Rogue Trooper – Review

Rogue Trooper is based upon the comic story of the same name that has been a longstanding regular in 2000AD. The game’s story is centered on a conflict that takes place on a war-scarred ‘Nu Earth’ between two rival factions called the Norts and the Southers. After massive amounts of chemical fallout have rendered the planet almost uninhabitable without breathing apparatus, the Southers engineer genetically intelligent (G.I.) warriors who can function freely within the poisoned atmosphere. The tide of the war looks set to turn with the orbital introduction of the Southers’ new troops, but when a Souther General suddenly turns traitor, the dispersal of the G.I.s becomes a massacre thanks to a Nort trap. Down on the surface, those G.I.s who landed safely are hunted and killed by superior numbers. All but one, and his name is Rogue.

Choosing to ignore direct orders to return to Souther Command, the last surviving G.I. promptly retrieves the genetic chips from his three fallen squad mates and transplants them into his weapon, helmet, and backpack. By so doing, he stores their personalities within his equipment and also imbues it with their experience and skill. Rogue is therefore armed with a ‘spiritual’ squad who can provide remote covering fire and auto-aim guidance, produce weaponry upgrades and ammunition from processed scrap parts, and hack into secure systems and pilot various vehicles. Tooled for the job ahead, Rogue embarks across the chemical wastelands in search of the traitorous General responsible for the demise of the G.I.s. To the Norts who lie in wait for Rogue’s arrival, he’s the last G.I. that stands between them and assured victory. To the Southers who rest on the verge of defeat, he’s a ‘Rogue Trooper’.

In terms of core gameplay, Rogue Trooper is a faux strategic third-person shooter that’s somewhat imbalanced thanks to the inclusion of an overwhelmingly first-person action dynamic. The obvious strengths of Rogue’s portable squad ‘should’ see players implementing subtle tactics to carve a constant sense of progression (using the squad elements to prepare and execute squad-specific tactics is certainly possible) but the immediacy of the game’s accessible ‘all guns blazing’ attitude rarely requires tactical usage. For example, Rogue can set up his trusty rifle on a portable remote stand, at which point ‘Gunnar’ takes over and surveys the area for targets, allowing Rogue to use his sidearm and sneak further into any given area safe in the knowledge that his back is covered. But success can also be achieved by simply wading in armed with the rifle and Gunnar’s aiming assistance. Rogue’s equipment can be used to introduce strategic forethought (if so desired), but its use never feels necessary beside open gunplay, or comes anywhere close to reaching the levels of interaction laid down by the likes of Brothers in Arms or Full Spectrum Warrior. Indeed, Gunnar (rifle chip), Bagman (backpack chip), and Helm (helmet chip), are never really given the opportunity to shine beyond their immediate gameplay strengths, handy battle warnings, and entertaining banter.

Therefore it’s not surprising to learn that Rogue Trooper’s gameplay is action packed from the outset as hordes of single-minded Norts seek to erase the final vestige of Souther hope. Duly following the evolutionary ground rules of the shooter genre, weaponry in Rogue Trooper is initially restricted to a bare bones arsenal, but Bagman’s constant scrap processing soon garners bigger and better tools of the trade for Rogue. Character movement is fairly responsive across the game’s varied environments and Rogue can nimbly scale rocky walls, clamber up leveled platforms, and negotiate obstacles to further widen the gameplay beyond the simple mechanic of ‘running and gunning’. Rogue is also able to cleverly utilise cover when under heavy Nort fire, and he can even lean out and target specific enemies or merely place his weaponry in the open and fire blind. Sadly, grenade usage while behind cover can be somewhat precarious due to the on-screen throw trajectory occasionally faltering when seemingly clear targeting paths cause grenades to bounce off cover and land at Rogue’s feet.

E3’s uncovering of next-generation hardware, namely Sony’s PlayStation 3, Nintendo’s Wii, and the already established Xbox 360, mean that Rogue Trooper looks a little grey in the gills on a PlayStation 2 platform that experienced its heyday quite some time ago. Graphically, the game is sometime guilty of appearing like a PSOne title, which may seem a little harsh, but the PlayStation 2 is capable of so much more—one only need look at the likes of Black or Shadow of the Colossus to see proof of that. In-game cut scenes, animation, explosions, and atmospherics are all passable but never evoke genuine bursts of player admiration, and individual level designs and texturing also feel somewhat undercooked in the ‘wow’ department. Rogue Trooper doesn’t look bad in the sense that Zathura or The Plan look bad, but the PlayStation 2 leaves the whole package feeling like an underachiever amid dirty and jagged visuals. Music and effects are also acceptable without ever really prompting bursts of soundtrack-related adrenaline or explosion-induced ducking and diving from the player. Deaf gamers can follow the narrative through accompanying subtitles and guiding textual pop-ups, though sadly the squad’s idle banter shared by Rogue, Gunnar, Bagman, and Helm is lost.

Beyond the single-player campaign, which, though not as glossy as it could have been, is still an enjoyable enough third-person distraction, Rogue Trooper also offers up Ethernet Network play for up to 4 people and a wealth of game-related extras that are unlocked in relation to player performance. Each level ends with a statistical sheet that breaks down everything from damage taken and damage delivered, to headshots and scrap collected. The better a player’s assessment, the more goodies are unlocked. These extras include the cinematic sequences from the game and also a multitude of entries to the Nu-Earth Encyclopaedia, which covers in-depth background information, character profiles, and mechanical data that pertain to 2000AD’s Rogue Trooper universe.

Rogue Trooper’s central character is definitely male—as are the rescued personalities of his three imbued squad mates—and the trademark brooding machismo that goes hand-in-hand with gun-toting males (Max Payne, Master Chief, Sam Fisher, et al) is certainly in effect throughout the game. There’s an intriguingly nasty female Nort that makes an appearance during the opening act, and she certainly seems like an interesting character, but alas she’s quickly thrown from the narrative before any development is allowed to take place. Nope, Rogue Trooper is men, men, and more men. Sorry girls.

The bottom line with Rogue Trooper is that it sadly falls short of becoming a genuinely decent game. The single-player campaign is entertaining enough despite the rather throwaway nature of the game’s tactical elements, and the new ‘spiritual’ approach to the squad mechanic is certainly a unique attraction, yet the game still feels somehow unfinished. More aesthetic polish and more consideration injected into the tactical squad usage could have elevated Rogue Trooper as an excellent addition to the third-person shooter genre, but, as it is, no singular aspect truly shines, and the whole package emerges as the right side of satisfactory but nothing exceptional.

Review by Stevie