|
 |
|
| | Title:
Rogue Trooper
..............................................
System:
Playstation 2
..............................................
Genre:
Action
..............................................
Publisher:
Eidos Interactive
..............................................
Developer:
Rebellion
..............................................
Release:
May 24, 2006
..............................................
Online:
Yes
..............................................
ESRB:
Teen (T)
..............................................
 |
Rogue Trooper is the sort of game that aims for something really big and manages to achieve something a little above sub-par. The game follows the adventure of a G.I. who’s gone rogue, and happens to be named Rogue. During the battle in the first stage, three of Rogue’s friends (Bagman, Gunnar and Helm) die and become part of his equipment. Bagman gets drilled to death and becomes a chip attached to Rogue’s backpack. Gunnar gets gunned down from behind and becomes Rogue’s chip-guided gun, which can become a stationary turret players can deploy. Finally, Helm gets poisoned and tortured to death, conveniently becoming Rogue’s helmet-guided chip as a result.
For those unfamiliar with 2000 AD, you might find it difficult to understand what Rogue Trooper is all about. 2000 AD is a series of comic strips--released weekly--and very popular in Britain; Rogue Trooper was originally created in 1981 as a comic book. The premise of the story (both the comic and game) takes place on Nu Earth Circa, a futuristic wasteland plagued with incessant wars. The air is no longer breathable without purifier masks, and no one is more suited to the environment than the genetically enhanced, blue-colored troops. The story itself follows the exploits of a genetically enhanced soldier with “bio-chips” implanted in him, which embodied the personas of three fallen companions. His mission was to track down and deal with a traitorous General. The G.I.’s (the genetically altered soldiers) unique traits included abilities such as an immunity to chemical warfare of any kind. All of this still holds true in the video game. Rogue’s quest to get revenge against the general who betrayed him and his fallen friends is the driving force behind the game’s plot, just as it is in the comic.
The main enemy in the game is the Nort Republic, and they are intent on destroying the Southers. Throughout the game, players will help the Southers and in turn, they’ll help provide cover fire or dispatch a couple of enemies for you. This aspect of the story is quite thin, and the game’s real interest is in the character dichotomies and personalities. The only problem is that in this game, Rogue’s rival(s) don’t really butt heads with him often, and for the most part this leaves the game feeling a bit blank. While Halo, Half Life 2 and Fear focused much of the gameplay on elements in relation to the story, the problem with Rogue Trooper is almost the opposite--much of the gameplay consists of shooting and running and sneaking and more shooting, but rarely does any of it have relevance to the actual story. The intensity for many firefights was missing, and this made the shoot-outs seem dull. There were some moments where the actual story affected the action on-screen, and that made those segments very fun. However, most of the time I found myself getting a bit bored with the repetitive tactics required for dispatching very competent enemies in a less-than-competent scenario.
This is not to rant on the stage design at all, as each level is very highly detailed and vast...immensely vast. It’s a bit shocking to know that such large levels could fit onto the current-gen consoles without loading during the gameplay. The texture mapping is superb, and the cover-points (areas designed for flanking) and obstructions for laying heavy suppression fire on opponents are excellent. The maps require very similar tactics to those you might find in Brothers in Arms. Yet simultaneously, the gameplay itself allows for players to run-and-gun as they please. There’s even multiple routes through some areas, and the gameplay is entirely replayable based on different methods available for completing a stage. Kudos to the designers for making the stages so multi-versatile, so gamers who prefer stealth can use stealth and those who prefer all-out-action can stick with that method. If there was a drawback, though, to the latter tactic it would have to be in the stiff response for getting around areas quickly.
While Rogue can dive and jump, he doesn’t get bullet-time Max Payne, have the jet-pack like in Battlefront II and he’s not as agile as Sam Fisher; controlling him seems like moving around a soldier who is heavily weighted down. Maybe that was the feel Rebellion was going for? Who knows. Overall, it just made it difficult to jump out in the open and take on several guys at one time. It wasn’t necessarily the controls, just the fact that the pace of the game is measured by the speed of Rogue, and he doesn’t move very fast.
The control scheme itself is straightforward, though. The digital pad allows players to change weapons, grenade types, and apply a self-med tool. Players can hide up against walls, duck for cover, peep around corners, dive in all directions, climb, snipe and perform stealth attacks. Tossing grenades is also fairly simple, but requires a bit of a learning curve, as it is a mix between EA’s third-person 007 games and Brother in Arms. For aimed grenade throwing it takes time to line up the throw and that can seriously work against players in a heated firefight. However, tossing grenades from behind an object is quite simple, and Rogue automatically throws the grenade in the enemies’ direction. How effective the grenade is depends on the kind that’s being used. There’s a handful of different grenades, and each made for a different purpose. The most innovative would have to be the sticky bomb, which could be attached to any surface--even an enemy. When shot, the sticky bomb will explode, and when attached to a foe, him and any of his nearby buddies get blasted too.
There’s also a number of gun-variations (since Rogue only use one gun) which can be obtained and upgraded. For example: a sniper-rifle which can be upgraded to support longer ranges and larger clips, a shotgun, a ground-to-air missile, a machine gun, a pistol, mines, a mortar, and an electrocution weapon that goes by the name of a “beam rifle.” The new weapons can only be obtained and upgraded during designated parts of the game. Added to this, upgrades can only take place by acquiring blue-prints and salvage scattered throughout the stages.
Salvage is also used to refill and upgrade med-kits, grenades, mines, Rogue’s helmet and Rogue's backpack. More importantly, though, salvage is used to gather ammo. Without salvage, there’s no ammo. Why Rogue couldn’t take the enemy weapons is beyond me, but he seems to manage well with the parts from their guns. Bagman--Rogue’s backpack--can create or refill ammo for Rogue’s weapons. The pistol is the only weapon that doesn’t have a finite amount of ammo, although it still has to be reloaded. Strangely, next to the sniper rifle, the pistol was the most accurate and well-rounded weapon in the game. Had it been fitted with the sniper rifle’s silencer, the pistol would have been golden for acquiring normal and stealth kills.
