To be clear here, Resistance: Burning Skies isn’t made by Insomniac Games – the original developers of the franchise; it’s Nihilistic Software. The less said about their pedigree, the better. Uncharted: Golden Abyss was a launch title for the Vita, and it’s also one game that demonstrated how easy it is to pair gyroscope and analogue aiming on the system, resulting in increased accuracy.

My one gripe about Golden Abyss was the easily noticeable input lag that damped my enjoyment. It’s really not fun struggling to get the cursor on the enemy and  getting blown to bits by others. Here in Burning Skies, the aiming is smooth as butter but the game does have problems that should have been solved before being shipped. Lack of polish is apparent as the visuals are quite inconsistent in places.

The game does look good, but it also has other areas that are completely washed out and bland looking. This inconsistency spills forth in other departments like multiplayer and the general gameplay mechanics. The game does contain a weapon wheel – which is a good progressive design. The weapons themselves are quite ingenious, featuring some of the classic Resistance weapons like Auger and so on. There are some new ones too like a shotgun that doubles up as a bow.

The story isn’t something that will enthral you till the end. It’s about a fireman getting trapped during the Chimeran invasion and has only one goal of finding and rescuing his family. Of course, things aren’t that simple as it sounds and the situation gets complicated just like in all Resistance games. You will fight various forms of Chimera and big bosses too – which you should expect by now especially if you have played the PS3 Resistance games.

Let me talk a bit about the aiming since the game features a multiplayer component as well – and it’s also quite fun. There isn’t a lot of auto-aim here, so you have to put in a lot of effort and it will take a while to get used to playing games on a portable such as the Vita. I kind of noticed that after a few hours, it was really easy to aim at things compared to when I started the game and was struggling to get some hits. So it’s imperative to finish the campaign, or at least play a little bit before jumping onto the MP.

The campaign isn’t that long and will last you 6-7 hours, depending on how you play, but it does contain a lot of variety in level design and the encounters are handled well. The sprint is mapped to the down button on the d-pad, which is, quite hilarious and made no sense. How about double tapping X to run? That made sense, didn’t it? Things like these are why it’s such a chore playing FPS games on a portable, although, the Vita with its second analogue stick makes it bearable. I shudder at the thought of using the face button to aim.

Vita has an OLED touch screen and this makes navigation a breeze, and some of the secondary fire function of weapons requires you to utilize the touch screen. It’s well implemented and far from a gimmick. Some of the levels are absolutely horrible, though. However, the whole campaign is something that can be termed as decent and worth a single playthrough, considering its by default the best FPS on a portable.

I am a huge fan of the console Resistance games; having spent a lot of time on the multiplayer modes there, I felt Resistance: Burning Skies’ multiplayer mode was quite fun and engaging. It also makes me think that we are actually playing this on a portable with basically no lag or any other issues. The multiplayer supports 4v4 team deathmatch and other modes, and is most definitely a showcase for the system as far as mulitplayer is concerned. It will take you a while to get adjusted to the online gameplay mechanics.

If you are a Vita owner and are on the lookout for a good FPS to waste time on, you wouldn’t go wrong with Resistance: Burning Skies. However, if little design issues and shoddy production values are detrimental to your enjoyment, then I would advise against buying it. Hopefully, there should be some better FPS games on the horizon for Vita which showcases what the system is capable of, but for now, Resistance: Burning Skies will do.

This game was reviewed on the PS Vita.

Watch this launch trailer for Resistance: Burning Skies on PS Vita! As New York fire fighter and National Guardsman Tom Riley, you’re about to come face to face with the brutal Chimeran invasion force in this blistering shooter built from the ground up for the PlayStation Vita.

The latest installment in the hugely successful franchise focuses on the initial days of the assault by overwhelming Chimeran forces on the U.S. eastern seaboard and intense multiplayer.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below. Stay tuned for our review soon.

• Experience day one of the Chimera invasion of the United States of America through the eyes of everyday hero and New York City fireman, Tom Riley.
• Take part in action packed multiplayer battles via PlayStation Network with up to seven of your friends.
• Play Resistance in an entirely new way using a range of the PlayStation Vita system’s capabilities.

Resistance: Burning Skies is due out later this month on the PS Vita.
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There are some spoilers here, however, so be careful if you are going to play the game. Regarding how well the game runs; the frame rate is a little iffy but it looks and runs smoothly for most part.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

Resistance: Burning Skies is, at its core, a story about an everyday hero becoming a legend. On August 15th, 1951, New York City fireman Tom Riley is called away during a seemingly routine fire call and finds himself thrust into the midst of the brutal Chimeran invasion (Resistance 2 fans: this parallels the period when Nathan Hale returns from Europe).

You can see some snippets of gameplay at 01:16, and it doesn’t look too shabby. It seems the developer has done a great job.

Tell us what you think in the comments section below.

John Koller revealed during a PS Vita video livechat at the PS Blog that Resistance: Burning Skies will be releases for the PS Vita on May 29.

The box art for the game has also been revealed. Have a look:

The game looks pretty good, from the videos and screenshots we’ve seen so far, and we think it’s one of the most promising upcoming PS Vita games.

However, it’s being developed by Nihilistic Software, and they haven’t proven themselves as very good developers so far, so we’re reserving our judgement till we actually get to play the game.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Check out the new gameplay video from Resistance: Burning Skies. The game looks much better than what was shown during Sony’s GamesCom conference, of course it’s a launch title so don’t expect much better graphics here.