I enjoyed R2 but felt it showed some strange missteps. In summary I felt.
1) SP
While SP was tighter it strangely seemed even less focused in terms of a bigger plot. For some reason, despite picking up right where RFOM ended, R2 felt somehow disconnected to the first game to me, with too little exposition as to what the heck is going on.
While I enjoyed the improved graphics and wide range of settings I missed vehicles, and felt that too much effort had been made to match COD/Halo standards.
I also felt too much was added with too little explained. In RFOM we had Chimera, unseen Cloven and strange towers being unearthered. In R2 we had Chimera, still unseen Cloven, added unseen Grey Tech, an explanation (if you can call it that) that the towers are all around the world and buried millions of years ago and that the Chimera might not have built them but someone else (the grey tech authors?) did. Also the Chimera's goals seemed as unexplained as ever and while the additional revelations in co-op do shed more light on things I'd prefer the SP campaign to reveal info in an exciting manner, not require me to read it as text while waiting for an online game to commence.
In the end I felt like I was trying to juggle a big unexplained puzzle and just gave up and enjoyed the action and set pieces. But with RFOM having for me the best backdrop of any recent FPS (I love alternative history stories) I was disappointed the story seemed to be kept just out of sight of the player, delighting in throwing in puzzles but revealing little.
Also, I felt Nathan's plight, which was a great plot mechanic, was somewhat wasted. Apart from the very last level, and some cutscences, when actually playing nothing really made you feel you were living on borrowed time due to the Chimeran Virus. I really felt this should have been a much larger part of the plot and the game should have included increasing levels of change to the player throughout the campaign.
So, 8/10 for SP for me. Fun, but it seemed to waste a great premise with too much to puzzle and too little to understand.
2) MP
It's solid but the 60 player skirmish too repetitive. It needs a much broader set of objectives IMHO. I figured they were going to throw in a mix of goals but really you often end up running between two points on the map trying to win them back or hold them. I'm still impressed at the game supporting the number of players it does really well, but I wanted a deeper experience.
The stats, etc. are good, but I felt that while MP was fun it didn't really deliver the promise of an engine on consoles capable of supporting such large numbers of players. I would suggest Insomniac look carefully at PC high player count titles like Unreal Tournament, Enemy Territory, etc. to get a better feel for the more complex scenarios you can deliver with more players.
So, 7.5/10 for MP for me.
3) Co-op (online)
While I missed split screen co-op (and really they could simply ignore plot and given you an ally all the way through easily) I have to say the online co-op is the jewel of R2 for me. Big, expansive maps, 7 team-mates, hordes of enemies, varied objectives, and some truly wonderful set-pieces with masses of on on-screen action that makes 10 to 14 player console MP DM seem empty by comparison.
The stats and upgrades work well, the different classes work well and when you get a really good team the experience is I believe is unbeatable currently.
I know people miss split-screen co-op, but for me this more than makes up for the lack.
The only knock I'd give the co-op is that it didn't connect to the SP campaign as tightly as I thought it would. Each scenario is really a self contained fun romp with a text message before the match begins that reveals additional background to the SP campaign. It would have been even nicer to actually uncover stuff during co-op but as the mode is really about online action that blends the SP/MP experience I guess it's not too big a failing.
9/10
Summary)
So overall, I see R2 as a solid game with one standout mode and two solid ones.
A nice 88% game but it should have been a 92 or 94% star but didn't quite match the ambition of its design.
With hindsight I have to wonder whether for the first time Insomniac's drive to get out a game every 12 months in this case somewhat affected the game as I reckon another 4 months of development and time taken to put in much more explanation and focus in the SP campaign would have propelled the title to a much better level.
Still, astonishing to think that Insomniac have released two Resistance games, one full R&C game and a R&C PSN title in such a short period of overall time.
Try to be reasonable... its easier than you think...
