One of the Playstation 4's free download games, Resogun is a must-play for shooter-thusiasts. A lot of people would go so far as to say it was the best launch game for the system, and I wouldn't argue with that. This game is SO COOL, YOU GUYS.
You get a choice of three difficulty levels right off the bat. Starting with Rookie is highly advised, as - in shooter tradition - anything higher is rough.
The five stages in this game all take place in circular arenas. Flying all the way in either direction will loop you back to where you started. The idea here is to fend off wave after wave of attackers while attempting to "save the last human"... or the last fifty humans, anyway, since each stage has ten of them to rescue.
The actual game is a visual smorgasbord of lightning bolts and fireworks. It's a treat to look at. However, my one complaint about the game is that the stages aren't different enough from one another. I would have liked to see some more variety in the stages.
The way they loop onto themselves also becomes a little bit redundant, but at the same time it adds to the gameplay. You can fly around to attack a group of enemies from the other side, and that's awesome. If the stages were linear like most shooters, then... it'd be like most shooters. This is a new concept and the designers deserve a lot of credit for it.
You control your ship with the left stick and fire with the right stick, which seemed a little odd at first but soon felt pretty natural. Lets you fire in different directions easily.
Speaking of the ship, there are three different playable ships in this game, each with differing stats. I went with the balanced one, though the others have their own pros and cons.
The first boss, like most of the bosses, is a gigantic wheel-like contraption. It seems like A DEADLY OPPONENT~! until you realize you can hide out inside of it.
Winning gives you a glorious display of pyrotechnics.
Luckily, the four humans who weren't saved... were all congressmen. Nothing of value was lost.
The humans in this game are stored in those little background cubes, as seen here. Freeing them from their prisons is a matter of destroying enemies that glow green; these enemies show up from time to time during the stages. Once you take out one of them, it'll send a ball of light flying over to one of the cubes, freeing that human. You have to hurry up and pick them up before they get killed by the enemies, then fly them to an escape beam without getting hit. It isn't as bad as it sounds; the hard part (for me, at least) is taking out the keymaster enemies before they disappear from the battlefield.
Here's a smart bomb in action. They send massive blast waves around the circle, decimating everything in sight. Niiiiiice.
All of those shards on the left are pieces of destroyed enemies.
I like that you don't lose your weapon power-ups from dying - or going from stage-to-stage - like in a lot of shooters. After a while, the powered-up laser starts to resemble the Wind Laser from Axelay, firing backwards and around in an arc. These beams home in, to an extent, and the game becomes significantly less difficult once you've reached a certain level of weapon power.
Unfortunately, there's only one weapon in this game that I know of. I'd like to see some more variety in that department, but at least it changes as you power it up. This game is fairly bare-bones in most ways, which is to be expected for a free download-only game.
Another boss... it's the giant morphing sphere from the title screen! Egad!
These massive fireworks displays are astounding.
I like the way enemy bullets have a bright orange glow. They contrast with the backgrounds and are easy to see. It seems like a no-brainer, but a lot of shooters make the mistake of having enemy shots be tiny, hard-to-see bullets.
It's difficult to see how high-res the game is in these small, Facebook-botched screenshots, but here's a good example. The backgrounds tend to be very detailed and the color scheme is striking.
Sometimes it's hard to see exactly where your ship is when there's a hail of gunfire going on. It's in there... somewhere. It's easier to spot with the game in motion, at least.
When a huge army of foes converge on you from both sides, it's a prime candidate for Smart Bomb Time.
The final boss is a massive cloud of black smoke that twists and turns around the screen. It's impressive to see in motion.
As the fight goes on, it takes shape and bombards you with fireballs. Still, nothing insurmountable on Rookie mode.
The final MASSIVE PYROTECHNICS DISPLAY of the game.
Wait... combat simulation? I thought I was rescuing real humans? This game is confusing. Maybe the higher difficulty levels are supposed to be non-simulation modes.
That's it. The game is basically a half-hour long on first (Rookie) playthrough, but it sure was a fun time.
I got about halfway through it on the next difficulty level up, and I'm probably going to keep coming back to this one.
Not since the original Super Mario Kart have I been this captivated by the idea of replaying a game on higher difficulty levels - and this enthused by losing repeatedly at those higher difficulty levels. I totally want to 100% this game, and aside from the Bioshock series that rarely happens to me.
Highly recommended, and that's all I've got to say about that.
OTHER POSTS ABOUT SHOOTERS:
Oh, so that's what the deal with the humans is. I played a little of this but all the humans died and game overed me pretty quickly.
ReplyDeleteWe've reach the era when not even screenshots can capture how beautiful games are. This looks like a new classic. Thank you for introducing it. I keep going back and forth to check out all the CG.
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