Retro Review: Resistance: Retribution

<p>For a few years&comma; my PSP sat unloved and dusty near my computer&comma; I would only charge it now and then to make sure the battery didn&&num;8217&semi;t fail&period; Other than that a sad Darth Vader would just stare at me&comma; waiting to be held&semi; in case you don&&num;8217&semi;t understand that I have the <em>Star Wars<&sol;em> edition PSP&period; I don&&num;8217&semi;t know what prompted me to dust it off and start searching for great games on the system&comma; but I&&num;8217&semi;m glad I did&period; I uncovered a huge amount of JRPG&&num;8217&semi;s&comma; some platforming goodness and even some of Sony&&num;8217&semi;s biggest franchises&period; That&&num;8217&semi;s what I&&num;8217&semi;m looking at this week&comma; <em>Resistance&colon; Retribution<&sol;em>&semi; one of the biggest PS3 franchises that took the battle to the PSP thanks to Bend Studio&period; Unfortunately&comma; the big franchise games couldn&&num;8217&semi;t propel the PSP to the greatness that was Nintendo&&num;8217&semi;s DS and soon production ceased on games and the PSP was dead in the water&period; I did bring mine back to life and I am still finding great games to enjoy on this mostly forgotten console&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Resistance&colon; Retribution<&sol;em> takes place on the other side of the pond&comma; no longer are we fighting in familiar American locales&comma; now we are battling in France to rid the Chimera from the Eiffel Tower&period; You play as Lieutenant James Grayson&comma; a man with a troubled past after he had to kill his brother once he found him in a Chimera Conversion Center&period; This sent Grayson over the edge and without orders&comma; he decided to find as many Conversion Centers as he could and destroy them&period; Once the army catches him they try him and send him to prison for desertion and he is due to hang for that crime when The French Resistance steps in&period; His sentence gets commuted for helping The Maquis &lpar;French Resistance&rpar; plan and take part in their own version of D-Day into France&period; Seeing as there would be no game to play&comma; something has to go wrong&comma; and it goes horribly wrong&period; Your entire squadron gets shot out of the sky and you find yourself in enemy territory with very little help incoming&period; It is up to you and those few who survived to carry on the mission in occupied France&comma; good luck soldier&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129845" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129845" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129845" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;23155251&sol;ucus-98668-game-ss-10&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129845" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Resistance&colon; Retribution<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Sony&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>Seeing as the PSP wasn&&num;8217&semi;t built with a second analog stick the controls to the game can get somewhat confusing when starting out&comma; or when you&&num;8217&semi;ve put the game down for a week or so&period; The one analog stick moves Grayson around the war zone&comma; Left Trigger is secondary ammo for the gun you have&comma; Right Trigger is normal ammo&period; The Face Buttons move the camera around so that you can aim and not bump into walls and such&period; When prompted&comma; X interacts with certain things in the level&comma; whether that be people&comma; weapons&comma; doors or obstacles&period; The D-pad does a lot in the game&comma; pressing left reloads your weapon and pressing right changes your weapon&period; The game automatically aims your weapon to the closet Chimera&comma; which can get extremely irritating&period; Instead of killing the one you may want to kill or the most dangerous one you may be shooting at the one in the back that really poses no threat&period; You can press up on the D-Pad for control of your aiming but that takes some getting used to due to the face buttons being your direction&period; You&&num;8217&semi;re better off hoping for the best with auto aim and finding as much heath as you can to stay alive&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The game looks alright on the PSP which is surprising seeing as some of the titles on the PSP were breathtaking&period; Perhaps Bend Studio didn&&num;8217&semi;t quite understand the hardware at the time&comma; but it isn&&num;8217&semi;t the prettiest of games&period; Thankfully Bend Studio knew how to use the Vita a few years later down the road with <em>Uncharted&colon; Golden Abyss<&sol;em>&period; The sound and voice acting are very well done though&comma; those little speakers really pumped out the sounds of war and I had to make sure to keep my volume down to not disturb people&period; The one mechanic that I did not like at all was the fact that the game would only save after a mission was completed&period; That can be frustrating if real life gets in the way of your gaming&comma; sure you can just let it sit there idle but that drains the battery and you may leave it on and forget about it&period; I found out that when the game tells you &&num;8220&semi;Checkpoint&comma;&&num;8221&semi; that doesn&&num;8217&semi;t save it&comma; but at least if you die you&&num;8217&semi;ll go back to the point&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t be fooled like I was and have to replay half the first mission&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;129852" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-129852" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"size-full wp-image-129852" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2017&sol;09&sol;23170258&sol;resistance-retribution-21&period;jpg" alt&equals;"" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"362" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-129852" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Resistance&colon; Retribution<&sol;em> &&num;8211&semi; Sony&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I think that I would have been disappointed had I bought this game at full price&comma; the graphics aren&&num;8217&semi;t that great and the controls and other mechanics can be somewhat of a nightmare&period; I&&num;8217&semi;ve been babied and am use to saving whenever I want&comma; and I love that feature in games now&period; However&comma; I bought this game for a mere five dollars and I did get my money&&num;8217&semi;s worth&period; The campaign is longer than I expected&comma; and there was more variety than just the shoot and cover and rinse and repeat&period; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t grow bored of the game as I played&comma; but I didn&&num;8217&semi;t come home at night dreaming about playing it like some other games do&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re looking for a fun shooter to kill some time with on your underused PSP this one would be a great choice&period; And if you can get it for cheaper than I did then bully for you&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;