I think a lot of the negative comments share that one singular theme: they're coming from people who haven't played the first game. Resistance isn't a bad game, and it fails in ways that can mostly be attributed to the fact that it's Insomniac's first attempt at the FPS genre.

There are some cliche weaknesses--it's very linear, and it has pretty horrible AI--but those aren't really what's bad. This isn't where Resistance falls flat on its face, rather, it's archaic approach to health and ammo are its biggest failures. The distribution of health packs and ammunition throughout the game throw aside the biggest progressions in game design that the genre has witnessed in the last ten years, and encourage back tracking through the levels. Perhaps RFOM's checkpoints would not have seem so poorly placed if its approach to health didn't leave you looking behind your shoulder constantly for that yellow candy.

It's not good game design when you put sniper ammo out in the open in a level where you can't even exit the vehicle you're in to get it, ultimately making you walk a mile in the opposite direction of progression to retrieve it. These aren't the only things that drove me a little crazy while playing through RFOM, but they're my biggest complaints. One minor complaint: you can't crouch jump--again, get with the times. Some portions of the game's design were clearly stuck in the early 90's.

Where RFOM succeeds though, it's pretty fantastic. Despite having a pretty unfulfilling plot, it has a pretty great narrative, and an above average length attached to the campaign. It has (which almost seems typical among the better PS3 exclusives) fantastic facial animation. While there's no great enemy variety, but there's enough to keep it interesting. Ultimately, it's greatest strength is the design of some of its more interesting weapons, which are both original and fun.

The key areas of their success could have just as easily been achieved in a genre where Insomniac has more experience, so perhaps it's not too surprising that they're where the game shows the most potential but, thankfully, Insomniac seems to have learned a thing or two about what makes a good FPS since RFOM launched with the PS3. We're getting a revamped health system, and apparently a limited capacity for carrying your arsenal. No longer will we be encouraged to look for randomly placed health and ammo, since they've adopted regenerative health and a two-weapon system (the latter I'm not 100% on).

Progress FTW. It's enough reason to make it somewhat more interesting than KZ2 for the time being, even if it visually looks very "samey" (lol).

Actually, I completed the game on "hard," and yes, the AI is pretty terrible. There are times where enemies in the distance would literally stand still while taking fire, and it's common that Chimera would not reaction, at all to another being sniped by the longshot right next to them. They don't communicate with each other, they rarely if ever use the environment effectively for cover, etc. Having completed FEAR and RFOM both on hard, I'd say it's pretty insane to even compare the two in that department (needless to say!). It's not even in Halo's ballpark when it comes to AI.Hence my use of the word "cliche." That wasn't a serious complaint, nor was my gripe against the AI, because while it's certainly nothing special, it's functional and no worse than a handful of other shooters. In terms of linearity, Crysis isn't the only exception, but it's certainly the most notable in recent history. I think it's probably more fair to point to Far Cry, but you're right, most shooters are pretty damn linear and I never suggested otherwise.

The level design nice, but it's also nothing special. The construction is okay and many of the environments are very easy on the eyes, but I'm sorry, backtracking is a serious issue in RFOM, and it is detrimental to the flow of the game's levels in general. When you take such an oldschool approach to weapon, health, and ammo distribution, this must be considered as part of the game's level design.

I love some of the game's environments though, specifically the Chimeran architecture, which is beautiful. Paper thin walls that have no penetration seem a little old-school after Call of Duty 4, but they're excusable since penetration is hardly the norm--windows however, don't count as destructible cover :P

The lack of crouch jumping doesn't help either. There are moments in RFOM where I found myself wishing I could jump over a three foot barrier that would be a cakewalk in any other modern shooter.

It's just another instance of the developer not knowing the terrain, and failing to match, point for point, the design of the modern FPS. The game design is "functional," but it's also archaic at times. If this wasn't apparent to Insomniac, they might not have adopted a modern health and ammo system for the sequel, which they have. Health packs are bad game design--they either scatter them around the environment which encourages you to back track, or in some cases they allow you to hold them in an inventory, which breaks the games difficulty. Thankfully, it seems like Insomniac recognizes this mistake, since they're fixing it.

The narrative in RFOM is not where the story fails. The story fails because it sets up a simple conflict against a complicated back story which if fails to fulfill. I would hope that this is because they expect to fill in the context of the story in the sequel, but there's no mention at all of the origin of the Chimera, or how they achieve their advanced technology with what could be found on Earth in the 1940's and 50's. The narrative is hardly lacking, and it actually goes beyond what's available in most other shooters.

Taking the "Half-Life 2 path" is only effective if the game is capable of that sort of self-discovery story telling. Half-Life 2 succeeds in this area by creating brilliant virtual actors within the context of the game itself. If RFOM2 expects to be successful in changing their tone, they must do the same or RFOM2's story won't be any more successful in catching our attention.

The game does have clever weapon design, that's about the only point I'll give you and it's one that I already agreed to in the post that you're replying to. I think it's a fine game, overall, but I think it fails as an FPS in some ways that's apparent to me, as someone who mostly plays FPS. Their approach to health and ammo distribution were always my main concern, and they've been addressed and it makes me hopeful that the sequel will ultimately be a much better game.

I couldn't possibly know all of this by the way, unless I had played the game. It's actually the only PS3 game that I've played yet to completion. I think you are misinterpreting my take on RFOM, because I hardly think it's a bad game. It's a fine action adventure title, even though I do honestly believe it's behind the curve when it comes to FPS design. I think that Insomniac will progress the franchise here further, which makes it plenty compelling as a sequel.