Let's set our lights into the past for Rogue Continuum, a four player local co-op roguelike game, where you have the noble goal of saving the human race from complete destruction. That should be easy right?
Yet another game after my own heart, Rogue Continuum is a local co-op master work, which combines 80s action movie cliches, big guns, aliens, and robots. The premise for the game is simple: aliens blew up the Earth, but you and your comrades managed to escape on Earth's best kept secret, a ship that can travel back in time exactly 28 days. You have no way of knowing who the aliens that blew up the earth are, so in true action movie style, you just kill all of them. It's somewhat cliche’d but in that B movie charm kind of way, much like Far Cry Blood Dragon.
There are a total of four playable characters: Rampage Rufus, a close combat specialist; Smackdown Sam, gunner extraordinaire; Ownage Olga, ice-cold sniper; Destructobot, giant walking tank, ED209 style. Yeah the names are so cheesy you could melt them on a pizza—it certainly fits the theme of the game so far. As you could imagine, each character plays differently, with each having access to a different set of weapons and skills, so experimentation is key to find who you find the best to play with.
When you first hop in, you will notice how difficult this game is at lower levels. Each character has its own progression tree that you advance through by killing enemies. On death, you are awarded upgrade points that are persistent, because time travel. Once you start to level up, you will eventually get deeper and deeper into the game, and there is a lot of variety of levels and enemies to be had. All of which are nicely presented in a clean 2D art style, with great effects for weapons and explosions that definitely pull you in.
The game has two modes; one is a story mode that has randomly generated maps, much like a traditional roguelike game, and the other is called “Conquest Mode,” where you are given designed maps to play on, usually with stacks of credits that you can use to build base defenses and survive as long as possible.
Even though all that is fun and great to play on your own, where Rogue Continuum comes into its own is with local co-op. Playing with a couple of other friends makes this an insane maelstrom of death and destruction, something that I am glad to see increasingly more often. The game's mechanics definitely seem to be built around co-op play, and it is certainly done well and is super enjoyable to play with a friend.
It’s no secret that I love couch co-op games, as well as roguelikes, which may seem like I will give anything that has both an automatic 10/10, but this is definitely not the case. If a game tries to blend those two elements and fails, it would be a much harsher critique from me then I think anyone else would offer, but thankfully Rogue Continuum is not going to be made an example.
Rogue Continuum is well-made, looks great, sounds great, the roguelike elements work well, and the progression system is a great incentive to keep coming back, knowing that next time, next run, you may just get revenge on those alien scum. If that isn’t enough of a clincher to make you try out this title, which is still in early access—which will definitely turn away a few people, and rightfully so. Just know that this game is published by Suprise Attack Games, which I don’t think have ever attached their name to a bad game. They have an eye for talent, and I have spoken about them before and I trust them more than I trust myself. Either way, you should check out the trailer below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtjpCUjRoi4 What do you guys think about this one? Is it your style? Do you think I need to get an adjustment on my game goodness barometer? Let me know down below or on twitter.
Rogue Continuum is currently in early access on Steam.
