The Therapist Gamer

In Resogun you pilot a ship around a sort of cylindrical map and blow up enemies.  Over time you get upgrades to your weapons and other ship systems.  The game uses voxels rather than polygons - what this means is that when you blow up something, it actually breaks down into it's component parts rather than just triggering a set animation or explosion.  The effect is impressive, especially with tens of thousands of little cubes bursting all over the place.

 

The map design is unique because while you generally concentrate on the area around your ship, you can actually see the entire play area at all times.  The levels have set enemy patterns but they spawn in relation to your ship, so the challenge is similar each time.  At first you will likely focus solely on survival, but you will soon realize that there are humans trapped in the level that you must save.  You don't have to save them, but there are goodies for you if you do.  In order to free a human you generally need to kill a certain group of enemies - they'll be highlighted in green.  You then need to fly over the human to pick it up and then take it to one of two collection points on the map.  Trying to save every human is a challenge for even the most hardcore of players!

 

You have the ability to use a burst of speed that will destroy all enemies in your path, but it needs to recharge over time.  You can also charge up an overdrive shot that shoots out a giant beam of energy that wipes out everything it touches.  These systems can be upgraded, and will be upgraded more quickly if you save humans.  You can also collect bombs which will destroy everything currently on the map.

 

At the end of each of the five stages is a boss.  They are all unique and quite tough, and will require you to think strategically about the best way to take them down.

 

Though the game can be completed in under an hour, Resogun is the type of game you'll probably return to again and again.  The gameplay is just so slick and the techno soundtrack is perfect.  Even though I'm not really into score-chasing I wanted to replay the game on tougher and tougher difficulties just to challenge myself.  On the hardest difficulty the enemies shoot homing bullets upon death - it's super challenging!  

 

In short, Resogun is amazing.  It's like Housemarque invented and perfected a new style of game at the same time!