Remember how your parents said that gaming was a waste of time, they were right!
Rouge Warrior on the other hand manages to take this genre and give it a severe beating, producing what could only be described as a contender for the worst game of 2009. You start out standing in the shadows watching an enemy patrol go about their business when the game kicks off, moments later your smashing the face of a soldier through a window in a nice little cut scene. Ahead you see two enemy soldiers on patrol and the game prompts you to take one out silenty with a knife to the head, leaving you to deal with the other how you see fit, and then the fun ends. Graphically the game is ok, burned out buildings and weather effects add some sense to the various locations you will be visiting, the guns look nice and the effects of exploding grenades fill the screen with flying debris and smoke. You line up your first soldier in your sights and "pop", nothing happens. The hit detection is poor at best, headshots can sometimes drop a soldier instantly but usually result in him running off to call his mates. Ok you say I will shoot out the lights splinter cell style and make it into a stealth game, that is untill you turn on the eye bleeding night vision and realize its easier for you to shoot all the bad guys with the lights on. The game then doesn't get any better as you progress, the levels are linear giving you little room to explore and are simply forced from one set of firefights to another. The locations in the game are varied and will see you shooting bad guys off a dam to sneaking about a large estate in the dead of night as the snow falls all around you, none of which are truly inspiring but seem to come from the great big book of cliques that game producers have tucked away somewhere.
Then comes the dialogue. I think these days everyone expects a little swearing in video games, it can add to the tension and express some of the emotions one would feel when faced with life and death situations. However the game makes you cringe as your character seems to spew forth every expletive known to man in a constant torrent of abuse that has no real bearing on either gameplay or story telling. Its if they asked the in-game dialogue to be written by a 15 year old street kid, who's only objective was to make the game sound as hardcore as possible, it fails miserably and makes you ashamed to show it to anyone with a serious gaming passion.
The multi-player loaded up quick and I managed to jump into a game without delay, then I discovered that the melee system had also made the jump and was appalled by the way players could warp accross the screen, through your gunfire, to execute you from 15 feet away with a knife to the forehead. The bad language also follows and the cringing continues.
The campaign is short and the multi-player is engaging for a short term play so what then have we spent our money on? Bad gameplay complete with dodgy shot detection, language so foul it would make a brothel worker blush and multi-player you will dedicate at least 5 minutes to, rental at best. It really makes you wonder how games like this ever make it past the planning stage? Lets produce a game that is over the top with bad language with ho-hum gunfights set in dreary locations that have been done all before, great where do we send the cheque? Thankyou to the producers of Rainbow 6 and James Bond for giving the public decent experiences in our chosen sport of video gaming, without them Rouge Warrior would be our only option.