Voxels, they’re the new pixels apparently and you’ll see a lot of them in HouseMarque’s new game. The screen explodes with them whenever you shoot down enemies or take out Resogun’s immense bosses, delivering an astonishing spectacle of colour that will melt your retinas.

Of course the most delicious irony of Resogun is that the PlayStation 4’s must have exclusive is one that’s based on 33-year old game design. Still if you’re going to borrow from other games, then Defender is the perfect place to start.

Bombs clear everything on screen. Careful though, you may lose your multiplier if you get your timing wrong.

But it would be churlish to accuse Resogun of simply taking ideas for Eugene Jarvis’s classic blaster, as it adds plenty of its own neat touches, mainly revolving around Resogun’s neat scoring mechanic. Shoot an enemy and as well as exploding into lots of voxels, it will start a score multiplier that will slowly build to 20 and reset if too much time passes. Needless to say you’ll need to learn enemy attack waves to ensure you can maintain the highest scores.

Chains can be extended through careful boosting (which is in itself a neat risk vs reward system) while a screen clearing smart bomb also helps you hold onto that precious multiplier. You can also unleash a devastating attack for several seconds that can potentially send your score into the stratosphere. Eventually you’ll lose your multiplier however and how quickly you regain it does seem to depend on where you are in the game (one of Resogun’s few weaknesses).

There are three distinct ships in Resogun and they all handle differently to each other. Our favourite is slower, but lets you stay in Overdrive for longer.

Another neat feature are the pilots that are released if you fail to shoot down a wave of green enemies. Leave them too long and enemies will take them away, further diminishing your points at the end of each stage. Luckily you can pick them up and take them to drop off points to boost your score, or fling them at said drop off points for an even higher bonus.

Resogun certainly isn’t perfect, but it’s a highly rewarding score chaser that’s filled with plenty of neat little touches and some epic boss battles. The fact PSN+ members makes it even more unmissable.

Score: 84%

Bosses are superbly designed and need a fair amount of skill to defeat. 

Tags: housemarque, PlayStation 4, PS4, resogun, review, reviews, shooter-em-up