Rogue Trooper

This game is something I always wanted to play a long time ago and finally I managed to play this game on GoG DRM free. Glad I did. This game is amazing in what it was set out to do. It actually works when you have the right specs to run the game, and not having to do something extra to run this version of the game. There is the redux version where it is basically a remaster of the game that allows more up'd resolution options for modern systems. The controls itself is very responsive as it should be so no problem there. Gameplay is good, it is ascethic is pleasing of what it is going for. You can approach each battlefield with different tactics that can be stealthy, or guns blazing with the weapons. It is good enough to not feel like you are sloggin through the game and enjoyable. The game ending is something where I feeling personally there is no need for a sequel. It was created and put out at a time where games in that era had their own charm and personality. I recommend it for those that are interested in old games. It does come on sale every now and then. I can't say how this game is compared to the redux version, but I'd say get this one if you want to see the game what it was supposed to look like with nostalgic glasses.

I got this on sale at gog, but I would have happily paid the full price. Although, you play the role a soldier (non-human) and shoot to kill, it's NOT just another mindless war simulator; it's a sci-fi shooter (a constant reminder of this is the black hole in the sky, sucking in matter). You travel across the surface of an alien planet (by foot only), achieving various objectives along the way. There are numerous obstacles that get in your way - so, it's not just killing, but a bit of strategy, too. Rather than picking up weapons and ammunition as you go along - the standard form of game play - you manufacture your own munitions by salvaging material from the soldiers you kill and machines you destroy. Blood and gore is, thankfully, kept to a minimum. I'm not squeamish - I love the game "Blood" - but I don't want reality; rather, I want escapism, and "Rogue Trooper" provides it in abundance. :D - Note: review based on playing a couple of levels only, as only just bought the game.

Rogue Trooper is a 3rd person shooter based an a comic of the same name or so I'm led to believe, which doesn't matter to me because this is one of the better games I played when it came out in 2006. For me the best in RT is that it has very diverse and fun levels, I remember one at the start where you fight a humongous enemy tank on a battlefield and another that took place in the enemy HQ and another in a futuristic city, so if you're a virtual tourist like me you'll have a great time. Also worth mentioning is the excellent music by Tom Bilble that adds to the atmosphere and is a nice bonus to listen to as well as the very intimidating gun soundeffects. As with most Playstation 2 ports this game looks rather poor graphically on the PC, perhaps enhancing it with ENB or SweetFX will alleviate the eyetorture a bit but since this is fundamentally flawed don't expect miracles and maybe this is worth to eventually get the redux version for. While I initially didn't care much about this franchise it set out to do the impossible and over the course of playing got me slightly interested in it.

Picked up Rogue Trooper not expecting much more than mindless shooting action, but came away pleasantly surprised. The plot moved along well paced, dialogue was funny and the majority of the voice acting well delivered. The game didn't really bother to explaining the world in-universe if you don't know anything about 2000 AD (like me), but was still easy enough to follow: it's a revenge story. I also missed some sort of resolution or reveal after the final boss fight which just didn't happen. There was also more tactical depth than I thought. For one, the salvage system (we manufacture all our battle supplies) forced me to make hard decisions in terms of ammo/grenade conservation vs. saving up for upgrades. Though going back to loot every corpse was tedious and broke the flow of the combat on occasion. The three main special abilities were also fun to use... who doesn't like a sentry turret taunting the enemies? All firearms generally felt good to use and sounded great; soundscape was well done in general. Also couldn't fault the level design or variety except for feeling too narrow and linear sometimes. Campaign is about six hours long. I've found the game's biggest problem to be the controls. They're clunky and unrefined. Snapping to cover (and the right piece of cover for that matter) didn't seem to work reliably which is a problem in a cover shooter, but it's manageable to avoid enemy fire by using regular crouching etc. Aiming grenades to throw them further was very awkward and slow, and left me wide open to attack because you can't move while adjusting the arc. You'd also expect mouse control in the ability wheel (like Crysis), but nope... movement keys again. There's also a basic stealth system with silent takedowns in the game. Seemed pretty pointless and unreliable to me. Overall, I'd say there's a decent and funny cover shooter in there if you can look past the control issues.

