The PlayStation 4 launched almost two weeks ago, and amongst the turmoil, one dispute has taken over: “what games should I play?”. Launch window titles tend to be less memorable and shorter, but not all is lost. Finnish developer Housemarque has released a game that is both unique and addictive.
Resogun, heralded as a spiritual successor to the well-received Super Stardust series, is an arcade shooter that moves horizontally around a city, protecting humans from the enemy.
CGMagazine were recently able to speak to Housemarque’s community manager Tommaso De Benetti about the switch from PS3 to PS4. De Benetti says “the voxel technology behind the game is very hardware intensive. So much, in fact, that Mark Cerny (the lead architect behind PS4 and Vita) himself was complimenting the team for how they used PS4’s GPUs. So if we were to develop Resogun on another platform, we would have to cut some corners or at least compromise on pure visual spectacle.”
Though it’s clear that Housemarque has recently found a home in the arcade shooter genre, they have also delved into other areas of the medium, including racing, golf, snowboarding and platforming. In an interview with EDGE Online, Housemarque also confessed they were developing an action adventure game for the PS2 back in 2004, but it never saw the light of day.
When asked about whether they should switch genres in the future, De Benetti said “I don’t think the common denominator of Housemarque’s games is “being shooters” (see Outland for example), I see it more as being true to the roots, and mostly gameplay-focused. I believe you’ll see us playing around with other genres in the future. One thing we can’t probably do right now is match Naughty Dog at making a story-heavy third person action-adventure. They are just too good at that, and our strengths lie elsewhere.”
Housemarque still have one more exclusive PS4 game to make, but be sure to check CGMagazine’s website for more info on Resogun. We here at CGM are loving it.