Rogue Trooper (PlayStation 2)

A planned attack on Nu Earth goes wrong when a General turns traitor resulting in the massacre of Rogue’s comrades.

The game starts with Rogue and his comrades launched from a drop-ship. They come under fire from the Norts due to the information that had been leaked by the General. Upon landing the first mission is a tutorial in how to use Rogue’s skills and also the Bio-chips of Gunnar and then Bagman. The third Bio-chip of Helm is received in a later mission. The Bio-chips have their own abilities. Gunnar is stuck to the side of Rogue’s rifle and can be used as a sentry while Rogue flanks the enemy. Bagman provides ammunition and upgrades for Rogue’s equipment made from salvage collected along the way and also looks after his health. Helm is used for accessing computer consoles and panels allowing Rogue access into prohibited areas.

Rogue works his way through the various levels as stealthily as is possible trying to take the Norts by surprise with kill moves but with the arsenal at his disposal he is quite capable of also unleashing hell and going toe to toe with the enemy. Tracking the traitor General, Rogue eventually catches up in the final mission with an abundance of Norts trying to stop him.

The game is identical across all platforms allowing the user to create numerous profiles and using a checkpoint save feature ensuring that you don’t have to go too far back in the level if you get Rogue killed. There are 3 different skill levels (Normal, Hard and Massacre) which when completed will unlock cheats. The Windows version uses a combination of keyboard (reconfigurable) and mouse, the mouse being essential for aiming and firing. The Xbox and PS2 versions are identical using the left thumb-stick for movement and the right thumb-stick for aiming and right trigger / shoulder button for firing with the other buttons used for various other actions such as weapon changing or grenade throwing.

Within each platform, multiplayer is available with the option to play as Rogue, Helm, Gunnar and Bagman, each character having their own attributes. There are 5 arenas of either Stronghold or Progressive. Each map will have an objective such as defending for a certain amount of time against waves of Norts on Stronghold or getting to an objective point on Progressive maps. High scores will be saved with the user’s profile.