Portable shooters haven't exactly had a great history. Who here remembers Resistance: Retribution? As portable games go, it was actually pretty good. Unfortunately, it wasn't really a "true" Resistance game. Since the PSP was decades behind the PS3 in terms of hardware and processing power, certain concessions had to be made. The fact that it only had a single analog stick didn't really help matters either. Controls were awkward, to say the least.  It was a good game, but it didn't really feel like Resistance.

Thankfully, the PlayStation Vita suffers from no such limitations, and it shows. From the looks of things, Resistance: Burning Skies plays more like a direct sequel in the franchise than a title that's been developed for a different platform. To make up for the Vita's lack of shoulder buttons, the developers have included a few touch-screen commands, but aside from that little quirk and a few stumbling points where aiming is concerned… it's pretty much Resistance. 

The game takes place in 1951, shortly after Resistance: Fall of Man, and before their (ultimately successful) invasion of the United States. Set in New York City, Burning Skies puts players into the shoes of a firefighter named Riley; who is himself engaged in a desperate bid to save a group of civilians trapped on the Washington Bridge from both the advancing Hybrid forces and the human leaders who want to destroy the bridge in order to halt the advance. 

Naturally, Riley decides that the best way to ensure the civilians are safe is by getting personally involved. Like any good FPS hero, Riley charges headlong into the Chimeran forces, guns blazing.  Apparently, he's rather serious about his job as firefighter. 

Burning Skies makes use of an on-screen waypoint system to help players navigate the run-down, ruined, and oft-chaotic environments and firefights, and as we've already stated, Nihilistic Software has done some pretty creative things to make up for the Vita's lack of shoulder buttons and clickable analog sticks. Melee and grenades, for example, both utilize the touch screen; and weapons such as the Augur have their secondary function tied to gesture controls. That sounds like it'd be rather cumbersome and gimmicky, but… it's really not. 

Resistance: Burning Skies's touch controls actually work quite well, and they are incorporated into the game in such a way that they feel incredibly fluid, functional, and most importantly, natural. 

As for how the game looks and sounds... Anyone who doesn't know the game is being released for the Vita would very likely mistake it for a PlayStation 3 title. If there's any game that's a testament to how much power that little console's packing, it's Resistance: Burning Skies. Look forward to its 2012 release. 

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