Resistance 2

Resistance 2 is an alternate history first person shooter video game developed by Insomniac Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. It is the sequel to the best selling PlayStation 3 launch title Resistance: Fall of Man.

The Chimera have launched a full scale invasion on both the east and west coasts of the United States. Nathan Hale joins "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
The game includes many of the weapons from Resistance: Fall of Man, as well as new weapons such as the Marksman and the HVAP (High Velocity Armor Piercing) Wraith. The weapons are a mix of 1950s human technology and more advanced alien technology. Unlike the first game, where the player was able to carry as many weapons as they could get their hands on, Resistance 2 limited the player to two weapons, as well as a more limited number of grenades. Resistance 2 also does not use a health bar in the single player campaign, but instead uses an automatic regenerative health system, whereby players must keep out of the line of fire in order to recover health.

Locations
Resistance 2 is mostly set in the United States. The locations in the game are SRPA Station Igloo in Iceland; San Francisco, California; in the Californian redwoods of Orick; a Chimeran Warship over Orick; Twin Falls, Idaho; Bryce Canyon, Utah; Chicago, Illinois; the Holar Tower in Holar, Iceland; Cocodrie, Louisiana; and the Chimeran Flagship over the Chicxulub Crater in Mexico.

Featured maps in online play are: Orick, Chicago, Bryce Canyon, Axbridge, Bracknell, and Holar Tower.

Singleplayer
Resistance 2's single player has the player controlling the protagonist Nathan Hale as he faces a massive invasion of the United States by the Chimera. The player will guide Hale through the American resistance of the invasion, as well as the ramifications of his own infection.

Resistance 2's campaign is far more violent and gorier than the first, with scenes such as soldiers being literally ripped in half by the Chameleon's claws.

Multiplayer
Resistance 2 features multiplayer in two variations: cooperative and competitive. Both multiplayer modes track the player's performance, gaining experience and leading to benefits and rewards, as well as assigning the player a skill ranking.

Unlike its predecessor, Resistance 2 does not offer co-op for the single player campaign. Cooperative Mode features a separate campaign mode which runs parallel to the single-player campaign. The cooperative campaign supports anything from two to eight players, taking the role of a special forces group called "Spectre Team". Players are tasked with many randomized objectives around the map, while defeating hordes of Chimera in the process. The strength of the enemy forces is altered based on the number of players and their skill levels. There are three classes to choose from: Special Ops - long-distance damage dealers, who also provide ammunition; Soldiers - the "tanks" who endure the most damage; and Medics - who drain life from enemies and impart to teammates.

Competitive Mode features support for up to 60 players at any given time; the highest number of players for any PlayStation 3 online game at the time of Resistance 2's release. Four games modes are available: Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag (Core Control) and Skirmish, while involved players getting split up into squads of five and take part in objective-based proxy-battles. Players can play as either the Humans or the Chimerans, and get to choose their weapon loadout before and during a game while respawning. Maps have varying sizes and layouts for the different game modes and number of players.

Prologue
Upon successfully destroying the Central Chimeran Tower in London, England, breaking the Chimera's hold on the country, Hale is somehow able to escape the destruction of the tower. He finally ends up wandering aimlessly through a snow covered field outside of the city. Suddenly, a VTOL aircraft spots Hale and lands, depositing a team of five Black Ops soldiers who apprehend him at gunpoint. Upon boarding the aircraft, Hale is grabbed by two additional Black Ops and given a sedative as he struggles. Hale fights against his captors, but a Black Ops soldier draws his pistol and "suggests" that he relax. The sedative takes effect and Hale passes out.

Hale regains consciousness as the VTOL continues to its destination, and is met by an officer who is leading the Black Ops. The officer introduces himself as Major Richard Blake; Director of Advanced Tactical Operations for the Special Research Projects Administration ("SRPA"). Blake knows that Hale is a survivor of Project Abraham, a confidential project undertaken by the SRPA. Hale was monitored during the American invasion of the Chimeran-controlled British Isles, and when his immunity was discovered they made plans to extract him.

The VTOL's destination is Dan Aric Johnson Air Force Base in Holar, Iceland. In reality it is SRPA's Base Station "Igloo". Blake, Hale, and the others find the base under attack by the Chimera. A Goliath shoots the VTOL down as it bases over the base. Blake and Hale survive and make it into the base, defeating any Chimera in their way. Blake leads Hale inside the base to "Daedalus", a test subject being observed by Fyodor Malikov. Blake is unable to contain Daedalus and he escapes, but not before leaving a cryptic message for Hale. Hale and Blake, upon destroying one of the Goliaths, are able to rescue Doctor Fyodor Malikov; the Director of Science for SRPA and leading scientist into creating an inhibitor to the Chimeran virus. Hale, Blake, Malikov, and the other SRPA personnel in the area are able to evacuate the base, and Hale is brought to meet the the "Sentinels"; a mobile strategic reserve fighting task force formed from soldiers found to be immune to the Chimeran virus, brought together, trained and equipped for the purpose of defending the United States of America from the inevitable Chimera invasion.

