The single player campaign can offer some entertaining gunplay and remarkable spectacles, but only players with saint-like patience won’t lose their temper. Because of this, Resistance 2’s value hinges on whether or not the player has an Internet connection.  Both the competitive and cooperative modes are by far the best online shooter experiences available on the PS3 to date.  Playing online is fun, fast, and smooth, and it doesn’t make one want to swat a member of Insomniac with a rolled up newspaper every five minutes.

Games run smoothly without any pesky latency issues that have plagued other online PS3 titles. Players can go from the title screen to playing in a match in under a minute. They can allow the game to find the best match available, specify a game type, or even look at a list of all available games.

Resistance 2 also boasts a rank and level system, offering awards and customization options to players that earn enough multiplayer experience. Players have a rank to represent their overall skill level (which can be increased by playing any mode), and a specific level associated with both competitive and cooperative play. Earning experience in ranked matches of a particular game type increases its associated level and unlocks rewards specific to that type.

In order to craft a more unique multiplayer experience, Resistance 2 lets players customize their weapon loadout and "berserk abilities," both of which increase as the player levels up. Berserk abilities are charged by earning experience in battle, and can be activated to provide bonuses as simple as reducing the damage a player takes to allowing the player and close teammates to see enemies through walls. These abilities add strategic elements to the game, and open up quite a few interesting berserk/weapon loadout combinations. These basic mechanics turn Resistance 2’s online experience into something different than you might find in Halo or Gears of War.

Resistance 2 also uniquely offers 64-player deathmatch.  When one hears this, they immediately conjure a mental image of how awesome this must be — players swarming everywhere, bullets streaking across the sky, and the cacophony of war pounding relentlessly. This is mostly realized, except for the sound. Presumably scaled back for technical limitations (either latency or local processing), the only sounds from other players are the constant grunts of pain and death throes. Gunfire is either not present or muffled, which makes the full-volume report of the player’s own weapon very disorienting. The play environment seems strange, almost creepy, as though the entire battle is taking place underwater. In all other ways, these huge battles play out well and accurately recreate the absolute chaos of a large-scale battle.