E3 ’08: Resistance: Retribution

by Ashley Coomer - 2008/07/16 2:56am

The day the world stood still…

They said it couldn’t be done, yet it’s official – Resistance is coming to the PSP. Set weeks after the events of Resistance: Fall Of Man, Resistance: Retribution follows the story of European resistance recruit James Grayson who is part of Operation Overstrike, a job with one goal: to put an end to the Chimera’s new method of turning humans into aliens.

In terms of gameplay, it’s more or less standard Resistance fare with a twist: it’s viewed in the third-person. What this enables is the brand new automatic cover system, which works by putting Grayson into cover if he is standing still next to something that can be used for cover. The game then automatically pops him up when a shot is fired. The PSP’s analogue nub is often criticised for being difficult to control, which is why the developer has introduced aim assist, a feature which automatically targets anything inside the reticule. This means you still have to look around but you won’t be punished for being inaccurate. Switching between enemies is just as easy – tap any of the face buttons and you’ll have a clear shot at anyone in the area.

An over-the-shoulder view is also in Retribution, which allows you to take more precise (albeit manual) shots at the Chimera. Most – if not all – of Fall Of Man’s weapons will make a return, along with new ones, including a rifle that uses both human and alien technology… sweet!

Visually, Retribution stands high as one of the best-looking PSP titles there is (even at its early development stage, it already rivals God Of War: Chains Of Olympus), thanks to Sony Bend’s third generation PSP engine. This lets the game push the PSP with more detail and of course, scale, a requirement for a Resistance game.



Now we’ll answer your prayers; Resistance: Retribution will include local and online multiplayer, with 8-player matches of modes such as Team Deathmatch, Capture The Flag, Containment and more on the disc when it’s released in the second quarter of 2009. Can the developer do no wrong?

Resistance100: This is looking great. E3 did a good job on the PSP front