Rogue Warrior
Preview
Yet another Tactical Shooter? Think again.
by zr122
previewed on PS3
A taste of real experience to the FPS shooters
In the realm of first-person shooters, the hard hitting action in the Tom Clancy Splinter Cell series has always been at the forefront of the market, generating mass profits. Within the next year, that monopoly on the FPS market looks to be stripped away.
From Bethesda Softworks, the creators of the best selling Elder Scrolls games, and the company behind the Terminator games, comes an experience far surpassing any shooter currently on the market. Rogue Warrior is the latest product from ex Navy SEAL member Dick Marcinko, who has released several fiction books that are based on Marcinko?s experiences while serving his country. Marcinko has, over the last four decades, been involved in countless counter-terrorist teams, and has released several books ? both fiction and non-fiction ? which have sold several hundred thousand copies. He runs several companies based on security, as well as teaches courses on terrorism at the Eastern Michigan University. Though Rogue Warrior is the first of his projects that delves into the realm of video games, the idea of Rogue Warrior came from a book of the same name.
Deep in the enemy territory
Rogue Warrior, while sticking to a modern day timeframe, takes gamers to a location that has been making headlines across the world as of late, the infamous North Korea. As the game sets out, you control Dick Marcinko himself as he leads three other SEAL members deep into North Korean territory on a reconnaissance mission. Unfortunately for you and your teammates, the northern half decides at that moment to start a nuclear war with their southern counterparts. What started as a simple in-and-out mission becomes a fight for your life.
Freedom of choice for the man on the field
Bethesda takes some of their experience with their popular Elder Scrolls franchise and applies it to Rogue Warrior, creating a shooter that breaks the mold in more way than one. While most games in this genre follow scripted events in order to make the game progress, Bethesda has created a way for the player to take the game in their own direction, completing objectives in the way they feel like, instead of the way the programmers have planned. The open-ended worlds of Morrowind and Oblivion allowed gamers to complete the quest at their own pace; in the same way, Rogue Warrior gives players the choice of routes to take in order to complete the objective of the current mission. This does not mean that each map is so all-encompassing that you?ll get lost, not by any means. In the opening level, you have a choice of following a fast path to the exit that runs a risk of discovery, or a completely safe path that will take you longer to traverse. These types of options are rarely found in any game, but look to live up to their potential in this one.
And for those of you who appreciated the fast transition between first- and third-person views in the Elder Scrolls games, that feature has made an appearance in Rogue Warrior as well.
