PS4 Launch Party - Look at All The Pretty Colours! A Resogun Review.

Written By: Tyler Selig

Rating: 8.5/10

Verdict: Extremely short but with a bunch of difficulty levels to suck you back in, Resogun is a nice throwback to the arcade shmups, but it does just enough to make it feel more modern.

            Resogun is another game that Playstation Plus members can get for free right now, and from what I can gather, it’s also the most consistently highest rated Playstation 4 launch exclusive. That’s pretty good when you consider it’s against things like Killzone: Shadow Fall. IGN gave it a 9, Destructoid gave it a 9.5, Gamespot gave it an 8 and Polygon gave it an 8.5. So is it worth the hype?

                Well, yeah, but I don’t think it’s the best of the exclusives (more on that at a later date). That doesn’t change one simple fact: Resogun is awesome.

                Coming from a more primitive time in games, I remember these types of games when they were plentiful. Before first-person shooters, we had games like Resogun, though they weren’t nearly as pretty. It’s not the most complicated genre to make, yet they end up being fun more often than not. Unfortunately it’s mostly been up to the indie game community to keep this particular dream alive.

                Resogun, despite being made on a budget that would make Infinity Ward laugh, manages to be a beautiful and engaging example of the genre. Your ships look fine, but not overly impressive, but that’s not where the visual magic is. Look at the backgrounds and see how well-designed they are, and watch how they crumble as each of the five levels progress. Look at all the pretty colours from enemies as you shoot them to bits. And even though you move from left to right, the levels go in a circle. Resogun is pretty much an orgy for your eyes.

                This also applies to the music, which isn’t overbearing but does a good job of putting you in the mood with the old-school flair. Mind you, I didn’t always notice it because of everything that was going on, but when I did, I was impressed.

                It was a little hard to pay attention to the music, and that’s the fault of the best aspect of the game. It’s crazy, and gets even more insane when you choose the higher difficulties. I found myself just neglecting to blink more often than not, and that’s how I know I’m zoned in. Which you have to be because at any given time you are looking every which way, trying to avoid enemies as they shoot at you or try to run into you. It’s never boring, and just when you think you can let up, enemies spawn all around you, or right on top of you… which is why you always have to move.

                Another reason you always have to move is because one of the bonus objectives of each level is to save humans. You do this by waiting for them to get released from their cage, and then you fly, pick them up, and return them to a portal/base thing in the sky. This gameplay choice makes the action even more hectic because I found myself trying to fly through groups of enemies just to save those ungrateful bastards. Don’t they know what I’m doing for them? The only problem I have is that I don’t know why they die in their cages sometime. I’m sure with research I could figure that out, but as of writing this, I’m not entirely sure.

                Resogun keeps the action simple. You can move in all four directions, but you can only shoot left and right. This harkens back to the old days, and I enjoyed that. They don’t leave you powerless though because you can expect to get upgrades, and they equip you with a boost that is useful for getting away from enemies, but also causes a small explosion when you use it. They also give you bombs which clear the stage of any enemy that is there when you use it, and an overdrive which is especially effective against bosses because it’s one massive honkin’ beam that does a ton of damage.

                I’m disappointed in the length because you really could complete it in two hours or less. If I was paying for it I’d probably knock it down a little bit. But as it stands right now, if you’re a new PS4 owner with the internet, you should be able to get it. And you should, because Resogun is special.

Warface Versus Mode First Impressions - WARFACE!

Written By: Tyler Selig      

Rating: 5/10    
Verdict: Warface does not set the FPS genre on fire, or even come close. It's not downright terrible but it's not really worth playing at this point.

"Bob, you're looking the wrong way."

               Free-to-play, free-to-play… the term invites the scorn of the video game community. I am not personally against it if it is done correctly and doesn’t become pay-to-win, but I will admit there aren’t as many games as one would hope that actually do it right. However, I have always maintained that free is free, and a little extra grind to be free is not a deadly sin, so long as it doesn’t go the Dust 514 route and take grinding to an extreme that makes the game a boring, uneven, waste of time. If a free-to-play can balance grinding to a reasonable level, make micro-transactions that make sense, and deliver a game with good gameplay mechanics, I’m all for it. But I am also aware of how difficult that is, especially in a genre as competitive as the shooter.

