Online game "Rogue Company"

Gamers are no strangers to the situation when a mediocre game thanks to marketing gets all the laurels and becomes a hit, and a great game - weaves at the end of the ratings. It is to such works can be attributed online action movie Rogue Company. It is not so often written about in reviews and videos, and on streams it is a rare guest, although the shooter has thousands of positive reviews in Steam, and it was released by the company Hi-Rez, which needs no introduction. After all, it was under its auspices that MOBA Smite was born, challenging the queen of the genre - Dota 2. Let's find out how developers from the second echelon managed to create a first-class entertainment.

This is where you ask, what do MOBAs and shooters have to do with each other? In fact, Rogue Company is not the developers' debut in the genre. After Smite, they released Paladins, a slick fantasy action game that at one point garnered an audience of 25 million. And Company of Outcasts, released in 2021 and languishing in early access for over a year, served as the next step and a kind of work on mistakes. Any "pen test" is out of the question. However, radical innovation is also out of the question. After all, the game incorporates the features of many hits, including PUBG, Apex Legends, Overwatch and Counter-Strike, offers a phenomenal choice of modes, but is available for free. You'll be tempted to click on it in the store and install it on your computer.

The first thing that greets us is, of course, the training, where we are shown how to run, shoot and bring fallen comrades to their senses. The full tactical arsenal of movements is presented, including aiming, running, walking at full height and in a crouch, tumbling and jumping to overcome obstacles, and also hiding in hiding places. Here the developers clearly demonstrate how you can solve one of the problems with the third-person view, when the hero holds the gun with the butt to the right shoulder, and you need to shoot at enemies from the corner on the left. By pressing the "E" key you can quickly turn any character from right-handed to left-handed and back again. It is really more convenient.

In addition, cold weapons are used not only for close combat, but also for throwing, which is immediately shown to us in the training mode. And with humor, with which the whole game is saturated. Suffice it to say that the instruction is led by a character named Dima with a strong Russian accent, he constantly jokes you, and after the katana throwing technique he says: "Now juggle swords". In any other action movie, such an order during the training would cause confusion, but here you can just laugh it off.

Play as one of the agents, represented in large numbers. Each hero has a biography, a track record and a special skill, to activate which you should press the "Q" button. For example, a pretty girl with the call sign Ronin, for whom we pass the training, is able to throw a knife with explosives in the handle into any surface. As soon as an enemy runs past such a "bomb", it will detonate immediately - you don't even need to go anywhere to mine corridors and doors.

Dima, in his turn, is not only a bomber, but also possesses extreme resistance to all kinds of explosions. Also from the agents available at the beginning it is worth mentioning the scout Dallas, who is able to de-mask the enemies at a moment's notice due to his special skill. There's also a bulky Envil - according to the story, he is 54 years old, so he has plenty of experience. He is clad in sturdy armor, carries a ballistic shield and is immune to disorientation, for example, after triggering a flash-bang grenade. A very useful fighter when it comes to assaulting or holding a defense in a narrow passageway. Sainte is a typical medic: he is not particularly formidable on his own, but he is indispensable in a group. And Trench is a master of tactical tricks. He carries more equipment than the others, and uncoils barbed wire where necessary. In fact, the list of heroes is much longer, there are as many as 26 of them in Rogue Company, but to unlock the rest you have to try hard on the battlefield. Or just pay.

All battles, regardless of the mode you choose, start in the same way: you and your friends are delivered to the map in an airplane, and then you have to jump and plan to the surface with the help of a wingsuit. Right on board there is a store, where you can buy weapons and equipment for the amount you are given at the start - just like in Counter-Strike. The budget will not allow you to arm yourself to the teeth, but it is quite realistic to get an automatic rifle and a couple of grenades. And then - fight. Shooting in the game is very pleasant and somewhat reminiscent of PUBG: recoil, spread and other ballistic subtleties are noticeable. In addition, the choice of guns is very extensive, and if you don't like your personal gun, nothing prevents you from picking up a trophy gun left at the place of enemy's death.

Unlike in PUBG, there is no instant death from a headshot. First, the enemy must be knocked out for a while, so that his allies have time to heal him, and then finish him off. It's a familiar mechanic, isn't it? The importance of teamwork in Rogue Company is hard to overestimate: your friends will cover you, and reanimate you in case of emergency, and share your gun, and mark the enemy on the map. And we should not forget about the combination of unique skills of agents in the team. What does not please in battle is the sound. It is even in headphones flat, it is difficult to localize the shot and go to the opponent by the noise of his steps. But the music is worthy of praise - an organic mix of jazz, dubstep and synthwave. Rare action movie nowadays has such an interesting soundtrack.

