RESOGUN (2013) review

RESOGUN

PS4 (exclusive)

Sony, Housemarque

Arcade, Side-scroller, Shoot-em-up

This won’t be a very long article, quite simply because there’s not a lot to say about Resogun. It’s one of the launch exclusives on Playstation 4 and the spiritual successor to the incredibly popular PS3 exclusive Super Stardust HD. Each level packs the same opening as the previous titles from developer Housemarque: «Save the last humans» (although this time the sound comes from the PS4’s dualshock controller) and so you’re off, thrown straight into action playing an extremely fast paced game with a very simple concept. At set times one or two humans are let out from their protective glass casings and you must pick them up and drive them to one of the several safe spots in the circular level. You play as a spaceship with the ability to move horizontally in orbit around the level as well as vertically (up and down). Your spaceship is equipped with guns being upgraded thru power-up pickups and your bullets follow the curvature of the map, but they do have a limited range. Enemies constantly spawn around you and you need to shoot them before they touch you. Get hit, you loose one of your 3 lives. It’s all classic arcade and you’ll quite quickly understand what to do. What’s going to take you a lot longer is to get the hang of it. Why? Because Resogun is actually insanely f#cking hard. But that most certainly doesn’t stop it from being one of the best games available on the PS4 at launch. Actually It’s one of the very reasons why! You see resogun places a real, genuine challenge in front of you, of the very good old fashioned kind. Are you likely to sit down with it for hours on end? No! It really can get quite frustrating and feel a bit repetitive, but still you’ll come back time and time again to try and beat those high scores, or just try to make it thru a level. Levels witch pack both increasing difficulty and great variety. All though the core concept remains the same, save humans and shoot alien spaceships, the levels keep adding new twists to change up the gameplay and make it harder.

I said you’d quickly understand what to do, and for the core gameplay that is very true, but beyond that i would’ve very much liked to find an in-depth tutorial available thru the games menu. See although it was easy to understand basic shooting mechanics and how to deliver (save) humans, i was at a loss about weapons upgrading, what triggered humans to need saving, unlocking levels throughout the various difficulties and game modes, and above all: what the various game modes actually is. What’s the difference between them and witch one do i play to unlock more levels. All stuff i also found hard to find online and only thru quite a bit of experimentation did i find the answer. I also felt they stepped up the difficulty a bit too heavily from the first to the second level. Although you have multiple difficulty-settings to chose from, the gap between the first two levels is quite huge. They should have put something in between to make the game seem a little more forgiving and welcoming to newbies of the shoot-em-up arcade genre, or just newbies to Resogun, because although I am experienced with the type of games i felt this one in particular had a very unique feel to it.

As finishing words i think i can say that Resogun packs a unique, fast-paced and above all damn entertaining challenge. Although i would like a short tutorial, it’s not that big of a deal and we do live in the age of the internet. Even though i couldn’t find so much info on it when the game first launched, today you can surely find all you need and if not, there are tons of forums to ask on; so i don’t really feel i can draw the game heavily back for lacking a tutorial. You’re not going to sit down for hours on end playing this game (at least most of you will not). It will be a quick escape from reality every now and then when your standard issue, AAA titles frustrate you beyond belief as those games often do. But this little escape is so enjoyable I’m going to give Resogun 85/100 and call it one of the best options on the PS4 at launch.

Playstation 4 (PS4 2013) review

PLAYSTATION 4 (PS4)

Console

Sony

The Playstation 4, alongside the Xbox One marks the consoles entry into a whole new generation, and so the console wars begin. Witch do you choose? In the past generation, the battle has been fierce between Microsoft’s and Sony’s flagship consoles. In the end the PS3 caught up and has currently sold more consoles in total than the Xbox 360, but not by a long shot and the debate is still going strong about witch is the better console. However now gamers have a whole new round coming for them, and it seems to me it’s a little bit more straight forward this time around. In the past generation, both console had pro’s and con’s, as will the One and the PS4, but i feel it’s now slightly easier to compare the two. But first let me be clear; this is not a PS4 vs. Xbox One post. I have played both consoles, but i don’t yet own an xbox one, and thusly i have not spent enough time with it to feel comfortable writing a review of it. One thing you can know for sure is i will not post a review unless i actually know the product. That is for a «my thoughts» style post. The PS4 however, does have some pretty strong pro’s, and quite frankly not a lot of cons, so let’s dwell into them.

As you know, this is the 8th generation of consoles («next-gen»). The PS3 was released over 7 years ago. This means there are some improvements that are extremely obvious. The hardware is many times more powerful, in every way. Technology has improved very significantly over tha past 7 years, and this is something we can really notice from just your first few minutes of usage. For instance: on the PS3, loading in the Cross Media Bar (the main menu, referred to as XMB) would take anywhere from 5 - 10. Logging into Playstation network (PSN) would take about the same. On the PS4, the main menu is usually loaded so fast it feels instantaneously. The moment you press log in after selecting your profile, you see a 1-2 second long zoom-in style opening animation and you’r good to go. Logging into PSN happens equally fast. It’s a seamless, free-flowing experience that instantly gives you a satisfaction. You truly feel that this is next-gen. Navigating the re-designed menu is also a blast. I was one who was extremely fond of the XMB. I always knew where everything was. It was easy to use and navigate, but now it feels like old, clunky news. The PS4’s redesigned menu is better in every way, and not just because it’s faster. You have much easier access to the things you care about. It puts a great focus on games, having them clearly centered on the main screen. Beyond that, a very practical feature is the all new notification center.   All uploads and downloads ongoing can be found there, along side general notifications such as friend requests, trophies recently earned, players met and so on. There are still some bugs to be corrected here though. Aside from the customary day-one patch, and a very minor one a few days later to correct one or two bugs from the previous, there hasn’t been a general patch yet. This is quite usual though; a new OS, app or game tends to lack optimization when released. This normally comes after one to three weeks has passed since launch so we needn’t worry, but right now there are some transitions on the menu where it sticks and lags a bit. Especially in the PSN store, where surprisingly the performance isn’t that significant upgraded since the disappointment it was on PS3. It was released as a test on Sony’s previous console, but the PS3 lacked the performance to run the esthetic but rather power-demanding software. On the Playstation 4 it is better, but it still lags significantly. This surprised me quite a bit, seeing as most everything else runs so smoothly, except for a very few lags in need of optimization.

