After massive success on Sony’s PS3 platform, the Resistance series has finally made the leap to the PSP. The moment that people think about a First Person Shooter on a PSP they start to cringe and thus far they have had good reason to, however with Sony having convinced Sony Bend who where the developers behind the excellent Syphon Filter PSP games to make Resistance Retribution into an all action Third Person Shooter instead things could be about to get interesting. 

 

In Resistance: Retribution, you take on the role of James Grayson, a Lieutenant who was disgraced after deserting his post and placed on death row. The reason behind Grayson’s behaviour is the demise of his brother who he found and subsequently killed in a Chimeran Conversion Centre. Grayson is a stark contrast to the protagonist of the PS3 Resistance series as he just doesn’t care about anything, his only mission is to destroy the Chimera and to take revenge for his brother. The difference also appears in gameplay as Grayson is not infected with the Chimeran virus and thus has no self-healing abilities. This isn’t to say that the game offers you no way to heal your wounds, this is done through Chimeran health packs which are lying around the levels. In some respects this is a great shame as the auto-healing was actually a good way of explaining away the health bar recovery idea.

 

 

As mentioned Retribution has been developed by Sony Bend and looking at the control structure and look of the game you can see the influence of Syphon Filter on the game’s design. That is that they are pretty much the same, with the directional buttons allowing for lack of the lower shoulder buttons on the Dualshock 3. Pressing up actives the manual aim while left reloads your chosen weapon and right selects it. Of course, the analogue stick controls movement, in which you can move forward, back and strafe left and right. The aiming which most of the time acts as your direction finder as well is handled by the face buttons. Like Syphon Filter the control system works flawlessly in most respects except in the directional pad actions which can be a bit awkward.

 

Another success of the game is the snap to cover system, the moment you move into any surface that is at your level you will lock on to it. The only pain can be coming off of it as you need to move the analogue stick just right or you’ll slide along instead of detaching. But by far the most impressive elements of the game are the aim assist and AI. A lot of the time if an aim assist system is placed in a game it tends to over simplify the tactics involved within the game, but Sony Bend have managed to completely destroy that idea. Though aim assist does tend to make sure that you at least hit your target it never feels like it is a sure shot. Even being locked on to a target doesn’t mean that you will hit it all the time. This is where the AI comes into play along with enemy variety, the AI seem to understand when you have a lock on them and thus will keep moving around and ducking behind cover in an attempt to avoid your shots, this makes for some brilliant shoot outs.

 

The Enemy variety offers something different again with not just having to hold aim assist and then shoot away, with some targets you need to only hit them in the head to deal any damage which makes the game feel frantic and fast paced as you are normally assaulted by multiple types of enemy at the same time.

One of the biggest problems for all games on a handheld console is getting the balance right with regard to the save progression and this is something that Retribution handles well. It works on a checkpoint system that updates at the end of section of a level; each section normally takes between 10 and 15 minutes to complete thus allowing for short bursts of play on the fly.

 

The graphical conclusions of this game are pretty much the same as Syphon Filter: Logan’s Shadow, sorry to draw another similarity to the Syphon Filter series on PSP but there is so much in common here. The character models all look fairly well detailed but the environments aren’t so well coloured. The environments are very much of a darker palette tone with only a few levels actually offering some lighter colours, but that said looking at the subject matter it really wouldn’t fit in with the Resistance storyline to have nice bright colours all around. But for once we are actually seeing what the PSP can do given the right treatment.

 

 

Finally it’s onto the multiplayer and in this mode you are offered five game types: Capture the Flag, Containment, Assimilation, Free for All and Team Deathmatch. Capture the Flag, Team Deathmatch and Free for All are pretty standard but Containment and Assimilation offer something a bit different to the normal game types. Starting with Containment, this mode is based on territory control, the idea is that you capture areas on the map and hold them against the opposite team, while attempting to take more of the areas. Assimilation is where you convert other players to your team by killing them. There isn’t anything really new but Retribution’s online holds up just as well as its home console based brothers.

 

There is one last factor in Retribution’s arsenal and that is that it can link up with Resistance 2 to unlock new elements of gameplay. Named “Infection”, you are given a more powerful version of Grayson in the suit that Hale wears in Resistance 2 along with the magnum from the game too. This doesn’t change the game play of Retribution too much as the AI are upgraded slightly as long as you are “infected” but these new elements are only active until you turn off your PSP then the game reverts back to the normal style.

 

Overall Retribution is a gem in the PSP’s crown; it offers you a solid gameplay experience while giving an excellently told story. Unfortunately that story does tie in heavily with the main story in Resistance: Fall of Man and then links up with Resistance 2 so to understand the goings on you will need to have played or at least read the storyline of Resistance. This game is definitely one of the better games on the PSP and any fans of Syphon Filter will be right at home with this title.