Rogue Company
Coming out with all guns blazing.
Jumping out of a hoverplane with the rest of my four-person crew, I cast an eye across Rogue Company’s industrial canal map. I can see the opposing team in the sky, their red contrails giving me some basic information on where they’ll make landfall.
Rogue Company is Hi-Rez’s thirdperson multiplayer shooter. I’m playing the 4v4 Extraction mode where you earn victory from hacking an objective, counter-hacking an objective, or – because this is a shooter – mowing down every one of the opposing team and forcing them to sit through a replay of your winning kill.
You start the game with a secondary weapon and some loose change – enough for a grenade of some kind, or maybe an upgrade to that secondary weapon. As each round begins you’ll get to use the shop again, spending the cash you’ve earned through wins, successful revives of teammates and so. It’s CSGOish but the class-based twist means items and perks differ from mercenary to mercenary rather than being the same for everyone.
I upgraded my pistol before jumping out of the plane, so I need to pick a landing point. While I’m airborne the game uses a blue grid to mark the play area and glowing triangles for the starting points of the three main routes through the map. I think the enemy team mostly headed to the right so I swoop left. I’m hoping to buy time to learn the layout a little before the firefighting begins in earnest.
I really want to tell you that this approach went perfectly to plan. That nobody got flanked. That nobody forgot they had bought a smoke grenade. That they absolutely remembered to use their character’s special ability which lets them revive themselves. That they definitely didn’t die behind a shipping container. That they definitely equipped their primary weapon once they bought it. That… Actually, none of you were there so you can’t fact check what happened – everything went to plan!
BRING ALL YOUR WEAPONS
While everything went to plan my growing map familiarity started to pay off. Flanking routes stopped catching me out, and I started deploying gadgets like tripmines with more finesse, making it easier to protect certain areas or to force the enemy to change route. I was also delighted by the hotkey for swapping between right and left shoulder view.
Despite some gadgetry and the character abilities Rogue Company (or at least the 4v4 Extraction mode and the 2v2 Wingman mode) prioritises shooting. Map knowledge and shop purchases can give you an edge but ultimately you’re a person with a gun, in a world of people with guns, solving people-with-gun problems by being more competent at guns. PHILIPPA WARR