A Review Of Rogue Universe – Is It Worth Playing?

For decades space has been the perfect setting for video games, from triple-A titles such as Star Wars: Battlefront to roguelike arcade games such as Space Invaders. In fact, the very first video game was titled Spacewar!

So, on one hand Rogue Universe belongs to a lineage that has a long history, but on the other it also fits in a much smaller – but no less important – category of strategy-MMORPGs on mobile. And does it live up to all that? Well, for the most part, yes.

Let’s begin with the basics. Rogue Universe’s core mechanics are the standard seen in pretty much all strategy-MMORPG. You have a base, some people, a couple of ships, all of which can be upgraded by completing missions, fighting, earning achievements etc. to make you stronger.

But the game presents this traditional formula in a unique way. For starter, your base is now a giant mothership composed of 6 modules orbiting a 3D planet.

Space invaders

Another new thing is that Rogue Universe doesn’t require you to unlock and build new structures as you level-up. Instead, everything is available right from the beginning through the 6 modules of your mothership. However, you will have to upgrade them as you move forward.

Aside from that, you also need to manage your fleet and your crew. These tasks are done by recruiting new people and building more ships. There are multiple types of people you can recruit, including Combatant, Support, and Guest. Each type has four skills and an adjustable salary, meaning you have plenty of room for personnel management.

Likewise, ships also come in 4 flavors: Main, Arsenal, Torpedo Bomber, and Utility. Each of those categories are in turn divided into many more subcategories such as Battleship, Assault, Destroyer, Stealth Cruiser, Privateer, Antifighter Craft etc.

All of this combined means you practically have full control of how you want to tailor your forces to suit your playstyle. This is further enhanced by a detailed research tree that lets you concentrate on 6 different areas. Yes. It does sound a little bit overwhelming, but rest assured – Rogue Universe provides you with a story mode which basically functions as a tutorial to help you get a hold of everything.

You will have a multitude of tasks to perform as well. The most basic include attacking NPCs or other players, completing missions, or go on a Deep Strike – a series of battles of increasing difficulties, kind of like a challenge dungeon in fantasy RPGs, but your progress will be saved.

You can attack NPCs and players in 2 ways: Manually hunting them down through the interface or simply choosing them from the Scramble menu. Yes, directly hunting people is more fun, and you can analyze the enemy before engaging, but it could be a tricky endeavor. Sometimes it’s better to just go for the simple option.

In term of missions, there is also a wide variety ranging from reclaiming planets to raiding cargo ships. Each different task requires different units to perform efficiently, so it’s best to keep your fleet diverse. Another thing worth noting is that you will not be personally playing through these missions. They all take place off camera, and you simply have to choose which ships and which people to send out then wait for the report.

Deep space

The Deep Strike mode does allow you to see the firefight, but honestly they’re not that exciting to watch.

Elsewhere the presentation is much more polished. You can rotate your 3D planets to look at it from a different angle, zoom in on your mothership to see more details or zoom out to get a view of the entire galaxy. Everything feels very immersive and slick.

Rogue Universe sports a huge cast of characters and several engaging story cut-scenes as well, all brought to life by a team of renowned comic book artists.

All in all, Rogue Universe demands more tactical thinking than most other strategy-RPGs. It is sure to bring you countless hours of fun. Check it out on Google Play!