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Rogue Trooper is a third-person shooter video game developed by Rebellion Developments. Rogue, apparently the only surviving G.I. (until he meets Venus Bluegenes), goes AWOL in order to track down the Traitor General responsible.
Rebellion invites comics fans and action gamers back to the future with this video game adaptation of 2000AD's Rogue Trooper. Players take the role of Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons' genetically enhanced super-soldier, to fight for revenge in the disturbingly futuristic Nu Earth. The game plays like a third-person shooter, but tactical concerns such as stealth, reconnaissance, mobility, and timing are also important for continued survival in the unforgiving battlefields. Although a loner, the solitary G.I. is never completely alone, as he can receive guidance and advice from two former comrades, whose personalities are stored in computer chips that Rogue Trooper carries in his high-tech helmet (Helm) and backpack (Bagman).
Rogue Trooper is an actioner that comes to us courtesy of Rebellion, the sophomore publishing arm of those lovable rapscallions 2000 AD., famous for the Judge Dredd comic, and for being responsible for the total moral decay of British youth. Those of you who remember the mediocre first-person shooter based on Dredd need not fear... Rebellion's second outing is a much tighter package, based on a little known (at least here across the pond) but much more compelling comic title.
Story:
Nu-earth used to be the garden spot of the galaxy. Unfortunately, it happens to sit right outside a particularly useful wormhole, making it the strategic high-ground between the Southers and the Norts, two warring factions who've blasted the planet into a toxic wasteland in their attempts to dominate the gate in space. Now, no one survives on the surface without protective gear. The Norts, penny-pinching putzes that they are, give their foot soldiers a so-so rifle, an oxygen tank that tends to blow up when shot, and a breathing mask that they can barely see through. Then, they send a whole lot of them out and hope for the best. The Southers decided to think outside of the box.
They created the G.I.'s, the Genetic Infantry, vat-grown blue-skinned supa-soldiers capable of breathing the toxic air. With enhanced strength and senses, they're perfectly designed to survive on the surface of Nu-earth. In addition, each G.I. has a bio-chip implant which records his memories and personalities. If he's killed, his chip can be salvaged, temporarily plugged into another G.I.'s equipment, and later attached to a newly grown body. Let's hope this doesn't give Monsanto any ideas.
You play Rogue, the only surviving G.I. after your squad is betrayed and ambushed. Your buddies, the highly ironically named Helm (plugged into your helmet), Gunnar (plugged into your rifle), and Bagman (plugged into your backpack), made it through the battle only when you salvaged their bio-chips and plugged them into your gear. Now, you're on a one-man mission to track down the traitor and blow him up real good.
Game play:
At first glance, this plays like a pretty standard military-style third-person shooter. Much of the basic Game play is borrowed from Namco's KillZone, with your trooper having the ability to blind-fire from behind cover, duck behind walls, and snipe. Controls are smooth and responsive. All-in-all, pretty standard stuff. Ah, but here's where the dudes at Rebellion got clever.
Y'see, yer mates whose chips are stowed in your gear aren't just freeloaders...they're enhancing your stuff, and doing it in some fairly novel ways. Gunnar sits in your gun, popping up lil' icons over targeted enemies to let you know if you've got a head-shot, or a tank-shot, piercing the enemies tank canister, which explodes after a few seconds, potentially taking out other enemies. In addition, you can drop Gunnar off in a spot, turning him into a sentry turret. Finally, Gunnar has a built-in sniper mode.
Helm sits in your helmet, naturally. In addition to hacking security doors and panels, Helm can generate a holographic G.I. which can be used to fool snipers into revealing their positions, and can be used to scout out areas a short ways ahead, and generally distract baddies.
The biggest enhancement is Bagman, your backpack. Instead of picking up weapons and first-aid kits, Bagman acts as a mini-factory, generating clips for your weapons and med-packs for your wounds, as well as building enhancements based on blueprints you receive at various points during your mission. You do this by feeding him 'salvage points', which you get by 'salvaging' downed enemies and equipment. (Run up to a downed bad guy and hit the action button.)
