Latest Features
Gears Of War 2 - Cliff Bleszinski Q&AStar Wars: Clone Wars Q&AFable 2: The Molyneux InterviewTom Clancy's HAWX Q&AFootball Manager 2009 - Q&AUser Reviews
There are currently 0 User Reviews for Rogue TrooperWrite your own review for this game today and you will receive 100 Gamer Points.
Click here to register
Rogue Trooper Q&A Feature
Derek dela Fuente
13/03/2006
Rebellion returns to the 2000 AD trove with the Xbox, PS2 and PC adaptation of Rogue Trooper...
Coming from Oxford based Rebellion, Rogue Trooper is the second title to result from the developer's acquisition of the comic brand "2000AD" and follows a genetically created soldier that is built to fight and survive in terrains where others fear to tread. A somewhat predictable third person intensive action/stealth sortie, combined with the power and inventiveness of experimental weaponry, sees you fighting against all odds in some very hostile environments.
TVG's very own geriatric creation, Derek dela Fuente, spoke with Michael Burnham, Senior Producer, who explained more about the story and features on offer.
With the action/shooter genre being one of the most competitive and saturated genres around, what areas of the game do you hope will entice and pull in gamers?
The Rogue Trooper story has been running in 2000AD since 1981, giving us a huge number of great ideas right from the start. First and foremost of these was embedding the skills of your fallen GI comrades "Biochips" into your equipment. This led to the inclusion of some great features such as "Gunnar", Rogue's rifle, being placed in the environment as an intelligent sentry gun, "Helm" projecting hologram distractions and being dropped on to consoles to hack them and "Bagman" giving the players the option to cast out "Micro-Mine" fields into likely enemy routes and manufacture ammunition and equipment.
These features lend themselves to intelligent play from the gamer as they observe the enemy and then plan the most effective attack. Of course the player also have a great set of standard weapons and although it won't get you through the whole game running and gunning in certain sections in still a great plan, and great fun.
Action based titles often sit at the forefront of technology, so what kind of focus has the team gone for; and with the game appearing on three formats does it not weaken the game with a generic version appearing across all formats?
The Asura engine and tools were designed from the very start for developing cross-platform titles in a scalable manner. They allow us to support a wide spectrum of features to the highest quality possible on each platform while simultaneously providing our artists and designers with powerful options for customising effects and assets for individual formats.
"That is to say: the explosions are huge and look great!"
The rendering subsystems on all platforms combine great efficiency with a full feature set. This allowed us to create massive yet highly complex environments using our wide range of rendering techniques and effects, populated with Rogue's detailed Nort opponents.
The new particle technology used in Rogue is very exciting. It has allowed us to create spectacular special effects incorporating large numbers of particles featuring heat haze, motion blur and texture animation, all using a full physics model and following complicated rules for turbulent or random motion. That is to say: the explosions are huge and look great!
The engine includes a fully featured physics system that handles all of our character movement, collisions, particle systems and ragdolls. We have an advanced 'animotion' technology that allows our enormous range of animations (well over 1000 in game) to drive our complex characters around under the control of our physics code.
What has been the central vision for the game and what has inspired its making?
Beyond the features brought to the game by the Biochip buddies we went back to the comic for the strong game storyline we needed and went with Rogues hunt for the Traitor General who was responsible for the massacre of all the GI comrades. This was THE Rogue storyline for the fans and revisiting it felt right especially once we had secured Gordon Rennie, a 2000AD favourite and the writer of the last five years of Rogue Trooper stories, to script the game based on locations and events from Rogues early adventures tracking the Traitor and fighting against the Nordland Empire.
Can you tell us anymore about the storyline?
The hunt for the Traitor will take the player across a huge swathe of Nu Earth experiencing extreme differences in landscape and level design. From the blasted Quartz Zone the GI troops are dropped on, to sneaking through enemy bases, crumbling cities, petrified forests. Nu Earth presents a challenge to the player but also to the other combatants of the Nu Earth war.
Indeed the GIs have been bio-engineered for this environment and are superior to normal troops in every way. Standard human troops need to wear Chem suits and carry a bottled air supply with them when out of safe areas. These air tanks, worn as back packs, offered us a great chance to reward a player that achieves a tank shot with panicking enemy as their air tank leak slowly develops into a time bomb strapped to their back with a satisfying ragdoll launching effect at the end.
Is the game predominantly an out-and-out shooter; what subtleties behind the stealth aspects are on offer?
Observation and sneaking around is used to analyse the threat ahead of you and work out the strategy you're going to use to take out the enemies. This allows you to use the biochips to maximise your firepower- deploying Gunnar at a bottleneck, projecting micro-mines to where the enemies patrol, pulling them towards the trap with a holodecoy. Then, once the fight has begun, throwing a few grenades into the mix, using the environment to your advantage... before you know it there's a team of enemies down and a big grin on your face as you anticipate the next encounter.
However, if part of reconnaissance brings you close to an unsuspecting Nort then he doesn't stand a chance. Close quarters combat between a Nort and Rogue isn't a fight - it's a foregone conclusion. Kill-Moves are easily performed and offer bonuses to the skilful player.
Rogue Trooper sees fallen G.I's entire personality downloaded onto biochips; can you tell us a little more about Rogue's three biochip comrades, Gunnar, Bagman and Helm, and the role they play in the game?
At the start of the game you are a standard GI trooper - your buddies fight alongside you as fully formed GIs. As they die and their biochips make their way into your equipment features of the game become unlocked, easing players gently into the variety of game play options that the game offers.
