Rogue Trooper

Anyone markedly familiar with Britain's top-selling 2000 AD comic series should be well aware of Rogue Trooper, but for those unfamiliar, 2000 AD was an anthology series that brought numerous characters to life, the most famous of which is Judge Dredd (played poorly by Sly Stallone in a movie adaptation in the late 90s). The Rogue Trooper enjoyed only minor success due to his inconsistent narrative and was reinvented several times by varying writer/artist teams. Eventually he would come to be recognised as the blue buff soldier battling the Nort Republic and hunting down the person responsible for the death of his fallen comrades who were reborn as personalities within his equipment (no, seriously). Now the blue warrior is making something of a comeback thanks to SCi and developer Rebellion, who were responsible for bringing Judge Dredd: Dredd Vs. Death and Aliens Vs. Predator to life as games (both based on comics), so their comic-to-videogame expertise are top-notch.

The game is set on the war-torn planet of Nu Earth. Years of war and terror have rendered the planet poisonous and hostile; you can't breathe on the surface without the aid of oxygen masks and the vegetation and terrain are anything but welcoming. Rogue Trooper is a Genetically enhanced Infantryman (GI), his enhancements include the ability to not only breathe the air, but to also resist the affects of chemical warfare. Working alongside Rogue Trooper are the personalities of three of his fallen comrades, reborn as bio-chips inside his helmet, backpack and gun. Helm, is his nerdy, smart companion capable of hacking any computer, Bagman is his backpack and can deploy all manner of explosives and booby traps while Gunner, his weapon, can set himself up as a sentry or to lay covering fire. Rogue Trooper was designed to fight the Nort Republic, however, upon the deceitful death of his three comrades, he goes AWOL on a quest to track down those responsible and thus our one-man war is born.

What makes this game unique is the way in which you can use your pseudo squad within the huge open-plan environments. The AI found within is hierarchical meaning you'll encounter enemies ranging from basic scouts and guards to highly organised teams with tactics and superior numbers. To this end, it's nearly impossible to gung-ho your way through the game, and you'll find maximising your own talents coupled with those of your equipped squad more and more important as you progress. Your three comrades are capable of acting independently of you should the need arise, so Helm might hack a computer while you and Gunner take out enemies approaching from various flanks, Bagmen can then take up the rear and ensure any enemies looking to sneak up on you find a nice explosive surprise in their approach. However, while they are dynamic, they're also at the mercy of your own commands. You can set Gunner up to lay covering fire while you and Helm move towards a terminal that needs hacking or you and Bagman can lay traps for unsuspecting goons. The options for enemy confrontation and dispatching are quite solid and you'll find using them to their fullest massively satisfying.

Like other third-person action games of this nature, a certain degree of stealth is also available to you ala Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. Rogue Trooper can sneak up on enemies and take them out in a number of silent ways, be it stabbing them with your knife or pulling off their breathing apparatus so they choke on the poisonous air, you'll find the amount of silent kills available to you both satisfying and fun. However, unlike the two aforementioned games, you're not punished for ignoring stealth, and it is possible to attack guns-a-blazin' - this is all part of the free-form appraoch to the game Rebellion have created.

Visually the game represents the comic's post-apocalyptic vision quite well, specifically in the environments which present a barren waste swept with poisonous clouds of dust and haze. Mutated vegetation and warped terrain are but a taste of what you'll see within Rogue Trooper, and you really feel like you're fighting for survival in the world of Nu Earth. The characters throughout are reasonably well designed, and for fun come complete with ragdoll physics for amusing deaths (nothing like watching Bagman blow them up!), and Rogue Trooper himself looks quite cool. Some of the animations seem a little rigid and we noticed some unnecessary clipping here and there, but for the most part it's easy to overlook. The most noticeable aspect of the game though was the solid engine, which uses a smooth camera and some excellent processing to hold together various effects, numerous characters and huge environments on screen without any system hiccups. This helps in spades while in the middle of a firefight or while planning your next strategic move.

There are 12 levels throughout and feature everything from on-rails shooting moments, to in-vehicle driving action, as well as on-foot stealth and gung-ho moments - all to really mix things up a bit. For those willing to invest the time in getting to know their equipped comrades and the abilities they offer (which, by the way, are upgradeable), you'll get a lot out of the Rogue Trooper experience. It is a solemn world, but that old narrative goody of revenge and honour shine through here thanks to some well-handled scripting, but for the most part Rogue Trooper is about playing the game and living the life as an AWOL blue super soldier and his talking backpack, helmet and weapon. This is great fun for everyone involved and thanks to some cool multiplayer options (you can play co-op as Rogue's team buddies before they were killed, in one feature), and open-plan level design, you'll find yourself coming back for more and more.