Bagman's weapon enhancements, which clip onto your existing rifle, include a basic shotgun, an arcing electrical weapon, a SAM launcher for dealing with airborne pests, and the wonderfully lethal Mortar Launcher, which launches a shell that arcs towards an enemy and explodes into 4 bomblets overhead. Bagman also supplies power enhancements for your arsenal, adding additional shots and damage. Finally, Bagman is capable of launching mini-mines, the best implementation of an arcing/mine weapon I've seen in a long while. Tap the button to lay a single mine, hold down the button to bring up an arcing path, and dump a whole bunch over walls, in front of doors, and if you're good, right on top of the bad guys. Finally, these mines only explode when triggered by you or one of your grenades...or if a Nort steps on them.
Topping off your list of lethal goodies is four, count them, four flavors of grenade. Frags, sticky grenades, emp grenades and incendiaries. All can be thrown from cover, tossed quickly, or aimed with the same kind of visible arc as the mines.
Enemy A.I. is fairly crafty. Enemies will run for cover, attack in groups, and avoid rushing you headlong. The only real dummies of the game are the snipers, using 'hey, shoot me' laser scopes and never moving from their positions. Enemy encounters are usually crowded affairs, as well. Alerting one enemy by being noisy or missing a shot will bring a whole bunch running.
However, as you probably guessed from reading about your weapons loadout, after a while you go from being merely lethal to death eating a cracker. Your rifle is only so-so, but once you've gotten the shotgun and mortar launcher, the Norts don't stand a chance. Plus, the previously mentioned mini-mines have a RIDICULOUS range. Once you get the hang of it, you'll be able to drop a batch of these lil' wonders on top of your enemies heads from what feels like a quarter mile away. And they're unlimited. And you have them from the beginning of the game. Toss that in with Gunnar's ability to become a sentry gun, and all of Bagman's enhancements, and you'll be walking over the enemy in no time. Fortunately, you'll be having a hoot and a half doing it...all this freaky firepower adds up to major fun..
Graphics/Sound:
Graphically, the game looks good, but not outstanding. While there are some cool signs and logos littered around the city level, the whole thing is pretty generic photo-reel stuff...solid, but nothing you haven't seen before. Same for the character models and vehicles and such...everything is designed to give off that 'Heavy Metal' vibe Euro comics are famous for.
While the environments might look a bit budget, the weapon sounds and effects are nice 'n meaty, with big explosions and camera shakes accompanying your mines, missiles, grenades and bullets. Even with the silencer attached, your rifle has a nice menacing hiss to it.
Although they rely a lil' too heavily on the whole 'German accent (Soviet accent) = evil' formula, the voice acting is remarkably solid...no real standouts, but not a clunker in the bunch...not bad considering the whole shebang is voiced by five people.
Final Verdict
It's good solid shooty goodness. About the only thing bad I can say about Rogue Trooper is that it's over too soon (three or four nights will about do it), and the main character is way-overpowered, especially with those tasty mini-mines! Hmmm...mini-mines. A real solid action title from the guys at Rebellion, and a good title to tide you over until the boys of fall arrive.
People who downloaded Rogue Trooper have also downloaded:
Sacrifice, Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, S.W.I.N.E. (a.k.a. Strategic Warfare In a Nifty Environment), Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Rome: Total War, Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown, Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy, Sudden Strike 2
Sacrifice, Rise & Fall: Civilizations at War, S.W.I.N.E. (a.k.a. Strategic Warfare In a Nifty Environment), Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends, Rome: Total War, Robin Hood: Defender of the Crown, Starship Troopers: Terran Ascendancy, Sudden Strike 2
![G I Rogue Trooper G I Rogue Trooper](/uploads/1/2/5/7/125790022/196997775.jpg)
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/ComicBook/RogueTrooper
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Rogue Trooper is an ongoing science-fiction strip created by Gerry Finley-Day and Dave Gibbons in the British comic 2000 AD and first published in 1981.
