![]() “Gaming in its purest form is not about cutscenes, story, or how many radio stations you have in your car: it’s about reflexes, performance, adrenaline, the determination to conquer an obstacle and pull off unbelievable stunts. “When we discuss how to present our games to audiences that are more used to, say, Call of Duty, we like to describe Housemarque’s output with ‘This is gaming,’” says De Benetti. It’s this old school approach that has led some to be critical of Sony staking so much on Resogun as a launch title for its shiny new next-gen hardware. It’s shaping up to be a dizzying arcade experience, geared very much toward old-fashioned high score chasing and online leaderboards. It certainly earns its capitalised title. That’s all while epileptic explosions and spectacular pyrotechnics erupt around your ship as you power up your weaponry and unleash iridescent hell. Although the focus is on destroying oncoming alien hoards in spectacular fashion, an extra layer has been added to the gameplay whereby players are required to rescue humans and deposit them into escape pods. It promises to be an intense learning process. You just can’t keep doing the same stuff over and over, because the game will teach you better.” Each time you go up a notch you’ll have to figure out new strategies to score high and survive. “We planned the difficulty levels making sure each of them will change the way you experience the game. To see this content please enable targeting cookies. De Benetti is quick to stress that Resogun is designed to cater for all skill levels. Of course, the risk is that broadening the appeal will alienate that niche audience to which steep difficulty is essential to the experience. With Resogun we wanted to make a game anyone can pick up.” “If you look at the Japanese schmup scene,” says De Benetti, “you have a bunch of excellent games that only a small niche of players knows by name, and an even smaller niche of players who are actually able to enjoy them because they get really hard really fast. The developer is aiming to use their expertise to take Resogun to players who might only be accustomed to mainstream triple-A experiences. Still, Housemarque has exceptional form in the genre, their portfolio boasting Super Stardust HD and Super Stardust Delta HD. The real question is how many players still feel nostalgic for a genre known to aficionados as ‘schmups.’ Such games long ago tumbled out of the mainstream, and the younger generation crucial to this console battle is unlikely to miss them, or even known that they existed. The way things went, there’s a good possibility Resogun will rekindle the love for shoot ‘em ups for millions of players – from day one of a new generation cycle. “All of a sudden Resogun is getting a lot more attention. “Actually we see that as a very big opportunity,” says Housemarque’s community manager Tomasso De Benetti. Housemarque hasn't let the pressure get to it. It’ll be available from day one for all PS Plus subscribers, and, with a dearth of exclusives, Sony will have its fingers crossed that it proves to be a killer app. After high profile delays drastically thinned the PlayStation 4 launch line-up, the game has found itself in the somewhat unlikely position of headliner. The game is ready to blast off, and the Finnish studio is doing everything in its power to take advantage of an incredible opportunity.Īfter all, there’s a surprising amount of pressure on Resogun to deliver the goods. It's preparing to launch its frenetic side-scrolling shooter alongside PlayStation 4 this month, and it's busier than ever before. Not that Resogun developer Housemarque is complaining. So, it turns out that being an exclusive launch title in arguably the most heated console war yet is a little bit stressful. The spiritual successor to the Super Stardust games, also developed by Finnish indie Housemarque.įree to PlayStation Plus members at launch.Ī visually impressive side-scrolling shoot-'em-up (schmup) which does some clever things with the PS4's hardware. Dave Owen has stars in his eyes as he chats with developer Housemarque. PS4's first must-have digital release is Resogun, a new schmup following in the footsteps of Super Stardust.
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