Now this is a classic formula done right. Space shooters were all the rage back in the 80’s and 90’s; with big hits such as Defender, Galaga and Asteroids dominating the arcades. Since then, the genre kind of died off, but luckily we have a new addition to remind us of how fun they used to be while staying fresh with next gen visuals; Resogun for the Playstation 4. In short, Resogun is basically the reimagining of Defender; shooting up overwhelming waves of enemies while saving the last of humanity all at the same time. The gameplay may be generations old, but it focuses on presentation and straight up fun above all else, making it the best PS4 exclusive so far.
One thing that makes Resogun so interesting is its visual style. Remember how stylish Geometry Wars looked with its bright flashy neon lights? Well, Reosgun does that all over again, only on a more advanced console. When the screen is filled with enemies bombarding you with missiles and fireballs, it’s impossible not to be impressed. What’s even more interesting is city you’re fighting in. Most 2D space shooters have you fighting on a flat plane that endlessly loops. Instead, Resogun basically takes that plane and wraps it around itself, creating a cylindrical battlefield. It sounds strange, but it really does work to this game’s advantage and enhances the gameplay. The circular look allows you to see what’s ahead and prepare yourself for an oncoming horde. There actually isn’t anything to complain about visually. It’s one of the best looking retro revivals in recent memory.
Before starting, you get to choose between one of 3 ships. They’re pretty much your standard, but balanced, choices; one that is fast but weak, one that is powerful but slow, and one that is balanced between the two. The good news is you don’t even have to unlock them, so you get to play with your preferred playstyle from the get go.
The game plays very simply, and it will especially be familiar if you’ve played an old school space shooter before. Controlling a ship with the left thumbstick, you can move left, right, up or down in a side scrolling view. Your goal? Using the right thumbstick as your basic weapon, shoot everything you see on screen, pass each wave of overwhelming odds, and defeat the boss at the end. Of course you have more tools to help you along the way. First, you are given a boost that not only increases your speed for a brief moment, but it also destroys enemies that get in your way, complete with an electric pulse that kills everything that surrounds you. Second, you’re given a small amount of bombs. Anytime the enemies become too overwhelming for you to handle, just use a bomb and instantly kill everything in the blast radius. Thirdly, after killing enough enemies, you can charge your overdrive, killing anything that touches your powerful laser for a short time. Your weapons are limited, but that doesn’t detract from the amount of addictive and challenging fun that will be had.
That’s not all. Much like Defender before it, you have another objective besides mindlessly shooting everything that moves; saving “the last humans”, as the game will remind you at the beginning of each stage. Luckily, you don’t actually have to save every human, or any at all, to beat a stage. However, trust me when I say that you WANT to save them. Every now and then, the game will remind you (through the sound of your controller) that keepers have arrived, which you will see highlighted in green. Killing the keepers will free a human from his prison, whom you must go rescue. Swooping down and touching him, the human will grab on as you try to take him to the safety zone. Doing so will reward you with more points, a bomb, weapon/bomb upgrades or an extra life. Failing to save the human, whether it be because you got killed while he was attached, you failed to kill all the keepers in time or because you took too long to rescue him and he got carried away, will result in him dying, and you lose the reward. The humans are a nice distraction that adds to the intensity of the already challenging gameplay, and it reinforces the idea that you need to keep moving to survive. Saving the humans feels rewarding and they keep you on your toes.
Of course, games like are only fun when they have some difficulty to them, which luckily this game does very well. The game requires skill on the harder difficulties through your quick maneuvering abilities and resourcefulness of your rather limited weapons. Not to mention using your ship’s stats to your advantage. The game really gets aggressive on later levels thanks to even more progressively overwhelming odds in each of the 5 stages, and a fussy multiplier that you will lose if you go a few seconds without shooting anything. Concentrating on all that plus saving as many humans as you can is what makes this game work so well.
If you have a friend to play with online, there is also a co-op mode. There aren’t any new co-op moves or even any special modes, but it is still fun to play online with a buddy to cover more ground. The bosses are also harder in this mode, so you won’t be too overpowered together. Besides the disappointment that there is no couch co-op mode, there are also no ways to earn lives, which means when you run out, you’ll have to wait for the next round while your buddy finishes cleaning up.
Of course not everything about this game is gold. Perhaps my biggest complaint of this game involves the stages themselves. There are only 5 to choose from, and they all look the same with some minor color differences. I suppose this is also reminiscent of older games too, but adding some stage obstacles or environments would have been welcome.
Housemarque took a video game genre that is as old as video gaming itself and made it feel new again while reminding us how addictive this type of game was. If the wonderful neon visuals won’t interest you, then the challenging and intense gameplay will. At first, it may sound short due to a lack of stages, and maybe it is. But there is no arguing the amount of fun and replayability that Resogun offers for its $15 asking price. Hell, it may just be the best Playstation 4 exclusive thus far, or at least as far as launch titles are concerned.