Platform: Playstation Vita
Developer: Nihilistic
ESRB: M

It's August 15, 1951. Just another typical day on the job for our fire fighter, Tom Riley who is on his way to put out a fire in a local building. Everything seemed normal at first until a whole bunch of aliens show up unexpectedly and attack your home town!. These "Aliens" are known as the Chimera. If you've played the PS3 installments, these Chimera were the original pioneers - The master race who ruled over earth millions of years ago before they were defeated by an unknown race. The destruction of humanity started during the, Tungaska event when an object exploded thirty miles off the surface and flattened 830 square miles of the Siberian forest. That object was carrying the Chimeran Virus which spread all over Russia, eventually becoming the crux of their rebirth.

Russia tried to contain the Chimera by building a large defense wall and even attempted to use them as experiments to combat them more effectively but that eventually failed(Resistance: Retribution - Humans are turned into, Clovens). Soon, they broke out of Russia and infected the rest of Europe with overwhelming numbers with the exception of UK when both the American and British forces conquered the main tower. But despite their victory, the Chimera were too vast in numbers and technological superiority so they set their sights on humanity's final stronghold, America.

Resistance Burning skies takes place during the invasion of the East. Like predicted, mankind is not prepared nor sophisticated enough to fight them on equal ground so the only option everyone has is survival. Tom Riley, our protagonist, is caught in the crossfire but his instincts allows him to take up arms and combat the deviant fiends that threaten their very existence. This brings up the question as to how an ordinary fire fighter is even capable of using weapons like a professional soldier as his background is not even elaborated - his only background is becoming a firefighter, following the footsteps of his father but that's not even informed during the story(I had to look this up). The main goal for our hero is to protect his family, a noble one but you'll forget they even exist because all our friend wants to do is shoot things and figuring out why the military is so interested in, Grey Tech that everyone is after(Grey Tech is neither Cloven nor Chimeran technology. In theory, this advanced source belonged to the race that defeated the Chimera millions of years back).

During your travels, you are accompanied by Ellie Martinez, member of the minute man who are a group of people that take the government for granted and instead scavenge for facts. Just like our hero, nothing is elaborated in regards to her background(Not that I care actually since she has no character) - It's like you're playing as an apathetic person with his sidekick with a voice and nothing more. Even during emotional moments and reunions you'll see how uncaring the characters are. As for the plot, there's nothing else added in the universe other then fighting and some nice twists that could have been executed perfectly if the writer gave a damn about the story.

Gameplay: Unlike most shooters, Resistance has been known for it's unique weaponry and secondary functions that adds a new layer to the fun. The Vita's touch functions are used to take advantage of your weapon's secondary - At first, I thought that it wasn't going to be great but after a while they became a breeze to use(With the exception of the Auger Shield which requires two fingers to spread horizontally). Opening doors and interacting with objects requires you to press the icon that appears in the middle of the screen but I quickly found out that you can easily just press the Axe icon to your right instead, saving you the hassle. Grenades are also located above your axe icon which you need to press and drag around the battlefield to toss them. Overall, the Vita's touch functions are perfectly and conveniently placed in this game. The only major problem however is that the game goes into slow-motion the moment you use a grenade or secondary function, making things a bit too easy in the heat of battle. Another issue was the Mauler weapon's secondary(Upgrade it's secondary and you're set for the entire game, it's that powerful with infinite uses). One last thing before I forget is that you can run by either tapping the rear touch screen twice or pressing down on the down D-Pad. I ended up using the former because it was fun to use.

Chimeras have been known to be visceral and relentless. It is only natural for humanity to be cautious when confronting them but the Chimera's in this game act goofy and sometimes don't even know you're there until you shove an axe to their faces. It's hardly funny sometimes when they're right next to an explosive which you can shoot and blow them to smithereens. I do wonder how they managed to best the European and US army with that level of intelligence. Boss fights are hardly a challenge also save it for the last one which was frustratingly difficult.

A few music tracks from the game sound nice but the majority felt like they had a discount on cheap soundtracks. The weapon sounds are also absurd and generic - The Bullseye for example sounds a lot like a sub-machine gun then the actual Bullseye. Graphics wise, I can easily say that Resistance: Fall of Man looks like a gem in comparison. You'd think that Nihilistic would take full advantage of the Vita but they don't(With the exception of the touch screen features). Let's not forget about the outdated gore animations.

Verdict: I had some trouble going through this game at first because of how badly executed it was in the first level but the game improved as I played through it. Unfortunately the story(Campaign is like 5 hours long) and characters lacked, overshadowing the only good things about the game - it doesn't contribute much to the universe other then a bunch of ordinary people taking up arms against the chimera without the need for government aid(It does have a nice twist in there though but again, If the author was more caring enough then the story would of been great). As a huge Resistance fan, I can't recommend this if you're looking for answers or an authentic Resistance experience. As an ordinary gamer looking for a good game, I suggest that you rent it instead and make judgment for yourself but based on my experience, I strongly recommend a rent for anyone interested in Burning Skies.