Rogue Company is Hi-Rez Studios’ latest offering, an innovative third-person shooter In the past Hi-Rez Studios have provided us with creative offshoots of popular games and genres, like Smite, Paladins and Realm Royale.
This time with Rogue Company , developed by First Watch Games, they’ve set their sights on the 4v4 tactical agent shooter.
Main Influences & Comparisons
Let’s get the comparisons out of the way. Rogue Company looks and shoots like Fortnite. But you can’t build a fort to protect your squishy parts. So, similar to Overwatch, the fights are frenetic. With movement, positioning, abilities, utility and stacking playing a major role.
Then there’s the Agents or Rogues as they’re known; Rainbow Six: Siege -style loadouts alongside a CSGO per-round economy to buy and upgrade.
First Impressions
Once I loaded up the game, it became clear that Rogue Company doesn’t take itself too seriously. The suggested tutorial was lighthearted and did the job of teaching me the basics. It also gave me a chance to adjust settings before jumping into multiplayer. Currently in the Beta, some keybinds are hardbound, which as a lefty makes me feel personally slighted. My left handed heart is broken.
The theme song; an instrumental chorus loop of Thursday in the Danger Room by Run The Jewels. It’s worth mentioning, mostly because it fits with the overall aesthetic of “just a little different”.
Rogues & Roles
There are thirteen Rogues to choose from at the time of writing. Each with a specific role, which is reflected in their loadout. While there’s a considerable amount of Rogues to choose from, this boils down to 6 roles to choose from, with minor variations within each role per Rogue.
You can choose from Defender, Breacher, Intel, Duelist, Sniper and Supporter. There’s more than enough options for playstyles.
Graphics
Graphically, Rogue Company performs well on PC, maintaining a consistent 144fps on PC with ULTRA settings (1080ti+6700k). It also runs surprisingly well on Nintendo Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. It also includes support for cross-platform play and progression. It’s great to see a game being so inclusive. But from multiple experiences in-game, our console brethren don’t stand a chance. It remains to be seen how Hi-Rez will deal with this when ranked is released.
Aesthetically, while the Rogues are impeccably designed. When you’re on the ground, most of the maps look and feel the same with the exception of Favelas. And yes it’ll remind you of Rainbow Six Siege. That’s not to say they aren’t designed well, but we’ll get into that shortly.
Gameplay
Currently Rogue Company has two modes, Demolition and Strikeout with Wingman and Extraction announced for release in 2020. In Demolition the attacking team is tasked with planting a bomb at one of two sites. It’s basically CSGO in third-person, and will hopefully be the basis for their competitive ranks. In Strikeout, both teams fight for control of a single capture point that rotates from round to round.
Unfortunately both modes play like a messy team deathmatch at the moment. But I have faith that as the community grows and with the implementation of ranked, we will see some team metas develop.
Although most games play out like a team deathmatch, the maps are designed well. With cover placed strategically around to allow cover conscious players to navigate from point to point. There is a bit of a trial and error to cover though. As sometimes your head will be visible to enemies even though from your angle it may seem otherwise. This will definitely leed to some frustrating deaths.
Disregarding the keybind problem. Movement and Gunplay in the game are smooth, Vaulting is effortless and I never got stuck on a corner from clipping. The dodge roll is a welcome addition, especially in a third-person shooter where getting into cover quickly is essential.
One thing I’m not a fan of, is the screenshake for recoil of the guns. The weapons feel great, and each promote different playstyles, but too often fights come down to who shot first.
Meta
During my playtime, one thing I noticed is that most players choose their Rogue based on the weapons available and not their abilities, perks or utility.
While I can see the possibilities for competitive play it seems as though the player base hasn’t settled on a meta. Or just doesn’t care until ranked is added.
Promising
So far, my impressions of the closed beta are good. I look forward to ranked mode being implemented and while I remain skeptical of what the future holds. Right now, Hi-Rez have created a fun, fast-paced, easy to pick up shooter.
But if they are to have a healthy player base, they’ll need to adhere to their roadmap as scheduled, alongside QoL improvements like updated maps with greater detail and location names.
