In one sequence, a lady officer is torturing Helm, and in the walk to the torture chamber, the sway of her hips is so over exaggerated I was just waiting for her to fall over. However, it seems that 2006’s animation is also present and correct, with the characters having some very peculiar gaits indeed. The visuals have had a shiny HD lick of paint and look good, the world having a suitably ruined look and the enemies being bundled up in survival suits. Rogue Trooper Redux is presented in a third person perspective, looking over Rogue’s shoulder as he runs, only changing to first person when he aims down the sniper scope.
It’s also useful information, as Bagman will tell you when he puts the last magazine into Gunnar, for instance. The voice acting in this is top notch, and the chips chatter away to each other and to Rogue throughout the game, fleshing out each character’s back story with anecdotes that relate.
Along the way, he has to fight a whole host of Norts, from ordinary grunts, to Sergeants who are a whole lot tougher, to Pillboxes to Mechs to Heavy Mechs to Hoppas to… you get the idea. This sets the scene for a good old fashioned revenge story, where Rogue must hunt down the Traitor General and bring him to book. However, one of the Southern Generals betrays what they are about to do, and as a result the GIs are wiped out to a man – except of course for our hero and his three biochip buddies. The GIs are sent on a mission against the Norts, the main baddies in the story arc. The story is a strong one, and, from research, seems to mirror the main Rogue Trooper storyline in 2000AD. In an interesting move, when Rogue takes his hat off, he loses his mini map, so the missions where Helm is unavailable are quite tense, as you can no longer rely on the map to show you where the enemies have holed up. Just like Ghost in Destiny, come to think of it! In fact, Helm can pretty much use any machine, it seems, showing these skills in one memorable sequence where he flies a helicopter, and Rogue is on the door cannon, taking down all comers. Helm can hack locks and open doors, but it normally takes him just long enough for Rogue to defeat all nearby enemies. Anyone care to hazard a guess at where his biochip ends up? That’s right, in Rogue’s helmet.
This is obviously very useful for taking out enemy heavy armour.Īnd last but not least, Helm. My personal favourite is the mortar gun, which shoots a shell that splits into three explosives before it hits the ground. He can also be fitted with a silencer, normally provoking some grumbling about how Rogue “wants him to shut up”.īagman ends up in Rogue’s backpack, and helpfully can turn scrap looted from dead enemies into new bullets, grenades and medpacks, as well as giving Rogue new weapons at various stages in the story. Helpfully, he also gains infinite ammo when going solo, so it’s a worthwhile tactic. Gunnar gets placed into the main weapon of Rogue, gaining a couple of cool new abilities, including being able to be deployed as a sentry gun so he can attack enemies at his own discretion. Maybe Bagman was good at packing?Īs the game progresses, the three members of the squad die in various unpleasant ways, and luckily each time Rogue is there to retrieve the biochips. Rogue’s friends/squadmates are Gunnar, as he showed aptitude in marksmanship, but that doesn’t really explain the other two members of the squad – Bagman and Helm.
When a GI is created, he isn’t issued with a name, only a number, but he is given a nickname when his talents become obvious and their training progresses. The only way to keep the chip “alive” until a new body can be found is to insert it into a piece of equipment that the GIs carry, which will maintain them over time. The big plot device is that when a GI dies, his personality is downloaded onto a biochip, which allows the same soldier to be created in a new body. Rogue is a Genetic Infantryman, or GI – a genetically manipulated, blue skinned super soldier, bred to be immune to all poisons and therefore be able to survive on the surface of the irradiated Nu-Earth, where everyone else would be killed by the air in moments. Second of all, I feel I can’t pass up the opportunity to give some background about the source material that the game is based on.