Did we mention that there's a lot of varieties of fights in the game? Well, bend your fingers. The simplest mode, which was transferred to Rogue Company from Paladins, is Strike. Its essence is that your team and the opposing squad are dropped off at different edges of the location with a couple of checkpoints. Characters must move to the center of the map, capture these points and destroy each other. Everyone has a limited number of lives - the first one to use up all his supply loses. Then comes the classic desmatches in groups of six participants. You run around, score frags, and have fun.

In "Sniper Team" four participants play on the four most spacious maps - "Mountain Base", "Glacier", "Factory" and "Favelas". As it is easy to guess, only long-range weapons can be used here. There is also a "Quick Game" for four and a mode "Partners", where two squads of a couple of agents compete. Location "Channels 2" is dedicated to a separate type of fights because of the peculiarities of its structure - with plenty of hiding places and narrow places. There is also its own analog of the "battle royal", where opponents can get weapons right from the start, on board an airplane. Finally, in "Destruction" you, as in Counter-Strike, plant or defuse a bomb.

But that's not all. For each multiplayer mode in Rogue Company, there's a training variant. This means that your squad will be made up of players just like you, but you'll be fought by bots controlled by artificial intelligence. It's a good time to practice shooting and remember the basics. And those who have already mastered the shooter are free to go to one of the ranked battles - try your hand at "Strike" or "Destruction" for a place on the leaderboard and special rewards.

In addition, the Shooting Range allows you to test any of the heroes, even the blocked ones. Here you can use anything, including the most exotic guns. And training is simple: you need to shoot at targets, earning virtual currency for it, and then buy the necessary equipment to test it in practice. This way you'll realize in advance what kind of agent and with what "toys" you like - and unlock it in case you need it. For a conditionally free shooter such friendliness is a great rarity. The developers from Hi-Rez are sparing newcomers in general: even in the local "battle royal" you have a gun at the start and you don't need to search for ammunition in the pile of loot - they are attached to each gun automatically.

Such a generous set of modes is accompanied by a rich selection of cards. They are rotated automatically and you don't have to vote for them, unlike the "peak" of agents before the match. Among the levels there are big and small, with a roof over your head and in the open air, and also with exotic design - for example, in the medieval European province, in the middle of which the ISS module that fell from the sky is burning down, or in the streets of Kyoto. In some locations, danger lurks in the most unexpected places. Especially here stands out the map "Fire and Ice", where a hesitant participant of the match risks falling into the river of lava. It should be noted that the authors of the game are distinguished by their imagination.

The peculiarity of Rogue Company is that here you improve not the characters, but their weapons. Each of the agents is associated with a certain arsenal. For example, if you play as Ronin, pistols, submachine guns, swords and automatic rifles are available for her. You get some of these items whenever the girl dies and returns to the battlefield - you can't take the trophies with you to the afterlife. To shoot with shotgun, grenade launcher, revolver or "pulse gun", which works in short bursts of three shots, you need to unlock other heroes. And the guns, in turn, grow in levels as you complete matches where you actively use them. It's easy to determine the quality of weapons by their color: if you have, say, a green PP, and at the place of enemy's death there is a purple one, you should exchange your own for someone else's - it will be more useful.

There are also two main resources in the game - conventionally speaking, silver and gold. The first virtual currency is credited for any combat successes, including training, obtaining achievements and completing matches. Silver can be used to speed up the pumping of any gun, open some emotions, stickers and other decorations that allow you to stand out from the rest of the users. On the other hand, "Golda" is an analog of real money. To acquire it, you just need to have funds in your Steam wallet (you won't need to enter your bank card number somewhere) or fulfill seasonal tasks together with missions of the battle pass. The importance of gold is that it is with its help that heroes are unlocked.

Rogue Company turned out to be a bright, dynamic, pleasant to learn and diverse game that requires neither money nor special skill from a beginner. If other third-person shooters seem too complicated for you, here anyone will feel like a master of shooting - if not at the heroes of live players, then at bots for sure. Of course, there are some problems like rare "crashes" on the desktop and the presence on the servers of people who can outplay anyone, but these little things do not spoil the pleasure of the process. Hi-Rez studio employees, using the accumulated experience, have created a "hidden diamond" of the genre - it would be great if as many fans of multiplayer action games as possible learned about it.

Zarium. March 2024