Against a backdrop of a future war between two factions, the noble Southers and evil Norts, the comic follows Rogue, a G.I. (Genetic Infantryman), and his three comrades' search for the Traitor General, a man in the Souther high command who sold the Southers' battle plans to the Norts, which led to the massacre of all the GIs except Rogue. His comrades are in the form of biochips (onto which a G.I.'s entire personality is downloaded at the time of death for later retrieval) and are named Gunnar (mounted on Rogue's rifle), Bagman (on his backpack) and Helm (on his helmet).
After about three years, Rogue finally found and killed the Traitor General. He was again inducted into the Souther army, but then (without a major goal), the comic floundered and ultimately sputtered out.
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Gibbons returned to the strip in 1990, this time as a writer. He completely rebooted the series with a new character, new war, and new planet. The biochips were done away with, since Gibbons wanted the new protagonist—Friday—to have a more spiritual connection with his comrades. However, the story was basically the same: all but one of the GIs are wiped out in a massacre, and the one survivor goes rogue and treks back to the high command to find out what happened.
Gibbons' run was short but well acclaimed. It was pretty self-contained, though left the door open for future stories. After his run ended, Michael Fleisher picked it up and had a new set of adventures as Friday wandered Nu Earth trying to do justice where he could. This run reintroduced the biochips, which—to Gibbons' chagrin—turned out to be the most popular aspect of the Rogue continuity.
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Steve White took up the writing after Fleisher, and in order to regain interest, he had Friday team up with Rogue, who now existed in the same universe. This move was not well received due to continuity issues and some rather controversial plot points.
The series was supposedly ended for good in 1996, though there was the odd spinoff or two. In 2002, popular writer Gordon Rennie revisited the Rogue continuity with a new series of stories set during the hunt for the Traitor General. This series was well received, and Rennie attempted to reboot the continuity for a second time, but his editors blocked him. He has said he would like to write more stories in the Rogue Trooper universe, but these would focus on side characters and what's going on elsewhere on Nu Earth. Rennie would later create The 86ers, based in the same universe, but in a different star system, and Jaegir, focusing on the Norts.
Most recently, the comic was adapted into a video game by Rebellion Developments, who currently also publish 2000 AD and have the rights to most of its characters. Rogue Trooper: Quartz Zone Massacre was released on the PS2, Xbox 360, and PC in 2006, and again on the Wii in 2009. Though it features the characters and premise of the Rogue continuity, the story is very different, and much of the technology has been altered to make the game play 'more fun.'
A film adaptation is in the works with Duncan Jones set to direct.
Tropes associated with this work:
- Action Girl: Venus Bluegenes. Though she can fall into Dark Action Girl due to having murdered surviving Southers out of survival on an island.
- Alternate Continuity: The video game, up to a point. It follows the original Rogue continuity reasonably closely — a lot of the locations are there, though in a different order. It's the ending where the major difference occurs.
- The Friday version was supposed to be this until the two continuities were merged.
- Alternate Universe: A What If? strip: what if Gunner had survived the Quartz Zone Massacre instead of Rogue? He uses Souther troops as decoys. They later kill him, Rogue and the rest of the team, leaving his skeleton in the sand.
- Abnormal Ammo: In the Rogue continuity, the weapons are described as being 'las' based, but they are depicted as ejecting casing like projectile weapons. A close-up of a cartridge reveals that the bullets have lenses, which is somewhat similar to older descriptions of Imperial Guardman's las-gun.
- 'Sammies', which are essentially surface-to-air rifle grenades.
- A Nazi by Any Other Name: The Norts from the original continuity.
- Archnemesis Dad: Technically, Clavel is this to Friday, as Clavel used his own DNA as the base for the GI programme.
