Resistance: Burning Skies
Developer: Nihilistic Software
Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform: PlayStation Vita
Genre: First-Person Shooter
Rating: Mature
Release Date: May 29th, 2012
While this isn't the first Resistance game on a handheld system, it is the first on the Vita. Whereas the previous three main titles were developed by Insomniac and the PlayStation Portable entry was tackled by Bend Studio, players can look to Nihilistic for this entry. Like Bend's Resistance: Retribution, Burning Skies features a new protagonist. Along with a full campaign and competitive multiplayer matches over Wi-Fi is this the handheld title Resistance fans have been waiting for?
Presentation
It is August 1951. The peaceful streets across America have not known the true dangers of the Chimera threat overseas. Russia is gone Great Britain is lost, and not the invasion turns its eyes on the United States. An ordinary fire fighter on call stumbles upon the invasion and is very soon swept up in a resistance, aimed at fighting off the Chimera at any costs. Despite their best efforts the battle becomes a losing one, and Tom Riley joins Ellie to do all he can to ensure the safety of his wife and daughter. As the two take up arms together, their journey takes them to unlikely places, learning much about the nature of the Chimera threat as well as the government's plan to deal with them.
The plot of Burning Skies should fit comfortably in between Resistance 1 and 2, just before the loss of the eastern seaboard. As fans will no doubt know much of what is going on here, this is actually the first Resistance game I've played. Even so, I still recognized mentions of the games protagonist, Nathan Hale, and what I'm sure are several other key characters in the Resistance franchise. Rest assured though, Tom Riley has a significant part to play, even if only for one game. The game even has moments of genuine emotion, though I doubt they were the ones Nihilistic aimed for. The awkward chemistry between Ellie and Tom, despite being married, is probably the most interesting dynamic to the plot. Whether this was planned or not, the hints are there and it goes to show sometimes what isn't said can be more important than what is said when it comes to the development of characters in a video game.
Graphics
I have mixed opinions when it comes to the graphics in this title. They are certainly a product of what the Vita can produce, even if only to a certain extent. What really through me off however was the opening cutscene. After you watch a movie sequence that carries a lot of similarities to propaganda posters during WWII, you get to watch Tom jump onto a fire truck on the way to a fire. What I thought was a decent looking cutscene of Tom inside the truck quickly went wrong. You see Tom isn't supposed to be in the truck, he's supposed to be hanging on the side of it. What I was experiencing was a visual glitch that crashed my game a few seconds later. A game breaking glitch in the opening cutscene is not very promising. Though it never happened again I was still subject to several clipping issues as occasionally you can see a Chimera's hands or funds poking out from a closed door.
That out of the way, the graphics are actually pretty good during actual gameplay. A lot of detail can be seen in unexpected places most of the time; I just wish it was consistent. One area that is the inside of a research facility has its own conspiracy web with newspaper clipping tacked on. These newspaper clippings are sharp and easily read which is impressive. Most game developers don't take the time to render this much quality in a briefly seen environment and I was thoroughly impressed until I noticed all the clippings were the same two articles over and over. Despite this they do put quite a bit of work into the characters and Chimera, and the guns especially. The guns do receive the most attention and each one looks great.
As I said before the movies in this game are red beige and black and resemble WWII propaganda posters. This adds a good feeling of the time period of this game, even if the rest of the game does not. Looking around at much in the environments across the game and you begin to wonder if you are actually in 1951 or simply an older part of New York. Not much about the additions to the level design really put you in the period in the early levels, much less the later ones that take you into futuristic lab settings or ransacked survivor camps. Even though there isn't much to immerse you in 1950s culture the game does do a pretty decent job at least giving you a variety of levels to play through.
Sound/Music
Music is certainly one area that has little hang ups in Burning Skies, the score is actually rather good. The music seems to cue up at just the right times and serves to spur you onward, exactly what any good soundtrack should do.
The sound effects on the other hand leave a little to be desired. While you can't tell much on the Vita's speakers, many of the sound effects for this game fall a little flat. Reloading sounds sound like you are hearing them through cardboard. Some of the squishing noises the Chimera make sound canned and generic. The greatest attention to sound effects was noticeably paid to the Chimera's screams and a few of the shooting sound effects. Other sound effects such as climbing ladders and blowing stuff up don't sound particularly good or bad, but are pretty average.
Ending on a good note, much of the voice acting in this game is pretty good. Not quite the silent protagonist, Tom Riley has a good voice actor, as well as Ellie and an unnamed-lest-I-spoil-the-story scientist. Casting certainly was a stronger point here, and it's good to see voice acting being a definite plus for the game.
Gameplay
As Resistance: Burning Skies's single player campaign begins you take control of the firefighter Tom Riley, and take fight to the Chimera invading New York along with a militia woman Ellie Martinez. You start with only a fireman's axe as a weapon which works surprisingly well at hacking up Chimera. After modifying the control settings to my liking, I found myself adjusting to the game's control scheme very easily. The twin analog sticks on the Vita are an absolute treat and the driving force behind this game's ease to be sure. Soon you obtain other weapons; most are returning favorites from other Resistance games with eight in total. Most embody classic archetypes, like the low power Bullseye, the high power Carbine, the shotgun Mule, the sniper rifle Sixeye, the long range burst fire Hunter, and of course the rocket launcher Sw.A.R.M. You also have the Auger, a rifle that can actually see through, and shoot through walls and other obstacles. Then to top it all off you have the fully auto chain-fed minigun. These are joined by the regular frag grenade and hedgehog bombs for explosives. The only real shame here is that there are only these few to choose from. Chalk it up to be spoiled by games with overwhelming weapon choices, but eight seems to be the bare minimum for a first person shooter.
