Resistance: Burning Skies. Crushing Aliens in the Palm of Your Hand

Mar 15, 2012

One of Sony’s exclusive tentpole franchises brings its large-scale action to the small screen in Resistance: Burning Skies, the latest chapter in a series that made its name on alternate-history extraterrestrial blasting.

Set in New York City, Resistance: Burning Skies puts players in the role of a courageous, tough-as-nails firefighter named Tom Riley who gets caught up in the ongoing war against invading aliens known as Chimera. Taking advantage of the Big Apple setting, developer Nihilistic Software has staged battle sequences in and around familiar landmarks like Ellis Island and the George Washington Bridge, continuing in the franchise’s tradition of using real-world locales as playable environments.

While controlling a first-person shooter on a handheld console is not always as intuitive as it is on a full-sized controller or PC, Nihilistic has made some unique tweaks to the Resistance control scheme to take advantage of the Vita’s touch screen and gyroscope technology. For example, grenades are deployed by tapping the on-screen grenade icon and then dragging for accurate placement; melee attacks, performed with protagonist Tom’s trusty fire axe, are executed by simply touching an icon rather than clicking a button or analog stick. Players can even jump out from behind low cover by tilting the Vita console forward, though the game’s motion controls will largely be optional and the developers have thoughtfully included more conventional button assignments for anyone who would rather not tilt their system to and fro in the midst of an intense firefight.

While Burning Skies marks Nihilistic’s first foray into handheld gaming, players can trust that Sony would not let one of its marquee franchises fall into the wrong hands. With games like this, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, and MLB 12: The Show, the Vita is clearly shaping up to be as close to a pint-sized version of its super-powered big brother Playstation 3 as possible.