Rogue System Preview

Having long been a fan of sci-fi, I’ve played my fair share of space sims. You have the arcade, like Wing Commander, then you have your more based in fact like Evochron Mercenary. There are many that straddle the line, such as Elite: Dangerous, but few that go for the hardcore sell. That’s where Rogue System comes in.

There’s a subset of sci-fi that strives for realism -- no light speed, no sound in space, every action requiring a counter action… They don’t like to ignore the ‘science’ part of ‘science fiction’. Think Flight Simulator, but set in space. Don’t believe me? Check out this ~140 step guide to starting up and undocking your ship.

I’ll be honest, I didn't read the mission selection (there’s no campaign mode yet) very well, and wound up in a mission to save a satellite from a decaying orbit. I had to sit down and power up the craft without the foggiest idea of what I was doing. I gave up after ten minutes of a blaring alarm.

When I went back to it, I noticed that the tutorials were beneath the missions, so went for the first one, to find the ship already undocked and powered up. I ran through the tutorial and learned about all of the buttons -- and there are a lot of buttons in the cockpit. You’ll need to use the middle mouse button to zoom in, unless you’re using VR, or TrackIR -- though it’s designed to use the latter.

As I linked earlier, there are a few guides prepared in Rogue System’s community hub. I’m staggered by the amount of dedication people have put into this already. Hardcore science fiction isn’t something I have spent a lot of time looking into, but I can certainly see how this approach appeals to people more than just hitting the Start button on a spaceship and flying off to do laser battles.

There are six tutorials and two missions, one of which is a sandbox. Of course, there will be more going forwards, but at the moment it does feel a little limited. Once you’ve gotten the hang of the ship there’s not much left to do -- not that you’ll find it easy to get the hang of… It is a simulator, after all.

Still early in its Early Access stint, Rogue System did spend some time off of Steam being created and improved by its dedicated community. Digits Crossed Interactive found a niche to fill and have done so with gusto. I’ve no doubt that this game will continue to grow into the best, if only, spacecraft simulator on the market. It might even persuade you to give up on your dream of becoming an astronaut -- or inspire you.