|| REVIEW || Streets of Rogue (PC)
Developed By : Matt Dabrowski Published By : tinyBuild
Category : Indie, RPG, Action, Roguelite Release Date : July 12, 2019
Oh No He Didn't!
Streets of Rogue begins with you entering a level from an elevator, to be welcomed by someone who is both happy to see you, but reluctant to believe you'll be successful. He'll guide you through the games measly tutorial of how to walk around, open doors and use items, only to explode with excitement that you actually were able to do all of the things. Like...literally explode, there's blood, guts...all of it. Blech.Anyways, after your initial friend goes boom, the leader of the Resistance you're about to join welcomes you into the world and gives you the run down on what's what. The city you all currently reside in is run by the worst kind of mayor possible. Not only has he confiscated all of the booze, in hopes of throwing the baddest bash around, he's also outlawed the chicken nugget. Why? Because he's clearly insane and needs to be taken out, of course. Which luckily, is where you come in.
Who Will You Be Today?
In real life, this may be quite the existential question, provoking thoughts from the depths that cause hours and days of self-reflection. Here, it's much more simple, as you have a choice of a few dozen characters that you can play the game as. To save the city, you'll need to climb to the top, literally since it's laid out in stacked layers like a lasagna (the game said it, not me). All the way at the top lies the mayor, but you'll need to deal with all of the levels in between. And who you get to be while you do that is entirely up to you.
To progress through the city you'll need to complete a series of missions on each floor, and until you do so the elevator to the next level will be locked. These missions, just like the levels you'll be completing them on, are randomly generated every time you play. They can vary from things like eliminating a gang member, obtaining a specific item from a character or safe, breaking into a building and operating a number of switches, sometimes with a time limit.
Doing this requires utilizing whatever character you want and their unique abilities. You could choose to play as the cop, taking the law into your own hands and taking advantage of the system to complete your objectives. Play as the hacker who can tap his way into any electronics system from outside the buildings. Arm yourself down with the soldier and walk into the city with guns in every pocket. Not only can you choose who you want, you can play how you want. Kill everyone and destroy everything, sneak around and only do what is necessary to complete your objectives, or place yourself somewhere on the scale in the middle.
You're also given plenty of opportunities to expand the rogues you can use. Each one comes with a condition that must be met to make the new person permanently available. What's cool is a lot of these conditions fit with the character. For example, if you'd like to play with the bartender you'll need to consume 10 alcoholic beverages in a single run. There's a vampire you can play as if you destroy 20 gravestones. Some of these must be completed in a single run, but there are others that are cumulative over how many runs it takes you to meet the requirements.
If the base game isn't totally cutting it for you, there are tons of customizable mutators you can use as well to tweak the gameplay. A lot of these are ways of turning off environmental things, such as the random effects that will occur every few levels. You could run into the middle of a gang war, a zombie outbreak, or deal with missiles constantly raining down from above. Turn off other things like being able to skip entire areas in order to assist yourself in reaching the end to punch the mayors face in.
If you enjoy roguelite games, such as Binding of Isaac, then you will enjoy this one just as much. I loved how unique every single run felt, and it's quite difficult to put down. I was honestly iffy about this one going into it, but as soon as I realized how closely it was to Isaac I dove right in and didn't look back. No matter what platform you play on you'll be sure to love this game, so what are you waiting for...go and punch the mayor so we can enjoy our nuggets again!
Game Played On : PC (Steam)
Also Available On : Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Key was provided by tinyBuild via Keymailer
Doing this requires utilizing whatever character you want and their unique abilities. You could choose to play as the cop, taking the law into your own hands and taking advantage of the system to complete your objectives. Play as the hacker who can tap his way into any electronics system from outside the buildings. Arm yourself down with the soldier and walk into the city with guns in every pocket. Not only can you choose who you want, you can play how you want. Kill everyone and destroy everything, sneak around and only do what is necessary to complete your objectives, or place yourself somewhere on the scale in the middle.
Grow The Resistance
There are a lot of ways you can play this game. Not just with being passive or aggressive, or even with the different options presented by the characters you can choose to play. As you complete each level you'll gain a perk which can help you in blatant ways such as leveling up your strength or endurance, or offering some...off the ball assistance that you might not expect. For instance, you can give your character disturbing facial features which increases the chances that, while in a fight, whoever you're facing off against will become frightened and run away.You're also given plenty of opportunities to expand the rogues you can use. Each one comes with a condition that must be met to make the new person permanently available. What's cool is a lot of these conditions fit with the character. For example, if you'd like to play with the bartender you'll need to consume 10 alcoholic beverages in a single run. There's a vampire you can play as if you destroy 20 gravestones. Some of these must be completed in a single run, but there are others that are cumulative over how many runs it takes you to meet the requirements.
If the base game isn't totally cutting it for you, there are tons of customizable mutators you can use as well to tweak the gameplay. A lot of these are ways of turning off environmental things, such as the random effects that will occur every few levels. You could run into the middle of a gang war, a zombie outbreak, or deal with missiles constantly raining down from above. Turn off other things like being able to skip entire areas in order to assist yourself in reaching the end to punch the mayors face in.
If you enjoy roguelite games, such as Binding of Isaac, then you will enjoy this one just as much. I loved how unique every single run felt, and it's quite difficult to put down. I was honestly iffy about this one going into it, but as soon as I realized how closely it was to Isaac I dove right in and didn't look back. No matter what platform you play on you'll be sure to love this game, so what are you waiting for...go and punch the mayor so we can enjoy our nuggets again!
Game Rating : 9.5/10
Game Played On : PC (Steam) 
Also Available On : Xbox One, Playstation 4, Nintendo Switch
Key was provided by tinyBuild via Keymailer
