Resistance: Retribution

One of the biggest failings of the PSP, besides the fact that there are so few games worth playing, is tries too hard to be like its big brother consoles, the Playstation 2 & 3. It's an admirable goal, yet there's an inherent flaw in the design of the PSP itself that makes this a fools errand. The lack of a second analog stick. But Resistance: Retribution tries it's hardest to overcome this void in a couple of different ways. Is it successful in doing so? For the most part...

Resistance: Retribution is the handheld entry in the Playstation's Resistance franchise, with Resistance: Fall of Man and (the less flowery titled) Resistance 2 both appearing on the Playstation 3. It differs from the console versions in that Retribution pulls you out of first player shooter mode and puts you into a third person shooter game. You take the role of James Grayson, a former British marine imprisoned for going AWOL and waging a one man war against the alien Chimera. Rather than rot in prison (because, honestly, how much fun would that game be?) you are asked to join the French resistance, the Marquis, as they attempt to free Europe from the Chimera.

Typically, a console shooter employs both analog sticks, one to move and one to aim. Because of the lack of a second analog stick, Resistance: Retribution adds a feature called "aim assist" to help compensate for the lack of a second analog stick. Basically, there's a rectangular box that is present on the screen at all times. When an enemy appears within that rectangle, you automatically target them. Sounds like a good solution, right? And for the most part, it works. However, there are a few shortcomings. When there are a lot of enemies on the screen (and believe me, there are a lot of instances where that is the case) targeting can become a little frustrating when you want to target a different enemy than the aim assist wants to target.

Some of the other controls are a little awkward also. Even after playing the game for 10 to 12 hours, I was still fumbling with reloading my weapon or attempting to change weapons. Resistance: Retribution also adds a cover mechanic, where you can hide behind walls and other obstacles and peek out for a quick shot at your enemies. Taking cover is as simple as pushing the analog stick towards the wall or obstacle you want to take cover behind. But like the aim assist, this feature works correctly about 80% of the time. There were times when I wanted to take cover but instead James Grayson decided that running in place in front of the wall would be a better idea.

That's not to say the game is unplayable. With all of Retribution's modifications to the usual shooter control scheme, they work the majority of the time. But if you're looking to improve the control experience and you happen to have a PS3 and a copy of Resistance 2 lying around, you can play in "Resistance: Retribution Plus" mode which allows you to control the game with a DualShock 3 controller. It's a pretty cool idea, except for the fact on the first generation PSP I was playing on, I couldn't output the video to my tv and I was kind of tethered four feet away from my PS3 with my PSP awkwardly laying on my sofa armrest while I gripped the DualShock 3 controller. But I figure with newer PSPs this would work even better because you could output the video to your TV and have more freedom to sit as unawkwardly as possible.

Connecting the game to a PS3 also allows you to unlock "Infected mode" which slightly modifies the game. It adds a regenerating health bar as well as an additional weapon for you to use through out the game. Its definitely a nice feature which may prompt you to play through the game twice, once normally and once while infected.

Retribution also features a few multiplayer modes to extend your gaming experience that range from the usual (deathmatch, team deathmatch and capture the flag) to the unusual (assimilation and containment). Admittedly, I haven't played a lot of multiplayer to give a full impression of it, there seemed to be a lot of players online to play with in spite of the PSP's low numbers.

Rating

One of the things I really enjoyed about the game was the PS3 connectivity. This is the first time I've seen it and I would like to see Sony try to implement it more in some of their future games.

Recommendations

Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops - This is the kind of game I wish would come out more often for the PSP. It takes a console franchise (in this case Metal Gear) and reimagines it so that it is unique to a handheld while still being true to the original games.