Rogue Flight Review (PS5)
Summary: Rogue Flight is a promising arcade space shooter that doesn't operate very effectively. It's stale attempt at a story, lack of variety, and other poor elements overshadow the intense and one of a kind gameplay ideas. It feels like all the parts are here, but an extra push could generate something special.
3
Straight Arrow
Hone in on your targets and drift to victory in this anime styled shooter! Rogue Flight is an arcade space combat game developed by Truant Pixel, published by Perp Games, and released on October 25th of 2024. Rogue Flight is a Star Fox-like space shooter mixed with some 80’s and 90’s anime influence. Even the menus and cutscenes have a VHS overlay to them that really sell this aesthetic. As a huge Star Fox and anime fan, I was looking forward to this perfect marriage of media, but the game feels like a sample of something that is supposed to be much grander in scale.
Three years ago, an A.I. computer system running the Solar Defense Force, ARGUS, went rogue and used its weaponry to sear the Earth clean. All hope was instantly lost as there was no time to withstand such an instant attack. The survivors hid underground out of sight and through perseverance and some luck, found a hidden base with an ARROW, a spacecraft like no other. As the only pilot of the group, and only person that is even willing to go up against such an opposing force, it is up to you to liberate mankind from the clutches of iniquity of ARGUS. Using the different capabilities of the ARROW between the tenacity of its pilot, you must warp speed through the stars and thrust, shoot, and barrel roll yourself out of the danger of these foreboding mechanical organisms.
The story of Rouge Flight is very similar to another space shooter game that came out earlier this year, CYGNI: All Guns Blazing. Both games involve “the last” pilot up against an impenetrable robotic force that surprised Earth’s forces so now everything rests on the shoulders of the pilot and her special spaceship. The story is fine for the most part and the game even has a menu if you want to catch up on the lore bits. Between each level, the main characters talk to each other about where you are heading, but it feels like it is just exposition to justify the environment you’ll be blasting through. While the story is there, it doesn’t feel as sincere as you would hope it would. The anime aesthetic and analog video design definitely changes the vibe of everything and separates it from other arcade space shooters, but even that wears off fast as it isn’t leaned into that much at all.
The gameplay is simple and fast. You can breeze through the game on easy difficulty, but you’ll have to master positioning and timing to overcome the challenges of the harder settings. The ARROW’s shield is its health which can plummet rapidly if you are not paying attention. Destroying enemies in quick succession will refill your shield so actively participating in the game’s mechanics rewards you with much needed health. While flying the ARROW, you can speed up which deflects attacks, slow down to pull in power ups, barrel roll left and right to parry attacks, and do a flashy drift which not only dodges incoming attacks, but also slows down time a bit which in turn prolongs your combo meter so you can get an extra missile lodged into the cockpit of your adversary.
The ARROW’s standard cannons shoot bullets that can shred throw your opponents if you can aim properly. The ship’s secondary fire are missiles that you can lock on and launch at tricky fast flyers, hard to reach foes, or you can use them to quickly string together a combo at the last second. You can also unlock different weapons while playing like the light of the lethal Laser or the cosmic eruption of Wave that billows straight into the core of the opposition. You can also equip mods onto your ship to effect the maneuverability, speed, and drift recharge rate and you can equip weapon mods that basically make your different weapons better. There’s really not much strategy when equipping the mods as each new one is more or less better than the last.
The combat is fun and proves to be challenging at points, especially near the end of the game where it gets super chaotic, but unfortunately it all becomes drab and unsatisfying. Your approach to every encounter is the same throughout the entire game: move around and shoot. I know that sounds obvious, but it gets tedious and obnoxiously derivative. The levels are good, but need to be more distinct and some repeated stages with different enemy layouts is not ambitious enough and lowers the quality of your experience. There are a few different endings depending on what route you take during a certain point, but it feels inconsequential and meaningless in the long run. The game feels and looks like Star Fox, but it is missing that caliber of finesse that exudes with ease that Star Fox delivers in abundance through style and grace. It is missing that adventure factor which should’ve come effortlessly with the anime attachment.
The music and audio design are really good and fit the theme the game is going for really well. There are some pop rock synth chords strung in the background that keep your nerves kicking and ready for the tougher battles. There are some awesome implementations with the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller whether it be communications with the other characters being heard through the controller’s speaker or the different weapons having different feedback on the shooting trigger. Graphically the game looks fantastic and the art design is tremendous. Backdrops in levels are beautiful and the way that debris and broken ship pieces fly through a ton of tiny scorched pieces of lasers is impressive.
Rouge Flight has a decent amount of replayability through unlocked modes and unlockable badges, callsigns, trims, and colors for customizing your ARROW. There is a Sound Test where you can listen to all of the game’s music and there are accolades to earn. One problem I ran into is that without fail, a character’s voice lines would cut off a couple times during a certain level. I had weird graphical glitches during one of the endings; that’s something I might be upset about, but the endings aren’t gratifying at all since the story doesn’t feel all that significant. While there are different modes and things to unlock, you have to play through the game a few times to even reach those extras and by then, the game has already grown dull.
Final Thoughts?
Rogue Flight has all the components to be a fun game, but with a humdrum story, monotonous gameplay through tired courses, unimportant decisions, no consequences, no feeling of a journey, and skippable endings, you get an uninspiring game. Although combat is good and abilities are extravagant, it doesn’t reach that icon status I wish it could achieve. The foundations are here for a rare well polished and unique game to shine through, but it feels too short and seems to get jaded with itself, unable to show any kind of enthusiastic wonder. If you have been itching for an arcade space shooter to come back in some way or form, then you’ll find enjoyment here for sure. The excitement of fighting huge unconscious metal giants, cruising around in these wondrous environments, and using different power ups to take down drones and bots to save humanity from extinction is pretty enticing.
About the Author
Nay Clark Gaming holds a special place in my heart and I never stop talking about video games. I really love all types of games and have an interest in games that have complicated stories and lore because I enjoy untangling the mystery of it all. When I'm not gaming, I unsuccessfully try to control three amazing and incredibly bright kids.
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