Written By Shaun McCracken
Tactical action games seem to be the rage these days since Metal Gear Solid,
MGS 2 and Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Rogue Ops tries to fit in with that said crowd,
and attempt to do some things they haven't. But there's a few faults that make this
game fall short of the premiere espionage titles, but that doesn't make it neccessairly
a bad game. Rogue Ops does have a lot going for it, provided if you can tolerate
its annoyances.
Rogue Ops puts you in control of Nikki Connors, an ex-member of the Green Barret
that has suffered the loss of her husband and daughter by a terrorist organization
known as Omega 19. Vowing only revenge, she joins Phoenix, a covert agency dedicated
to counter-terrorism. The game will place you through 8 large and varied levels
from all over the globe, pitting you right in the center of danger. You'll need
to use all of your covert skills and specialties you learn through training if
you wish to succeed at completing your mission, and saving the world.
All of this must sound exciting and tempting, but when it comes to the actual
game itself, some issues arise that lead to frustration. First of all, you'll
need to get used to the controls. The main analog stick will move Nikki forward and
back, and straffe side to side. You'll need to use the C-Stick to look up and down,
or shift the view if you want to turn. That in itself isn't too troubling, I'm pretty
used to it by now, and it's fairly intuitve. Then there are your "functions".
"A" button will open doors and search people and documents , "B" button will
enable you to crouch. "X" button will arm your selected weapon (weapon selection is
don by cycling up or down with the D-pad). "Y" will enable you to use your econdary item
(which can be cycled by using left or right on the D-pad). "Z" button enlarges
your map and "L" button is used for aiming. So far, this isn't very confusing.
Until we get to how the weapon was mapped. How you use your weapon is by far one
of the stupidest executions ever done in a game, and has resulted in quite a few
missed shots. You see, the developers decided to use the pressure sensetivity of
the "R" button for two functions. If you lightly press on R, you'll draw your
weapon. If you press R until it clicks, you fire a shot. The problem is that if you
try to rapidly shoot something, you may end up putting the gun back in your holster.
Not good if you are in danger.
Then there's the design of the game itself. Each level has set missions, but
how you achieve them is up to you. Unfortunatley, you need a push to know exactally
what to do and where. For example, on the first stage, you need to find a person.
One of the team members tell you he's upstairs, but doesn't go into detail how you
get there. I go up the stairs, but the door is locked. Oh, yeah, you only have about 2 minutes
to find him. I had to look around on the internet to find where this guy was. Apparently,
you don't take the stairs, but have to go outside, scale on a ledge that wasn't visible
to me at the time (I have a TV that displays a bit too dark) and climb through
a window. Why didn't the guy just say that? Tell me that the door was locked, and that
you need to go outside. A lot of the game is like that, where you're told to do
something and it isn't clear on how you do it. At least there is a lot of covert
stuff to do, such as sneak behind guards and pick their pocket, dodge cameras,
hide dead bodies and more. If the mission design was a little more clear, the game
would have been more fun and less frustrating.
You don't have much in terms of weapons. I think the only weapons I have come
across is a silenced pistol, a sniper rifle, a crossbow, some grenades, some
shurikens and a stun gun. If you run out of ammo, or would like to use your hands,
you can sneak up behind a guard, and a meter will appear. The more the meter fills,
the less amount of directions you'll have to input to make your stealth kill. It's
a neat concept, but you can miss, and your planned sneak attack will backfire
on you. You also have some special items such as the V.I.S.E.R.
that allows you to see guards through walls, a fly cam, thermal optical camoflauge,
a retina scanner and an adrenaline boost. Perhaps the developers tried to keep this
game as real as possible by not including 20 or so guns like the Bond games, but
why can't you snag a down guard's machine gun?
The game is a bit mixed on it's logic. Such as sneaking past guards. You can be right
behind them, and they won't hear you, but if you're behind a wall, crouch-walking,
they somehow see you. Also, they can sometimes go through doors, or act as if they
aren't there. Then you wonder how they can see where you are when you can't see
them. But then there are some things that make sense. One thing you had to do in the
game was run into the freezer, reduce your body temperature, and run past two
rooms that had thermal detecting cameras. I wouldn't have thought up of something
like that, and for a brief moment, that was a smart thing the developers included.
The graphics are mixed in Rogue Ops. On the one hand, there are some great
and sharp textures to be seen, and does sport some good lighting. The character
models (especially Nikki) look pretty good. But then there's the framerate. It's
always infrequent, and stutters quite a bit. It doesn't make the game unplayable,
but you do notice that the game can slow down at times. Some character models
seem a bit like charectures than actual people, either having a little too much
exaggeration in facial features or what-not. Some textures are not so great up-close.
The sound is also a mixed bag. The music is pretty good, and fits the mood of
the game. The sound effects are pretty much right on par of what they should be.
But then there's the voice acting. It's too comical at times for a game like this,
wether it be in it's delivery, scripting, or both. The sound in the video portions
are way to tinny, and case in point why developers should STOP USING BINK VIDEO
for their compression. It may preserve the video a little better, but in a lot
of games I've played that use this tool, the audio sounds like crap. Just look
at Tony Hawk Pro Skater 4, RoadKill, Kelly Slater's Pro Surfer and this on the
GC. You know what I'm talking about if you've played those games.
Final Thought
Rogue Ops needed a little more tightening up in it's design to be a game
that could go shoulder to shoulder with MGS and Splinter Cell. There are just
too many instances in the game where I was confused on what to do next, and
too much trial and error was involved in completing the mission. Even though
the game is only 8 levels long, each stage will take at least an hour to complete.
They're pretty long, even if you know what you're doing. At a lower price, Ops
may be worth looking into. It's not a highly polished game, but it does make
some bold attempts to be a worthwhile covert action game. If you enjoy these
types of games, give it a shot. For those unfamiliar withe these kind of games,
maybe just a rental would do for you. Interesting and involving at points, but
also has some noticeable flaws.
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Rogue Ops
