Rogue Ops | DJcube

Training gives her the skills. Vengeance gives her the edge.

NA release: 29th October 2003
EU release: 6th February 2004
JP release: 26th February 2004
Developer: Bits Studios
Publisher: Kemco
NGC Magazine Score: 62%
Mods Used: Widescreen Code

This was one of Bits Studio’s three games they were planning for the N64. Riqa got cancelled, Die Hard moved to GameCube while Thieves World finally found a publisher and was rebooted for the GameCube. The original idea was a stealth game where you had no weapons, focused on robberies. Kemco, the publisher, thought it needed more action so it was turned into a “secret American spy organisation “ stealth shooter called Rogue Ops.

The problem is, the game’s mechanics don’t feel like they evolved enough since it’s N64 origins. If the game had come out back then, a lot of issues could be overlooked as 3D stealth gameplay was rare, but, unfortunately for Bits, the long development of Rogue Ops meant that it came out after Splinter Cell, which did absolutely everything Rogue Ops set out to do, and did absolutely everything better as well.

Rogue Ops main issue is its lack of freedom. The missions are linear and you can only operate with what the game wants you to operate. This doesn’t just apply to objects, but also ledges. There’s no specific jump button, you just have to be standing in the right place for the action button to appear. I actually had to look up a video of the game to get past the tutorial because I couldn’t work out how to get up a ledge – turns out I was at the right ledge, it’s just I wasn’t standing in the exact right spot. Much of the game is aimlessly wandering around until the action icon appears.

The tutorial has a few more interesting quirks. It places a huge emphasis on hiding bodies, which you don’t really need to do in the game as you can either kill everyone or kill nobody. You can’t knock people out. Even in the tutorial, when it teaches you stealth kills, you’re actually killing a member of the secret organisation, someone that was guilty of…. not passing the training. This, incidentally, is also the most interesting part of the story, which just mumbles a bunch of codenames and secret groups. The tutorial also has no shooting segments, which are horribly wonky, making it the best part of the game.

Poor

There are too many problems here, and they present Rogue Ops being as much fun as it should be. It seesaws annoyingly between enjoyable and frustrating, and as a result is a wildly uneven experience. The basic premise is sound, it’s just the execution that lets it down.
Jes Bickham, NGC Magazine #90

Remake or remaster?

There wasn’t a lot compelling enough to revisit. The original idea sounded more interesting.

Official Ways to get the game

There is no official way to get Rogue Ops.