Rogue Trooper
Rebellion and Eidos deliver one of the best shooters of the year. Full review inside.
Published: June 5, 2006
The 2000AD universe just hasn't gained a ton of traction here in the States, and with movies (and games) like Judge Dredd, it's kinda obvious why. It doesn't help that until now, there really haven't been any good games that properly tapped into the potential, because the world is certainly rife with material, and it just takes the right kind of presentation to kick it all off.
Luckily, we finally have that game. Rogue Trooper isn't even an especially in-depth look at the universe birthed from the graphic novels of the same name, but Rebellion has done such an amazing job translating the wealth of information and settting such that you end up getting immersed in a world without it ever deliberately cramming the environments or characters down your throat.
And really, it's all the more impressive given that the plot of the game – the whole game – is more or less told within the first hour or two. Now there's a good five or six times more than that of information, but that's time spent thickening up the world. There aren't too many new characters introduced, and the storyline, one of a lone Genetic Infantryman named, appropriately, Rogue, off on a personal vendetta against a traitor General.
See, it all goes back to this Nu Earth planet. Divided into Norts (the Northern inhabitants) and Southers (I'll leave that up to you to piece through), Nu Earth has been turned into a wasteland by constant strife. The seas are toxic, the planet is almost completely scorched to nothingness, and the very air itself is a poison, lethal to anyone who breathes it – anyone, that is, except for the GIs, who were cloned and grown from tubes to survive the atmosphere of Nu Earth.
So when a massive strike force of GIs went hurtling towards the planet from high orbit only to be shot down en masse by Nord forces before they can ever reach the planet's surface. Few of the GIs survive, but one squad of friends; the conveniently named Bagman, Helm, Gunnar and Rogue make it as a group. One by one, though, Rogue's friends are cut down until he's the only one left. Luckily, for GIs, death is not the end. For 60 seconds after flatlining, a GI's personality is transferred into their biochip in their neck. If it's dug out and popped into a bit of machinery, they can live on, helping whatever soldier is lucky enough to have them chipped in.
We covered most of this stuff in our preview, but it bears repeating. Because your squadmates are now your equipment, it does a couple of things. First, it provides almost constant running commentary, which is both helpful and entertaining. More importantly, though, it allows you to do things like set up ambushes, hack terminals, create decoys and get a constant supply of ammo and health, generated on the fly by just scooping up scrap metal (which also unlocks entries into the game's encyclopedia). Because you're never taken out of the battle or forced to hunt down ammo or health, your left to be immersed in the world Rebellion has created, and it's a doozy.
The game is, at its core, a simple third person shooter with snap-to-cover mechanics like Namco's kill.switch, but it goes beyond that. Gunnar aids in targeting stuff like headshots or oxygen tanks (Norts need to use these to fight on the surface of Nu Earth), both of which are one-hit kills against most of the enemies. By combining these things, along with decent enemy AI that uses cover intelligently and, at times, flushes you out with grenades, the battles never get old.
Luckily, we finally have that game. Rogue Trooper isn't even an especially in-depth look at the universe birthed from the graphic novels of the same name, but Rebellion has done such an amazing job translating the wealth of information and settting such that you end up getting immersed in a world without it ever deliberately cramming the environments or characters down your throat.
And really, it's all the more impressive given that the plot of the game – the whole game – is more or less told within the first hour or two. Now there's a good five or six times more than that of information, but that's time spent thickening up the world. There aren't too many new characters introduced, and the storyline, one of a lone Genetic Infantryman named, appropriately, Rogue, off on a personal vendetta against a traitor General.
See, it all goes back to this Nu Earth planet. Divided into Norts (the Northern inhabitants) and Southers (I'll leave that up to you to piece through), Nu Earth has been turned into a wasteland by constant strife. The seas are toxic, the planet is almost completely scorched to nothingness, and the very air itself is a poison, lethal to anyone who breathes it – anyone, that is, except for the GIs, who were cloned and grown from tubes to survive the atmosphere of Nu Earth.
So when a massive strike force of GIs went hurtling towards the planet from high orbit only to be shot down en masse by Nord forces before they can ever reach the planet's surface. Few of the GIs survive, but one squad of friends; the conveniently named Bagman, Helm, Gunnar and Rogue make it as a group. One by one, though, Rogue's friends are cut down until he's the only one left. Luckily, for GIs, death is not the end. For 60 seconds after flatlining, a GI's personality is transferred into their biochip in their neck. If it's dug out and popped into a bit of machinery, they can live on, helping whatever soldier is lucky enough to have them chipped in.
We covered most of this stuff in our preview, but it bears repeating. Because your squadmates are now your equipment, it does a couple of things. First, it provides almost constant running commentary, which is both helpful and entertaining. More importantly, though, it allows you to do things like set up ambushes, hack terminals, create decoys and get a constant supply of ammo and health, generated on the fly by just scooping up scrap metal (which also unlocks entries into the game's encyclopedia). Because you're never taken out of the battle or forced to hunt down ammo or health, your left to be immersed in the world Rebellion has created, and it's a doozy.
The game is, at its core, a simple third person shooter with snap-to-cover mechanics like Namco's kill.switch, but it goes beyond that. Gunnar aids in targeting stuff like headshots or oxygen tanks (Norts need to use these to fight on the surface of Nu Earth), both of which are one-hit kills against most of the enemies. By combining these things, along with decent enemy AI that uses cover intelligently and, at times, flushes you out with grenades, the battles never get old.