Rogue Trooper
Futuristic otherworldly military vengeance – he’s blue, angry, and armed
Tags: Rogue Trooper Categories: PS2 Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Michael Hanning on Jun 23rd, 2006
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Rogue Trooper (title page) | 1 | ||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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The planet Nu-Earth is caught in an eternal war. Nortland is at war with the Southers for control of a hub of intergalactic travel, and years of chemical warfare has turned Nu Earth into a toxic hell. The Southers finally created the ultimate soldier, designed to survive any toxin and thrive in this unique war. You play as one of these ultimate soldiers – an angry blue man with his shirt off.
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Rogue Trooper is based on a long running comic that appeared in 2000 AD and comes with a well developed story and world. You play as Rogue (that’s his name, really), a Genetic Infantryman designed to end the war. On their first mission, the entire Genetic Infantry is wiped out except one survivor. Rather than return to his country and await further orders, he turns rogue and sets out for revenge, setting into motion one of the more tightly plot-based 3rd person shooters I’ve seen in a long time.
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Visually the game is as good as it gets for the PS2. In the first mission takes place under the night sky with a series of great effects including the wormholes in space that Nu Earth is fighting over, along with expansive environments full of what looks for all the world like a genuine war. Later environments such as the city are absolutely amazing, pushing the PlayStation 2 to the furthest it can go. Some stages, noticeably the indoor ones, are repetitive and uninspiring, but the good far outweighs the bad there. Unfortunately the game shuttles you from place to place pretty directly, some free roaming in these environments would have been much appreciated.
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No matter how good the graphics are, Rogue Trooper would be nothing without solid gameplay, and it has that in spades. Rogue comes with such a wide variety of moves that no two buttons on the controller do the same thing, and almost all of them are used. This gives you options when you play – you can sneak behind your enemies and take them out with Tenchu-style kill moves, you can snipe them from a distance and never face combat, and with the wall-hugging and blindfire options that even in firefights you’ll never be exposed to much danger.
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If having too many moves sounds confusing, it’s really not – the game introduces each element one by one, giving you ample time to get used to every new development. On the other hand, the game runs into kind of a problem there – the game will keep encouraging you to use things like blindshooting or your stealth kills, but you really don’t have to. Rogue’s an absolute tank who regenerates most of his damage. Until you try it on the harder difficulties there isn’t much point to using all of his abilities when a Rambo-style charge will do the job.
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The items you carry are a good part of what gives the game its real personality. When a GI dies his personality is embedded on a biochip that can be inserted to another GI’s equipment. You start the game with a slot on your bag, your helmet and your gun, and three buddies named Bagman, Helm and Gunnar. I’m sure you can see where this is going. Once they’re attached to your equipment they give you new abilities, advice and a thousand chances to make Blue Man Group jokes. Gunnar will auto-aim and can be set up as an auto-turret, Helm can decode doors and project holograms to draw enemy fire. Bagman is the one with the biggest impact on gameplay, as he manufactures your items and upgrades.
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Rather than going with the traditional scavenging method employed by most shooting games this one lets you choose what to make. Rogue picks up salvage from enemies and in a few piles lying around. Pressing select brings up a menu where you can turn the salvage into ammo, upgrades and health packs. This gives you freedom to use your favorite weapons instead of relying on what’s laying around. This comes with a side effect of thinking like an economist while you fight, trying to figure out how many shotgun troops you have to take out to pay for the clip you used and a medpack.
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The sound in Rogue Trooper is another reasonably high point. Three of the characters only exist as disembodied voices and they’re all easily distinguishable from one another. The music is subdued, but appropriate. My only complaint is that your Nortland enemies all comes with a vague German accent that makes no sense in a space war.
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Extras are a place that Rogue Trooper really shines. There’s an encyclopedia of Nu Earth, including the cast members, infantry types, weapons, vehicles, everything that you encounter as you play. You unlock extra information with the more salvage you pick up. You’ll get profiles, descriptions and even comic art – if you were wondering just how faithful Rogue Trooper is to its origins, you’ll find out here.
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Rogue Trooper isn’t ever going to be a blockbuster, but it’s a solid game that I have no qualms recommending. There are probably better 3rd-person games coming soon for the Xbox 360, but PlayStation 2 owners will be hard-pressed to find a better future action shooter full of blue men.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
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+ Great visuals. + The variety of moves lets you play it however you want. + Talking equipment and comic book universe give the game a unique flavor. |
8.0 |
| What Doesn't | |
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- Levels are too linear. - Single-player campaign is pretty short. |
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| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| One of the best sci-fi military shooters that the PS2 has seen. It's short, but with high replay value and a lot of extra content. | |
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Tags: Rogue Trooper
Posted by Michael Hanning on Jun 23rd, 2006 and is filed under PS2 Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
