Review - STREETS OF ROGUE - Would you like to play Deus Ex in 2D?
Streets of rogue is a 2D co-op-stealth-roguelite-rpg-beat'em up-action-puzzle-shooter, developed by Matt Dabrowski.
Get ready, because this game has it all. You play it anyway you want, this is YOUR game.
Streets of Rogue offers more freedom than 95% of the games out there.
Let's play one of the most addictive games ever made.
| Store | Platform | OVERALL RATING: 96% |
| Buy it on Steam | PC |
+ THE POSITIVE
+ Most addictive gameplay ever! + Nice pixel art and lighting engine! + Streets of Rage-like OST! + An unique Roguelite twist! + Huge amount of weapons, npcs, various items, etc! + Deep character customization! + Great atmosphere with lots of humor!
-
THE NEGATIVE
- hmmmmm.... |
WHAT'S THE STORY? 🧐
It all began when a rotten politician(pleonasm) decided to turn against his own people, and raised his army of goons to wreak havoc in the city.
So, in a nutshell, welcome to Europe.
The fictional part is that in the ideal world of Streets of Rogue, a resistance is rising and is going to fight the evil.
And it's YOUR job. Do it however you want.
 |
| Hub, sweet Hub... |
FROM STEAM:
Will you play as a soldier who shoots first and asks questions later?
A stealthy scientist who uses chloroform and tranquilizer darts to silently take down the opposition?
A genial bartender who can talk his way past the most intimidating of guards?
Or how about a hyper-intelligent gorilla, rescuing other caged gorillas to form a small mobilized gorilla army?
 |
| Somehow this reminds me of the convicts in Con Air. I can't wait to release this bunch of crazies in the wild and see what happens. |
FEATURES
- Play the game YOUR way! Don’t want to kill anybody? That’s cool! Want to hack computers? Got ya covered!
- Random world generation and TOTALLY EXTREME gameplay variety means you can play for 600 hours and not get bored! Seriously though, go outside!!!
- Super-advanced artificial intelligence that won’t put up with your crap! Outsmart these virtual humans and feel superior to your computer!
- Play as over 20 (and growing!) wildly different types of characters! Bartender, scientist, hacker, gorilla — hey, your job is probably in there too!
- Stupidly huge variety of items! Shrink rays, hypnotizing devices, boomboxes, bear traps, food processors.. Oh, and guns too.
- 4-Player online and local cooperative modes lets you brutalize goons AND loneliness!
- Lead a gang, free slaves, drink beer, gib ghosts, become a vampire, shrink people and stomp on them. The most insanely varied game ever made.
 |
| Oh believe me, the situation here was completely... bananas. *applause* |
GAMEPLAY - THE ESCAPISTS + ENTER THE GUNGEON + DEUS EX 😎
In the past few years, roguelike games, a forgotten genre of the 80-90s, have made a formidable comeback, and we've seen countless "spinoffs" to the genre, especially so-called "roguelite" games, which are usually more simple and real-time, unlike their predecessors.
Until now, top-down real-time roguelite games were quite simple and straight-forward, like Enter the Gungeon, or the recent Heroes of Hammerwatch.
This one is different.
 |
| You can hire these baseball fans, but not together, cos they attack each other on sight! |
Streets of Rogue takes place in some kind of free-roam world in which you can experiment and interact with pretty much everything, giving a depth of gameplay that we hadn't seen since the first Deus Ex.(You can get it on GOG here)
(Nobody ever mentions it in the forums, but Streets of Rogue could also be compared to the Fallout series, to some extent.)
 |
| I remember doing this in Deus Ex... |
Another immensely appreciated novelty is that it takes place in a modern city, and not one of these already-seen-it-a-thousand-times-before boring looking dungeons.
Like most proper roguelike games, all maps are procedurally generated, and populated by a very diverse crowd of people, who all have a very specific purpose in the city.
Some of them are construction workers, some are just passing by, while others sell drugs right under the nose of cops, or do some horrible experimentation on gorillas...
Your goal is to accomplish specific missions in every "level", in ANY way you see fit through the use of your character traits, items, and the environment.
And you can interact with LOTS of things, triggering dozens(maybe hundreds?!) of events, and rewarding you accordingly with XP or rare items.
And speaking of character traits, you have a huge choice of 23 characters!
(and the list is still growing!)
 |
| You can customize the look of every character, or even create your own from scratch! |
ALL of them have unique special traits and abilities, and completely change the gameplay tone and pace.
Many of the playable characters are multi-faceted though, and you can try to be stealthy with a character who would usually shoot first and then ask questions, and vice-versa.
Now you can imagine how rich this game is, and why you'll never get bored of it.
They're all interesting, one of the characters offering the richest gameplay is the doctor, who will allow you to use chloroform and tranquilizer darts on most people and therefore play a stealthy run. (until cops notice you...lol)
The hacker is our personal favorite here, as with him, you'll be able to hack into computers and unlock doors, trigger some alarms or make some TVs explode from a distance, among other joyful things.
But if you hate to be silent and just want a full action shooter, just pick the soldier, or the gorilla or jock if you prefer the game to turn into a brawler...
You get the idea.
 |
| The Supercop is a brutal NPC that will always appear hostile. |
When you play Streets of Rogue, you play in fact 23 different games. 😉
(Doing some researches online might be necessary as the requirements to unlock some characters isn't always clear.)
