Art & Life

‘Rogue Company’: should you be a “founder?”

Eagle gaming
Graphic by Amanda Bollig.

“Rogue Company” is a free to play third-person shooter developed by First-Watch Games and published by Hi-Rez Studios.  

It may be free but at this point in our lives, I feel it would be best to ask if it is worth the time, as well as paying for the full game, while we roll very close to the era of exams and the month of memorization to our diligent studying.  

When you start off the game as a free-to-play user, you are quite restricted, only five of the fourteen heroes/rogues are available to play. If you don’t want to spend any cash toward the game, it would easily take you several weeks of reasonable grinding to actually unlock one of the additional rogues. You could always melt a block of ice for your water by waiting in the sun, or you could pay for a glass of cold water right there.  

Rogue Company
Rogue Company promotional art courtesy of High-Rez Studios.

A crazy long wait for a reward that you could easily get as a “founder.” There is the starter founder’s pack which gives you six heroes and a few cosmetics. In the standard founder’s pack worth $29.99, you can get some cosmetics and more heroes. You can get the ultimate founders pack for only $59.99, or the price of a new videogame. With that, you unlock emotes, wraps (gun cosmetics), outfits for the heroes, and more heroes including a “future new rogue” (as of the time of writing).  

The fact that you need a spreadsheet to compare editions instead of one regular purchase like an average videogame makes my head spin in all three hundred and sixty degrees. That’s insanity.  

The gameplay is okay and crafted to specifically be for those who like team-based competitive experiences. For those who enjoy ‘Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege’, this will be similar, but with a third-person perspective.  

Players can pick from heroes with abilities that can go from shooting a grenade launcher at enemies to scanning for threats around the player. The first heroes you can play as do great to serve basic roles like being offensive, a medic, or laying down traps and barricades to hinder the enemy team.  

When an enemy is killed, they go into a knocked-down state. Either they get shot again from the enemy, choose to kill themselves and get back in the game quicker, or their allies can revive them. This mechanic isn’t very new in many games, as it is in many battle royale multiplayer experiences, but with the limited lives each team has in a game, players will need to strategize and communicate well to win.  

If you don’t enjoy competitive gaming or having to work with teammates, this game isn’t for you. I have had my fair share of amazing clutch wins myself or from a teammate. I have also had my same helping of instances that made me think this was a stress test on my psyche because no one can help me with the enemy who definitely was one shot away.  

I say, try it for free, and if you don’t like it or feel unsure, don’t bother throwing your cash at one of the three founder’s packs to choose from.  

Images courtesy of Amanda Bollig and High-Rez Studios

Categories: Art & Life