I just don't get it. Granted, there are some pretty cool weapons in Resistance 2, and lots of giant monsters, big levels, and uh, online play. Yet all of these aspects are so hampered by the core gameplay, the lost potential just saddens me.

A forewarning: I didn't play the whole game. Don't kill me. I only have impressions more than complete observations, and mostly from the beginning and end of the game, and co-op. We only got our PlayStation 3 last week, and I can't compare this to its predecessor or any other FPS titles on the system right now.

Now don't get me wrong, the weapons are pretty cool: the sniper rifle with secondary "bullet-time" function, the gun that shoots through walls, the gun that tags an enemy and homes the rest of your clip on it, and the medic gun that gives you energy and recharges your comrades' energy are all nifty and I appreciate that.

But the level design, while attractive at times (particularly the gas station area and the bog/swamp area towards the end) is incredibly deceiving. There's constantly a waypoint marker telling you where to go. You don't really have any other options but to go towards it, and then to another, and another. And along the way there will be enemies that have pretty incredible aim and the balls to charge right at you.

And you will die, a lot, because you can't take much damage, and many areas are just traps waiting to spring. Invisible enemies, bullets that shoot through walls with reckless abandon, melee attacks from aliens that kill you instantly. There are lots of checkpoints, and you will be utilizing them, but it just ... isn't ... fun. What's fun about running into an area, getting slaughtered, going back to the checkpoint and doing it again, with more caution?

It doesn't really help, in my opinion, that there's no health bar. The first game I remember doing this is the game adaptation of Peter Jackson's King Kong, but that game tried to eschew any sense of a HUD to create a more cinematic style experience. (And it actually had Michel Ancel at the helm, and was kind of a neat game.) But this game already has an ammunition display, a waypoint marker, and other information - why the hell NOT a health meter?

Instead it's all peek out from a wall, or place a shield, and shoot as much as you can safely, and retreat, and hope you don't get swamped in creatures. Your teammates suck, and enemies ignore them anyway. And that appears to be the gameplay. Over and over and over. There are no interesting constraints placed upon you; there are no real interesting enemies to fight.

As for the giant monsters, the few that I saw required no more thinking than knowing where to acquire a rocket launcher or other similarly powerful explosive. In contrast with Half-Life 2: Episode 2, you're encouraged to use the Strider killing device (the proper name of which I can't remember) - you know, where you throw it at the Strider's head (a tiny traget), hope it sticks, and then blast it with a pistol and watch as its stilt-like legs fall apart.

Let's compare the final battles of HL2:E2 and R2. (Spoilers!)

Half Life pits you against like, a dozen Striders, on a big-ass forested battlefield, and you have to keep them from reaching a certain point. You have a car, a number of the Strider-killing devices, and that's about it. You have to anticipate from which direction they're coming and not let one breach your line of defense. Maybe you try and round a couple of them up. Maybe you don't. But that's not all. Then there are the reinforcements, the FAST and deadly Hunters, which require a completely different strategy to kill - there's no standing still allowed if you want to live, you're going to have to strafe quickly from side to side and take the fuckers out before they get you, while still not letting the Striders get away. It is hard. But it is engaging, it is fun, it is empowering, and when it is over, it is incredibly satisfying. Then there is some more interactive visual storytelling at the resolution of the game.

Resistance 2: You wander into an EXTREMELY Halo-esque spaceship environment, doing exactly what you've been doing: take cover and kill, take cover and kill, until you finally get into the final chamber, which is basically a linear walkway with some kind of armory-type structures littered along it. Don't worry, you won't get lost, there's waypoints telling you exactly which way to go! And don't worry as the big boss tries to claw at you, because he won't hit you, he's merely tearing apart the bunkers and clearing a path for you to progress. Then you finally get to the last section, and oh! Don't worry about figuring out what to do, or having any creative input, and certainly don't worry about any emergent gameplay, because the waypoint markers point out exactly which glowing orb you need to hit to kill the boss. Just don't get slashed and keep running in a circle.

Seriously. Then you run away from the area with a 4 minute countdown ticking, the base blows up, your character alludes to a sequel, and your teammate shoots you in the head. That's it. The end. Roll credits.

I wish I was kidding but I'll just leave it there. I don't know if you were as shocked or disappointed as me, but I guess that's what you get with merely adequate gameplay.

(P.S. I was going to write about the co-op, but I'm sure it's been written about plenty before; the leveling-up is a neat concept but yet another wasted opportunity because it takes SOOOO long to level-up and the gameplay is just plain monotonous. Fuck this game.)