Interviews | Resistance 2

Insomniac Prez Ted Price And Resistance 2 Give The 1950s A Swift Kick In The Nuts

July 28, 2008

Over the past three months, Insomniac President and CEO Ted Price has been showcasing a variety of gameplay elements from this fall’s PlayStation 3 sequel, Resistance 2. For those who didn’t play the original, this first-person shooter is set in an alternate history in which World War II never happened. Instead, the world was invaded by the Chimera, deadly aliens who are hell-bent on destroying the world.

While the first game focused on action across the pond in the United Kingdom, Insomniac has brought the battle home in Resistance 2, and set its sites on 1950s Americana. You hear that Norman Rockwell? You, my friend, are royally fucked. Hit the jump for the full interview.

Das Gamer: When does the story pick up in Resistance 2?
Ted Price: Story-wise, the game does pick up immediately after the events of [the first]Resistance. We see the end of the game and then there’s a time period that elapses for the rest of the game. Hale spends two years in Iceland and then travels to San Francisco to join up with the Sentinels and take on the Chimera, who’ve launched attacks from both coasts of the U.S.

How has your team’s knowledge of the PS3’s power evolved over the past two years?
Ted Price: Resistance 2 is the first third-generation PS3 game in the market, but there’s a lot more that we can do with this console. You’ll see a significant difference in terms of what we can do between this generation and the previous generation. One of the strengths of our engine is that we can really open things up. We’ve also learned a lot about first-person shooters in terms of game design from Resistance, including set-ups and enemy AI.

What are some of the other locales in the game?
Ted Price: There are a bunch of locales. We have Orick, California, which is the redwood forest. We have Twin Falls, Idaho. Chicago is a city that shows the scale of this game. These are expansive environments in which everything on screen can be explored. Members of the team spent time in each city capturing video and digital pictures to bring these places alive in the game. Because this is an alternate history and the game takes place in the 1950s, we went in and changed everything around. Players will even be able to go up inside one of the Chimera ships, which hover above the cities.

What does the 1950s setting add to the game?
Ted Price: We’re taking advantage of the visual variety that 1950s America has to offer. We’ve done a lot of research to make sure this game feels like 1950s America. We’re taking you across the entire country and showing you a lot of different choices, so it’s not just urban environments or woods. It’s a combination of a lot of different things.

What role will cover, now a gaming mainstay, play in Resistance 2?
Ted Price: There are more strategic battles in the game. The San Francisco battles require using cover and an assortment of weapons against the Chimera. It’s not all about run-and-gun.

The Chicago level displayed at E3 reminded me of Cloverfield. But you must have been working on that before the movie came out, right?
Ted Price: We were. It was interesting to see that movie after we’d created that level. We have levels in the game that break up the typical FPS action. The Leviathan level is a good example of this because there’s no way to survive this beast without running. The Leviathan is preventing aircraft from moving through Chicago, so it has to be destroyed.

Can you talk about the types of enemies gamers will face off against?
Ted Price: We’re taking advantage of the fact that time has elapsed between Resistance I and 2. The Chimera has had time to create new variations of their species. They have new AI that you’ll have to figure out and attack. When fighting against the Chimera, it’s not like fighting against soldiers in other FPS. It’s a wide variety of enemies with a wide variety of attacks, defenses and weapons.

So to counter that, what are some of the weapons players can use in the battlefield?
Ted Price: We have a lot of new weapons, including the sharpshooter, which we’re calling the Marksman in the game, and the minigun. We’ve moved to a two-weapon system. You’ll see some very large destructive weapons in the game. SREA is the parent organization to the Sentinels and they’ve done a lot of technological work over the years. And so have the Chimera. The .44 Magnum allows you to shoot enemies or use its secondary ability to detonate bullets when you want, opening up the ability to set explosive traps.

Have you improved the game’s targeting system?
Ted Price: Yes. When you aim at enemies, you can pinpoint body parts and they’ll react to where they were shot. We’ve upped the gore considerably for this game.

In the single-player game, what role will the Sentinels play in helping you?
Ted Price: Sentinels will follow you through the story. They have solid AI and are good at keeping a safe distance so as not to get in your way. Each Sentinel has a unique weapon, like a mini-gun and a sniper rifle.

What did you learn from gamers after the original?
Ted Price: People said the first game started a little slow and didn’t pick up until Manchester, so what we’ve done is focused heavily on the opening of our game to make sure it’s in-your-face, explosive and grab you from the very beginning. The pacing will be varied and we’ll make sure the players will have a chance to breathe, explore a little bit and take in the ambience of 1950s America. We’ll definitely have the large battles that Resistance is known for.

–John Gaudiosi