14 DAY TRIAL // Sony's latest entries in the PlayStation family of consoles, the PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 haven't had the best of luck when it comes to games released for them. But as Insomniac developed the Resistance series for the PS3, which enjoyed a fair share of success, Sony saw fit to introduce it to the handheld brother of the big black console.
As such, the team at the Sony Bend studios was tasked with developing Resistance: Retribution, based on a spin off story, spanning events that occurred between Resistance 1 and its sequel. The thought of a third person shooter on the PSP isn't new, but with the promises of high quality graphics, intriguing story and solid single and multiplayer gameplay, this title will surely be popular.
But is it enough to make you dust off your old PSP or even make you buy a brand new handheld device? Read on to see my first hour spent playing this game.
12:00 Finally, a use for my old PlayStation Portable that hasn't seen some gaming action ever since God of War: Chains of Olympus was released. Let's see whether shooting the evil Chimera will be as fun as the action in the bigger titles.
12:10 After some very lengthy cut scenes, the backstory is revealed to you. After being forced to shoot his own brother who was infected with the Chimera virus, the main character, James Grayson, deserted from the British Royal Marine Corps and single handedly destroyed 26 conversion centers. But the rampage was short lived, as he was captured and sentenced to death because he defected in a time of war. Luckily, the European resistance, the Maquis, approached the British government and drafted the soldiers to help them in eradicating the Chimera from Europe.
12:15 I can see just how the game looks, as the scenes up until now have either been sketches like in the first release, or pre-rendered videos. The first impression is pretty good, as the game looks quite detailed for something made for the PSP. The character models appear fairly detailed and the environment has some depth and feel to it.
12:20 But enough talking about the environments, as this is a shooter and you need to kill the Chimera in order to win. The first firefight aims at showcasing the basic gameplay concepts that are present in the game. You'll automatically pop into cover when enemies are present, and the auto aiming feature helps you lock on to enemies.
12:30 The lack of a second analog stick is quite annoying at first, as you need to use the cross, circle, square and triangle buttons to move the camera around the character. A bit tricky at first, but you will get used to it over time.
12:40 Our good friend Major Cartwright from the first game appears but isn't in the best of relations with Grayson, so the conversations between them are pretty interesting. You will now need to watch over him as he goes through an open area, while sniping the Chimera that appears - a fairly simple task that makes you use the manual aim.
12:50 You protected Cartwright but now the first big enemy appears, much more early than I anticipated. A Titan armed with a rocket launcher was a pretty big threat in the first two games, but thanks to the fact that both you and Cartwright are firing at him, the Chimera goes down quite easily.
13:00 My first hour with Resistance: Retribution ends here, and I must say I'm deeply impressed. The game looks great for a PSP title and I will surely have the same opinion until the end of it. The auto-aiming is solid, the AI seems to handle the firefights quite well and the mechanics up until now have only included a few quick time button presses.
All in all, Resistance: Retribution is quite solid. If you want to check it out for yourselves, you can find the demo on the PlayStation Store, which includes a full chapter of gameplay. Look forward to the full review next week.