Rogue Trooper is a game based on the comic by the same name. One of the main drawing factors for me, and one of the main reasons as to why I always wanted to play this game, was specifically because of it’s universe, the characters, the animals, the places, the colors, the entire thing. In this regard the game delivers, by even having your backpack, helmet, and weapon, be characters of their own, with their own unique personalities, it’s really fun, although sometimes their comments can get a bit annoying (specially the one’s from the gun), it’s all relative I guess. The real fun as you might have come to expect really comes from the gameplay and some of the ideas that are being used in correlation with the narrative, and as I said, with the whole concept of your equipment being “alive” to a degree. You can craft ammo, as well as different upgrades for your weapons, then after finishing the game you can use everything you’ve previously unlock with only your main game progression being the one that gets reset, it’s a new game plus of some kind. Really the biggest problems of the game lie with how some of the mechanics of the game haven’t aged that well, to not say they were a bit “archaic” even by the time they were released. The game adds a massive amount of recoil to your main fire-mode which it’s the one you will be using for the most part, it’s fun, and it works fairly well in cover, until you actually start running around, strafing, and shooting all at once, that’s when out of nowhere the game starts to become a bit bizarre with how it handles it’s gunplay, and shooting mechanics. Instead of respecting the general rule of recoil, that if not applies in real life, then at the very least in games, having your weapon tilting backwards, or upwards, after each shot, the game handles this strangely by sometimes behaving erratically and having you only be able to get certain shots while aiming a bit higher, up to a point where at times it’s “off-target”, for the most part, trying to be as accurate as you can be with your shoots can simply land you in a position in which most of them don’t really feel they’re doing anything at all, so if not for ineffectiveness, then at the very least for overall “feel” the game fails at this, being something as important that it’s part of the main game’s core mechanics paired with the fact that it is something that you’ll have to use further into the game as everything gets progressively “harder”, it is a pretty massive issue. Pair that up with the fact that the cover system in this game feels strange and for the most part doesn’t work very well, at times my character wouldn’t take cover, other times it would, other times while in cover it would all of the sudden “snap” out of it. It’s just bad that the game relies so much in a system that it’s fundamentally flawed in so many levels. Then you have the other aspect of the game which gives the player a series of upgrades to choose from, ranging from different fire-modes, that in reality turn your weapon into a different one (shotgun, rocket launcher, sniper rifle, etc…) The idea here it’s to have the player using all of this different weapons in a series of different cases, problem being, that often times you’ll simply rely on just using the main fire-mode, that being the sub-machinegun one, whilst other times you’ll simply find yourself getting caught up in the heat of the battle (so to speak) not being able to switch quickly enough to other fire-mode in time, getting killed, and having to restart once again that particular area. It’s frustrating to say the least. To give another example, there’s one point in the game where the game starts trying to implement a whole “stealth” system, it’s fairly basic, you can rely in attracting enemies, sneaking behind them and “taking them out” with your knife, or simply by adding a silencer to your weapon, (which by the way prompts said weapon to say some pretty hilarious lines of dialog). The whole mission it’s structured in a way, at the very least in concept, to warn you that an immediate “alert” will result in the “termination” of the mission. Saddest thing is, eventually after a while, you’re prompted to “blow up” a particular area, after doing so, whatever shred of “stealth” there was, in concept, or in gameplay, was, then, nonexistent. Even then what I do need to say it’s that the game managed to somehow… Captivate me with it’s ideas, it’s characters, and as I said, it’s universe, it’s a wonderful game in that sense, and that’s personally the reason why I think it has become such a “cult” classic today. I recommend to get it on a deep sale, while at the same time understanding that what you’re getting into it’s a fairly old game, and it shows, sadly, through some aspects of it’s gameplay. Now I’m simply just to interested in seeing what will happen with the new remaster edition coming later this year, or well… In a couple of weeks. Either way, nice that I finally got to play, been wanting to play it ever since the game had come out, while being a kid, it was as if the stars align to prevent me from playing it. Maybe it was better that way.