                But that isn’t stopping Crytek apparently.

                Warface is a PC first-person shooter with a silly name. Honestly, every review, preview or conversation about the game mentions how stupid the name is. It would probably be okay if it were a tongue-in-cheek cheek shooter. I’m picturing Timesplitters 4 actually being called Timesplitters 4: Warface… and that would work. They didn’t go that way however, and Warface is a military shooter, not that there are many of those around.

                This isn’t really meant to be a full review. It’s more of a first impressions type of thing, where I haven’t played the Co-Op yet, but have spent some time with the Versus mode and I want to get my opinions out there so all three of you who read this can rest easy knowing what I think about Warface.

                Warface.

                Warface.

                So can Warface make a claim for the military shooter throne? Does it topple Call of Duty or Battlefield? No. Even as a non-fan of CoD, I can tell you it doesn’t beat CoD.

                When you start the game you’re able to create a character, but there’s no depth to it. You pick from a template of faces and off you go. From there you will do basic training that nabs you some rewards, and then you are able to pick which channel you want to go in for multiplayer. Luckily you’re able to stay in Rookie quite a while, so you’re not really outgunned. I was able to stay somewhat competitive with people (and by competitive I mean I wasn’t 1 and 12, the first game I played was something like 15 and 20).

                You can choose between four classes, but unfortunately you have to unlock them as you go. It doesn’t take real long to do so, so that’s a bonus. The classes are simplistic: you can be a medic, a sniper, an engineer a typical assault class. All of these do what you’d expect.

                You can also choose a few different match types, but they run the gauntlet of generic. Team death match, free-for-all, plant the bomb, and capture the objective… all of these in other shooters, though obviously you’re always going to have death match. My point is, Warface doesn’t go out of its way to introduce anything new, innovative or even uncommon.

                The levelling up system is par for the course. Play matches, gain experience and money, unlock rewards. Or spend real money and do it faster. In my few hours of playing, Warface hasn’t suffered from me being at a disadvantage because I didn’t spend money, but I also haven’t progressed into the harder channels yet. However, judging from what I get for money and experience, it seems like it won’t be a huge issue. I could easily be wrong there. However, in a game like Dust 514, I could tell from very early on that it was going to be a problem.

                So you’re ready to go, and you want to shoot people, but is the game any fun? Yeah it’s okay. I saw a few people say how terrible the game was in the Gface chat, but it’s just painfully average at this point. It definitely feels free because the guns don’t have any real weight or intensity. Even the shotgun, which should feel extremely satisfying, doesn’t arouse any excitement.

                I’m very disappointed in the maps. They’re just so limited, similar and they’re small. Personally I enjoy a more tactical game where you’re not running into someone every step you take, but even if you’re a fan of this bodies on top of bodies style, Warface is problematic.

                Here’s the scenary in Team Deathmatch: Spawn, run to a choke point, shoot, die. Rinse, repeat. However, it’s also very easy to get spawnpoint killed. For any shooter, that is a serious offense. There are other elements at play that contribute to that, but it’s also a symptom of maps being too small.

                The game does try to encourage team work by allowing you to help people up into higher spots. It’s an alright mechanic that sets it apart from some other shooters, but it’s hardly a selling point. There is also an ability to run and slide, which I’ll admit made me enjoy the game quite a bit more. It is a blast running, sliding out from around the corner, and blasting someone in the face.

                Graphics aren’t something I put a lot of stock in, but as you’ve probably heard, it’s no Crysis. That’s fine because it means my computer can run it, but it’s not an ugly game. People are way too spoiled at this point so when they see a game like this they say the visuals are shit. But they’re decent and the animation is much more important than how beautiful the game looks. There aren’t really any complaints from me in that regard.

                The Co-Op mode could be fun, but I’m waiting on having a friend to play with, but as it stands now, Warface doesn’t have a whole hell of a lot going for it in the multiplayer component, which is what most people will play it for anyway.