Blend Games is your source for news, previews, reviews and all-out brawls between huge exclusives slated for your favorite consoles. And as any hardcore gamer knows, Gears of War 2 and Resistance 2 are aimed to be two of the biggest first-party exclusives of the year. But don’t just take my word for it, both Sony and Microsoft have their respective games launching within days of each other to just to see who eats up more of the fall software market. But let’s get back to the present. Currently, Resistance 2 leads Gears of War 2 by one entire round. It wasn’t quite a sweep, but the stats were clearly in favor of Resistance 2 in Blend Games first round bout.
Round 2 is a much more straight-forward battle; it’s a battle of features. But I don’t need to spend several paragraphs explaining how this works. Just like in the first round, you (the fans), will vote for the game that prompts to have the more appealing list of [known] gameplay features. As you all know, of course, what’s on paper is never going to determine how fun a game will be in realtime. However, a list of certain features will sway specific gamers toward a title if said feature(s) is something they’re really looking forward to (i.e., weapon balance, map size, boss battles, etc.) So without further ado, let’s get on to Round 2.
Round 2: Battle of the gameplay features
While it would be convenient to compare both games with their given fact sheets, it actually wouldn’t be a very prudent thing to do. This is simply considering that Gears of War 2's fact sheet doesn’t cover half of what the game features, and Resistance 2's fact sheet doesn’t properly explain what the game features. So instead, we’ll cover what is in both games: weapons, highlight points and multiplayer.
Weapons
We haven’t seen the full extent of the weapons in either game, but what we do know is that both games are featuring a slew of new destructible delights. On the side of Gears of War 2 there’s the addition of a new flamethrower and a hefty chaingun that does massive damage, even at long range. There’s also the standard pistol, grenades and the iconic chainsaw-rifle (i.e., The Lancer), making a return to the sequel. The sat-rifle, sniper rifle and shotgun also make a return to the fray, but no word on anything other-worldly or outrageous has been supplied, so far.
For Resistance 2...this game delves deep in original weaponry. While classic weapons such as an automatic rifle, shotgun and rocket launcher are well on hand, there’s also a series of alien weapons and unique sci-fi devices that push the boundaries on tactical FPS gameplay. Personally, Resistance 2 offers up an extremely fascinating array of unique and original weapons, alongside classic FPS bloodware that most shooter fans feel comfortable using. I would definitely tip my hat in favor of Resistance 2 in this category. From a chaingun that can be used as a tripod turret, to a semi-auto sniper rifle, there’s a lot of original weaponry to be found in Resistance 2, many of which the development team is keeping under wraps. Most of the weapons from the original game will also be making a return.
Highlight points
Gears 2 offers gamers cover behind debris, useable vehicles, destructible environments and a slew of highly entertaining melee moves and cinematic nuances that really move the action-genre forward. Using an enemy hostage to hide behind or picking up objects to use as mobile shields is a great way to induce a variety of tactical options for players to exploit. Gears 2 also has cooperative modes and AI squad-mates to help the player out during the single player campaign. Hands down, Gears of War 2 definitely owns up in this segment, given that Resistance 2 doesn’t quite offer as much interaction.
Now while Resistance 2 lacks duck-and-cover gameplay mechanics, shifting debris that can be used for suppression fire, or a wide array of melee or enemy interaction effects, the game does offer up a solid atmospheric engagement with the story and setting. Insomniac has done a superb job, so far, of conveying a war-worn America that’s on the brink of falling to a relentless alien race. What Resistance 2 lacks in actual interaction, the game makes up for with story-oriented immersion, a collateral eight-player co-op mode, extremely huge bosses, AI squad-mates and massive enemy encounters.
Multiplayer
This is probably one of the more important gameplay features, which will certainly determine how gamers will view each game as a potential buy. While Gears 2 now boast a five-on- five team deathmatch, along with a few extra modes, it would be silly to say that it falls anywhere near as close to the newly organized 60 player bouts found in Resistance 2. While some gamers are calling the “chaos!” card...stating that the MP battles will be a ruleless, back-shooting snafu, the actual setup is anything but that. First, there’s two teams of 30 and then players will be broken down into teams of eight and given specific tasks to complete. So while there may be 60 players battling on gigantic maps, the real combat will be spaced across target areas where 16 players will always be engaging each other. Even more-so, players have the option of limiting the amount of people who can play, so if you prefer smaller confrontations this is also possible in Resistance 2. While Gears 2 will have faster gameplay and larger maps than the first game, sadly it just isn’t quite on par with Resistance 2's multiplayer functionality.
Time to Vote!
You read the details, now place your vote for the game that you feel has the kind of features that suit your taste in gaming.
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