Rogue Continuum Review

The game’s cryptic title swooshes in from some outer-space sci-fi world and brings in a snapshot of four ‘90s-inspired gaudy space heroes. And just like back then, whoever named this product was more concerned about how much zing it had to people’s ears than actually making any sense. What we get from hearing ‘Rogue Continuum’ is a vague feeling of outdated sci-fi and lazy scriptwriting, and rarely have first impressions been more accurate. Although I did miss a reverberated deep voice-over introducing the title alongside.

Going back to our Guardians of the Galaxy-wannabes taking the spotlight, it’s easy to spot an air of intended self-awareness and light-heartedness from the beginning, but that unfortunately never fully comes through to become memorable. As a part of our roster, we’ve got two creatine-induced soldiers with an apparent aversion to sleeved shirts and the squat rack, a run-of-the-mill femme fatale and what’s got to be one of the first fail attempts to build a Metal Gear. Needless to say, any intentionally-over-the-top piece these days needs to be set in space. Oh! So much self-awareness! It’s too much! 

This top-down shooter/tower defence makes great use of these four characters to establish four well-defined classes with different playstyles – assault, melee, sniper and a slow-but-hard-hitting robot. Like any league of super soldiers, these four are meant to be played together with three of your friends. The more aliens you kill, the more experience points you rack up, so as to upgrade your characters, weapons, and abilities.

However, as much as I can commend the heterogeneity among classes, not all are created equal. With swarms of aliens rushing towards you, the slow mech has little to do against them, even though it is really effective against bigger enemies. The sniper moves very fast, and her ability to reach far enemies whose bullets fall short makes her the perfect character. The melee soldier, however, often finds himself in a bit of a pickle, as he gets easily hit by stray bullets and surrounded by other melee enemies.

A variety of weapons, abilities and class-specific pickups can be found throughout the levels, which may enhance your armour, or give you a boost in speed. Sadly, there’s little synergy between classes and abilities. Each has their niche, but they all focus on killing enemies, albeit with a different approach. For example, the slow robot-mech’s and the agile soldier’s abilities are the same – they bump up their DPS by increasing the rate of fire.
Not that this matters much – if you want to play co-op, your only chance is setting up a local game with your buddies, as online play has virtually zero players permanently. The chances of finding an online game or having people join yours are just as high as coming across your friend’s character in No Man’s Sky.

There are two modes in Rogue Continuum: Rogue and Conquest – a linear level in which you ought to annihilate every living soul between you and the extraction point; and a tower defence in which you have to fend off waves of aliens with the aid of stationary turrets. In both modes, you can loot enemies and get some coins, which will allow you to buy temporary upgrades for that same level. Needless to say, both modes suffer from the issues stated above – bad balancing of classes and enemies, and no players for co-op.

Although the gameplay may make you quit the game, its looks may even prevent you from giving it a go. Although the cartoony and excessive style does go hand in hand with the purposely ridiculous remarks by the characters while blowing up aliens, it’s hurting for polish. It simply isn’t easy on the eye; rough edges on the characters and a crude and dull world detract from tempting the potential buyer. The lack of voice-over during cutscenes doesn’t help either, even if the sound effects and soundtrack have great ambitions to rival similar classic games like Metal Slug.

Rogue Continuum has little laudable, and rarely passes mediocrity. Someone out there may need a four-person co-op top-down shooter for nights far too overran by alcohol, but the most people won’t make it past the first mission. But hey, at least it’s got lasers.