During Sony press conference today, Insomniac Studios' Ted Price showed off some new footage from the upcoming PlayStation 3 first-person shooter Resistance 2. The clip revealed an extraordinary boss encounter that is by no means easy. It's you and a rocket launcher against a 300 foot tall leviathan that's tearing through buildings like they were Lego blocks.

The story begins with Hale standing on the rooftop with fellow Resistance members, seeing the huge creature stumble into the city. It smashes a building on its way in, and incoming fire directs its attention right to your party. From there, you scramble across the rooftop, locate a rocket launcher, and look for the prime opportunity to do some damage to it. Unfortunately, it doesn't really have a vulnerable start, with rockets bouncing off its skin and leaving very little damage. There is a key moment to strike, however.

Down, boy, down. Click to see more images from the game...

This moment actually comes when the leviathan grabs onto you and holds you in the air while it hesitates for a moment to roar at you. Control is taken away from you for a few brief seconds, and then given back so you can aim your rocket at its mouth. Hit it at the right time and it'll be stunned, throwing you into a building across the way. You'll quickly have to recover, as it continues its pursuit towards you with ruthless aggression. As you scamper across scaffoldings and down building floors, it'll have no reluctance smashing structures and cutting off any means of escape. Even when you think you're safe in the middle of a building, it'll look in on you through the windows. The transparency effects in this stage are quite good, as you don't get a clear glimpse of the beast, but can still see its beady yellow eyes through the broken panes.

You eventually find an opening to hit it in the mouth again, as the leviathan grabs onto you for a longer period of time the second time around. After hitting it, it throws you even further out, as you land on the rooftop of one building and suddenly tumble down to another one, barely taking a scratch. From there, your team members inform you that you have to get the superbeast's attention once again to draw it into a trap, and... the gameplay came to a close after that point, leaving us wanting more.

Insomniac has spared no expense when it comes to detail, as there are incredibly tense moments throughout this stage. You actually get the feeling that this monster is coming at you from all directions, even if you think you're perfectly safe barricading yourself in a room. (Hint: you're not.) The rocket launcher effects are small but precise, as the rockets leave a spiraling trail behind them once they fire. The game moves at a smooth pace thus far, around thirty frames per second with little loss of detail.

We'll get more hands-on time with Resistance 2 over the week. We just felt like sharing this particular boss stage with you. This is just the beginning, too – imagine how the middle and the end will fare.

Related Links

Resistance 2 Game Guide

Resistance 2