Resogun Is By Far My Favorite PlayStation 4 Exclusive

Sony Computer Entertainment America sent Siliconera a PlayStation 4 with a couple of games. I’ve been playing through them and Resogun stands out as the most entertaining PS4 exclusive so far. Simply explained, Resogun is a mix of bullet hell and Tempest from the makers of Super Stardust HD.

While the game is a 2D horizontal shooter, the world is cylindrical. If you keep flying in one direction you will loop back to where you started. Enemy ships come in waves and attack from both sides. Similar to Super Stardust HD, each ship you shoot down increases your score multiplier, which rewards players with more points if they stay on the offense. You can’t cover the screen with bullets since your basic weapon is a horizontal laser. Players need to cautiously maneuver through and sometimes inside enemies. The first boss is like a giant wheel with three cores to shoot. After blasting those spots you need to drive the ship inside to hit the final weak point. If you’re surrounded by enemies or want to quickly increase the multiplier you can use overdrive to temporarily slow time and give your ship increased firepower.

The "goal" of Resogun is to "save the last humans" (something the game reminds you of through the controller’s speaker) and there are little green people you can scramble to save. You don’t have to save them, but if you shuttle a green dude to a drop off location you earn rewards like points or extra screen-clearing bombs. Adding people to rescue gives players who want to maximize their score another element to pay attention. Housemarque added a boost that lets players rapidly zip through a level. It’s useful for saving people, but I think it’s best used in bursts to keep your score multiplier up when there aren’t any ships around. Boost increases the overall pace of the game and if you’re counting gameplay hours Resogun is "short."

The true goal of Resogun is racking up a high score and that’s going to take practice especially if you want to fight through higher difficulties. The three ships players can use fall under the standard shooter archetypes – speedy & weak, slow & powerful, and average. Resogun has online co-op where each player has their own ship on the same level, but no couch co-op.

With all of the PS4’s horsepower and RAM, it may sound odd to pick out a downloadable game as a showcase for the PS4. But, Resogun is a ton of fun to play and it does have a rewarding lightshow when you clear a level. Resogun is available for $14.99 on the PlayStation Store and is free for PlayStation Plus members.