"In recent years, the third person stealth combat genre has been a very popular one among gamers. Some games have pulled it off very nicely, like Metal Gear Solid 2 and Splinter Cell. But unfortunately, some copy cats of these two great games have fallen short of being as good as them."
Overall: Rogue Ops is one of those games where you can play a level 10+ times, and when you finally beat it, the feeling you get is very rewarding. That’s not saying Rogue doesn’t have flaws. The camera is confusing, the voice acting is terrible, controls are sluggish, and graphics aren’t anything to brag about. However, the thing that bothered me most about Rogue Ops was all the stuff the game stole from much better games. The busty heroine looks like a Tomb Raider reject, the stealth and emphasis to “be stealthy, don’t run and gun” is straight out of Splinter Cell, and the communication between characters is very similar to that of a Metal Gear Solid game. Also, the difficulty is almost extreme, not in an aspect where you die a bunch of times, it’s just completing goals is very difficult to do (i.e. don’t get found, avoid the tripwires, etc.). If not for the rewarding feelings, Rogue Ops would be a stinker. Gameplay: Like I said in “Overall”, the control in Rogue Ops is very sluggish. The thing that makes it so difficult to move is when you move the analog stick left or right, your character will strafe. It’s bothersome when you’re trying to dash through a doorway to the right or left with enemies coming from ahead, and you accidentally strafe into a wall. Also, the camera is confusing. I don’t like how you can try to look straight up, and some weird goggle thing appears. Also, the camera makes navigating through tunnels/ventilation shafts is difficult. Finally, I don’t like how you can kill numerous bad guys and they’ll die the same way every time. Graphics: Normally, this is where I would say “Blah-Blah game shines in this area”. However, Rogue Ops is not one of those games. Environments are very bland, and the character models could have used more work. Blood isn’t as realistic looking as it should be, and the guns look more like toys than actual weapons. The thing I like least about Rogue’s graphics are the characters faces. Nikki, the main character, has a rather “butch” hair cut. Also, the eyes on characters are very unsettling. The only graphical feature I like is the stealth melee kills. Sound: Sound is really pretty bland in Rogue Ops. It would have sounded so much better if it had an orchestral accompaniment, not crappy techno. Techno is for games that are unable to support orchestral sound, like on the Gameboy. It’s really a shame to hear a game sound like a Gameboy game on a big console like Xbox. The voice acting is also terrible. In the level right after training, Rogue Ops acting department lost any respect I might have had for it when I heard “Blow his brains out!” by a terrorist with a really fake accent. Weapons are another disappointment, with the very basic “rat-a-tat-a-tat” sound. Suggestions: Even though I think it’s very unlikely a Rogue Ops 2 will be made, if there is one, improve EVERYTHING. Also, try more original ideas instead of ideas made by other, better games.
Overall: Rogue Ops puts its own unique spin on the stealth genre. The cool environments and character story gives it a contemporary, spy thriller feeling that makes it worthy enough to check out. This game has some good variety of stealthy kills, multiple soloutions to problems you might encounter, and cool gadgets. However the controls are slightly sluggish and there are some consistency problems.
I have seen better stealth-action games, such as Splinter Cell. But if you just can't get enough stealth, then you must give this game a shot. Gameplay: Rogue Ops features 8 missions located in areas such as England, Spain, America and more. You will learn how to control your character immediately in a play through tutorial, new weapons and tools get added as you progress the game. You also get a wide variety of actions you could do, here are some examples of those actions: hide in shadows, fire grappler hooks, press flat on walls, shimmy across ledges, forward roll, and more.
You're always going to be outnumbered in the game so you don't want to be loud or leave bloodtrails or bodies laying in the open, because that will alert the other terrorists.
Some of the dpy-tech you will get in the game are goggles that thermally detec people through walls, a gadget that maps and stores an enemy's reina scan from a distance, flying micro-cams, and more. Graphics: Rouge Ops is mixed. The graphics engine is pretty capable. Even if the environments and characters aren't that great, they're still done without any errors or flaws.
There are some decent environmental effect and lighting, so this makes the visuals of this game above average. Sound: The voice acting that is done through the radio transmissions and cutscene is badly done. It does manage to stick with the sotryline but it's boring. They also tried to make it more interesting by adding a little use of cursing in the dialogue. There isn't much music in this game to talk about, music only plays when your near the enemies. Suggestions: The developers need to make the voice acting more interesting and memorable, create better environments and make the controls less sluggish.
Made in Canada