this could have been solved if the intel wasn't hidden. In "BioShock," it was tough not to stumble upon "enough" audio clips left by Rapture's residents. You had to search high and low to find all of them, sure, but I didn't feel cheapened when I finished "BioShock." There were enough obvious audio clips that I truly felt as though I learned the story of Rapture.
The "Resistance 2" campaign is notoriously linear, so there's little reason for you to search the environment. But if you don't, you'll never find the intel. The motivation to you to search for the intel in "Resistance 2" is to unlock trophies. Unfortunately, if you want to know the coolest bits of "Resistance 2"'s story, you also need to spend time finding them. The linear design doesn't serve that well.
Me? I've already finished the single-player and missed half the intel. With so many other games to play, I'm not about to pick it up again, but I'll look for the intel online. It's too bad I couldn't have experienced more of it while playing.
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