- Armchair Military: Milli-com, the southern high command, operate from a giant space station light-years from the war. Oddly for this trope, most of them seem to be combat veterans.
- Awesome Backpack: Bagman in the Rogue continuity.
- The Baroness: Kaptain Natashov.
- Black and Gray Morality: While the Norts are shown as Obviously EvilCommie Nazis, the Southers aren't a whole lot better. Some strips, such as 'The Fanatics' and especially the Jaegir spinoff portray some Norts as either Punch Clock Villains or My Country, Right or Wrong.
- Blood Knight: Gunnar.
- Brain Uploading: The GI bio-chips. Mostly in the original, though not unseen in newer incarnations.
- Gunner himself managed to regain a new body, complete with Telekinesis, in one of the stories. Sadly, it turned out that Mill-Com had indoctrinated his mind into killing Rogue. Though he returned to a chip on the rifle with his new ability after being 'killed' by a jammed gun.
- I Cannot Self-Terminate: In the Rogue continuity, Rogue encounters a interesting version of the trope, a super soldier prototype (a predecessor of himself) waiting out in the wilderness to die a death of old age, seeing it as dignified and declaring that 'suicide ain't my style'. Rogue subsequently holds off a Nort assault force in order to give the old man his wish, the narrative stating openly that it's something he wants for himself one day.
- Friday attempts suicide, but finds that he's been genetically programmed to be unable to do so.
- Canon Immigrant: Helm's hacking abilities were first seen in the game, but he uses them in comics published later.
- Canon Discontinuity: The crossover between the original Rogue and Friday.
- And probably most of Friday's adventures, barring The War Machine.
- Commie Nazis: The Norts, being based on Those Wacky Nazis and Cold War era Russia, are a classic example. Their speech is even peppered with both Russian and German-sounding exclamations.
- Continuity Reboot: The return of Gibbons in 1989 created this; fittingly, as Rogue's story had run to completion by that point.
- Gordon Rennie's run is this to a certain extent, though this time set during the classic era.
- Cool Tank: The tanks are equally cool and terrifying.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: A particularly bad one is the main villain in the Friday continuity.
- Crapsack World: While the toxic and war-torn nature of Nu-Earth has been the main part of Rogue Trooper comics, the situation outside of the planet isn't rosy either in the spin-offs. Both the Norts and Southers have large numbers of unemployed veterans—many of whom suffered ill-health from long-term exposure to Nu Earth's toxic atmosphere—which the former's counterpart turned to crime for survival after their military discharge in the comic 'Jaegir'. Furthermore, it is hinted that many planets on the frontlines suffered just as bad as Nu-Earth. Despite their status as 'good guys', the Southers also lean towards authoritarianism, which many citizens with anti-establishment views were 'volunteered' for military and Genetic Infantry experiments before Rogue and others were made.
- Crossover:
- A rather infamous example is the crossing over of both continuities into the one universe with the explanation that there were two Nu-Earths. It all got rather messy.
- The Friday continuity crossed over into Judge Dredd by means of Time Travel. This one might be still canon, at least in the Judge Dredd universe, Dredd encounters a Flawed Prototype GI on New Sidona.
- Death World: Nu Earth. Very much Nu Earth. The atmosphere is unbreathable for any normal human and anything that can survive in its toxic atmosphere is a dangerous predator.
- De Terminator: Rogue travels all over Nu Earth hunting down the Traitor General and will not let an entire world at war get in his way.
- Distant Finale: Mercy Heights had a character who resembled Rogue named Tor Cyan. 'Remembrance Day' told an edited version of the Quartz Zone Massacre, which tied both strips together. Cyan is shown to be watching the footage and leaves Rogue's battered biochip at a memorial site on Nu Earth, which has had its environment restored to inhabitable and is now abloom with the same blue flowers that Rogue finds. Whether this is still canon is unknown.
- The Dreaded: Rogue amongst the Norts. 'Blue-skinned devil' is a common nickname for him. As he travels around Nu Earth, killing Norts and helping Southers, his reputation increases. Some Norts have nightmares about him.
