Resistance Burning Skies presents another interesting facet on top of an issue I generally notice first with PSP titles and now in certain Vita ones: it’s an admirable example of making a home console level experience fit onto a portable device, but it’s not necessarily a good example of a great portable game. From playing the multiplayer for a couple hours, it already excels at feeling like a close approximation of a good console shooter, but its features seem to run slightly counter to the system’s portable nature.
Burning Skies features the same bleak and oppressive aesthetic as 2011’s
Resistance 3, and of course, thanks to the dual thumbsticks, it generally controls like you’d expect a Resistance title to. Unlike
Uncharted Golden Abyss, which felt like it had an obligation to shoehorn every Vita hardware feature into the game, Resistance: Burning Skies takes a more conservative approach to touch screen gimmickry. It took a bit of getting used to, but quickly tapping the touchscreen for a melee attack — while not quite as immediate as clicking in a thumbstick — didn’t feel so bad. It probably helps that you’re not required to swipe gestures for melee — though some other touch screen actions called for some goofy gestures that seemed a bit impractical at times. I was content with tapping the screen to toss a grenade, as holding and swiping the arc to “aim” your toss felt a bit too distracting for me.