Invasion of San Francisco
Two years pass and Hale is promoted to Lieutenant. He becomes in charge of Echo Squad; the Sentinels' vanguard unit, which consists of Sgt. Benjamin Warner, Cpl.Joseph Capelli, and Spc.Aaron Hawthorne; and is put on the same regimen of inhibitors to prevent the virus from changing him further.



On May 15, 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 Coast and West coast. Hale, Malikov, and the other Sentinels are able to escape from the destruction of San Francisco after Hale kills a Chimeran sea monster, referred to as a Kraken.

Hale and Echo squad were ambushed near Orick, California on their way to the battleship that was damaged at San Francisco. After battling through the town of Orick, the squad boarded the Chimeran battleship to destroy it from the inside. As they fight through, Hale becomes increasingly pale and showing the signs of the Chimeran virus. Hale eventually discovers one of the ship's control rooms and learned the Chimeran fleets' headings is towards the center of the Liberty Defense Perimeter. After destroying the battleship, Echo squad, which is piloting a Chimeran shuttle, are shot down and crash near Twin Falls, Idaho which lies on the Liberty Defense Perimeter.

Twin Falls
At Twin Falls, Idaho, Hale regroups with the rest of Echo squad as they fight to activate two of the defense towers around the Liberty Defense Perimeter before the Chimera can break through the lines. After several encounters with different strains of Chimera, Hale and Capelli are sent to activate one of the towers while Warner and Hawthorne are sent to activate the other tower. Hale engages with a Mother Spinner as he reaches the tower and finally defeats it. Hale and his allies successfully reactivate the towers to repel the Chimera fleet. Hale disregards Blake's advice to go to an inhibitor station just before boarding a VTOL to the besieged Station Genesis where Dr. Malikov is.

Station Genesis
Hale takes a squad to Station Genesis at Bryce Canyon to rescue Dr. Malikov. Fighting deep within Station Genesis, Hale encounters Daedalus for the second time, who continues to use his telekinetic powers to communicate with Hale and tell him that humanity's resistance is useless. Hale learns from Malikov that "Daedalus" used to be a human known as Private Jordan Adam Sheppard, but, along with Hale, was part of "Project Abraham", a military program designed to try to create Chimera-human hybrids such as the Cloven. Sheppard was part of Malikov's tests, and one of the two (the other being Hale himself) who was injected with pure Chimeran DNA. Unlike Hale, who had the DNA go into submission, Sheppard's injection morphed his body into the barely human form of Daedalus, and gave him knowledge of the Chimera's origins and goals. From there, Daedalus was able to take control of the Chimera and remove their weaknesses of being too linked to Angel controllers.

Hale escapes Station Genesis with Dr. Malikov and is angrily reprimanded by his team member, Capelli, for not going to an inhibitor station in order to treat the Chimeran virus. Hale dismisses Capelli, who is wary of Hale, and continues to Chicago.

Chicago and Iceland
Hale and Echo squad are ordered to deactivate a "hub" tower in Chicago in order to deactivate one of several activated Chimera towers which are slowly building up energy. Much of Chicago has been damaged or destroyed, and much of the populace either evacuated, killed, or turned into Chimera since its exposure to a spire attack two years prior. Hale and Echo squad encounter heavy resistance at Michigan Avenue but ultimately dispose of the hundreds of Chimera sent to reinforce the position. Hale encounters a giant mutated Chimeran creature named the Leviathan. Standing above the Chicago skyscrapers, the Leviathan attacks Hale and the SRPA forces who are trying to take it down. While Hale is able to kill the Leviathan, Dr. Malikov is unable to deactivate the Chicago tower. Malikov learns that the Chicago tower was activated remotely from Iceland by Daedalus.

A large contingent of SRPA forces, including Echo squad, head to Iceland to kill Daedalus. While at first the missions seems to be succeeding, it becomes increasingly evident that SRPA has walked into a trap. Numerous SRPA VTOLs are shot down and the soldiers are subsequently pinned by heavy Chimera forces. While Command recommends that Echo squad abort the mission, Hale decides to push forward and rescue as many SRPA forces they can while they head towards Daedalus.

Once inside the Chimeran tower at Iceland, Hawthorne is killed by Daedalus. Hale, Warner, and Capelli split up in order to find Daedalus. Warner finds Daedalus first, who kills Warner as Hale arrives. Daedalus stabs Hale in the stomach, causing Hale to pass out.

