Resistance: Burning Skies  (for PS Vita)

Resistance: Burning Skies has redefined the way First-person shooter games are played on a portable gaming device. Burning Skies is the first ever portable console game that makes use of the dual analog stick controls and an interactive touchscreen to enable you to achieve a style of gameplay never experienced before. Burning Skies is a spin-off of the popular Resistance series for the Playstation Vita. Handheld gamers are in for a treat with Burning Skies as the developers have a done a great job of integrating dire circumstances with frenzied and violent action.

Burning Skies is a First-person shooter made exclusively for the Sony PlayStation Vita by Nihilistic Software and published by Sony Computer Entertainment America. This game is rated M for mature (17 plus) by ESRB due to the level of violence present in the game.

Synopsis and Features

The short campaign starts on 15 August 1951 where firefighter Tom Riley and his team attend a fire alarm in New York City. This is when the city is brutally attacked by Chimeran aliens hell-bent on destroying and subduing  the human race. Quasi-animated comic images introduce and tell the story of the alien invasion. Tom Riley stays back even after the evacuation to find his wife, daughter and help every human being he encounters. Riley has to battle through foot soldiers, dog-sized arachnids and take down truck-sized berserkers. The Chimeran are an ugly race who attack in packs and are ferocious in nature.

As the story of Resistance: Burning Skies unfolds, it captures the desperation of humanity's plight in short animated clips in between levels. The multiplayer action in Burning Skies is solid and engaging with an array of advanced weapon modifications as you climb up the ladder. You have to collect ammunition for the weapons that you use in each level and learning how to efficiently use your weapons is the key to never running out of fire power. Making good use of grenades , secondary fire mode of different weapons and salvaging firearms will keep you alive against higher level players with upgraded firepower.

Burning Skies multiplayer games can host up to 8 players across 6 unique maps in 3 different modes which are Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch and Survival mode. Traditional human weapons like the Carbine and Deadeye are available along with Chimeran weapons such as the Auger and Bullseye. The Secondary functions like the Carbine's grenade launcher and the Bullseye's tagging feature can be activated by using the touchscreen on the PS Vita. The touchscreen additions to this game make the game more interactive and the responsive mechanism of the Vita enable instant actuation.

Actions opening the Auger's shield, placing the Bullseye markers and tossing grenades feel neat, because of the how the onscreen animation matches the swiping gesture. Sprinting in the game is achieved by double tapping the rear touchscreen and thereby does not block constant view of the screen. Multiplayer maps have a basic layout which is easy to navigate and you get experience points for kills or assists in each round. The experience points can be used to unlock new abilities or weapon upgrades to be applied to your custom loadout.

Some of the abilities that you get are faster reloading of ammunition, increased grenade capacity and the ability to add modifications like a scope to the Bullseye. The game's general and basic stats are tracked in order to provide seamless gameplay whenever you log in to play. Resistance: Burning Skies leaves little doubt that the PlayStation Vita is a comfortable home for first-person shooting games.