Resistance 2 Co-Op? Now That Was Fun!

AgileBoy and I just finished about 3 hours of playing through the Co-op campaign in Offline mode, and WOW! It definitely suffers from the "go back to the main menu and start all over" each time you both die at the same time, but other than that it was amazing! And at least it starts you off in different places when that happens, so you do get some variety. Better, of course, would be to continue from your last checkpoint, which is how I hope the final version of the game will work.

With just the two of us playing, I'd say the levels were challenging, but not ridiculously difficult. Therefore, considering that neither of us are particularly adept players of the game, I imagine the game simply must scale up when there are more of you present (it can handle up to 8 players over the network)... otherwise it'd be pretty darn easy! I can hardly wait to see what gets thrown at us when there are 8 people instead of 2.

I now "get" the Co-op setup much better, so here are some details for those who care.

Each player has to choose to be a Soldier, Medic or Special Ops. There are no health packs or ammo to be found in the Co-op levels, and (unlike in Single Player and Competitive mode) you don't regain health by simply avoiding fire. Instead, you get health from the Medic(s) on your team, and you get re-stocked with ammo the same way, but from the Special Ops dudes. Therefore, logically, you should really have a good balance of the three types in any group. AgileBoy and I started off with a Medic and Special Ops, but eventually settled on two Medics. Why? Well, a couple of reasons. Without a Soldier in the group, there's less need for Special Ops, because the Medic has unlimited ammo for his "health-stealing-and-dealing" gun. The way it works is that primary fire sucks the health out of enemies, giving you XP (experience points) as you do so. That health not only replenishes the Medic doing the stealing, but also builds up in his gun so that he can use secondary fire to health-up his teammates. And the other reason we were both Medics is that they're just really fun to play as!

The Special Ops role works similarly, where hits on enemies build up your ability to drop ammo for your teammates. Soldiers, as far as I can, tell, just benefit from both of the other roles, and presumably do most of the grunt work. However, we found that with two Medics, each able to help the other out with health in a firefight, we could get through almost anything. That's probably the best configuration when there are only two of you, although Medic + Special Ops also works (anything else is likely doomed on account of the health/ammo angle).

We both picked up all kinds of XP in our 3 hours, to the point where my Medic is now up to Level 3 already. I also have a really good feel for how to play as a Medic after that session, and really like the role. AgileBoy started off slow but got really good once he got used to the controls and the game itself. I think Co-op will be absolutely amazing when there are 4 or more of us, all mic'd together and knowing each other. Even just with two of us, we developed a lot of strategy, and I imagine more will be even better.

We tried doing some Competitive Team Deathmatches, too, but kept having network problems shortly after joining. Not sure what that's all about, as I'd had no issues last night when I played online. Maybe having two of us joining in from one machine may've made the difference, but obviously the game servers have to be able to handle that.

I'd give my experience this evening about a 9 out of 10, and would say that it's gotten me jazzed all over again for the possibilities of this game. It may end up being the best $60 I spend this year!