Resogun is a classically styled shmup in the vein of titles like Defender. Instead of flying down a linear path, players are placed on a circular looping stage and have to fly back and forth to deal with continuously spawning enemies.
One thing that set this ps4 launch title apart from similar titles, aside from its voxel-based art style, was its objectives. It wasn't just asking to keep a high score and survive, the player had to free captive humans in each stage and carry them to safety.
Unfortunately, it's slightly unclear how to do so. A first-time player will see humans dying with no seeming cause or will be unsure why they can't unlock one of their cages. Thankfully, the rules behind the system, once explained, are pretty simple.
Freeing the Humans
To free humans in Resogun, the player just needs to kill keepers. These are special green enemies that spawn periodically across the map. The game warns the player when they arrive, the announcer saying, "Keepers detected."
The game does periodically throw a couple of wrenches into this process. The first is that certain humans can only be freed if the score multiplier is high enough. If the player attempts to free them while the multiplier is too low, the human dies instantly. The exact number it needs to be at varies between Resogun's multiple difficulty levels and stages.
The second hurdle is a challenge the game only introduces in the back half. Certain keepers have to be killed in a specific sequence. The current target will glow green, while the ones next in line will glow red. If the player accidentally kills a red one first, the human will once again die instantly.
Saving the Humans
Getting the humans out of the cage is only one half of the equation. From there, the player needs to escort them to one of Resogun's tractor beams, floating at the top edge of each level. Players can pick them up by flying close to them and can release them by either flying under the tractor beam or throwing them into it with the L2 Button.
This isn't something the player can procrastinate on. While the player can't hurt them, they can still die. A freed human will start wandering the map and either get recaptured by other aliens or fall into certain stages' bottomless pits. Thankfully, the moment a human is freed, a green arrow appears around the player's ship, pointing straight to the newly freed passenger.
Resogun is available now for PS3, PS4, and PS Vita.