Baton Rouge and Chicxulub Crater
Hale wakes up six weeks later, almost a full-fledged Chimera, at an American camp in Louisiana. Dr. Malikov informs him that when Capelli found him after Daedalus had stabbed him, the virus had progressed too far and that Hale had less than three hours before converting to a Chimera. Once outside, Capelli informs Hale that after the Iceland tower was activated, towers all around the world were activated and connected by arching beacons of light. The Chimera broke the defense perimeter and mostly wiped out the 80 million people residing within it. The survivors are now stranded around America. There are still around three million people in the Baton Rouge protection camp. SRPA and the remains of Echo squad plans to make a final stand against the Chimera.

SRPA decides to execute one last mission in an attempt to destroy the majority of the Chimeran fleet that are hovering above the Gulf of Mexico around the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan Peninsula. Blake, Hale, Capelli, and several SRPA soldiers successfully hijack a shuttle and brings along a fission bomb to wipe out the majority of the Chimeran fleet. Blake and the SRPA soldiers split up with Hale and Capelli as they try to place the bomb near the core reactor of the ship. Blake and the SRPA forces, who are taking the warhead to the ship's central reactor, are killed, and the Chimera take the bomb and try to remove it from the ship. As Hale makes his way to the bomb, he encounters heavy resistance and finally Daedalus hovering over the bomb.

After a pitched battle, Hale kills Daedalus. Hale is drawn to Daedalus' corpse and upon touching it, is engulfed by energy that advances his mutation and grants him psychokinetic abilities. After activating the bomb, Hale escapes with Capelli on a Chimeran shuttle. The bomb goes off, destroying the Chimeran fleet and dealing them a grievous blow in their occupation of Earth. The shock wave from the explosion hits the shuttle, however, and despite Hale's efforts, the shuttle crashes nearby.

Capelli wakes up, unharmed, and finds Hale is no longer in the shuttle. Capelli walks outside and finds Hale gazing at the sky, now visibly red with three planet-like spheres where the Chimera flagship once was. Hale then turns to face Capelli; he has now finished his transformation into a Chimera, his eyes completely gold, his face distorted, his skin turned pale-white and is in mental contact with the other surviving Chimera. Hale, his voice eerily similar to Daedalus, echos Daedalus' first words to Hale and tells Capelli: "They are calling to us. Can you hear them?... It's beautiful." Capelli responds immediately by drawing his pistol, forcing Hale to not come any closer towards him. Hale finishes his words confirms the Chimera's intentions by saying "This is only the beginning."

Consumed with remorse (and entirely contrary in nature to his earlier attitude towards his superior officer), Capelli whispers, "Forgive me, sir. It was an honor." Capelli shoots Hale in the head, presumably killing him.

Development
The game was officially unveiled in the February 2008 issue of Game Informer, detailing the 8-player cooperative campaign, 60-player online multiplayer, and Fall 2008 release. The first teaser trailer 200672656 (pin) debuted during the April 11, 2008 edition of GameTrailers TV, while the first gameplay trailer arrived on June 13, 2008, again on GameTrailers.

Resistance 2 was showcased at Sony's E3 2008 press conference, with a live gameplay demonstration of the Leviathan boss battle. The multiplayer mode was playable on the show floor, while the single-player was shown in the SCE lounge.

The game previously featured a prototype weapon called the Tapper, which would shoot tubes and create a blood fountain, but this weapon was ultimately cut from the final product.

On October 16, 2008 a new trailer entitled "Last Hours" was released, which contained clips from previous trailers with new footage from the game. It also showed changes in Nathan Hale's appearance.

Beta phase
Insomniac announced they were running a Public Beta in October 2008. One of the ways to give consumers access to the beta involved a pre-order program through GameStop. Gamers who reserved their copy from GameStop received a card that contained a beta registration code. Once registered through the official site, the beta voucher was emailed to the address provided. Users could then download and install thir beta from the PlayStation Store. The Public Beta was available from October 24 to October 29. It included three multiplayer maps - San Francisco, Orick (California), and Chicago - and could be played in the 8-player co-op campaign and the 60-player online multiplayer.

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 delirium, 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.


 * all of the sites featured that show signs of devastation are show after the chimera invasion of America.

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. One of the latest updates for the site has seemed to have ransacked the area and shows a letter that seems to have been written in a hurry. More recently, it now provides a link to a new site Metastasis, which provides a minigame for fans to solve various puzzles. There is also a new typewriter which contains locations and "dead drop" locations. Places marked with the dead drop symbolize areas where fans can receive memorabilia for the game.

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.