Some Ruminations On Playing Co-Op In The Resistance 2 Beta

Having now played a couple dozen hours of Co-op in the Resistance 2 Beta, I figured I should record some more thoughts before the full game comes out and I get too busy for such things... ;-)

Unfortunately, there have been numerous network problems encountered while trying to get into online matches over the past five days, and I hope that's not going to be the situation when the real load starts after the game actually goes on sale. Both times AgileBoy's been over we've seen this happen, and Boneman's experienced it, too (including one time when he and I were going to play online). The good news is that, once you get in, things usually go very well, although I've had a couple different games end abruptly... which were either connection breakdowns of some sort or a host quitting the game and taking all of us with him (more likely the former, I assume). Since the game updates stats in real-time, at least you don't lose whatever you've earned up to that point.

Having played as each of the three roles (Soldier, Medic, and Special Ops), I still prefer being the trusty Medic. And that's lead me to appreciate watching how others play as Medics, when I'm not in that role. I've seen all kinds of performances, including those who spend all of their time using their Rings of Life to suck health out of enemies to the exclusion of all else. The funniest example of that came tonight when I was a Soldier, down to my last thin sliver of health, and I was jumping up and down in front of a Medic, trying to get him to send me a bit of restorative health. This doofus clearly had no idea what his job was, and so it's not that surprising that we failed that mission. That's a pattern that I've seen several times: Medics who don't have the backs of their teammates often cost the entire team the mission, because Soldiers and Special Ops can't get enough health, otherwise.

I'm starting to like Special Ops, for a similar reason: a big part of that job is to hand out ammo on a frequent basis. So, just as when I'm a Medic I keep one eye on the health bars of as many teammates as I can, I'm always watching out for the "ammo needed" icon to pop up when I'm a Special Ops player. In either of those two roles, I have an easy metric for whether I'm doing a good job or not: if no one's actually calling out over the voice channel for health or ammo (whichever of the two I'm responsible for at that time), then I'm serving well!

And then there's the Soldier. As AgileBoy observed after watching me play one round online in that role, I play with considerably more abandon when I'm one of the guys with the big gun. I tend to charge more aggressively toward packs of enemies, hoping that some Medic is around to recharge my health and that Special Ops is tossing ammo my way before I run out of rounds. Many times I've been disappointed in both regards, but when it's working, I always feel appreciative to the ones who are keeping me alive and shooting.

I don't think I've ever played a game as well-balanced as this one, where you can get tons of points no matter what part you play, but where you also can bring everyone down if you're not a team player. Insomniac deserves a lot of credit for getting the mix so right, and we'll see if other game shops try to copy it. I expect that some of us will be playing R2 online for many months to come, thanks to the variety and challenge that are provided with each type of gameplay.