- Dress-Coded for Your Convenience: It's readily apparent who's on what side.
- Dropped a Bridge on Him: Rogue, Helm and Bagman are all killed off during Friday's run. 8-Ball goes as well and Gunnar replaces him in Friday's rifle.
- Earth All Along: The planet in The War Machine, Friday's debut story, turns out to be Earth.
- Elite Mooks: Most notably the Kashan Legion. Hard, ruthless bastards who all but annihilated the G.I. Regiment. Granted, they had some help, but that's still pretty Badass Normal.
- Enemy Mine: Rogue is recruited by a group of Nort generals to assassinate their War Marshal to try and prevent an offensive that will wipe out everyone on Nu Earth. He succeeds, but Arkhan betrays and kills the generals, becoming War Marshal himself.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Office of Public Truth in Jaegir comic operated on this principle. The story included Three Nord officials: the first being responsible for destroying a ship with civilians on-board, the second who caused the death of many inhabitants to meet the planet's production quotas, and the third launching a disastrous assault on entrenched position with recruits. The first was assassinated by a sniper due to her illegal action resulted in retaliatory strikes on the civilian populace by Southers, the second was poisoned by a Chem Sister due to the aforementioned-production quotas being done for personal gains, and the third was dropped into a vat full of molten metal for his incompetence.
- Fan of the Past: A dark version of this trope occurred in the Rogue Trooper story 'Fort Neuro'. Rogue arrived at the titular fort, hoping to find shelter and some time to let the biochips calm down. However, the stress of holding off a Nort siege for years coupled with isolation caused the four garrisons to degenerate into parodies of Napoleonic France, a 50s British seaside resort, a group of disco freaks, and wannabe supermodels. Rogue and the robots eventually managed to knock some sense into them.
- The Federation: Southers seems to fit this mold as a counterpoint to Nort's The Empire despite sharing same authoritarian mentality as them. Furthermore, many Southers' militaries also seem to be diverse that also included large non-humans among their staff compared to human-exclusive military of Norts.
- Gaia's Lament: Nu Earth is an absolute ecological disaster with a toxic, unbreathable atmosphere. The GIs were basically created to survive in this environment. The Nu Earth in Friday's continuity is actually Earth itself.
- Gas Mask Mooks: The Norts. Justified in that the horribly toxic atmosphere of Nu Earth makes chem-suits essential for any normal human. The Southers are a downplayed example, as their faces are visible, but are still in chem-suits.
- Genetic Engineering Is the New Nuke: Subverted. While the GIs are incredibly skilled and resilient soldiers (particularly Rogue), the GI program is implied to have been cancelled after the Quartz Zone Massacre.
- The Norts have attempted their own genetic experiments with less than stellar results.
- Hopeless War: While never directly stated, it is suggested that the Southers are constantly losing to the numerically superior Norts, leading them to develop wonder weapons like the G.I.'s.
- Insert Grenade Here: A common way Rogue destroys Nort heavy tanks.
- Klingon Promotion: Most Nort War Marshals.
- Meaningful Name: Rogue got his name long before he went rogue as there was always something different about him compared to other GIs. Friday's came from the fact that he was cloned on a Friday (More specifically, he was a 'Friday job', where less attention was put into it, due to the impending weekend) and had a flaw in him, leaving him less brainwashed. And, of course, Colonel Kovert.
- The three comrades Rogue saves in biochip form are named Helm, Bagman and Gunnar. His equipment has slots for biochips on the helmet, backpack and rifle. Guess who goes where?
- The Mole: Sister Sledge.
- Mook Horror Show: Jaegir shows an encounter between Rogue and some Norts from the Norts' point of view. Rogue is terrifying.
- The Neidermeyer: Major Magnam.
- One-Man Army: Rogue was created to kill Norts and that's what he does, even after he goes Rogue. He fights to find the truth behind the Traitor General, not caring who or how many he has to kill to do it.
