In the Rezzed area of EGX, Rebellion, owners of the comic 2000AD and makers of the Elite Sniper games, have a couple of booths where they are showing off a couple of games. One is their new game Strange Brigade and the other is a new version of an old game Rogue Trooper Redux, a remaster from back in the PS2 era. As an avid fan of 2000AD, I had Rogue Trooper on the PS2, I also had Judge Dredd: Dredd VS Death (Judge Dredd is my favorite 2000AD character and one of my favorite comic book characters in general). I really enjoyed Rogue Trooper, it was a solid shooter and an enjoyable romp through a sci-fi world. Redux updates the graphics by a good margin and makes the game look all shiny and fresh again, it makes it look how I remember it looking back in the day.
In Rogue Trooper you are part of the Genetic Infantrymen, or GI’s, clone soldiers made for battle. And you are fighting against the Nort Empire, a pseudo-Russian Army set on your destruction. When you and your team are set up by the high command, your friends bite the dust and you install their biochips, replete with their personalities, into your gear. Gunnar gets installed in your rifle, Helm in your helmet and Bagman, you guessed it, gets installed in your underpants…Just kidding, obviously, he goes into your backpack. Once installed your chip buddies can speak to you and grant you some abilities from turning your rifle into a sentry turret to crafting you mines and special ammo. They also give you the odd jib now and again like when you attach a suppressor onto your rifle and Gunnar says “If it’s too loud, you’re too old!”.
Rogue Trooper Redux holds up well giving the game is 16 years old, the combat feels satisfying and the sound effects have been updated as well to give your guns a good weighty feel. The level design is probably the games weakest part now as they can feel a bit dated in how you weave back and forward across the landscape but they were good for their time. The scenery however still looks great and properly brings that comic book sci-fi world to life. The demo I played only took you to the end of the first mission but it was enough to bring back nostalgic memories and show that the game can still hold its’ own and is still fun to play.
After the demo, I caught up with one of the devs, who had worked on the original game 16 years ago and was glad to see his baby come back. When quizzed on whether they had plans to do any more remasters (cough cough Judge Dredd) he said he couldn’t say at the moment but any possibility of future remasters would depend on how well Rogue Trooper sells. I also asked if there would be any other 2000AD titles on the horizon in the future and was told that with Rebellion working on games like Strange Brigade and their successful Sniper Elite games, they just don’t have the time at the moment but they may look at third party licensing in the future. So who knows what 2000AD games we might see in the future? An open world Judge Dredd maybe (Yes please!) or maybe even a hack n’ slash Slaine game? That would be awesome! What 2000AD games would you like to see in the future? Sound off in the comments below.
Rogue Trooper Redux is going to be out on Xbox One, PS4, PC & Nintendo Switch on the 17th of October.
