Of all the games we’ve seen so far destined for the new PlayStation Vita, none epitomise the gulf between Sony’s last handheld and its next one like Resistance.
When the original PSP first launched, it promised to bring home console gaming to the palm of your hands. With less power under the hood and one less thumbstick than the PS2, however, it never quite worked out that way.
So when Resistance — a first-person shooter series on home console — made the jump to the PSP, compromises had to be made. It became a third-person action game, and while it was a good one, it felt strange to see a game forced to shift genres (much like Killzone had to) thanks to the inadequacies of the handheld.
Resistance on the Vita has no such concerns.
It’s a first-person shooter on a handheld. It works. No compromises, no work-arounds, no insane button reconfigurations. You just walk up, pick up the game and, aside from a few seconds familiarising yourself with the controls (some touch-screen commands make up for the missing shoulder buttons), you feel instantly at home. Running. Aiming. Strafing. All those things the PSP (and the DS!) struggled with, the Vita does with ease.
While there wasn’t much of note from the game itself — no offence to the developers, but you’ve seen one Resistance you’ve seen them all — when it comes to showing off just how easily console shooters can now be brought to the handheld space they deserve credit for getting the PlayStation Vita’s first-person shooter stable off to the best possible start.
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