Resistance: Burning Skies Multiplayer Brings the Pain

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If you’re in the San Francisco Bay Area, come by our community meetup tonight to go hands-on with Resistance: Burning Skies in a kill-or-be-killed multiplayer tournament!

If it’s true that a shooter is only as good as its weapons, Resistance: Burning Skies is shaping up to be a delight indeed. Take the Mule, a new double-barreled shotgun that dishes out devastating buckshot blasts and launches explosive bolts via its over-barrel crossbow. Or the ever-popular Auger, whose projectiles hungrily chew through walls to seek out warm flesh. But my favorite gun so far is the lethal Hunter rifle, a long-range Chimeran burst-fire weapon with the ability to deploy an attack drone that you can guide towards your multiplayer foes with taps on the front touchscreen — tres sophisticated!

Playing a series of Wifi multiplayer matches in Resistance: Burning Skies in New York City last week was a valuable reminder that shooting ultra-powerful weapons just feels good man. In an era of multiplayer games that arguably sport too-fussy weapon balancing, unloading with Burning Skies’ unapologetically brutal arsenal was an intoxicating experience that streamlined the action and reminded me of the good old days of Doom and Quake. Despite their immense power, the arsenal is properly tuned for multiplayer balance — the face-melting Hunter rifle boasts a pokier fire rate and reload time, for instance.

Another interesting touch is how each weapon’s secondary fire makes use of PS Vita’s front touchscreen, whether it’s tapping an enemy in order to fire the Bullseye’s homing tag, swiping from top to bottom to load the Mule’s crossbow bolt, or making a stretching motion with your thumbs to “draw” the Auger’s protective shield. Burning Skies makes use of PS Vita’s rear touchscreen as well, with a rear double-tap triggering the all-important run like hell maneuver.

The final game will include six multiplayer maps, but I was only able to try one — a claustrophobic urban map set in and around a crumbling New York City apartment complex. This intimate, atmospheric map was a good fit for Burning Skies’ potent arsenal, making the encounters feel more urgent and high-stakes. The multiplayer war raged through dimly lit stairwells, cluttered rooftops, and a dangerously exposed city street. When the smoke cleared, I stood tall…with a second-place finish. Not bad! Winning multiplayer matches nets you XP that you can cash in to purchase new weapons and mods.

So far, Burning Skies’ eight-player multiplayer mode is confirmed to support free-for-all deathmatch and team deathmatch modes, with a third survivor-type mode remaining in the shadows for now. If you have questions, leave them in the comments…but if you live in San Francisco, why not drop by tonight to try it for yourself?