Hands-On At EGX: Day 1 – Rogue Trooper, Raiders of The Broken Planet & More

Cultured Vultures are currently boots on the ground at EGX 2017 in Birmingham. Here’s the report of what we got our grubby little mitts on during Day 1.

 

Rogue Trooper Redux

You all might have forgotten about Rogue Trooper when it launched during the tail end of the PS2 era. The third person shooter based on a 2000AD comic strip launched to fairly strong reviews, but was largely overshadowed by the Xbox 360 and the looming PS3. Plus, Rogue Trooper was arguably too obscure to really garner mainstream success.

This isn’t stopping Rebellion from giving it another shot, though, as Rogue Trooper Redux is launching next month for PS4, Xbox One and PC. A Switch release is also inbound but a release date has yet to be finalised. If blasting aliens whilst pebbledashing your toilet is your bag, you’re going to have to wait.

You play as the bioengineered soldier of war known as Rogue. He lives to fight, fights to live, kicking ass whilst never acknowledging the concept of a t-shirt. The war between the Norts (boooooo) and the Southers (wooooooo) rages eternally, but someone has leaked the existence of Rogue and his band of merry troopers, leading to an ambush during their first mission.

Luckily, your fellow troopers live on through bio-chips, which Rogue attaches to his gear, allowing you to upgrade your weaponry as you progress. That’s later on though, the EGX demo focused on the opening level/ambush of the G.I. troopers by the Nords.

The gameplay itself is still a product of that PS2 era, as you move from cover to cover, utilising your environment to your advantage, popping bad guys and marching forward. Innovative it is not, but it’s still satisfying to pop a bad guy hiding behind cover with a well placed headshot.

We encountered a couple of camera issues during our play session. Rogue often liked to get into the way of his own reticule whenever we aimed down sights after a dodge roll, and comrade Bagman gave us a wee scare when he decided to walk between the back of Rogue and the camera, again obscuring our vision.

Still, as remasters go, Rogue Trooper Redux looks set to give players great value for money. The full story campaign with updated graphics and framerate will only set you back a mere £19.99. If you’re a Rogue Trooper fan or someone who missed out on the game first time round, this is a golden opportunity for a second chance.

 

Raiders of the Broken Planet

Anytime I talk about this game, I have to mentally stop myself from saying “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. This one will be a tough habit to break. Anyway, Raiders of the Temple of Doom- fuck.

Raiders of the Broken Planet is a 4v1 brawler/shooter, though we only experienced the single player aspect. The full game will ship with 4 player co-op and the 4v1 antagonist mode, which is a laugh by all accounts. Essentially, one player invades a current game with the intent of murdering the other players or stopping them from achieving an objective.

The game rewards tactical gameplay. Going in all guns blazing is often the wrong strategy. That was a lesson learnt the hard way on multiple occasions. It’s too easy to get swarmed, meaning you must utilise your characters unique abilities to survive. The in-built stress system is intriguing, where if you’re constantly on the move and attacking, your location will always be revealed. Only by staying calm and playing tactically will you remain hidden.

Certain enemies sometimes make the game feel unfair. Elite enemies favour grapples, which can instantly kill you if they get close, and certain characters struggle to put distance between themselves and impending doom. Whilst you also have access to these grapples, and boy are they satisfying to land, nothing is more frustrating than getting grabbed and murdered from behind with no chance to defend yourself.

The shooting itself is great, and feels responsive. Being able to switch from shooting to melee combat instantly is brilliant, and allows you to quickly adapt to developing situations. The character abilities vary from protective barriers to jetpacks to being able to cling to walls to gain better vantage points as a sniper. Each have their own uses and can help turn the tide of battle.

The comparisons between games like Battleborn or Evolve due to its 4v1 nature are inevitable, but Raiders of the Broken Planet wants to distinguish itself from the pack, and appears to be doing a good job of it. Though the more tactical might put off some gamers, the prologue is free to play for everyone, so even if you’re unsure you can still give it a whirl.

Raging Justice

Anyone who holds old school beat ‘em ups like Final Fight or Streets of Rage in high regard should be on the lookout for Raging Justice. Not only is it a fun beat ‘em up, but it’s also the stand-in name for my non-existent metal band. Be on the lookout for our first album when Hell freezes over.

You play as one of two cops, in a city ruled by gang violence, and now you must bring some justice to these streets using only your fists and whatever weapons you can find. It’s your basic side scrolling beat ‘em up, but appears to be played for laughs. The idea of a grizzled cop dispensing justice the hard way is practically a parody at this point anyway, and smacking people with baseball bats only for the game to declare that as a home run is just the icing on that cake.

Gameplay is about what you’d expect from a side scrolling beat ‘em up. You’ve got your light attacks, strong attacks and grapples. We couldn’t find any defensive mechanics during our brief play session, but neither did most old school games. This is, in every sense of the phrase, a throwback title.

 

Dissidia NT

Dissidia is a 3v3 brawling series based on the Final Fantasy games that utterly passed me by. Perhaps that’s due to my personal lack of enthusiasm towards the Final Fantasy series, but usually doesn’t stop from playing anything that closely resembles a fighting game. EGX provided that opportunity in the form of Dissidia NT, and after playing the game for a quick session, I still have no clue what to make of it.

Essentially, 3 players on each team pick characters from the entirety of the mainline Final Fantasy series. Cloud vs Lightning, Squall vs Warrior of Light, Tidus vs Onion Knight; you get the picture. Whilst the core of the game can be described as people whacking each other with oversized swords, there’s plenty more strategy than that.

Players have access to basic, or bravery attacks, alongside HP attacks and extra skills. The bulk of fighting revolves around using your basic attacks to weaken your enemy, then following up with HP attacks to cash out for massive damage. That’s how I understand it anyway. Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.

The action is fast and frantic, with magic attacks getting lobbed across the screen and characters being sent flying due to those oversized swords we spoke about earlier. Though I had little clue of what was unfolding before my eyes, Dissidia NT presents players with an interesting and peculiar 3v3 brawler that is capable of entertaining casual fighting game players and hardcore Final Fantasy players alike.

 

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Because of course the guy with a fucking Hadoken tattoo on his wrist made a beeline for the biggest fighting game in recent memory, despite having played it last week at Bandai Namco. What else did you expect?