The only problem I found with stealth kills, though, is that it’s very, very difficult to get behind enemies on the maps. When a stealth kill is pulled off (good luck with that), players are treated to a pre-set sequence showing Rogue brutally killing his foe. Players are also awarded extra salvage for not damaging the enemy’s equipment. There’s also a melee attack which Rogue can use when up close, but the AI normally moves back and away to avoid being clobbered on the head. Most of their tactics are sound and challenging, and the AI is quite good for a game of this kind. Unlike Halo, if one enemy is alerted not all the others are alerted in that area. Instead, the enemies in Rogue Trooper just yell out that one of their men has been hit, and he needs support (think Farcry). If more than one enemy spots the player, they will work cohesively to flank or suppress Rogue; tossing grenades, issuing commands to secure the area by circling the perimeter or using snipers for cover fire are just a few of the tactics they use. Surprisingly, if players manage to take out the top-ranking soldier in the group, they are more susceptible to fleeing, or ducking and hiding.
Players can also utilize certain tactics for drawing the attention of a group of soldiers. For instance, shooting the oxygen tank on the back of a soldier will cause him to panic and run around before being blown sky-high. When others go to investigate, using the silencer players can pick them off one-by-one without ever being spotted. The only thing I had to watch out for is that when the tank on the soldier’s back blew, they could fly in any direction due to the rag-doll physics. If he happened to land near my position, then my stealthy plan of attack would be ruined. Still, it’s an awful lot of fun watching how the soldiers react to the effect of grenades and explosives. Rebellion did a good job trying to make the soldiers scramble for cover before being blasted half-way across the screen. The physics aren’t over-done or over-the-top, though; rag-doll effects are almost entirely appropriate for the results of each gun, melee attack, or explosive device.
Apart from the rag-doll physics, the characters were all very well animated. Albeit, the animations weren’t entirely complimented by the graphics. To put it bluntly, Rogue Trooper doesn’t break any boundaries for the Xbox when it comes to graphics. However, it does retain an appealing visual look which works well for the game’s setting. The vehicles, objects, and characters blend in well with the beautifully designed maps, too. The only real downside graphically would be the stationary water effects. They looked quite awful at the beginning of the game, but Rebellion saved face with an amazing waterfall display later in the game.
The visual effects for the weapons are also quite nice, providing players with various smoke, muzzle and spark effects for each weapon. The explosions are exceptionally well-done, and when they happen too close to the player it causes the screen to blur and the sound to fade. There’s even a minor “ringing” in the ears caused from the disorientation. Most of the weapons have well-sampled audio effects--especially the pistol. The one gun I was sorely disappointed with--whether silenced or upgraded--was the machine gun. This gun sounds unbelievably weak in this game, and I have no idea why the sound editors didn’t give the machine gun the sort of audible-kick the pistol had. The turret guns, “Hell Cannons” and flak cannons were also pretty cool, both visually and audibly. The “Hell Cannons” along with the “Blast Tanks” really gave the visual aspects of Rogue Trooper a very close resemblance to the comic book.
In one neat scene, Rogue had to use the flak cannons, turret guns and every other means available during a rail-shooting segment. While it was the sort of intensity that could never be captured in the pages of a comic book, it was definitely one of the finest moments of the game. There were several rail shooting segments, most of which is standard fare in the video game world. However, the train chase was simply remarkable; players can use whatever means possible to stop bandits from boarding the train on bi-pedal creatures. Players will also find themselves tangling with and fending off waves of bombers, stationary mortars, attack ships, mercenaries and several outpost full of Norts. The entire stage is frantic, fast and massive! If I had to give any single reason to play Rogue Trooper, that stage alone would be enough.
Rogue Trooper also boasts a multiplayer feature. However, one shouldn’t hold their breath for anything spectacular. As expected, a two-player co-op mode can be played on the same system. Much to the likes of EA’s James Bond: Everything or Nothing’s coop mode, it’s entirely separate from the single-player campaign. One or two players can pick from Bagman, Gunnar, Rogue or Helm. While the co-op is cool and mirrors the single-player’s gameplay elements, I can’t help but wonder why there wasn’t a four-player deathmatch mode included. There is a four-player co-op mode available via system link and Xbox Live, though, so all is not lost. More players will probably find the four-player co-op more fun, mainly because the maps were setup for four-players, the intensity is great and the layouts are perfect. The only problem is that the maps seem a bit empty and very hard to beat with just two people.
Overall, Rogue Trooper’s single player action is at best decent due to the fluctuations of some stages being intense and others being boring. The multiplayer mode is a good addition, even if it is limited compared to other titles in the genre. Gaining score/salvage allows for unlockable cheats and other goodies (including biographies of characters, story descriptions, concept art, and comic pages) which adds to the replay value (which is very important in today’s age of gaming). This game could have been better had it been more like a comic-book rather than a cross between Brother in Arms and Killswitch. Even with the musical score being intense and very moody, it didn’t stop some segments from being somewhat dull. Maybe on the next installment there will be more comic book gaming elements. Something a bit more like THQ’s rendition of The Punisher, for example. Nevertheless, Rogue Trooper is still a very solid shooter most action fans should at least check out.
| The Core Score |
Overall
8.7 |
| Fun |
|
7.8 |
| Gameplay |
|
9.5 |
| Graphics |
|
6 |
| Audio |
|
8.8 |
| Replay |
|
7.9 |
|
| | | |
