Resistance 2 debuts the same week as Gears of War 2. Your thoughts?
Ultimately, as a PS3 owner and an Xbox 360 owner myself, those are two games I would get. I want to have the most entertaining experiences on both consoles, so I am going to get the games that have the best feedback. So far, Gears has had fantastic feedback, and I think it looks beautiful. Resistance will make a lot of PS3 owners happy too.
"So far, Gears has had fantastic feedback, and I think it looks beautiful. Resistance will make a lot of PS3 owners happy too."
So the new James Bond film, Quantum of Solace, was pushed back a week. Do you think that was done because of Resistance 2 and Gears of War 2?
[Laughs] I have no idea. It'd be flattering to think they pushed the film back for the games, but I think it had to do with the election more than anything else.
But do you sense a shift in Hollywood because of the game industry? Before, it didn't seem like these studios cared whether or not games debuted the same day as their films, but some have actually blamed certain games for affecting ticket sales.
I think your right. Having read those articles in the past, there is a lot of credence to film and TV executives sitting up and going, "wait a second, all of our customers are going out and buying games". They're not getting them in the theater, so they may be more aware of the release dates. It's great to see that kind of justification given to what we do for a living in terms of providing entertainment.
Sixty person multiplayer is crazy. What have you done to keep things from getting out of control?
Keeping the chaos minimized was an important design challenge for us at the very beginning. The first thing we did was split players into squads. You're automatically assigned a squad, but just doing that doesn't solve the problem, because squads run all over the map and you never know what they're going to do. We have a dynamic objective system that drives what the squads do, and your squad is given an objective that keeps you focused on an area that the rest of the world isn't focused on, except for perhaps a rival squad fighting over the same thing. That keeps the player spread out across the map and ensures that we don't get these 60-person pileups. Now you can ignore the objectives if you want to, but you get more points if you work with your squad to accomplish them. There are some objectives that you simply cannot accomplish without the help of your squad.
The way that we reward experience is probably unlike most other games. This is something that will help people new to the multiplayer experience. In most games, you don't get points unless you kill somebody. In our game, you get points for just hitting somebody, so if you're just getting used to the game, you immediately get positive feedback because you're earning points by hitting someone, even if they get away.
So is it possible to play through the entire single player campaign and have a character that's beefed up enough to dominate multiplayer?
You have to play across all three modes [co-op, single player, multiplayer] to gain experience and that's the fastest way to earn it. You could also play multiplayer exclusively and still reach the top. It will just take you longer.
Resistance 2
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 1 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 2 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 3 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 4 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 5 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 6 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 7 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 8 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 9 of 28)
After a valiant struggle to stop the Chimera invasion in Europe, mankind must make its last stand on the shores of the United States. In the highly anticipated follow-up to the best-selling PLAYSTATION 3 game, Resistance 2 places players in the heroic role of Sgt. Nathan Hale as he struggles against overwhelming odds to defend mankind from the unstoppable Chimera. While wrestling with this insidious war machine, Hale must also battle the virus raging inside of his own body that threatens to transform him into the very creatures he fights against. Powered by Insomniac Games' third-generation PLAYSTATION 3 technology, Resistance 2 will deliver unprecedented console gaming breakthroughs with a standalone eight-player, class-based online co-op campaign and 60-player online competitive multiplayer. An epic single-player campaign will feature a new weapons arsenal to combat giant boss encounters that increase the scale of the conflict to new heights. And players will enjoy a new level of community support. (Screenshot 10 of 28)
This Resistance is gorier than the previous one. How far do you go with pushing the envelope?
We blow up Chimera into big chunks and you'll see a lot more blood and body parts. That's because they're bad guys and we enjoy cutting them to pieces.
You have a chance of dismembering them with the shotgun, grenade, rocket launcher, Lark and a whole lot of different weapons. With one enemy, you can cut off his arms, his legs and his head and you're left with this quivering torso.
Since Insomniac also works on the Ratchet & Clank series, what is like developing an E-rated game and then switching to what should be an M-rated one?
A lot of our team members appreciate the opportunity to go back and forth between a light-hearted family game and then a serious and visceral mature game like Resistance. I think it keeps things fresh at the office. If we did games like Resistance 2 or Ratchet all of the time, there wouldn't be as much creativity because we'd do the same thing over and over again. It would become difficult to get charged up. You also see some Ratchet influence in Resistance. Our Splicer saw blade gun has its roots in Ratchet & Clank: Up Your Arsenal, except with Resistance 2, we're cutting off limbs versus just having enemies explode.
Where do you draw inspiration? The invisible Chimera seem Predator-inspired.
I don't think Predator was the specific inspiration. Originally, he did not have that effect. We put that on recently. I think we just wanted an enemy that would surprise players and freak them out, especially because he's a one hit kill. If you get hit by him you will die, so you have to be on your toes. We wanted to change up the standard run and gun gameplay.
Our challenge with Chimera was to create something that could have been human at one point. A lot of the Chimera were built from humans, but they were arranged and cooked before they popped out as a hybrid. Originally, with Resistance: Fall of Man, we wanted something that looked alien, but wasn't too different from humans.
You had said that you couldn't have done Resistance without Blu-ray. Does that still hold true with the sequel?
Yeah we're right up to the edge. It's bigger than the first Resistance but we haven't reached the Blu-ray disc capacity.
How have the creature designs changed?
Story wise, the Chimera evolved. New forms have grown, and one of the things they overcame was the inability to withstand temperate environments. In the first Resistance, we saw them changing England's atmosphere and pulling it down. You see the hybrids with sacks on their backs. That was a cooling apparatus. Now we have new forms that don't need that, and they're smart creatures. They know that to overcome the humans, they have to deal with differing environments.
From a gameplay perspective, we have a lot of different archetypes. The Ravagers; they're the big guys with the green shields. There are two types, one with the shield and one without. If they get close they'll rip you apart, but they're also deadly from a distance, so you'll have to use a different technique. And then we have the bosses, such as the Leviathan that we showed off in the Chicago level that break things up from your standard first person shooter game.
Having created Spyro, how is to have made something and not be able to work on it?
It's a lot less painful than we thought it would have been when we walked away from Spyro. But at the same time, we knew that there wasn't much we could do with that character. He didn't have hands so he couldn't hold a whole lot. We took him as far as we could without having him feel contrived.
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