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Rogue Stormers
Released On: Oct 15, 2015
68
7.2
Where to Buy
Where to Buy
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
68
30% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
70% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 10 Critic Reviews
68
30% Positive
3 Reviews
3 Reviews
70% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
An interesting proposal that mixes two different kinds of games like Run'n gun and roguelikes. It could be much more varied on its design, but Rogue Stormers manages to entertain anyone who wants to face its challenge.
It needs to be polished, but Rogue Stormers is already a great game as it is. If you're looking for old-school action, this is a good choice.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.2
62% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
24% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
14% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.2
62% Positive
13 Ratings
13 Ratings
24% Mixed
5 Ratings
5 Ratings
14% Negative
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
Early access builds of Rogue Stormers were not very good, and notably did not have a cast of varying characters. This release build? Much improved, though at some level I lament the loss of weapon-customization, which was never actually implemented to my knowledge. I first became aware of the game during its initial kickstarter campaign, when it was still called DieselStormers. I purchased it from the humble store and didn't have a chance to finally play it until about a year ago, when it was still in a very rough and bland state.
Now what we've got is a tactical, side-scrolling run-and-gun platformer with rogue-lite level and item randomization, and a stylish medieval-meets-dieselpunk presentation. The city of Ravensdale is coming apart at the seams thanks to the rampaging orcish hordes of the corpulent high priest Hector von Garg. The populace faces opression, indiscriminate violence and horrific mutation thanks to the mysterious "Goop" drilled up from deep below ground. But there is hope: the Rogue Stormers, five playable rocket knights: Brecht carries a Contra-style automatic rifle and can buff the team's fire rate, Presto has a flamethrower and can throw up a shield that also doubles his flamethrower's range, Camille has a rocket launcher and can fire a swarm of missiles, Stabbygale has a shotgun and can throw a glaive and pulls in enemies, and El Cazador has a sniper rifle and can fire a huge round that pierces through enemies. You begin with only Brecht, and unlock the others after finishing the second, fourth, sixth and the seventh and final stage, respectively. You also unlock new upgrades that can drop after completing certain challenges.
Your Stormer's primary weapon has infinite ammo and does not need to reload, and you can carry a secondary weapon that recharges over time. The variety of secondary weapons is considerable: Contra-style spread shot, rapid-fire volley gun, mines, attack drones, the rare health grenades, plasma shots, a melee-range claw, sentry guns and even an orbital strike, among others. You can execute a short dash that allows you to go through enemies and dodge their shots. Combat is less fast-paced then other platform shooters, instead rewarding the careful and thoughtful shooter. Enemies and their shots are mostly avoidable, and you are rewarded for conserving your health as much as possible.
Enemies are aggressive, numerous and at times tiresome to kill, but you are rewarded not infrequently with gold, XP orbs, and precious, precious health pickups. Gold can be used to roll at vending machines for health, gold, keys, upgrades and secondary weapons, and also to purchase upgrades directly from shops. Aside from the vendors there are also treasure chests. A few aren't locked, but often will only contain gold or keys instead of an upgraded, but the locked ones, which require a key, 500 gold or 30 health and are color-coded accordingly, always seem to contain an upgrade.
Said upgrades are similar to those found in other Rogue-lites such as Binding of Issac or Starward Rogue, or the perk cards of Ziggurat. They provide significant boosts to your stats, adding anything from additional maximum health or secondary weapon recharge speed to extra jumps and various abilities that trigger when you take damage, but are lost when you die. However, pick up enough experience drops for a level up, and after finishing a stage or dying, you are given a choice of two random perks, such as a small boost to your damage or movement speed, or a small amount of health restored whenever you purchase something. These perks are incremental compared to the dropped upgrades, but notably, these perks are retained after you die, making subsequent runs just a little bit easier- a welcome addition, considering I have finished only one of five runs thus far. Completing said run rewarded me with a token that can be used to re-roll a perk choice, and presumably you can earn additional tokens for more wins.
I should mention there are some technical problems. The few times I tried online coop the host lag was significant, and there was a persistent issue with enemies getting stuck in walls and items spawning in them so they can't be picked up, that has since been fixed. I just wish there were more people playing it!
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PC
Bought this one because I liked Giana from the same company.
The game is really fun, progressed a lot since the last early access version I played some months ago
The amount of upgrades and unlocks is really great, the unlock stories are fun, and the visuals are cool too.
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PC
Good-looking action, tight controls and an abundance of upgrades make for a robust, enjoyable 2D roguelike experience. Sadly, due to its repetitive level segments, slow progression and lack of surprises the game does not reach its true potential.
If you know some people that are interested and can split the cost, or you just really enjoy rogue-like shooters, then Rogue Stormers is probably right for you. Unfortunately, it’s definitely not right for me.
