This 2006 third person science fiction shooter has received a digital remaster for next gen consoles and PC. For Terminator Fans familiar with The Terminator: Dawn of Fate and Terminator 3: The Redemption games; you will be entering familiar game-play territory with Rogue Trooper Redux.
Rogue Trooper is a character born from the pages of 2000 AD and the is same British comic that Judge Dredd originated from. We will always have a fondness for the “fuck the establishment” 2000 AD.
Wikipedia:
“Rogue Trooper is a science fiction strip in the British comic 2000 AD, created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons. It follows the adventures of Rogue, a “Genetic Infantryman”, a genetically created, blue-skinned, manufactured super soldier and his three comrades’ search for the Traitor General. His comrades are in the form of biochips – onto which a G.I.’s entire personality is downloaded at the time of death for later retrieval – and are named Gunnar (mounted on Rogue’s rifle), Bagman (on his backpack) and Helm (on his helmet). He is genetically engineered to be immune to almost all known toxins, can submerge in strong acid unaffected, and is able to withstand a vacuum in his bare skin.”
Rogue Trooper is kind of like a science-fiction merging of Terminator and Avatar all rolled into one. The character first appeared in 1981 in issue 228 of 2000 AD. It is very easy to make many comparisons to both Terminator and Avatar when examining Rogue Trooper’s material- even when playing this game.
Famous stories include the “Future War” issues and in 1983 there was an issue called “The Droidinators”. Sadly just like the Terminator franchise the fanbase was subjected to later comics and stories going in the wrong direction and even a reboot of the story and character which totally changed/erased the mythos which was met with angry fans.
Players of this game will instantly be thrown into a Future War setting on Nu-Earth – a toxic planet at war that plays out similar to a word war II kind of plot structure; much like the comics did except this battle is for control over a black hole above the once paradise planet. The black holes allow transportation throughout the galaxy, an advantage the enemy (Norts) want in the war against the good guys (Southers). As a Terminator fan it was just easy to connect with the character of Rogue and this battle/war scenario that you are thrown into.
This is now technically retro gaming but the upgraded character models, anti aliasing and new textures make the graphics much sleeker to look at and it makes us want the same for older Terminator games like Dawn of Fate and T3: The Redemption. The people who brought this game up to spec are the right guys to do that job. This kind of graphical boost/upgrade is really welcome and the games graphics beat many graphics in many current games. Again, if this could be done for older last gen Terminator games that could be pretty damn amazing and bring them up to scratch with what gamers today expect.
We played Rogue Trooper Redux on the normal difficulty and it can be quite challenging- but an enjoyable challenge at that.
There are flying vehicles that look like war planes but there are some called hoppers that look pretty damn near to flying hunter killers (Terminator) or the flying vehicles you would see in an Avatar movie.
The biochips play heavy in the opening levels plot and *spoiler* Rogue cuts his fallen comrades chips from the base of their skulls ala Terminator Salvation and installs them into his backpack, his gun and his helmet and they continue to communicate/talk with him on his missions. Kind of like a Terminator’s CPU, they just need to be reinstalled into another lab grown genetically modified blue super soldier and they are back online but until rogue can get those chips to new grown bodies they become part of his accessories.
Each biochip upgrade will give Rogue new gameplay features and upgrades, the second of which (Bagman) will demand the player to start crafting grenades, ammo and other much needed resources to combat enemies.
Biochips left without a host can expire which leads to a moment in the game which really ramps up the tension to save a biochip, it makes you feel the urgency and care to save one of your fellow soldiers even more… just like in Terminator 2’s deleted scene when Sarah Connor raises the hammer to the T-800’s CPU you feel that same tension.
Interestingly Sam Worthington (after avatar) tried to bring Rogue Trooper to the big screen with his production company but the project got stuck in development hell; maybe Sam wanted to jump from playing one blue franchise lead hero to another with Rogue Trooper?
You have the option to go into battle all guns blazing or by using stealth and sneaking up on the enemy, the choice is yours but the game easily builds tension in these scenarios and it does grip you. As the game progresses your arsenal grows, each weapon has a specific use/different tactical approach on taking down enemies which sets this game apart from many shooters.
The game features the need to do some cover based shooting in a simple manner, Rogue will go into auto cover just by pressing the character against the environment or a crate/wall etc. The controls themselves are pretty simplistic and quite smooth and it won’t be long before you look and behave like a super genetically modified soldier.
Inside environments ramp up the claustraphobia and tension, the game will force you to think, when surrounded by enemies, of how to deal with what can seem like an impossible situation especially when you come across some big Terminator style Robots that will seem impossible to terminate but you can scramble them with a certain grenade to incapacitate and run past the “metal motherfuckers” while diving through bullets and taking other enemies out. You will “Dredd” running into the heavy robots in this game.
Dodging in and out of cover is vital and using your gadgets, upgrades and unlockable weapons will make things easier for you.
The game is quite long too, just when you expect the game to finish it carries on and has a good longevity, meaning you will not be completing this game in a measly 3 hours like some video games.
Online gameplay sees you teaming up with fellow soldiers/Rogue Troopers to protect an injured ally while continual hordes of enemies and snipers try to take you out and overall the fast frenzy of action is generally fun but we recommend playing story mode first to learn the basics.
Boss battles are fun and there are also some rail shooting levels to break up the third person shooting action- which was welcome. If you love sniping this game has plenty of opportunities as snipers are always on your case.
Overall the futuristic war setting, shoot em’ up carnage and the quest to take down the Traitor General is a nice stop gap for Terminator fans waiting for worthy third person and first person shooters. This game is not just mindless shooting it will require thought, planning and different approaches that make this an intellectual shooter. For those familiar with Rogue Trooper you should love this game and for those Terminator fans who don’t know of Rogue Trooper this game could interest you into becoming a fan and delving into 2000AD to find out more. You probably know Judge Dredd but get ready to see more of Rogue Trooper in the future as it is only a matter of time before we see him on the big screen and hopefully it will be a gritty visceral R Rated experience that does the fans of this genetically grown blue blooded soldier justice!
Rebellion and Tick Tock Games please look into reviving the two best Terminator Video Games- The Terminator: Dawn of Fate and Terminator 3: The Redemption, we understand this might be complex and might not be possible but after playing this remaster of Rogue Trooper you are the right guys for the job!
Show your support for remasters of Dawn of Fate and The Redemption in the comments below and if you download/buy Rogue Trooper let us know what you thought of the game.
Fancy winning a copy of Rogue Trooper Redux on a platform of your choice for FREE? Stay tuned!
Visit RogueTrooper.com for more information.
