C&VG


Rogue Trooper
By Piranha
Spectrum 48K

 
Published in Computer & Video Games #63

Rogue Trooper

Welcome to Nu Earth, the war torn planet on the edge of the galaxy turned into a battle field by the Norts and Southers. Here they play out their never ending conflict.

This poisoned, cratered, devastated landscape is home to the Rogue Trooper, sole Survivor of the Quartz Massacre. He saw an entire regiment of Genetic Infantry destroyed - betrayed by a top ranking officer in the Souther's army.

Rogue's only mission in life is to find evidence which will lead to the trial of the man who sent his GI buddies to their doom in the Quartz Zone.

Rogue Trooper

Each Gl has his personality stored on a bio-chip and Rogue managed to rescue three of his buddies in chip form during the massacre. Bagman, Helm and Gunnar now accompany Rogue on his quest for justice, their synth-voices ringing out across the ruined planet as they help - and hinder - the Rogue Trooper's mission.

Nu Earth is where you'll find yourself once you've loaded in Piranha's latest offering - based, of course, on the cult character from the comic 2000AD.

Your mission is simple. You have to hunt for eight vid-tapes scattered across the surface of Nu Earth following the destruction of a Millicom satellite formerly in orbit around the planet. These tapes, in armoured cases, survived the blast and contain the evidence Rogue needs to convince his military bosses that the Gls were betrayed by a traitor.

Rogue Trooper

Rogue has to explore the devastated planet and avoid Nort troops and Southers who have no time for "deserters" like Rogue.

The main screen display is taken up with a view of the current part of Nu Earth Rogue is exploring.

The graphics are pretty good - capturing the gritty style of the comic. They are line drawings in one colour - the colour changes depending on the area of the planet Rogue is in. This obviously cuts down on any colour clash problems.

Rogue Trooper

At the top of the screen you'll see Rogue's battle computer display which shows a small scale map of the planet - and the shuttle which is waiting to take our Gl and his tapes back to civilisation.

At the top left hand side of the screen you'll see a window which contains the bio-chipped remains of Gunnar Helm and Bagman. Messages from the chips appear here as you play.

As he tramps across the planet Rogue will come across boxes of ammo and med-kits which aid his survival in this hostile environment. Norts are always around, but if Rogue has enough firepower he can generally knock them out. If you want you can also take on the Nort pillboxes for more points.

Collect eight vid-tapes and Rogue must find his way back to the shuttle using the computer map as a guide.

But what about the playability, I hear you cry! Well, to put it bluntly. Rogue is a bit of a disappointment. The ideas are all there but the game is just too easy to hold your attention for very long.

I completed the mission in just one sitting - which is almost unheard of here at C+VG. Not that it's not enjoyable to play. There's plenty of action to be had, the whole thing looks good, and it's easy to get into. But once you've completed the mission the only thing left to do is go back and do the whole thing all over again and simply try for a bigger score by shooting more Norts.

As I've already said, the graphics aren't bad but sound is minimal just a few bleeps and burps. Not a great game - but not totally naff either. Design Design have, and can do better. But if you are a fan of the comic and like games you can beat pretty easily then Rogue is worth looking at.