Five months into the VITA's life and owners are anxiously waiting for the game that will save the system from abysmal sales. Potential owners are searching for the reason to own a VITA, who's lineup was supposed to be full of AAA console experiences yet whether or not that promise will be fulfilled in the near future remains to be seen. Resistance is not that game.
Don't get me wrong, Resistance is a perfectly competent shooter, and i applaud Nihilistic for doing a decent job given their lackluster efforts with Move Heroes and Conan the video game. But in there lies the problem, in an effort to create a good FPS experience, Nihilistic never strayed from the formula or gave anything that would distinguish this game from other generic shooters other than the Resistance name. The end result is a great shooter outline with failed potential.
The shooting mechanics work beautifully, with the exception of some wonky touchscreen mechanics. You double tap the back panel to run, or simply hold the down button (my preferred option) and use the front touch screen for melee combat, grenades, or interactive cut scenes. The controls work and shooting feels fluid with the analogue sticks, in fact the only problem with the controls is the missing L3 and R3, but one gets used to that after playing.
Because the VITA controls so well, the gameplay doesn't suffer the same problems the PSP had with limited options. This is a full Resistance game with everything you expect, the gameplay is all here with little compromise. Small things like smaller firefights and slightly smaller scale bosses hinder the experience, but that's forgivable given this is the first FPS on the VITA. Another problem with early titles is that the graphics aren't always top notch because developers are still experimenting with the hardware. This subject has divided other critics with one half saying that they are among the best the system has to offer at the moment, and the other half saying they are akin to PSP graphics and Nihilistic has no idea what they are doing.
In my opinion, the graphics are great. They are not amazing, especially after seeing Resistance 3, but they get the job done and some might even say they come close to the first Resistance. The graphics are not nearly as bad as some critics say, the lighting is great and the textures on the weapons are sharp on the OLED screen. Though the game does not run on the VITA's native resolution, the graphics are still passable for an early system title. Uncharted is still the target to beat when it comes to VITA graphics. My only complaint is the unevenness of the graphics, ranging from early PS3 to late XBOX. Another problem is the fact that the animations look downright atrocious. The boss battles are epic and watching giant epic monsters die is satisfying and looks great, but the Chimera death animations leave a lot to be desired. When you kill a chimera, one of three things happens. Either the chimera falls the the ground with a dull thud, it explodes into two chunks that disappear, or it sets on fire and explodes. Only that last animation is done well, the others are just annoying reminders of the limitations the Nihilistic development team has. Whenever you kill a chimera, whichever of the above happens, whatever is leftover will disappear within 2-3 seconds, and it never looks great. One last graphical problem is how some enemies or AI disappear and reappear at random, often making firefights difficult, or making it easy to get lost when your AI partner teleports from one end of the room to the other.
Story-wise the game suffers. You play as Riley and that's about all you know about the character. You know his name, and that his mission is to save his family, but nothing is ever revealed about his personality. It's not very satisfying and there isn't much to talk about here other than it takes you out of the experience having to fill in the blanks when the game doesn't do it for you.
In the end, most people probably bought (or will buy) this game for the multiplayer. That's perfectly fine, it gets the job done but never does more than that. Like the single player, the multiplayer never tries to be more than a basic shootout with three modes. Deathmatch, team deathmatch and infection serve as the only options for multiplayer. There's your basic weapon customization, but it's the same stuff from the single player where, simple things like more ammo or added range. Multiplayer is fun, but you might get bored with it after a short while. If you like old school multiplayer, you'll like Resistance multiplayer. The only real issue is the lag experienced in some matches. While some matches have a smooth connection and framerate, others can become unplayable from the lag/drops in performance.
In the end, this is a game that (in my opinion) has been unjustly punished by critics for not being the system seller many were expecting. The problem here is that many critics had a high expectation for this game to be amazing, and when they got decent instead of perfect they reviewed the game with a negative mindset. The game does not deserve the abysmal reviews it got, but it does deserve a chance to prove itself. It's a great shooter with some minor problems, but that shouldn't stop you from trying it.
Resistance: Burning Skies was pitched on October 19, 2009 as Resistance: Homefront, 2.5 years before it was released on the PS Vita.
