Among the small list of the PS4’s launch exclusives is Resogun, a side-scrolling shoot ’em up made by Housemarque, the same team who brought us Super Stardust HD and Outland. It aims to be the affordable, fun indie title that the PS4 can carry going into the future with its arcade action and addictive gameplay.
Housemarque has a great track record. Can it continue that with Resogun?
In Resogun, you pilot a spaceship armed with an upgradable weapon, boosts, and overdrive ability. Most importantly, your ship is extremely agile, which is necessary for dodging the seemingly endless swarms of varied enemies. The cast of enemies evolve in each of the game’s five levels presenting even more challenging behaviors to pay attention to. Learning how to monitor everything around you is extremely important to completing levels, and more importantly building a high score count.
Your boost and overdrive accumulate over time, and each presents a different mechanic. While boost is more commonly used and allows you to dodge damage and move rapidly for a short period of time, overdrive is used infrequently but is effective at clearing entire areas of enemies. You can probably get away with ignoring both on the Rookie difficulty, while on Experienced and higher it’s mandatory that you become efficient at using both. You’ll feel compelled to anyway, as well-timed use of your skills is thrilling.
There are two important things to look out for during each level that can help tremendously. At random moments an enemy or set of enemies will spawn that, if taken down, will release a prisoner. These prisoners can be picked up, carried to safety points, and then reward you with benefits such as shields and weapon upgrades. There are also upgrades that spawn in the game world that deserve your immediate attention. Upgraded weapons are not only beautiful to look at, but make you much more powerful.
The game bears a striking resemblance to Housemarque’s Super Stardust HD—a good thing, I might add—, but instead of levels being designed as globes, they’re 2D with a side-scrolling point of view. The levels wrap around in a circular fashion so you can endlessly fly in one direction or the other. You can see most of the level at any given time because of its shape, and you’d be well off to pay attention to what’s around the corner.
The presentation is fantastic, especially for a launch title. Its colorful explosions and vibrant enemies bring the world to life. Running at 1080p with 60FPS, it’s a great indication of how even indie titles can perform better in the next-gen. The electronic soundtrack has some good beats, too.
There are 5 levels (each with a boss), four difficulties, and ladders to enjoy. If you’re a fan of arcade style games with achieving high scores being rewarding, you can get some good mileage out of Resogun. Otherwise, you’ll probably stay for the 2 hours it takes to complete, enjoy it, and then move on. There is also an online co-op mode that may be worth it if you’re in party chat with one of your friends and want to brave some of the harder difficulties together.
Resogun succeeds at being a fun and challenging arcade game. It’s arguably the best of the PS4’s launch exclusives, although it has only enough content to keep you engaged for a few short hours. Those who have enjoyed arcade games of past and present have reason to spend time trying to earn high scores, while others will enjoy the thrills of its gameplay during their short stay.
Note: Resogun is free to PlayStation Plus subscribers for the next few months.
Jonathan Leack is the Gaming Editor for CraveOnline. You can follow him on Twitter @jleack.
Review copy not provided by publisher. Game is exclusive to PS4.
