![]() ![]() There’s no ammo, but instead every gun overheats after a brief, upgradable period. Plus, Rogue Corps is a Contra game that forces you to spend a significant amount of time not shooting your guns because of the aggressive cooldown meter. I relied mostly on my dash maneuver that acts like a combo of a dodge and knockback strike. And even though Contra’s iconic spin jump move is still technically here, it’s far less useful when the vast majority of levels are flat and confined. Twin-stick shooters have their own brand of exciting horde management that works when done well, but it doesn’t fit here. You’ll use that same strategy again and again. Many enemies will just bum-rush you and force you to kite entire swarms while running backwards and shooting. ![]() Rogue Corps, by contrast, feels more like chaos for the sake of chaos. While the classic Contras built a reputation for being hectic and challenging, it was also precise and calculated. “And on top of it all, Rogue Corps absolutely does not feel like a Contra game. This time, almost nothing feels like it comes together coherently. ![]() But even then those varying styles felt cohesive. The series has always thrown a wide variety of perspectives and gameplay styles at us, even dating all the way back to the original Contra with its mixture of side-scrolling, behind-the-back third-person shooting, and even top-down elements. The fact that Rogue Corps is different from most other past Contras isn’t really the issue – it has lots of others. Flipping the formula on its head to deliver a twin-stick-style shooter in fully 3D environments is certainly an ambitious approach, and it absolutely could have worked like it did for Neo Contra back on the PS2. To be fair, on paper, Rogue Corps wasn’t a terrible idea. Playing co-op certainly helps alleviate some of the monotony, as is the case in nearly any game, but it doesn’t fix any of the actual problems. “Rogue Corps is split into three different ways of playing: the main campaign and one-off exploration missions, which you can play solo or via online co-op, a separate couch co-op mode which is basically just the exploration missions with a new camera angle, and a forgettable PvP mode with two teams of up to four each. Contra has never taken itself too seriously, but this cheesy banter is painfully stilted and forced. Plus, the sophomoric humor is extremely off-brand. The story is far from memorable, unsurprisingly, and barely gives any context for all of the generic alien slaughter. The campaign takes place in The Damned City, which is ground zero in the war, supposedly shortly after the events of Contra III: The Alien Wars. ![]() Also, what’s with the random panda?In Contra: Rogue Corps you’re thrust into the center of a massive alien invasion, as per usual. Calling this poorly made twin-stick shooter a Contra game not only fosters misplaced expectations, but also sours the legacy of the once-great franchise even further. For another, it feels like outside of tough difficulty and over-the-top co-op action, Konami has lost sight of what made the series popular in the first place. It is absolutely not what I, as a lifelong fan of the series, expect out of a new Contra game in 2019. ![]()
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