Of course the main selling point for a new generation is the specs, and holy **** does the graphics look good. It’s one thing to see a trailer or compressed gameplay on youtube. It’s another thing entirely to be in game, seeing it on a large-scale full HD TV. Exploring for yourself. Seeing every gorgeous little detail simply can’t be described. No, it’s not a leap forward equal to the one from PS2 to PS3, but it’s deeper than that. We already had breathtaking visuals, but they lacked something. Drawdistance, rendering quality and minor details. All those little things that completes the immersion can now be found thanks to the powerful next-gen hardware. What truly excites me is that this is only the beginning. Just compare the graphics between the first PS3 games and the newest. The difference is insane. When we get such breathtaking visuals at the very beginning of the next generation i don’t dare think what we will have in a few years. Just take a look at Frostbite 3, the engine running, amongst other games, Battlefield 4. The developers talks about how the engine takes a lot of work of their hands. They now have the hardware to let the engine have pre-programed certain effects related to complicated lighting and water effects. With them learning how to make and use that sort of engines better, and learning to optimize for the next-gen consoles, we’ll see some truly beautiful games. It will also lead to even lower budget games with shorter developer cycles to look stunning and have less bugs. It becomes easier for developers to think less about how they’re gonna pull off their ideas, and think more about perfecting their ideas. We’re gonna see better games, and thats another thing that should drive you towards buying a next-gen console, witch ever one it is.

As mentioned, the specs is probably the main selling point for purchasing a next gen system. One of the main things to determine witch system, is the controller, and this is a point the PS4 takes home in a big way. The PS3 had a fierce, but generally loosing battle against the 360 controller, but they both had pro’s and con’s. The Xbox 360 controller had and excellent shape that fit in your hand naturally. The Dualshock 3 didn’t. What the PS3 controller could front with though, was having well-designed buttons. On the 360 the buttons where slippery, uncomfortable and not accurate. Additionally, the D-pad was a disaster. With the Playstation 4, Sony redesigned the controller completely. They kept the amazingly tight and perfectly designed buttons, but fixed the controllers overall shape to truly fit in your hand. It’s significantly bigger and feels much more comfortable to hold, in every imaginable way. They added a texture to the bottom, providing some ventilation making it less prone to feel sweaty even during long gaming sessions, they fixed the trigger-buttons so you’r no longer going to slip of when pushing them and they made the joysticks much tighter and more comfortable. Even though logic dictates it’s the specs, as a private person i’ll say the Dualshock 4 controller is the best new feature of the Playstaion 4. It just feels so natural in your hand.

The PS4 also packs a Share-function. It has built-in a function that constantly records your gameplay. At any time you can press the new share-button on the controller, edit and upload the last 15 minutes of gameplay. You also get a screenshot of your current moment in-game. Additionally you can livestream your gameplay with both in-game audio and if you so desire, your microphone audio and/or live video of your face using the playstation EYE camera. You can stream directly to either Twitch or Ustream and connecting to your account is very easy. One complaint i have though is that the recorded gameplay can only uploaded to Facebook and not youtube. This is slightly weird. There has been talk about Sony adding youtube-compatibility in the near future, but for now it’s a lacking feature. Furthermore, for now you can’t record gameplay with an external capture device thru the HDMI port. This however, Sony have confirmed they’re working on and that it will be added very soon. Thusly; people hoping to upload their PS4 gameplay, and who doesn’t wan’t to upload it to facebook, download it from there and then put it on youtube, there is no need to get a different console just for this. There are also work-arounds in form of adapters that you can use in the mean time. Once they fix the youtube-compatibility it will be far more practical as well. You won’t need to have tons of extra cables and you won’t need yet another box underneath your TV to record and publish your gameplay. An average youtube gaming video counts less than 10 minutes, meaning you have plenty to go on here; and once they make it so that your livestreams are saved and uploaded once your done, you can use Twitch or Ustream to post longer podcast style videos.

I have a very hard time deciding what’s best about the Playstation 4. I know i said earlier logic dictates it’s specs but that i personally feel it’s the controller. The truth is; it’s neither. What’s best about the Playstation 4 is the whole package. It feels like Sony thought of everything. Although there are a few here things i miss, it’s mainly talk about features Sony has confirmed they’re working on. I know i can’t give the console credit for having those features right now, but i don’t feel i can quite count them missing. All in all, the PS4 really is the complete package. It has amazing specs, a superb new controller packing a excellently integrated share-function and the menu has been redesigned to look, navigate and feel amazing. I need to congratulate Sony on creating an absolutely amazing console. And i’ll give the Playstation 4 an official score of 90/100. Not perfect and in need of some patches, but these are coming and even before they arrive the console is wonderful experience at a very comfortable price. This is a must-own, and i feel confident saying it’s my next-gen console of choice.