For "Resistance 2," developer Insomniac Games went a little bit crazy on the multiplayer side of things. Matches could support up to 60 players, depending on the map, a console record until the 256-player shooter "MAG" was released. For the upcoming "Resistance 3," Insomniac decided to scale things back a bit, slashing the match counts down to a maximum of 16 players.
The news comes from a PlayStation Blog post that reveals the first details on the coming sequel's online component. The 16-player matches will pit teams of humans against the alien Chimera in deathmatch as well as a range of more objective-based modes.
The scaled down player counts are chalked up to making things more fun, which certainly makes sense. Even "MAG," with it's 256-player setup, breaks each match into more digestible engagements by breaking each faction into teams and assigning different teams to different objectives.
The blog post also makes mention of the game's "deep" online progression system. There's little detail, but one comment offers a couple of hints on what to expect. "We learned a lot from 'Resistance 2' co-op in terms of giving players the ability to create specific roles in a team and level up different abilities – which you will see with the various active tactical and support abilities, as well as the new personal and combat attributes."
"For instance – each player can choose and level different support abilities – such as a Bubble Shield, Ammo Beacon (give ammo to teammates) or Radar Beacon (enhance your team’s radar). There are also tactical abilities you can use against your enemies, such as the Doppelganger (projects an image of you nearby to distract enemies) or Dash (an explosive burst of speed to evade enemy attacks)."
"Resistance 3" comes out in September and a multiplayer beta is promised for "later this year," so more news should be coming soon as we ease into the summer season trade shows and events.