Resistance Fall of Man was an extraordinary first-person shooter (FPS) which combined elements of survival horror, science fiction and alternate histories to create an enthralling, wholly realized game world filled with suspense and dread. Resistance 2 is very different.

Nathan Hale returns … with friends. Now a member of a military organization called the Sentinels, Hale and other people who survived exposure and were not transformed into Chimerans form a rapid-response team which defends against Chimeran attacks. What’s more, the United States looks very different than England did. Apparently, warnings of Chimeran attacks – as well as Chimeran technology – reached America with enough time to prepare a response. Huge air defense towers jut from the ground, ready to shoot down enemy aircraft. As a result, America actually has safe zones where civilians can maintain a semblance of normal life.

As Resistance 2 opens, it’s a few years after the events in Resistance, the Chimerans have been stopped in the UK and humanity seems to be surviving. But that’s a rather boring concept for a game, isn’t it? Within minutes, San Francisco is under attack and all hell is breaking loose.

Resistance 2 is a much more familiar FPS than Resistance; it’s almost all action, all the time. It’s easy to draw comparisons to “Aliens” and “Alien” in considering how Resistance 2 relates to its predecessor – while Resistance often forced the player to fight alone against terrifying creatures and overwhelming odds, Resistance 2 is a fully automatic, rock ‘n’ roll bug hunt. Where there was often extreme isolation and loneliness in Resistance, there is community and camaraderie in Resistance 2. And guns. Lots of guns.

There are more, equally significant differences between Resistance 2 and Resistance. Resistance 2 feels significantly shorter in length. Where Resistance rewarded players who took their time and proceeded cautiously by regenerating health bars, Resistance 2 seems to call for full frontal assaults since players seem to be more powerful, face more enemies and have health that fully regenerates after a few seconds of not taking damage.

Where Resistance unreasonably allowed players to carry every single gun they found at the same time, Resistance 2 limits players to two weapons, forcing players to think more tactically and consider more factors than ammo capacity and whether it has a scope. Will a shotgun or assault rifle be better for combat, based on what the level has been like so far? Which scoped weapon should a player use? Will the player need splash damage or the ability to fire through walls? Likewise, when players find weapons in Resistance 2, it is likely that those arms will be exceptionally useful in an imminent encounter.

However, it really isn’t fair to compare Resistance 2 to Resistance because the two games are fundamentally and profoundly different. Resistance 2 is the equivalent of the big-budget Hollywood sequel to the creepy, semi-low budget film that preceded it.

Ultimately, while Resistance 2 is something entirely apart from Resistance, it’s still very much worth playing. Perhaps the simplest way of explaining it is that Resistance 2 is the game I thought I was getting when I started to play Halo, and that in every way the Halo series disappointed me, Resistance 2 was a delight. There are no endless levels of shooting balloons, the enemies aren’t comical in any way and the survival of humanity is still very much at stake – it’s just that the picture is a bit broader and players realize that the safe zones for survivors mean there is significantly more hope for the prospects of survival than there seemed to be in Resistance.

Unfortunately, Resistance 2 is, in several ways, a monumental step backward in accessibility.



Accessibility Issues / Concerns

Like most other FPS games, Resistance 2 presents accessibility issues.

Resistance 2 maintains the ability for users to define their controller configurations, and uses a menu to select the function of the left stick (move or look). The game still provides instructions based on the defined layout, but intel items do not use the user-defined controls when providing directions or hints about weapons. However, the ability to redefine the controller is more challenging in Resistance 2.

One of the most significant and problematic changes is the removal of aim toggling. Players now have to hold down a button to aim while crouching can now be toggled – this is a welcome addition, but not at the cost of toggle aim. Resistance 2 also adds sprinting which is helpful in advancing through parts of levels when players don’t need or want to explore, but in a confusing interface decision, sprinting and crouching can be combined on the same button.

In adding more controls, Resistance 2 makes it substantially more difficult to create a layout for one-handed gamers without changing control schemes periodically. Reloading, jumping, action, melee, sprinting, crouching, aim, throwing grenades, changing grenades, changing weapons, fire and alternate fire, flashlights … looking at the control options on either side of the PlayStation 3 controller, there are only seven possible buttons (to wit, L/R1, L/R2, L/R3 and the four buttons on the d-pad or the circle / square/ x / triangle buttons) to handle more than seven essential features.

Deaf gamers will experience significantly greater concerns with Resistance 2 than they did with Resistance. In Resistance 2, some enemies are cloaked, and players have two forms of warning – a slight shimmer if the enemy is in direct line of sight and the pounding of running feet. However, the shimmer can be difficult to see and the pounding is not closed captioned. Furthermore, cloaked enemies – even on the easiest difficult levels – generally kill players with one-hit.

In one particular segment, players must kill at least seven of these enemies on the easiest difficulty before reaching the next checkpoint. While these enemies are a significant concern for deaf gamers, they’re also a concern for any gamer with motor function concerns or conditions affecting their twitch reflexes because players must react quickly to stay alive. The only mitigating factor here is that those opponents are easy to kill once seen.

For the most part, Resistance 2 shouldn’t present many challenges to players with a form of color blindness because it typically doesn’t require players to distinguish colors. The Auger, which allows players to fire through walls, will display enemies in green. When the player shoots those enemies, they briefly turn red to indicate they have been hit, provided they don’t die.

Like many other first-person shooters, Resistance 2 now turns red at the edge of the screen to indicate when the player is taking damage. Health begins to regenerate after a brief period of not taking damage, which is consistent with most FPS games. When an opponent is attacking a player but is not in the line of sight, a red arrow indicates the direction of the attack. Finally, the reticle changes from orange to red when targeting a hostile.

There are other concerns for disabled games – some missions are timed and give the player a limited amount of time to reach a certain checkpoint. Some objectives require precision jumping. At times, plays may lose their way and while Resistance 2 occasionally provides waypoints and arrows pointing to the objective, the game doesn’t always offer those clues. However, these concerns aren’t as worrisome as other problems.

All things considered, Resistance 2 feels substantially less accessible than Resistance Fall Of Man. The changes in gameplay, controller additions and new enemies make the game far more difficult for disabled gamers – not more challenging, because that implies a test which players have the ability to overcome, but rather more frustrating because it places potentially insurmountable obstacles in players’ paths.

My original purchase price: $29.99
Recommended purchase price: $29.99

Mobility: 2
Visual: 7
Hearing: 3

At A Glance

Precision: Players with motor function and precision concerns will experience difficulties consistent with any first-person shooter. Players need to strafe, take cover, move quickly, leap to certain spots and make precise movements. Recommend rating of 1 out of 10.

Deaf Gamers: In-game noises (enemies, traps, etc.) are not closed captioned, presenting significant obstacles for gamers with hearing concerns. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

One-handed: The controller is completely remappable, including the d-pad, but players will use more controls than Resistance Fall Of Man. Resistance allowed players to toggle aim but Resistance 2 does not. Recommend rating of 5 out of 10.

Subtitled: Subtitles are in a sans serif font which is legible and readable, but not letterboxed. In-game noises (enemies, traps, etc.) are not closed captioned. Recommend rating of 3 out of 10.

Color Blind: While red and green are used in the game, players typically don’t have to distinguish between the two colors, nor do they seem to be used for meaning. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10.

Checkpoint / Save System: The game uses a checkpoint system to save. Checkpoints appear to be reasonably frequent. Recommend rating of 7 out of 10.