You might worry that such a rich gameplay would require complex controls.
Well, Streets of Rogue controls couldn't be simpler.
There are only a few buttons you'll need to remember, and the game can be easily played completely with a gamepad, which might be better than a keyboard anyway.
| TIP ! | |
|---|---|
| Don't forget to press B to heal fast! |
 |
| Don't say this! In Streets of Rogue, there is ALWAYS a way to unlock doors. Search carefully! |
Well, what are you waiting for?
Look at this non-exhaustive list of fun "activities" you can have in Streets of Rogue:
- Lead a gang of thugs
- free slaves
- corrupt cops
- fight a Terminator-like robot
- become a vampire
- shrink people and crush them
- make yourself giant
- release angry gorillas so that they kill the scientists who kept him prisoner
- spread some gas to make people crazy so that they kill each other
etc.
It feels limitless.
We won't spoil it any further and let you find out by yourself the countless fun items you can use in this game and how they interact with the environment and people.
Experimenting is the best way to enjoy Streets of Rogue.
GRAPHICS - SUPER SUPER FAMICOM 🤩
Using lovely pixel art and a relatively limited color palette, Streets of Rogue looks like it could have been released in the 90s on Super Famicom(the Megadrive could only display 61 colors on the screen), with much better lighting engine.
This is what makes Streets of Rogue so charming.
Without this constant slightly dark atmosphere with beautiful lights, it would look bland.
The street and house lights help giving this lawless world a warm and comfortable lively atmosphere.
 |
| Come on baby, light my fire... |
The characters a la The Escapists are so tiny that they lack any... character.
Even Earthbound characters looked more detailed, and it was released in 1995.
At Good Morning Gamers, we LOVE pixel art games, but it doesn't necessarily have to be that minimalist.
On the other hand, the whole things feels 100% coherent and works perfectly.
And maybe even more important, everything looks very "clear" and you spot easily in the blink of an eye all of the characters, items and environment props that appear on the screen, with their own distinct color palette and style.
 |
| After all of his friends died mysteriously, Aldo decided to go dive in the radioactive pool to relax a bit... |
The game is gory but you can disable it in the options, which we did cos we thought it was completely unnecessary and didn't fit the relatively "cute" look of the game.
Also, it's possible you'll want to disable the screen shaking in the options, as it seems too extreme, and doesn't enhance the gameplay.
A final note... This game NEEDS a CRT filter or at least some scanlines.
It looks like it was MADE for this, so I hope the developer will think about it and try to implement some retro filters.
(we don't know if Sweetfx would work on this game)
 |
| It's not my fault! On the jukebox, the song "If You Want Blood, You've Got It", was playing! |
MUSIC - REMEMBER " GO STRAIGHT"? 😍
The composer seemed to be clearly inspired by the Streets of Rage OSTs.
No wonder "Streets of Rogue" is written with a similar looking font... he he ;)
It sounds cool, funky, sometimes disco, and it just goes with everything.
It's really, REALLY good.
Being one of the best parts of the game, you can buy it there =>
Buy the soundtrack on Steam
It's worth nothing that it keeps being expanded as the developer is still adding new levels and content in general.
This OST which used to be limited is starting to be big!
You can also enjoy it on Youtube =>
The only problem is that this game is SO addictive that if you play for hours, eventually, the music will feel repetitive, obviously.
It's the game greatness' fault, not the OST itself.😅
If eventually you get bored, you can play while listening to Streets of Rage 1 or 2 ost, they fit perfectly. (AUDIOPHILES ONLY!! You can get these OSTs on vinyl!)
But, as it has already been mentioned, you can play Streets of Rogue anyway you want, which means, ANY music will goes well with it. Adjust your playlist according to your play style.
SOUNDS - LOUDNESS WAR! 🤫
Oddly, it could be considered TOO realistic.
Gunshots are very loud and the mix of realistic gun sounds with retro 2D graphics feel a bit incompatible.
If you play a stealth character and tries to stay silent, you'll startle when somebody notices you and you hear some very loud and harsh gun sounds.
Same for the semi-realistic environmental sounds.
A "retro" and more synthetic sound of the 90s wouldn't have felt completely out of place.
Still, nothing really shocks and the whole thing still works well.
RATING BOX
 |
VERSION TESTED: alpha 46d
Publisher:
|
|---|---|
| GRAPHICS: 90% | |
| Looking like an enhanced spinoff of The Escapists, some people might think it's too simple, but it's lovely and more importantly, coherent. | |
| MUSIC: 96% | |
| Almost as good as the Streets of Rage OSTs. Instant classic. | |
| SOUNDS: 80% | |
| Every machine and item has its own sound, which helps the immersion! On the negative side, the gun sounds are too loud and realistic to fit the 16-bit style to me. | |
| GAMEPLAY: 95% | |
| One of the richest gameplay in the whole world of gaming. You never run out of things to do, and feel like experimenting even after hours of hours of playing. | |
| GAME LENGTH: 100% | |
| The first time we ever give 100% to a game. Basically, it's endless. In 50 years, this game will still be fun and you'll go back to it with pleasure. | |
| OVERALL RATING: 96% | |
| The best 2D game we've played since Terraria, which is quite something. Dangerously addictive, immensely diverse, featuring lovely graphics and music, this game will last you a lifetime, until Streets of Rogue 2!😁 | |
No comments