Resistance: Burning Skies is a weak attempt to produce a FPS on the Vita with only a few bright spots.
First off, not all is horrible. The controls for the game are tight and work wonderfully. While the obvious dual analog sticks make the FPS genre in general, a great deal of the fluidity in controls is really because of the touchscreen. Indeed, I enjoyed the idea of tagging enemies by touching them or throwing grenades with carefully placed drag and drop. These uses of the touchscreen really do make up for the lack of secondary triggers that the consoles have.
The gray tech upgrades are worth mentioning. While you can only have two upgrades per weapon and only one from each side (Red or Blue), they do go a long way towards making the game more enjoyable. Sometimes the upgrades can really help swing a battle in your favor.
Otherwise, there's really no new ground broken here. While a couple of the weapons, specifically the Mauler and shotgun/crossbow combo, and a couple of enemies are new to series, everything else is the same. So, if you've played a Resistance game before, don't expect to be wowed.
Aside from the relatively short campaign, you have 8 player online multiplayer. However, I found this to be fairly abysmal. There are only 3 different modes. You have your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch along with a new mode called survival. Survival starts the map with 2 Chimera and 6 humans. The goal is to last until the timer runs out. This is complicated by the fact that when you die, you become a Chimera to hunt other humans. It's a novel concept, but ultimately is unfulfilled since there are only three maps and you can sometimes die practically before you start.
The visuals for the game are fairly bland as well. While the Chimera look good for a PSP game, they are certainly not at the level as the Vita is capable of. The humans fair a little better with reasonably realistic facial animations, but don't react to getting shot like they should. Environments are similarly bland, lacking the grandiose quality the consoles had. Strangely, for being in one of the most populated cities in the world, they are only a handful of people around at any moment. Very dull indeed.
The sound is pretty pitiful as well. Guns sound utterly tiny, almost laughably so. They also lack any real difference in being able to tell them apart. Music is also notably absent for the greater part of the game. Only during a few tense moments do you even hear any music at all. Vocal work is passable. The main characters are well done, but aside of the few there are, you're pretty much not going to hear much.
Value is weak. A seasoned Resistance player can obtain all of the trophies in one to one-and-a-half playthroughs. Perhaps two if you're new to the series. The multiplayer is half-hearted and lacks enough modes or maps to be engaging in any aspect.
The sad part about the whole game is it controls wonderfully. It takes advantage of the Vita almost fully. The story is sort of a prequel to the second game and while not written the best, is pretty good. However, the characters are forgettable and boring. Any thoughts of potential sequels or hopeful outcomes are squashed utterly at the end of the game. Really, if you must purchase this, wait for it to drop to $20 or less. $40 is far too much for this underdone shooter.
The Good: Excellent controls, replicates the console experiences quite well, gray tech upgrades are nice.
The Bad: Bland visuals, bad sound design, boring characters, weak multiplayer, lack of real value.