Rogue Warrior for Xbox 360 Reviews & Ratings by IGN

We play a lot of games here at IGN, and while not every single game can be an Editor's Choice Award Winner, most of them have merit of some kind. Then there are those games that are completely bankrupt of any value whatsoever – games that not only make you want a refund of your money but of the time you wasted playing the game. The latest digital blight to meet this definition is the recently released Rogue Warrior from Rebellion and Bethesda, a game whose vast technical issues are only overwhelmed by the brevity of the experience. Simply put -- players should stay far away from this title at all costs.




Rogue Warrior is set in 1986, as Dick Marcinko and two fellow warriors infiltrate North Korea to track down a mole within the army that has information on a top secret ballistic missile project. Unfortunately for Dick, his teammates are killed by a grenade shortly after they attempt to eliminate a patrol. Disregarding calls from his commanding officers to abort the mission and escape the country, Dick forges ahead, blasting a path through North Korea and Russia as he tries to destroy the missiles before they can be used against the West. The plot is rather poorly developed, as Dick ignores orders, and makes his own decisions on how to kill as many communists as possible over the eight missions of the game.



Unfortunately, there are so many negative aspects of the game, it's almost impossible to cover all of them. For example, the stealth mechanics are so broken that it doesn't really involve stealth at all. Ninety percent of the enemies you approach have their backs turned to Dick at all times, allowing him to sprint forward and take them out. The AI completely disregards your footsteps, leaving them wide open for instant kills. Clearly, stealth isn't required but going in guns blazing doesn't solve anything either.



See, one of the problems with the gunplay of Rogue Warrior is that the hit detection is extremely hit or miss. You may be able to fire one round and instantly kill an enemy, or you can empty entire clips and they'll remain standing, even if your shots seem like they should result in multiple headshots. You can even throw grenades or detonate explosive barrels and enemies will shrug off damage as if nothing happened. This is coupled with the fact that the accuracy of your weapons is pretty horrible. Even looking down the sights of your gun doesn't help, and forget trying to fire from cover; your reticule immediately turns to a tiny dot that isn't accurate with your shot placement at all. You'll quickly choose to skip this in favor of melee kills.



Speaking of, any instant kill move that you trigger renders you impervious to bullets or explosions, so you can completely charge into the middle of a gunfight, stab your way through soldiers and walk away safely. That's if you can manage to get the game to recognize that you've hit the button prompting you to perform the kill. For some reason, there can be lengthy delays, and I've hit the kill button five or six times to kill one man during a mission. That's fine, however, as the enemy AI will frequently stand perfectly still without firing a shot even if they see you charging at them. That's if they don't wind up throwing a grenade at their own forces or shooting at an explosive barrel to blow themselves up.



Fortunately, you don't have to deal with the stupidity of these enemies for long; it's possible to beat Rogue Warrior in two hours or less. I managed to beat it in an hour and a half, and that included a few times when the game froze on me. However, that raises another significant issue, which is that you're paying full price for this horrible experience. The console versions of the game are sixty bucks, and the PC version is only slightly cheaper at fifty, but these prices are way too exorbitant for the poorly constructed single player game. If you were wondering about multiplayer as well, don't bother; there's only deathmatch and team deathmatch options, but no one is playing this game online, probably because the few people that were suckered into this purchase are regretting the fact that their wallet is lighter.



If you were hoping that the visuals could be a possible saving grace for Rogue Warrior, you're definitely out of luck. Everything about this game looks like a PS2 or Xbox game at best, and a first generation PS3/360 game at worst. Whether it's the bland environments, slowdown, screen and texture tearing, stiff character model movement or death animations that look blatantly unrealistic, Rogue Warrior is poor game all around. As far as sound goes, overwhelming attention was paid to Mickey Rourke's profanity laced commentary, which makes Marcinko seem like a Tourette's afflicted soldier hopped up on adrenaline. As a result, you can't help but laugh at the stupidity of the comments, as well as how absurd the credit sequence is, which features a beat and remixed version of profane outtakes.

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