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After a couple years of churning out game after game, the Army Men series is beginning to become pretty stale. The 3DO company decided to change the flavor a bit with their latest title, Green Rogue, although while the idea was good, the outcome was shaky at best. Here’s why. Graphically, Green Rogue doesn’t test the power of the PlayStation 2 in any way, shape, or form. Character models are low on polygon count and even lower on frames of animation, and background textures and very bland and repetitive. The only real plus, is the lighting effects from explosions. The overall package is pretty ugly though, which is a shame. The end result is the game resembles a high resolution Playstation One title.
The audio is the best part of Green Rogue. Sounds boom with explosions, gunfire, and humerous one-liners. The game shows off good surround sound effects, making the experience more exciting overall. Sound effects could’ve been cleaner, as they tend to sound muffled and low quality. Finally, the score is pretty fair as well. Game play is the pits unfortunately, which totally ruins the whole game. The game moves you along like an old school shooter, but totally doesn’t play like one. The biggest complaint is with the aiming. While you must concentrate on moving left, right and forward as well as firing, the control scheme forces you to aim with the right analog stick. This control system just doesn’t work with type of game. If you weren’t forced to keep moving forward, I could see this working, but you just have so much going on at one time that you’ll find it awkward trying to aim this way. The game would’ve been at least average if it wasn’t for the weird control scheme. There is a lot to do in Green Rogue, which makes it a real shame the control is shoddy. Sixteen assorted levels are contained within the game, and are played on foot and in vehicles, in which you can play either 1 or 2 players co-operative. The game is challenging and will keep you occupied for hours on end. All in all if you can get passed the horrid control, you may find an entertaining game. Old school shooter fans may even eat this up. This still doesn’t mean the game is worthy to grace the PlayStation 2, either from a graphical or gameplay standpoint. Portal Runner seems to be taking these steps, but Green Rogue falls short of even being a good title.
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