Game was a wasted opportunity on the Vita. Really disappointing release that stank of a rough rush job.
I never understood how Nihilistic Software got so much work, they were allowed to make Resistence and Call of Duty on Vita when their track record is terrible. was their really no talented devs they could find
Crazy to think this dev team also failed with COD. I think that unproven team bit off more than what they could chew. In a parallel universe they could’ve been the next big thing by this point if they had only tried to be creative with these major game licenses.
If bend studio wasn't busy working on uncharted vita, they would probably have been the best studio to work on that project.
Makes me wonder if Bend could make a new Resistance, especially if they aren't doing Days Gone 2.
The question is, how do make a good sequel to a series where all of the games are all actually quite a bit different from one another?
R1 had much more horror and the chimera were tougher, R2 was obsessed with scale and had so many enemies on screen (the Chicago Battle was amazing), and R3 felt smaller (the scale of the battles was only big towards the end) and less scary than the others and it took some inspiration from Half Life 2. R3 had the best shooting mechanics by far though and it was cool that they brought back the weapon wheel.
I would like them to try balance the horror of R1, the scale of R2 and shooting mechanics more like R3, of course with all the crazy upgradeable weapons, but that seems like a tough task. The only way they they could really continue the story is if they sort of ignore Resistance 3's ending and we see the Chimera that Dedalus talked about.
Loved Uncharted Golden Abyss, more for it's inventiveness than anything else. Using the motion controls to fine tune aiming down scope was bordering on genius and worked beautifully.
VGChartz's Adam Cartwright: "As the Vita provides a brilliant portable legacy experience for Sony’s other two home consoles (PS1 and PS2), I decided to focus this article on the next in line – the PlayStation 3. Unlike its predecessors, the PS3 far outpaces Vita in terms of power, on top of being built on an extremely unique architecture which meant porting between the two wasn’t as straightforward as it could have been. Still, thanks to engine compatibility and some brilliant efforts from developers, the two consoles shared numerous pieces of software and, where this wasn’t possible, others sought to provide bespoke experiences instead. Altogether this means that the Vita does a pretty good job at providing a portable PS3 experience."
“Sony may have advertised Vita as ‘console quality on the go’, which irritated many buyers due to games with reduced framerates and graphical elements being released“
Why would some people complain about that then but praise the Switch now for doing the same thing?
“The PS3 might not be remembered as Sony’s finest hour in gaming”
I and many others see PS3 as Sony’s best console
The Switch still offers the same game though. Sure in docked mode the game may have run at a higher resolution or framerate, but the game was still the same in terms of content. Most Vita games were altered from any console equivalents (unless they were smaller indie titles). Look at Call of Duty for example, which made a horrible transition and this was a game that they bundled with the Vita and tried to promote. That's not to say there weren't some great titles on Vita though. Killzone and Uncharted were great and closely mirrored the console games while offering a new story.
I remember the early fps hype on the vita was murdered after a few botch jobs (Borderlands, Call of duty, Resistance) which helped put some nails on the "Portable triple A" coffin
Killzone Mercenary was awesome tho
Good review, this was 20% fairer than the other harsher review out there. Low 2 and 3s make me shake my head.
You convinced me to give this a try.
I thought the demo was alright, but I'm keen to see how lag free the online is.
Not a 2 out of 10 then? lol
Fair review. I think the majority sees the same issues but opinions differ on how bad those issues impact the game. If your a mp freak you will prob love this because you can get headshots on the go with little to no lag. If you want a good resistance or campaign you will be more let down. Id say its worth a buy when its 15-20 bucks but i dont necessarily regret paying 40. I got a few days fun out of it and will return to the mp periodically. I just wish it had more maps and modes, more customization (skins, perks, killstreaks), and stuff to spend xp on. Its very basic but does the job.
The campaign was crappy tough. Really didnt feel like a resistance game minus the guns (which were great). Retribution was a far better game and nailed the resistance feel and atmosphere. Not a bad game but a bad resistance.
This game is quite good and more people should buy it. Has good graphics, great gameplay, and multiplayer on the go!!
for me it is 8.5/10