Launched with the PS3, Resistance: Fall of Man was a big hit for Sony. Based in Britain in 1951, the game told a story of what would happen if the world came under attack from blood-thirsty aliens.
Now the game is back, this time set in the good ol’ US, in the snappily-titled Resistance 2.
Picking up where the first game left off, once again we have lead character Nathan Hale fighting his way through piles of enemy corpses, this time with the help of super soldiers known as Sentinals.
“Resistance: Fall of Man as a PS3 launch title was a very accessible game and for many PlayStation fans, was their first foray into the FPS genre, certainly competitively online,” comments SCEE head of UK PR David Wilson. “With Resistance 2 we’ve kept the DNA that worked so well for the first game, the easy-to-play, hard-to-master gameplay, the twisted 1950’s history, the mysterious Chimera and the unique weaponry, but this time it’s bigger, more polished and set in the sprawling vistas of America.”
Having experienced an awful lot of popularity online with the first title, Insomniac is determined to keep things that way. “Fall of Man was a runaway success online, which we are very proud of,” continues Wilson. “Insomniac worked hard on making the online interface user-friendly, with in-game messaging, dedicated servers and great community and clan features. The game itself was received very well by our consumers as it matched players based on their online experience and ability. It was great for newcomers.”
The changes have been rung in for this sequel, with plenty of new beasties on hand to blast through, whilst massive new structures and plot devices drive the story on through a storm of blown up alien chunks.
“The single-player campaign differs in two fundamental ways to the original game,” says Wilson. “The first is the scale of the thing. Not just in terms of the physical size of the levels and their design – it’s enormous – but also in terms of some of the giant creatures you will have to battle with – we’re talking skyscraper-tall Leviathans here.
“The second thing is the variety of the gameplay style and thus the dramatic pace of the narrative and your emotional response to the challenge. Some challenges are frantic non-stop shooting and evading of overwhelming odds. Others are slower paced strategic edge-of-the-seat tension waiting for the slightest noise or sign of movement that might just give you a chance to kill a cloaked Chameleon before it leaps at you.”
A big release for the PS3, Resistance 2 has a suitably impressive marketing plan in place. “Like all of our first party games, Resistance 2 will benefit from a massive budget,” adds Wilson.
“The campaign will encompass several consumer touch points. We’ve got a fantastic ad for the cinema, which I’m particularly proud of. We’ve also secured a really exciting campaign with Current TV, where we invite the community to create and submit a 60 second trailer for Resistance 2. You can see some of the submissions at current.com/Resistance2. It’s something that I’ve wanted to do for a long time. Gamers are a creative bunch; as you look on YouTube gamers are always creating trailers. This way we get to reward them for their efforts.
“We’ve produced an eight-page newspaper too, which is written as if it’s 1953 and the Chimera have attacked the US, that will be inserted into over 500,000 targeted publications as well as being distributed at events and sampling activities. It’s a great piece of communication and a good way for existing and prospective fans to catch up on what’s happened since Fall of Man. We’re putting together a sampling experience in London, allowing our community to come down and be some of the first to play the finished code. We’ve also got traditional, targeted press and online advertising throughout and after launch.”
Expectations for Resistance 2 are high, and rightly so. The first title was a huge favourite amongst the Sony elite, especially in the UK, and with the second game Sony looks to have yet another major franchise on its hands.
“Well, the original did extremely well as a launch title and as far as I’m aware, the UK was the only region where it wasn’t outsold by the amazing MotorStorm, another one of our launch titles,” says Wilson. “We had a tie-ratio which meant pretty much one in every two people who owned a PlayStation 3 in the UK also owned Resistance: Fall of Man. It’s also done reasonably well as a Platinum title.
“With that in mind, there’s a huge amount of PlayStation consumers who have experienced and enjoyed the IP, and we expect most of these fans to grab Resistance 2. More than that, however, we also hope to widen the market even further. I believe the awesome Call of Duty 4 has migrated a lot of gamers into the FPS genre, and between the engaging and deep narrative of the campaign mode, unprecedented co-operative multiplayer mode and epic competitive multiplayer mode, Resistance 2 will be a must-have FPS for everyone.”
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