A nice addition to the Resistance series and a great game for the PSP.
Starting with the graphics, the game looks great for a PSP system. It is easily comparable to some of the average and even best looking PS2 games. The Chimera look real and scary enough, and it's fun to see all the details on James Grayson's jacket.
Retribution's environments are great as well. The most greatest achievement in this part of the game is the underwater portions. The sound in these are executed extremely well and the fire fights that happen in them are intense and exciting due to the combination of battle and the steadily decreasing bar representing Grayson's oxygen level underwater. The most notable part is the end, which is quite satisfying for this game,and something I won't talk about anymore so that I won't spoil it.
The battle mechanics for this game work extremely well making it a major part in the success for this game. The life bar and weapon wheel return and they make battles intense and fun. Nothing is more scarier than having low life in a fire fight with giant chimera. The weapon wheel helps in that it makes weapons readily available. This also adds variability to the action in Retribution so that players have multiple ways in defeating hords of Chimera. The most notable difference in battle mechanics is the automatic lock on and the auto cover. The makers of Retribution however, made the game hard enough so that using auto lock-on wouldn't be a cake-walk. There is still the option to disable auto lock-on and play the game like a regular third person shooter. The game also has three standard difficulty levels, giving the player the freedom to adjust the games difficulty even more.
The weapons are the greatest part of the game. As in the other Resistance games, each weapon has a secondary fire mode such as the grenade launcher in the .303 Storm Rifle (you're machine gun). Some of the cooler and more interesting secondary fire modes are the stationary circular shield in the Advanced Auguer FS, which ricochets enemy fire, and the ability to slow time down in the Fareye FR-1. There are also additional weapons that will be available once the player has successfully finished all the requirements to unlock the weapon. This adds plenty of replay value for the game.
What Retribution lets down in though is its story. This is because it can sometimes be forgettable. Also, the love affair between Grayson and Bouchard doesn't become noticeable until some time later in the game and it leaves one wondering how did it happen? Other problems with the story are some of its cheesy lines, which really depends on the player for it being annoying or not.