Resogun is a supercharged reimagining of the classic 1980 arcade game Defender. From a presentation standpoint, the unorthodox use of voxels makes it a little a curiosity, too. These tiny building blocks allow our surroundings to crumble when enemies crash and explode nearby, culminating within the total destruction of each stage. It’s destructible environments taken to the intense, and an imposing display of next-gen technology in addition, but Resogun isn’t a game that is dependent upon visual gimmicks.
Comparing Resogun to Defender provides a basic understanding of the game’s structure. Both are side-scrolling spaceship shooters that allow you to freely move left or right and inspire you to rescue stranded humans sprinkled throughout each stage. However, Resogun is a chunk different from its muse, with the playing field wrapped around an enormous cylinder, other than represented as a looping 2D map, and most significantly, your ship has far greater firepower and maneuverability than your the meager ship in Defender. With these modern trappings, whether you’re zipping through waves of enemies, luring them right into a trap, or decimating entire phalanxes in a flash, there’s rarely a lull within the action.
The calm before the storm.
The near nonstop assault to your ship comes from plenty of enemies, some small and a few large, with different flight patterns and behaviors. There are swarms of gnat-like vessels that track your movement, free-floating laser cannons which could block your path, and other ships that divide into smaller but equally deadly units upon impact. By and large, you would fly to a less-populated component to a stage and catch your breath when things get too frantic, but one day, you will want face the enemies you left behind.
On top of your battle for self-preservation, there are other lives worth fighting for. Throughout each stage, 10 or so human captives await rescue, which comes only once you shoot down green “keeper” ships. These enemies fly solo or in groups, appearing for short windows of time before slipping out of sight for good. Felling these wardens-in-flight frees a selected captive, who aimlessly wander round the level, looking ahead to a ride home before they’re recaptured. If you are shot down while the humans are at the ground, or in case you ignore them for too long and lose sight of the keeper ships, it is the end of the line for the unlucky humans. But in the event you be able to scoop them up and deliver them to 1 of 2 tractor beams on the top of the stage, you collect a reward within the kind of points or equipment upgrades.
It’s challenging to target keepers and humans when you have problems of your individual, but shield and weapon upgrades are vital on your continued success. They permit you to take in an additional hit and extend the strength and reach of your weapons. You constantly balance the associated risks and rewards of seeking to be a hero. Taking advantage of a situation and getting out alive requires quick reflexes. Thankfully, Resogun’s controls are tight, and you have got three abilities to use along the way in which.
Boosting in action.
Each of your three ships comes equipped with a trio of tools: boost, overdrive, and bombs. Bombs in Resogun do what any good bomb should: blow up everything in sight. There is a trade-off to think about when chasing high scores, though. With out enemies to shoot, it’s next to impossible to continue chaining kills quickly enough to accumulate your score multiplier, that’s the major to hitting the end of the leaderboard.
When enemies die, be it from a conventional cannon or a bomb, they leave behind a suite of green voxels for you to collect to fill your ship’s overdrive meter. Once your meter’s at capacity, activating overdrive expends this energy as an immense jet for a limited period of time. Boost may not sound like a capability that feeds into your ship’s destructive tendencies, but this evasive maneuver ends with a bang, killing anything in close proximity. Unlike with overdrive, you have got control over the duration of boosting, allowing you to strategically conserve resources, or plow into enemy ranks, destroying them from within.
Live long enough to look the top of a stage, and you’re rewarded by a gathering with one in all Resogun’s five gigantic bosses. Unlike typical ships, most bosses are available complex and weird forms. You are able to attack all these juggernauts freely, but other bosses require pinpoint marksmanship. The primary stage boss, as an example, is a big two-tiered ring with laser cannons floating within the space between each ring. That you have to shoot your way throughout the first ring and navigate the laser-filled void to succeed in the boss’s weak point within the middle. It is not a ground-breaking boss design, but it surely does change up the pace of Resogun’s core gameplay between stages.
Bosses also are relentlessly strong. Inside the game’s later stages, surviving a boss’s onslaught is next to impossible without enough extra lives and bombs to show the tide on your favor. In these cases, the most important challenge is the fight leading as much as the boss. Fail to play your best, and it is simple to finish up at a md with little hope for achievement, though whether you’ve a healthy stash of additional lives and bombs, you can not brute-force your way through a fight. These unforgiving confrontations motivate you to accomplish at your best, making victory that much sweeter when it comes.
Resogun throws voxels around with wild abandon, creating fireworks-grade displays on the end of each level.
Resogun’s controls, presentation, and rapid-fire enemy assaults make for a thrilling experience. You’re constantly stressed, practically suffocating behind swarms of enemies, but you’re never without the means for survival. During this way, playing Resogun is an exercise in twitch gameplay and decision making, triggering a hurry of adrenaline and testing the bounds of your ability. It helps that the accompanying beat of the techno-laden soundtrack and the constant trickle of voxels are mesmerizing, pulling you into the instant every step of how.
The only downside to Resogun is the fast-stack of levels you get to explore. There are four difficulties to select from, which supplies a bit variety, however the game’s five stages don’t remain fresh forever. Having three ships helps, nonetheless it doesn’t take long for the flow of surprises to dry up and the race for prime scores to take over. That said, Resogun remains fun to play even if the thrill of discovery fades away. It’s classic arcade action imbued with hard-hitting artistic and gameplay elements. Falling in love with Resogun is straightforward, and mastering it’s challenging, and the aggregate of those two qualities makes Resogun almost impossible to lay down.
Editor’s note: Resogun’s online coop mode was not available when this review was published. As such, will probably be updated accordingly once the feature goes live.