Rogue Trooper Redux is a story driven third person shooter coming to Steam October 17th. Set in the comic book universe of the same name found in the British publication 2000AD, Rogue Trooper was originally developed in 2006 Rebellion Developments. The Redux is being worked on by Rebellion and Tick-Tock Games, the same teams that brought you Judge Dredd and the Sniper Elite series. It tells the story of genetically engineered blue-skinned super soldiers. Rogue is the last surviving G.I. (Genetic Infantryman) hunting down the Traitor General who betrayed and slaughtered them during the horrible war between the Norts and Southers.
Rebellion has remastered the visuals, geometry, lighting, effects, and assets and it looks good. While not cutting edge, they have brought the title into the present. The sound, visuals, and cinematics create an immersive atmospheric experience. The controls and cover system have also been reworked to function better on modern systems and controllers and offer key map customization.
There are 13 missions and two online modes for co-op play. The game opens with a few tutorial scenes that also briefly establish a little of the backstory of the war between the Norts and the Southers, but also function as an introduction to the controls and interface.
The story mode slowly introduces weapons and features to the player in a manner that gives the player time to understand and practice with them before moving on to something new. Rogue’s weapon arsenal can be modified and upgraded as he progresses through the missions to offer even further customization. There is a lot of tactical and strategic versatility built into the various weapons and how they can be used from scopes to turrets to different types of grenade effects. Every fight can play out several different ways and it’s up to the player to decide what approach suits them best. Choosing a stealthy approach might let the player pick off more guards before his presence is known making an upcoming firefight more manageable. Hopping up into a turret to shoot down air support might afford the player some more breathing room to complete the objective without taking fire from air support. It’s up to the player to decide how they want to tackle those things.
In addition to story mode, there are two online modes where you can create public or private coop games for you and your friends. The game lets you choose the map, the difficulty setting, number of lives, and a couple other options to tailor the instance to suit your needs. Steam integration seems well done here, although friends on my list showed up whether they owned the game or not which might be confusing when selecting coop partners.
Another aspect of the game I like is how ammo is replenished and upgrades are handled. In Story Mode Rogue can loot bodies and scrap for materials that can be used to manufacture different ammos, grenades, med packs, and upgrade abilities. This adds a strategic dimension to play taking resource management out of the RNG and putting it into the hands of the player. In multiplayer, there are cache icons scattered through the map that will replenish grenades, med packs, and the various weapons ammo.
One of the things I found that sets Rogue Trooper Redux apart from being lumped in with every other third-person action shooters is how most objectives and situations can be resolved with a variety of tactical approaches. The player can choose stealth or head on in with guns blazing. There are a variety of tools available to the player that enables them to tackle the objectives with a lot of freedom. You can find out more about the game, how it works, and what we think about it in our final review.