As any PS3 Resistance player will know, the "R2" or "L2" button is usually used to active a weapon's secondary fire option but there is no "R2" or "L2" button on the Vita. Well good use is made as each of the game's eight guns uses the touch screen to activate these. For instance to activate the Bullseye tag you only have to tap an enemy. This does require taking a thumb off one of the analog sticks, but the precision this grants you makes up for the slight hindrance. Other weapons all operate the same way. Tracking your finger across the screen will lock on to targets with the missile launcher, "pulling" the string back on the Mule will prime your incendiary crossbow bolt, and stretching your fingers away on the screen will deploy the Auger's shield wall. The Auger's shield wall seems to be a little more difficult to use than the rest and can result in taking more damage than it would protect with the time it takes to activate. Aside from this, the rest of the secondary functions the touch screen will activate have no hang ups at all.
In the single player mode these weapons can all be upgraded using these glowing blue cubes knows as Grey Tech (yes, I realize the name leaves a little confusion). You can upgrade each weapon twice, with customizations ranging from increased clip capacity, to higher rate of fire or damage, to boosting the weapon's secondary fire. The Grey Tech are not hard to find, as I found enough to fully customize each weapon by the third mission, but the extras are good to have in case you want to change the customization of your weapon later on.
The best mechanic Burning Skies has to offer by far is its "soft cover" system which I like to call it. In other games such as Gears of War and Mass Effect a dedicated button is used to taking cover behind an object. Sometimes it can result in janky cover, or a delay in even taking cover at all. Nihilistic really nailed taking cover with Burning Skies as simply getting behind a cover object means you are in cover. You don't snap to cover, you just are in cover. It is simple and completely intuitive and has never once been a hindrance to me. While in cover you can use the left or right D-pad buttons to slide along or peek out, or the "L" trigger to pop up in iron sights. It just feels so natural, yet it isn't one of those mechanics that games shove down your throat since Burning Skies has as much run-and-gun situations as it does cover-based ones. This variety in the level design is great, another hint at the game that could have existed had Burning Skies not been weighed down by bugs.
While the single player campaign has received some criticism for not standing out or being original enough it is not bad in the least. In fact, aside from the level design the game features some great moments that will definitely challenge new players and veterans alike. Burning Skies even features a few boss battles that are intense, even at lower difficulties. While I agree there is a bit of "cookie cutter formula" to the level and story progression it does not stop the game from being fun.
Lasting Appeal
As I said earlier, Burning Skies features an online competitive multiplayer which is definitely the selling point of the game. The menus for multiplayer are pretty simple to navigate. You can choose from large (6-8) or small Team Deathmatch, large or small Deathmatch, and Survival mode, a game where two Chimera start out and infect the human players by killing them all before the round ends. You can even choose a rotating format that will go through all three game types. There are six unique maps to play on which in my opinion is the perfect number. All the games I played were very lag free, and I didn't have much trouble finding matches either; good considering this game is already three months old at the time of this review.
As you complete objectives and kill opponents you of course gain experience that will allow you to eventually unlock customizations for your weapons and grenades. My complaint here is that these upgrades don't come quickly at all, requiring a hefty amount of grinding for even the first round of upgrades. Thankfully, Burning Skies utilizes Near in a unique way, "infecting" players with a virus that conveniently raises the amount of experience they obtain. This is the best use of Near I have seen so far and definitely one of the game's stronger points.
Missing from multiplayer is the feature to invite players from your friends list. This is the largest oversight in the game by far, as you can never guarantee you will ever be able to play with other friends that have this title. How any game could miss such an important feature is baffling. I was also disappointed in not being able to customize my online avatar and use of the Vita's mic to talk to my team. Other downsides to this game include several hefty bugs and glitches that seem to take effect randomly. The worst is a server error that can cause your avatar to stay in place after you die, allowing other players to melee you repeatedly, spawn killing you over and over until it finally is removed from the map. While this doesn't happen every time, it happens often enough that I see many frustrated players heading to the forums (just as I did when I encountered this) in an attempt to get Nihilistic to fix the issue.
For those not into multiplayer you can expect a pretty decent 6+ hour story campaign through 6 levels. The levels themselves are pretty long and each is littered with Gray Tech and intel to find. Once you've beat the game once you unlock the "superhuman" difficulty and you can start a "new game +" which will carry over all your weapons, upgrades, and unused Gray Tech.
Those hunting trophies are in for a pleasant surprise as this game has a pretty easy platinum trophy to unlock. About 90% of the trophies are all but guaranteed in a single playthrough on any difficulty, and only one is multiplayer based and super easy to earn. Those who crave a challenge may be a little disappointed with how easy the trophies are, but I'm sure most won't complain to have an easy platinum for once.
Conclusion
What Burning Skies represents is how a good video game can be ruined. There are so many praise-worthy inclusions in Nihilistic's handheld Resistance that could have made this game the best FPS on the Vita. Instead, due to malicious bugs and mind boggling oversights, we are stuck with a bitter pill that is a tough one to swallow. Heck, if the bugs alone would be fixed this would be a decent game, certainly worth a try for any Vita owner. In the end Resistance: Burning Skies is a game that lays a good foundation for shooters to follow, but ultimately one too flawed to shine as brightly as it deserves.
Score:
6.0/10
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