Rogue himself is a fully formed warrior - bred for war, specifically war on Nu Earth. He doesn't require the cumbersome breathing apparatus to survive: as with all the GIs he can breathe the poisoned air. This grants the player flexibility; movement across the hostile environments couldn't be easier. Low obstacles can be vaulted, higher walls can be scaled and any flat surface can be used as cover. When in cover you are not only less vulnerable to enemy fire (assuming that it's coming from the other side of the cover), but you have a range of options available. Blind-fire, from cover, scares the enemy and forces them to seek cover, while aimed-fire, from cover, allows you to quickly emerge and take a shot before returning to cover or you could just lob a grenade over your shoulder from the safety of cover and watch the enemies panic.
The biochips add the strategy element. Gunnar offers auto-aim, along with target analysis - letting you know when a shot would be an instant kill (headshots & air tank-shots). Bagman controls your entire inventory including micro-mines and can be told what to manufacture from the salvage that you collect throughout the game. Helm offers distractions to the Norts in the form of the holodecoy and attract features. Add to this their general banter as you progress through the levels: they offer advice on what's coming up ahead - they're constantly monitoring changes and how well you're doing. You may even get told to stop showing off if you're not paying them enough attention.
The Rogue Trooper license provides an opportunity for truly inventive weapons; perhaps you can run us few a couple of the standard weapons and a few of the more powerful ones that players can get their hands upon?
Beyond the great ability to act as a sentry gun, Gunnar has an under-slung attachment point which allows the player to configure a secondary fire solution that fits their style and will deal best with the enemy. Options include a powerful shotgun, a chaining beam attack, mortar launcher, and a SAMMY option, which allows the launching of guided missiles, particularly but not solely useful against flying enemy. Rogue has a recharging pistol as a back up option but also for use when Gunnar is placed. Configuring Gunnar before the fight kicks off is essential - whilst you might survive a close quarter's fight with the SAMMY under-slung attached; you'd be a lot better off with the shotgun or beam rifle.
Various grenade types are available in the game: Fragmentation grenades do a lot of instant damage and will toss enemy Norts around, Sticky grenades will attach to passing enemy causing them to panic and often run to fellow troops for help to explosive effect. Scrambler grenades are the future of flash bangs attacking the troop's sensor arrays causing massive feedback and troop confusion. Incendiary grenades mix the instant damage of fragmentation grenades with the continuing damage of fire, which is particularly unwelcome when you have an air tank on your back.
Mix the above with Bagman's Micro-Mines and usable heavy gun emplacements of varying types and you get access to a potent combination of weapons in the game.
Believable AI is crucial in creating an immersive experience in the genre; what can we look forward to in Rogue Trooper and the types of opponents featured?
The AI provides the challenge to the player in any single player game and if the challenge isn't strong enough the reward for winning a single encounter is lessened. There are a number of ways to create the challenge, in Rogue we chose to work on a per-team basis - each individual enemy is potentially lethal but, in a team, they pose a significant threat. If you're not paying attention or haven't planned ahead then you'll be killed fairly quickly.
Each team is made up of around 4 enemies - often one member is a Sergeant that co-ordinates his Infantry. In any given area there may be three or four teams that could be potentially active. To ensure the team that the player is currently engaged with grants the best possible challenge they get the highest priority: allowing them to use cover, work together and try their best to take the player out. Teams just out of sight are still updated, but on a reduced scale. As they come into focus they get a higher priority and thus the cycle continues.
This way we can keep the areas of levels open and allow players to tackle an area from several different points without having to specifically script the encounters more than once.
As for the cast, the standard infantry are the biggest ensemble, and are focused on mid-range combat. For long-range threats we have Snipers and Mortar Troops. Close quarter threats include shotgun troops and packs of intelligent tracking hover-mines. As larger threats we have the various Hoppas and Drill Proves that bring in more troops and provide covering fire as they deploy, and we've also got some of the Nort mech suits - Nort Tactical Armour. Oh, and the odd Blackmare Tank (think Sherman but 10 times bigger) and a lot more besides.
Can you tell us a little more about the environments Rogue Trooper takes place in?
Without wanting to spoil the storyline for players, the environments that feature in the game encompass a wide variety of Nu Earth. Starting in the Quartz Zone you'll make your way across the Dix-I peninsula from the comics, visiting a variety of Nort bases scattered around as you try to find out information on the whereabouts of the Traitor who sold you and you comrades out.
These environments vary substantially, allowing you to try out the tactics you have learnt in different situations. From the openness of a desert level to the confined streets of a ruined city, through to a spooky petrified forest and a high mountain pass... the license has allowed us to create a wide variety of locations to impress and challenge players.
Finally, summing up the game in a sentence or two, tell us about one event in the game that really encompasses the full ethos of the game?
Near the start of the game, you're trying to rescue Helm. You've recently found the blueprint for the shotgun and Gunnar has been having a great time blasting Norts as you make your way through the base towards where you believe Helm is situated. A locked door is in the way, and it looks pretty solid. Nearby there's a fuel tank - following the pipe up you see more canisters above you. An overflow valve is within reach... Deploying Gunnar to cover the door you loop back to the valve and place the micro-mine that Bagman has handed you onto it - then stand back.
The explosion rocks through the base - the Norts know for sure that you're here now. Quickly the door opens and a team of Norts run through: straight into Gunnar. Finishing off the fight with your pistol sidearm you collect Gunnar and make your way down the corridor - it opens out to the refueling decks for the massive battleship to your right lots of Norts, including some using heavy mech assault suits and also a heavy mountable machine gun... the fun has only just begun.
TVG would like to thank Michael Burnham for sharing his thoughts and providing the conclusive lowdown on Rogue Trooper; look out for further coverage across TVG soon...