- Recycled In Space: The American Civil War with the Southers as the Confederate and the Norts and the Union.
- To add to this there is reference to 'Nu Georgia' and the 'Battle of Mek-bull Run'. A large area in the south is named Dix-I.
- In the game it's more like Cold War turned HotIN SPACE! With the Norts being Russians and the Southers being NATO.
- There's elements of World War 2 in it too, with the Norts being very Nazi-esque and the Southers based on the Allies. The acronym for Genetic Infantry is no coincidence.
- To add to this there is reference to 'Nu Georgia' and the 'Battle of Mek-bull Run'. A large area in the south is named Dix-I.
- Smart Gun: What Gunnar became due to his biochip being inserted into a rifle.
- Spinoff: A couple, notably Venus Bluegenes, which follows the female GI of the same name, and Mercy Heights, about a GI ambulance driver.
- More recently, The 86ers focused on a squadron of pilots based in the Acoma system.
- Jaegir focuses on the Norts.
- Then there's Hunted with The Traitor General as a Villain Protagonist. Rogue and Atalia Jaegir make appearances as well.
- Sole Survivor: Rogue and Friday were both this in their respective battles (as was the old soldier waiting to die whom Rogue encountered).
- Super Soldier: Many, most notably Rogue and Friday.
- State Sec: The Souther Secret Service, more commonly known as S3. They wear grey uniforms with no rank or insignia. Their initials are not coincidental.
- Suicide Attack: A Christmas 2010 special had a Nort plot to destroy the Souther's military command with a clone of Rogue which explodes after it is killed.
- Tank Goodness: The Blackmare Tank. Its main turret is bigger than most whole normal tanks.
- Those Two Bad Guys: Bland and Brass, body-looters and war profiteers.
- Those Wacky Norts: Many of them had mustache-twirling evil personality compared to more professional-looking Southers. They were more nuanced in Jaegirs and 86ers though.
- Unreboot: When Rogue Trooper was rebooted in 1990, he was replaced with a Suspiciously Similar Substitute named Friday, who survived a similar massacre of his fellow G.I.s. Things got really messy when both continuities were merged, which eventually led to the original Rogue being killed off. After Friday's story was finally concluded and the entire Tor Cyan solo stories that emerged from Spin-OffMercy Heights were done, Gordon Rennie began penning new stories set during the original Rogue's hunt for the Traitor General.
- The Un-Reveal: It is never identified which of the four Souther Generals was the Traitor due to massive facial disfigurement.
- Although it's a bit of a moot point, since the three innocent generals are all killed when the Traitor sabotages the satellite they were on. His escape doesn't go as smoothly as planned, leading to the aforementioned disfigurement.
- Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight: Friday is forced to face off against a Mark III GI in a swordfight by Clavel. The Mark III is stronger, faster, and tougher than Friday, but Friday's experience plus a ploy where he appears to submit puts him on top.
- Took a Level in Dumbass: In the Friday continuity, Gunnar is flanderised from a Blood Knight down to what would be Dumb Muscle if he had a body.
- Walking Nu Earth: Rogue is wandering around the war-torn Nu Earth in an effort to discover the Traitor General and occasionally stops to help Souther troops.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: All GIs, as they aren't given shirts before going into combat.
- War for Fun and Profit: In the Friday continuity, the Clavel Corporation has apparently been manipulating the entire war on Nu Earth in order to profit from the war economy.
- War Is Hell - Nu Earth, upon which Rogue's story takes place, is described in canon as 'the ultimate monument to war'.
- We Have Reserves: Both sides employ this trope to various levels. The Souther Milli-com will order troops to continue suicidal attacks, while Nort battle commanders will have their men charge enemy positions. In 'Realpolitik', the Nort generals note that while War Marshall Zell's strategy of all out assault on Nu Earth will succeed, this victory will come at the cost of draining resources from other war theatres.
Index
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