Is it the best rogue-y game out there? Certainly not, but it’s a nice time-filler that can be enjoyed alone or with friends, even if it’s likely not something that you’ll feel like coming back to again and again.
Rogue Stormers can be easily saved with some tuning from the developer, and considering how hard the people at Black Forest work, it probably will come around. In the meantime, it is not fun storming this castle.
Its main saving grace is a co-op mode (both local and online, which is a rarity in indie games like this) that significantly improves the pacing of the game. Having multiple allies in tandem with extra firepower and different abilities mixes things up and gives you a better response to what the game throws at you, but as usual, co-op is certainly a crutch for what should be a better solo experience.
This game is just pure fun !
I feel likeRogue Stormers was below the radar for most people the last months, mostly because of the long early access period. However, the devs really used that time and improved the game IMMENSELY. It's so so polished and features so much content, that you will find yourself playing for a long time. Then add the amazing local and online coop mode, grab some friends and you will not regret this purchase. I definitely do not.
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PC
Run and gun action? Check. Heaps of unlockables? Check. Absolute chaos? Check.
Rogue Stormers does many things, but it doesn’t disappoint. It’s an action-packed, rogue-like that you just can’t put down. There are various characters to choose from. Numerous perks and unlockables to bag. Oh and did I mention there’s pandemonium at every turn? Here’s a proper run down of what Black Forest Games’ latest creation has to offer.
Lets start by talking about the story. It’s a somewhat simple one to be fair. An army of orcs and goblins is attacking the town of Ravensdale. You’re job is to kill them all and defeat their leader, Hector von Garg, which is not an easy feat I can tell you.
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The game consists of seven levels, each with a different boss at the end. Sometimes you will have to face off against a gate keeper, a sort of floating metal ball that fires lasers and energy orbs. Then on some stages you’ll have to fight against one of the various mini-bosses. There’s a large robot who jumps around and fires lasers and bullets everywhere. Or a strange black octopus creature that launches purple and black orbs at you. Once you get used to the attack patterns of the various mini-bosses it’s fairly simple to take them down, providing you live long enough to figure it out.
The levels themselves start off fairly simple. Shoot goblins/orcs and find the way out, along with bagging yourself some loot along the way. You pick up money as you progress allowing for you to purchase air drops or buy unlocks in the shops, which are usually placed somewhere in each level. The air drops come in two flavours; cheap purple ones, which give you health, gold or xp, or more expensive yellow ones which drop xp, health, gold or even secondary weapons.
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Secondary weapons what are those? You might be wondering. Well let me explain. Each character has two weapons, the primary one, which you start off with, and the secondary weapon which you can pick up from chests or from rescuing the captured townsfolk. I’ll go into more detail on the primaries once we get into characters.
But first let me tell you about the secondary weapons. These can range from a simple handcannon, which fires a large bullet, knocking enemies back, to two weapons in one. Ever wanted a sniper rifle that could create a black hole when fired? Well now you can. It’s fairly in depth stuff and I’d be here for hours going into full details. But I’d say it’s very cool and leave it at that.
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There are five characters altogether. Ranging from an arsonist opera singer to a psychotic barmaid called Stabbygale. They all have different primary weapons, shotguns, rocket launchers, sniper rifles etc. as well as their own unique skills. My personal favourite is the Ripsaw, which is part of Stabbygale’s twisted arsenal. Basically you throw out saw blade which hooks onto enemies, pulling them towards you for a satisfying blast to the face. The slimetastic Camille has an ability that fires a missile barrage, homing in on nearby enemies, blowing them to smithereens.
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Lastly I’m going to talk about overall gameplay, graphics and mechanics, that sort of thing. Graphically Rogue Stormers is fairly pleasing to look at. Each level has highly detailed backdrops. The enemies are all very easy to point out, even in the high amounts of chaos that ensue, as well as that, you can easily see where you are within the chaos.
The gameplay itself feels reasonably smooth, the jitters and frame jumps are very rare if not non-existent. Then there’s also the controls which feel quite fluid, whether you’re using a mouse and keyboard or a controller.
There are some bugs here and there though. Enemies being inside the walls for example, but that did rarely happen, as well as not being able to block missiles even though I used the shield. But those are things I can overlook.
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Overall I’d recommend Rogue Stormers to anyone. Within the first 20 minutes of playing I was completely hooked. It’s fun, crazy and full of content. If you need something new to play and love chaos, I mean lets face it who doesn’t, then Rogue Stormers is a must buy. Good Day!
