Review: Rogue Warrior

Children beware!  The most foul-mouthed and obnoxiously loud Navy Seal in the history of the United States has had a video game made detailing supposed real life exploits.  Ripped from the pages of his book with the same name,  the game only be a part of his exploits and embellishes them a bit as well.  Read on for my take on Rogue Warrior for Xbox 360.

Story:

You are Richard Marcinko, a Navy Seal sent into North Korea to assess evidence ballistic missiles.  When the mission goes bad and your team is killed, you find yourself abandoned and alone to fight your way out of the country.  Once out of the country you are tasked with finding the missiles and disabling them and the terrorists who have them.  The story is loosely based on true life events with a lot of liberty taken in the storytelling.

Gameplay:

When you first take control of Marcinko, you will find yourself right at home. Controls are almost spot on with how you play other FPS games, but you eventually have to tackle some tactical elements.  Outside of normal run and gun gameplay, the developers added a kill button. When close to an enemy, hitting the kill button will perform sort of a finishing move which adds an element of stealth gameplay.  Overall, any FPS vet will be able to pick up the game and be familiar with the controls.  The problem is that they tend to be clunky and non-responsive at times.

Graphics:

In a world of HDTV’s and graphics whores, everyone is striving to be the best looking game.  With that comes over zealous developers who can add too much lighting, not enough lighting, or effects that just aren’t quite needed or overused.  Rogue warrior manages to hit everyone of these right on the head.  From the very opening to the later levels.  Moonlight reflected off a shirt should not look like I am staring into a 60 watt light bulb.  Then you enter a level and you can barely see anything because the game is too dark.  Maybe you can use your shirt to reflect some moonlight into dark corners?

Overall:

Some games try really hard to be something they are not.  Rogue warrior stands as one of the most bland and over zealous games I have ever played. Obnoxious and unneeded swearing every 3rd or 4th word, bland graphics, sometimes too dark of levels, shoddy controls and an overall need to be something it really isn’t lend to the lack of enjoyment it brings.  Is it still worth a play?  It may intrigue people who are obsessed with infiltration and guns but its faults outweigh any resemblance to good gameplay.  Achievement whores may be willing to suffer through it, but even they will gripe and cry the entire game.

Pros

Cons:

Score: 4 Out of 10

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