To begin with Streets of Rogue is such a huge mash up of different genre’s that it would be difficult to pin point exactly what route its coming from, however if there is one thing for sure, the gameplay is absolutely hilarious and surprisingly deep.
Streets of Rogue begin with a city in desperate need of saving as a ruthless and dictatorial mayor has taken over, making everyone’s lives complete hell; including banning all alcohol! Before long the city had fallen into a state of chaos, but there is still hope! A secretive organisation known only as the Resistance has been formed to fight back against the mayor’s tyrannical leader ship and that is where our tale begins.
Just from playing the initial tutorial, allowing me a grasp of the controls and certain actions I knew what I was getting myself into and boy did I enjoy every minute of it. The great thing about Streets of Rogue is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously, which lends well to its comedic touch when certain actions happen in the world and when interacting with the AI.
Each level is always different from the last and the main goal is to complete the tasks and get out of there once done, however unless your super careful, chaos is more than likely to ensue. Missions can vary from collecting a certain item, freeing a prisoner or destroying objects. In most cases this is covered by a few guards, the actual police or a really angry shopkeeper, you never actually know what you’re going to get. The missions themselves can feel a little repetitive after a while as there isn’t much variety to them. The main difference you will probably see is the difficulty in completing them.
There is both a main and side mission for each level and while the side mission is obviously not mandatory, you can get some cool bonuses for completing them in the form of new weapons, items or experience which you can use to further develop your character and gain even better skills.
Speaking of characters, there are a ton of them and some of which you can access by helping them in the actual game. Want to be a thug, gorilla or straight up naked? Nothing seems to be off limits here, however some of them are locked behind certain conditions that you’ll need to complete, giving you something to work towards.
One of my favourite aspects of the game (hopefully I’m not seen as a violent person for this) is when a new level loads and the whole area is having a riot; its mass chaos as all the citizens are against each other. I remember just starting the level and the AI sees and decides to rush me in which I run past a police officer who then attacks the person who was after me. It just adds a whole other dynamic to the level itself rather than just having the AI walking around constantly and not really making an impact other than when you engage them.
During the game you will pick up coins and these are pretty useful, so get as many as you can. These will help when it comes to buying potential new weapons, drinks and food for your health or drugs. They can be retrieved by beating up certain individuals in the world, opening chests or by simply breaking things and getting lucky.
At this point it’s hard to pinpoint what Streets of Rogue is working towards. The game is getting a regular stream of updates and the gameplay is already so varied, it’s hard to think what else the developers could possibly add at this point, but at the same time that’s the beauty of it as there no creative restraints.
For me personally it’s attractive just due to the fact that it’s a game that I don’t need to think so hard about and instead focus more on just enjoying the experience. Whether I play the villain and take out all the innocents or beat up the shopkeeper, so I can take his key and access the back room where the chest is, it has a real go with the flow kind of vibe, but yet not so unfocused due to mission objectives and actually having a beginning and end goal.
When it comes down to it, Streets of Rogue is definitely a fun game to play and when you first boot it up, can throw you for a loop just based on how out there it actually is. It’s a good laugh and I look forward to seeing what other zany updates will be added to it in the future.
