Rogue Trooper, world's finest 7/10 game, gets a remaster
Back in blue
Huh. Big day for blue people. I've long wished that venerable Britcomic (and home of Joe Dredd) 2000 AD would take another shot at sticking its best characters into videogames, and I say so no merely from wishful thinking, but also because they did it rather well the last time they tried in earnest. Rogue Trooper was a Good 7/10 third-person action game developed by 2000AD owners Rebellion back in 2006, starring a vengeful blue dude with a talking hat, gun and rucksack. I've always been fond of it, and now it seems I'll get to play it again as whatever a 'redux' version turns out to be.
Rebellion have declared that this remastered version is 'coming soon', and targeting various consoles including Nintendo's new Switcheroo as well as PC, but there's no sign of a screenshot yet. We do get this here teaser video, but it's mostly logos and comic art.
Rogue Trooper, or Rogue to his undead, electronic friends, is/was a vat-grown Genetic Infantryman, trekking across a ravaged Nu-Earth in search of the traitor general who got all his mates killed. His mates how now live on as chatty implants in his helmet, rifle and backpack.
Rogue's something of a 2000 AD perennial - this was them basically doing Commando-style war stories, but with, naturally, far more violence and a delectable post-apocalyptic setting. Though more recent stories never seemed entirely sure what to do with ol' blue bonce, the 2006 game made the smart decision to effectively turn his years-long hunt for the Traitor General into one self-contained tale. It paired this with solid action/stealth mechanics and some neat gimmick powers and, despite its vintage, it holds up pretty well today.
It holds up pretty well visually too, as I found out when I ran the thing in 4K a while back. Which rather begs the question of what this Redux version actually does. Compatibility and high-res optimisation, sure, but I don't know that it really needs much more. Maybe they won't do much more, even, and this is more about a repackaging in the wake of Rebellion's sudden decision to start licensing 2000AD characters out to games than anything else. Show 'em how it's done, and all that.
Surprising, exciting news. Ideally we'd get a whole new Rogue game, but maybe this will open the door to that if it does well enough.