There’s something special about tactical shooters that the more hyperactive likes of Call of Duty and Battlefield simply can’t match. The tension of knowing that every corner and doorway could hold a swift end to your mission, the close camaraderie of working through a scenario with friends, the elation of coming out on top. Now blend that, in a somewhat lightened form, with the brinksmanship of a roguelite and you’ve got Rogue Point.
Coming from the team behind Black Mesa, the four player tactical action of Rogue Point is a rather different project for Crowbar Collective. To be clear, this isn’t a hard-nosed tactical shooter in the vein of classic Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon and modern Ready or Not, but it holds onto that same general tone and mission structure in a way that should appeal to the same audience, just with the need to string successful missions together and the threat of losing everything and starting over.
There’s some neat touches in the planning phase: as a mission map is presented to you, highlighting the objective areas that you’ll need to scour — naturally these are randomised alongside the enemy placement — and you’re able to doodle and draw to quickly plan out a mission. I’ve no doubt that, after 3 or 4 stages, these discussions could get very serious.
Alongside that, there’s loadout adjustments, but being a roguelite naturally imposes some restrictions here. You’ll only have a limited initial pool of cash to spend on guns and gear initially, with more kit coming through both run and metagame unlocks. You do have an option to gamble though, dropping $500 on a mystery crate that could be just what you want or force you into a different playstyle and role.
Naturally you want to try and have loadouts and builds that compliment one another, but there’s a great co-op feature in the form of backpack items. Instead of tucking things like health kits away in your pocket for you and only you to use and activate, here they are held in your backpack, and anyone and everyone on your squad and wander up and grab something they need.
Beyond that, there’s also that sharing spirit between missions. If you die on a mission but your teammates are able to complete it, you will have lost all the gear you took in, but they’ll be fully equipped. To try and get you back up to speed, your group can share their inventory, helping even out your builds again.
A lot of a tactical shooter’s vibe relies on the quality of the AI, and Rogue Point’s exhibits different characteristics and behaviours. The standard grunts will blast away and take cover where necessary, but berserker AI will just rush you and close the gap. Heavies are the more armoured foes, but the most interesting is the lookouts, who will be keen to retreat and back away from you. How you approach them is vital, and end with a face full of lead if you mess up, as kicking down a door will require three hefty kicks alerting anyone on the other side in the process.
There’s always a tricky balance to strike between accuracy, aggressiveness and other traits, which Crowbar Collective will tweak right up to and after release. From what we saw at Gamescom, it looks to be quite forgiving to start with, at least. Health kits will a literal lifesaver, but you can probably take a couple more hits than in Ready or Not.
Each mission builds up to an extraction after successfully completing the main objectives, where you have that tense wait and defensive action to hold on until you can get away. Here the game can spawn in more enemies to spice things up again, though I do wonder if this could be over-egging the pudding.
The challenge of each roguelite run will escalate as you complete stages and missions, and you have a set number of mission failures before it’s game over. They can break down levels into smaller areas for early missions, so perhaps just the lower floor of the oil rig, as opposed to the full complex. Add to that the player choice between what missions you take on, with a higher challenge rating promising greater bonuses at the end, and there’s some real risk and reward here.
Rogue Point is a really fascinating blend of tactical shooter and roguelite — two styles of game that, the more I think about it, have a lot of common ground. I’m keen to see how it all comes together as it heads to Steam Early Access later this year.
