We spoke to Insomniac Games, the developer of Resistance 2 for PS3, to get the lowdown on this stunning first-person shooter.

The Game

1. Can you give us an overview of what makes Resistance 2 different from Resistance: Fall of Man?

Resistance 2 builds off everything we established in Resistance: Fall of Man while continuing to convey a greater sense of scale and scope across the entire game. In the single-player campaign, you’ll experience Nathan Hale’s fight against the Chimera across a desolate 1950s United States, facing all-new enemies and epic bosses. The unprecedented 8-player, online co-op campaign pits players against swarms of Chimera while playing as one of three distinct character classes. And competitive multiplayer now supports up to 60 players, the most on PLAYSTATION 3, while introducing new modes like Skirmish.

2. The single-player storyline is pretty involved – can you talk us through what happens to Hale this time?

Resistance 2 picks up right where Resistance: Fall of Man left off, with a group of U.S. Black Ops soldiers escorting Nathan Hale into a VTOL aircraft. They fly to Iceland, but find a SRPA (Special Research Projects Administration) base under attack by the Chimera. After a brief but massive encounter with the enemy, Hale escapes and we then pick up roughly two years later in San Francisco. By this point, Hale is now the leader of Echo Team, which consists of Corporal Joseph Capelli, Specialist Aaron Hawthorne, and Sergeant Benjamin Warner — elite soldiers known as “The Sentinels”. Like our hero, they are also resistant to the Chimeran virus (though you’ll learn that Hale is losing his fight with the virus much faster than the others). After surviving the Bay Area invasion, Echo Team continues to combat the Chimera across the country through diverse locales that reflect a far different 1950s experience than you’re used to seeing.

3. Can you talk us through the new weapons inventory – and which weapons favourites will be returning?

Like any signature Insomniac title, Resistance 2 introduces several new weapons. For example, we’ve got the Marksman, a mid-range battle rifle that has an auto-turret secondary fire. The HVAP Wraith is our chaingun that can deploy a portable shield. The .44 Magnum may look like a standard handgun, but its ammunition sticks on enemies and the environment and can then be detonated. Oh, and we can’t forget about the Splicer, a weapon created with Chimeran technology that shoots saw blades. The secondary fire allows you to rev it up till the blade is red-hot and then you can lodge it into an enemy... and it’ll keep spinning.

Many favourites from R1 are back as well, including the Bullseye, Auger, and LAARK rocket launcher as well as the Air Fuel and Hedgehog grenades.

4. What sort of new enemies does Hale come up against in Resistance 2?

Just like the weapons, you’ll spot a slew of brand-new enemy types in R2. The Chameleon is a new Chimeran foe that is completely invisible until it’s about to strike with its razor-sharp claws. Players will have to watch and listen for clues that one is lurking about. Another new enemy is the Ravager, a larger Chimera that carries a shield and routinely charges the player.

We’ve also introduced bosses to Resistance 2, something that was a huge focus for us. We’ve already revealed the 300-foot-tall Leviathan smashing Chicago, and you’ve seen other large enemies like the Goliath in Iceland. Needless to say, Resistance 2 will feature some epic encounters with some giant Chimera.

5. How and why did you decide to introduce an eight player co-op mode?

Fans were really vocal about wanting online co-op for Resistance 2, and we heard them loud and clear. But we didn’t want to create something that felt conventional or tacked on – we really wanted to redefine the online co-op experience for console gamers. So we designed the entire mode around what makes co-op fun: working together, fighting tons of enemies, and offering lots of customization options. We really feel like this mode offers players the best possible co-op experience, while also allowing us to tailor our single-player campaign to be more memorable for one player.

6. Tell us about the three character classes that players can fight as in this mode.

The character classes in R2 force players to work together if they want to survive the onslaught of enemies. Players can fight as a Medic, Spec Ops or Soldier. In co-op, there is no regenerating health, so the Medic is key. This character class uses the Phoenix weapon to siphon energy from enemies and then redistribute it to the team to heal them. The Soldier is the tank of the group and uses the HVAP Wraith minigun. This also gives the soldier a force barrier, which can provide cover for him and the rest of the squad. Finally, the Spec Ops carries the Marksman and is the damage-dealer, but must also drop ammo to the group.

7. Resistance: Fall of Man can be played in 40-player online mode. Why did you decide to advance to 60-player mode for Resistance 2?

Resistance 2 is all about scale, and the same is true with our competitive multiplayer modes. We really wanted to increase the feeling of being a part of a huge battle, so increasing the map sizes and player count helped us achieve that. At the same time, though, we didn’t want to lose the intimate feeling associated with our smaller encounters. So when you participate in a match like 60-player Skirmish, teams will be broken up into smaller five-person squads, and you’ll always be pitted against a rival squad when trying to complete objectives. You could say we took a “massive battles, greater intimacy” approach to Resistance 2’s competitive multiplayer mode.

8. The Squads play an important role in some of your competitive multiplayer modes. Why did you opt for this type of gameplay?

We think the implementation of squads in the Resistance 2 online competitive mode helps players feel more connected to the battle experience, better understand their roles and ultimately become more skilled Resistance players. We recognized from Resistance: Fall of Man that large player counts without structure can sometimes become chaotic, and that there were bottlenecks in the game. So for one of our modes, Skirmish, we designed a squad system that keeps players evenly spread throughout the map along with dynamic objectives. Our experience points and a progression system also help give incentive for players to follow the objectives.