For those of you luckily enough to own a PS4 (and according to Sony there’s quite a few of us now) Resogun is free to play. So at least you’re guaranteed something to play!
Essentially you will scroll left and right on a cylindrical map blasting shooting and dodging your way through waves of enemies. Your primary goal is to save humans, although it’s not always obvious why a human has died or if one even needs saving. It’s definitely satisfying to rush in and bravely destroy the enemy to save someone but it’s not always obvious when this should happen. Simply moving your ship over a human will pick them up and then you must transport them safely to a checkpoint to save them.
There are small visual clues that show you when and where to be but in a game like this a huge unsubtle beacon wouldn’t look particularly out of place. Amongst all the explosions and lasers it can be pretty difficult to see what to do. Luckily losing humans makes little impact on the gameplay and will just reduce your score. It’s satisfying when it all goes well but can be a tad frustrating at other times.
But at least the difficulties are (surprisingly) very well done. Players of Super Stardust HD will certainly appreciate it. If you want you can progress through the game with very little chance of complete failure. And if you want you can make life very difficult for yourself. The only exception being the last level which can get pretty tricky even on the lower difficulties.
There’s still a challenge to be had but only if you go looking for it. And even if the higher difficulties aren’t enough for you, you can always go for high scores and slowly climb your way up leader boards.
If you look at it, since the very dawn of game development a primary goal has been to essentially reduce visible squares. But Resogun’s looks makes a particular point of showing off its squares. Rather than exploding realistically anything you destroy will burst into a pleasing shower of sparks and cubes. There’s barely a curve in sight and it looks great. High definition certainly helps but Resogun is a brilliant game to show what the PS4 can do.
And to go along with all the visual thrills is an upbeat and punchy soundtrack that adequately reflects the pace of the gameplay. Resogun is certainly energetic and that’s simply not possible without a suitable soundtrack. Luckily Resogun delivers and doesn’t allow the music to break the pace.
Addictive score beating gameplay and good looks makes Resogun a great game to have on the PS4’s starting line-up. There’s an endless energy to Resogun’s explosions and vibrant lighting ensuring the pace stays high. It’s a great launch game to show off some PS4 goodness and it’s totally free for Playstation Plus members. So if you haven’t already get over to the store and give it a try.
