Reviewed by Ashraa.
Recently the people over at Hi-Rez were kind enough to send me a review copy of their latest competitive team shooter “Rogue Company”.
The game is currently in a paid beta with 3 tiers available, each offering various launch bonuses.
Starter Founder’s Pack - $14.99 (€14.99 / £11.99)
Standard Founder’s Pack - $29.99 (€29.99 / £24.99)
Ultimate Founder’s Pack - $59.99 (€59.99 / £49.99)
Full details of all packs, pricing and platforms can be found here.
Before I give my thoughts on the game itself its well worth taking note that this game is one of the first titles to be fully cross play and cross progression at launch. I really hope that this becomes trend with titles as game development continues into next gen.
More and more households have multiple platforms they’re able to game on and its such a quality of life feature, to just be able to pick up and carry on playing your game on whatever device is most convenient at the time. Let keep our fingers crossed for the crossplay generation.
So now down to the game itself!
If asked to sum up this game in one sentence its would be: “Counterstrike in third person with hero type abilities”. But a simple comparison is a lazy review and doesn’t do the game justice, nor give positive or critical opinion, so let’s break it down a little more…
Headed-up by Lead Game Designer - and former Halo world champion - Scott Lussier, Rogue Company is the debut game from First Watch Games; a band of Hi-Rez Studios developers and industry veterans with experience working on some of gaming’s most famous and successful shooters.
In this team shooter, you take on the role of an operative from an initial roster of 12, each with unique abilities. These abilities are like a lightweight version of “supers” from games like Overwatch (or Hi-Rez’s other offering, Paladins). In a similar vein, for each ability there will be another operative ability that can pretty much counter it, making team selection for competitive play an important tactical choice.
There are two main game modes, Demolition and Strikeout.
Demolition is the more competitive of the two, while Strikeout is more casual and accessible.
In Demolition the winner is the first team to seven points, gained by planting and defending a bomb. At half time you have the option to change your operative.
Strikeout is a King of the Hill style capture match, decided by the best of five, with limited pool of team lives/rezzes.
The game features a unique take on the tactical shooter genre opting for a third person view. This felt like a good fit for the game, particularly on the Switch, where I reviewed it. It give the game a slightly more arcade/action feel rather than clinical FPS precision. I’m terrible at any competitive FPS, but the Strikeout mode coupled with third person and Switch gyro controls made it accessible, even to a noob like me.
The graphics are clean and functional, while nothing jaw dropping they do boast action at 60fps on all formats and the game did feel smooth and fast paced even in it’s current Early Access.
The game does what this genre is all about well, technically and balance wise I have no real criticism. The only negative is that Rogue Company really plays it safe. Other than the third person, there is nothing that innovates or pushes the genre forward. The maps and even the operatives are all pretty generic and forgettable.
That being said this is a free to play online title and Hi-Rez are well known for updates, support and content being pushed out regularly, so with that in mind, I am very interested to see how this game progresses further down the line. Even in its current beta, there seems a strong player base and it’s fast to get matches, for a game like this that’s key.
If you like the premise and genre then I’d definitely recommend buying the starter pack and giving it a go, if you’re on the fence, wait a while longer to play for free and decide for yourself.
Overall it’s a very competent and enjoyable entry to the tactical FPS genre, that currently lacks the personality to set it apart and make it memorable, hopefully that will come with time and updates.
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