Review: Rogue Trooper
An obscure comic becomes an obscure game in this mediocre third-person shooter from Eidos and developer Rebellion.
Games like Rogue Trooper make my brain hurt, mainly because it tries to be a competent third person action game with attitude, but ultimately fails at this goal. While it does have momentary flashes of intrigue, it ends up falling prey to the trappings of being a mediocre action shooter.
A Bleak Future
In Rogue Trooper, you play as Rogue, a genetically engineered super soldier embroiled in a war that takes place on Nu-Earth. The storyline and characters were originally featured in a comic by Gerry Finely-Day, which saw a print run from 1982-1985, with a recent UK resurgence bringing the series back in to the limelight, complete with countless story arcs and plot directions. Rogue is a unique soldier in the fact that he can integrate special bioships from fallen comrades, effectively adding their unique skills and abilities to his own. Early on in the game you'll lose a few comrades, at which point you'll harvest their biochips and take on their abilities. While there are only a limited number of biochips that you can find in the game, they'll let you do things like use explosives to blow up locked doors, auto-target enemies with your guns, and even place a sentry gun on the ground to take out enemies.
The game follows a pretty standard mission-based progression system, although this feature is made a bit moot given the game's generic and uninspired level design. Outdoor environments are muddy and poorly textured, giving them a flat and almost boring appearance. Indoor environments don't come close to adding any more visual flair, with the requisite mix of metal, explosive barrels, and random crates scattered about. Those hoping for some sort of eye candy will be sorely disappointed.
Super Soldier, Super Stunted
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of Rogue Trooper, outside of its flat visuals, are the clunky controls that you'll end up playing a game of tug and war with while trying to fight your enemies. Basic movement is fairly easy to pull off, although more complicated actions become frustrating. Things like hugging walls and using cover are so hit and miss that you'll find yourself being filled with bullets as you try to utilize them. Even actions such as reloading your weapon don't seem to always work when you want them to, which only adds to the frustration factor.
There are, however, some neat things going on in Rogue Trooper, the most notable being the ability to create ammunition and weapon upgrades from the bodies of your fallen comrades and enemies. A dead body yields valuable salvage units, which can be used to craft a wide variety of different items and tools. You'll end up using the salvage unit creation system quite a bit, since Rogue never seems to be able to carry that much ammo or very many health packs, giving it a nice dose of variety and usefulness.
Rogue Trooper has some moments of brilliance, namely in the salvage system and unique biochip ability system, but it ultimately spirals in mess of all the lackluster elements that can ruin a third person action shooter. The levels are sparse and yawn inducing, and the storyline just isn't that attention-grabbing. If you're a fan of the comic series, the adventures of Rogue and his biochip buddies may offer up some modicum of entertainment. But if you're looking for a complete action experience, be a trooper and stay away from this game.
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