Of course, when I say friendly, I really mean angry. That's the emotion embedded into Rogue Warrior, programmed into every action, rendered into every pixel. A game that has more anger and sheer FYOU than any normal human being could possibly posess. A game supposedly (and by Google search, authentically) based on the true life story of an 'American badass' named Richard Marcinko. The story behind this man will become clear soon enough.


[b]
Title: Rogue Warrior
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Genre: First Person Shooter
Rating: M
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Now, like I said, his story will become apparent soon enough. And that means now. It's easiest to get this part out of the way first. Why? Well mainly because Rogue Warrior's story is practically nonexistant. We're not talking paper thin plot here, we're talking needle in a haystack plot here. The game opens with you, the ultimate badass dropping behind Korean enemy lines with your team of slightly-not-as-bad asses. As you probably guessed it, things immediately don't go the way they were planned. You immediately begin your journey alone, as any self respecting badass would.

That journey consists of navigating through Cold War Korea and China in order to destroy some missiles.

And there you go, that is seriously the only objective, plot, mission or story in this game. Sure, you receive various objectives, most of which boil down to reaching an area or blowing sh*t up, but each level almost always includes the word 'missile' somewhere in it. Your first goal? Blow up missiles. Once you blow them up, you're tasked with finding and blowing up even more missiles. The lack of variety in the game is immediately apparent.

That lack of variety makes the game feel boring almost instantly. You never feel like you're doing anything other than shooting or exploding things. While most shooters give you a sense of progression, either in story line or objectives, Rogue just recycles the same three objectives over and over, throughout several levels. Kill, move, blow up, repeat.

Enough about that, right? This can be forgiven. After all, I've enjoyed many games that lack variety, that doesn't make them bad. So let's move on to the meat of a first person shooter, the shooting.

Shooting in Rogue is a bit of a mixed bag. When firing normally (ie, not in cover) the game handles like an extremely stiff version of Modern Warfare, or a similar FPS. Aiming is very tight, both down the sights and from the hip, and just feels slow. Once you get used to it, though, it doesn't present a problem.

What does is the game's cover system. When taking cover, the game uses the now popular 3rd person cover mechanic. The game switches to this viewpoint and you can now move along walls and the like while staying concealed. You can approach the edge and swing out to fire a shot, or blindfire. Firing from cover is almost always a frustrating experience. In order to do so, you need to push the thumbstick in the respective direction and hold down a trigger to fire accurately. However, the game often has spastic detection of what is and isn't the correct direction, causing you to either a) be stuck in cover or b) have your character flail wildly between cover and shooting positions.

This is furthered by the fact that the game often doesn't want to let you out of cover. Sometimes, the game simply refused to register my commands to exit cover, resulting in my being rushed by several angry Chinese men with Russian weapons. Grenades, in particular, represent a whole new problem as they will often bounce off your cover and land directly next to you, even though the crosshairs indicate a straight throw.



One aspect you probably weren't expecting in a 'blow crap up' game is stealth. You can shoot out lights from time to time, and execute stealth skills on unaware enemies. The lights rarely make a difference, you can use them to confuse enemies, but concealing yourself requires almost every light in a five block radius to be shot out. It's easy to forget you can do this, and it's never necessary.

Stealth kills, on the other hand, are fairly satisfying, and probably the most fun to be had with the game. Sneaking up on an enemy and hitting the appropriate button executes a brutal attack, which varies depending on the approach and surroundings. You could stab a guy in the no-no's and then kick him down, or you might be treated to a swift stab in the back of the head followed by a kick over a railing. It's pretty neat at first, but soon enough the kills begin to repeat themselves, and they aren't worth risking if enemies are nearby.

The biggest problem I have with stealth, and with the game's character, is just that. The character. Richard has a very, very foul mouth, and a loud one at that. Now I'm not saying profanity is bad, or even misplaced, but Rogue takes it too far. Imagine a scene, which I will now paint for you.

You're slowly sneaking up on a Chinese ultranationalist with your silenced pistol. You aim deliberately at his head, waiting to squeeze the trigger. As you line up your shot and fire, the man drops to the floor silentl..."EAT THAT YOU COMMIE [censored] [censored] PEICE OF [censored],"

Almost every kill in Rogue is followed by a similar line. And I mean 4/5 kills. Hell, sometimes he just yells after throwing a grenade, even if there is no one around. After a while you'll be so sick of hearing him shout obcenities you may decide to just mute the game, or return it. Language has a place, but this sure as hell isn't it. It's a wonder this man didn't get killed five minutes in with the way he screams words that I don't think even existed back then.

The funniest part? Enemies will remain unaware of your presence regardless of how much filth you spew. This guy put Solid Snake to shame.

I haven't discussed graphics yet, and I wouldn't be right to write without doing so. The graphics in Rogue are generally bland and unappealing, with little variation between levels and enemies. Weapons are decent, the environments are average, nothing really stands out. As I played it, I couldn't help but feel like I was playing an old PC game, the feeling I got when I played Ubersoldier back in the day. The game also suffers from an inconsistent framerate and a low level of polish all around.

So are there any redeeming qualities here? No, not really. As a FPS, the single player is bland and uninspired, and while there is a tacked on multiplayer mode, you'd be hard pressed to find anyone playing it, let alone enjoying it. Everything in Rogue Warrior has been done better somewhere else, and you'd be best to avoid playing it.