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PC
I played it last week and had a lot of fun with it. It's pretty tough at first, so you will probabaly start the game dying a lot. Then it kinda **** you in, becasue there are tons of unlocks and the perks help you to get further and further over time. I adjusted my review, because they also adressed the slow progression. Coop is still great of course. I would recommend it. Don't buy if you get easily frustrated (only at the beginning of the game though)
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PC
En resumen, Rogue Stomers es un juego muy interesante tanto para los amantes de Metal Slug como para los de los roguelike, pero que tiene ciertas carencias que pulir. Esperemos que los creadores sigan mejorándolo ahora que ya está a la venta y redondeen un juego que tal y como ya está ya es un muy buen juego.
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PC
Edit: You know what's funny? So far all the positive reviews for the game, are all new accounts with only this game reviewed. Doesn't that seem weird to some folks?
Rogue Stormers is a 2.5D platform shooter. I guess the best way to explain it, it's a little bit like Contra or Metal Slug, with 3D textures. The game gets the "Rogue" aspect from the different layouts of the stages presented, but in all honesty, the stages are so generic, that after playing it for awhile, no matter what the layout of the map, it starts all looking the same. Further, the stages always seem to have the same theme of enemies, so while the stage layout is randomized, it doesn't appear the enemies are.
There's chests, supply drops, that sort of thing, that also have random loot in it, anywhere from nothing, to weapons or upgrades, to even bombs.
I have to admit, I have a chip on my shoulder. My friend and I were looking for a game to play co-op together. We found this and I bought a bundle and gave one copy to him. My game wouldn't launch. And I'll admit I was pissy about it. To further add fuel to the fire, when I posted in the forums, a developer (I guess?) said that Monday morning they'd look into it. I didn't like this, the game just launched a few days ago and people were already having problems and instead of getting someone to look into right away, they were going to wait until Monday. Regardless of the situation, their studio, their employees, I didn't like the response.
I had initially filed for a refund, which was denied because I had to get the gift copy back first. But according to my friend, his copy installed and played fine. Annoyed with this, I spent the next 3 hours screwing around with my PC. Eventually I ran Rogue Stormers as admin, I got a error, this error was related to a missing .DLL file for Microsoft C++ 2015.
I already had that installed, so I uninstalled it and tried to re-install it. Nope, no dice, the new package refused to install. After updating all 16 Windows updates, it finally installed properly and the game finally worked. I don't like having to screw around like this for my PC games. The fact all my other games played just fine, but Rogue Stormers demanded special attention me off.
So we finally started playing. The first thing that annoyed us was there's only initially one character to select from. Why couldn't they have included more then one? I mean, seriously, it'd be like buying popsicles from a icecream truck and the guy splitting off the other side and only giving you half. Jesus.
The difficulty of this game (in co-op at least) is just frigging ridiculous. After playing for nearly 4 hours, we could get no further then level 2. And you know what's even worse? The progression is TERRIBLE in this game. Every time you die, you have to start over all the way from the start, you loose any power-ups or gold you've found, but you can level up and gain these perks that carry over from game to game. In this sense, you can gradually get better and more powerful as you play the game.
Guess what, after playing the game for almost 4 hours, we both gained 2 LEVELS. Can you even imagine that? Think about playing Final Fantasy, or even playing NetHack, now imagine the game hates your guts, is so hard it's borderline stupid and it takes you 4 hours to gain 2 levels. You can't even choose from a perk tree, it's randomized like a god dang slot machine, so a lot of times you might just be finding the junk perks anyways.
There's other complaints about the game I want to address:
1. Random people joining private servers.
2. The host controlling the other players screens for perks, ect.
3. Graphical Glithces where the screen will just go insane for a few seconds.
4. For some reason, being invited to a game resets my controls to keyboard and mouse from controller.
The bottom line is, I already went into this game upset with having to work with it to play it. When we first started playing this game, we were trying to be open minded and learn how the game played and the mechanics. After almost 4 hours playing, we stopped. We were annoyed and upset, we felt like we made no progress and felt like we wasted our time.
Video games are supposed to be time wasters, but they are supposed to be time wasters you enjoy, ones where you feel like you made at least some sort of progress. Rogue Stormers doesn't do that, it treats your valuable time as garbage and spits in your face.
Not only that, it doesn't deserve the "Rogue" title. It's a generic 2.5D shooter at best with some half-arsed features tacked on. Do yourself a favor and do ANYTHING else with your money then spend it on this garbage.
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PC
Summary Rogue Stormers combines run 'n' gun mayhem with roguelike and RPG elements, crazy 3D graphics and team play for one to 4 players, online and offline.
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- PC
- PlayStation 4
- Xbox One
Initial Release Date: Oct 15, 2015
Developer:
- Black Forest Games
Publisher: Black Forest Games
Genres:
