Title: Rogue Trip
Genre: Car Combat
Publisher: GT Interactive
# Of Players: 1-4
Ever since the first Twisted Metal debuted, the car combat genre has been a popular one amongst gamers everywhere. The Twisted Metal series now spans three games, and other publishers have tried to achieve that same success with car combat games of their own such as Vigilante 8 and Carmageddon. The makers of Twisted Metal, Singletrac, decided to release another car combat game under a different name. That game is Rogue Trip.
Rogue Trips storyline is fairly standard, but it does have a few twists. The year is 2012 and the world has been destroyed by pollution. Vacationing has become illegal, so a new breed of criminals, known as automercenaries, have decided to capitalize. Only the rich and daring can afford to travel to the few vacation spots left on the planet, and its your job as an automercenary to grab the tourists and make some cash in the process.
There are eleven initially selectable vehicles in Rogue Trip, and they vary from an Oscar-Meyer-esque wiener mobile to a barb wire topped schoolbus and even a pink Camarro. Each vehicle has its own distinct driver and weaponry. Additional stages and vehicles can be accessed via codes that you input at the password screen in the options mode. Rogue Trip sports ten stages that range from a cityscape to a forest to a coastal area. There are three different difficulty levels, and a total of seven modes of play. Three of these modes are single player, and the other four are multiplayer.
The first of the single player modes, Vacation Mode, pits you against the other automercenaries in a competition for tourists and their money. You start out on the Xlax stage and your objective is to grab the various tourists standing around the stage and hold on to them as long as possible. The longer you hold onto them the more money you make. Once you pick up a tourist, you take them one of many photo op icons throughout the stage where you exchange them for even more cash. The cash you get can be used to upgrade your weaponry. If another vehicle has the tourist then all you need to do is find that vehicle and blast the hell out of it at which point the tourist will eject from the vehicle and then you can pick him or her up. While doing this you try to blow away your fellow competitors. Once youve destroyed them all you progress to the next stage. The second of three single player modes, Getaway Mode, is essentially identical to Vacation Mode except for the fact that you can select any one of the ten stages right off. The third single player mode, Challenge Mode, is an all out battle between you and your numerous opponents. There are no tourists to worry about in this mode. Its destroy or be destroyed.
Three of the four multiplayer modes are fairly self-explanatory once youre familiar with the three single player modes. Those modes are Co-op Vacation Mode, Two Player Getaway Mode, and Two-Player Challenge Mode. The fourth mode, Link Game, can only be played if youve got multiple Playstations, multiple copies of Rogue Trip, multiple televisions, and a link cable. If youve got all of the above, and I doubt most of you do, the you can hook all your Playstations up and play a Challenge Mode match with more than two players.
The options mode is fairly standard, with difficulty select, controller configuration, and volume control options among others. Rogue Trip also has a handy password feature so you can save your progress throughout the game and its Analog and Dual Shock compatible. The music in Rogue Trip is pretty fast and furious, and thats perfect as it goes very well with the fast pace of the action in the game.
While not being anything revolutionary, Rogue Trip is a lot of fun to play. Its very similar in many respects to some of its fellow car combat games, but the addition of the tourists add a bit of twist which really helps set Rogue Trip apart. Youll definitely have more fun with Rogue Trip if youve got some other people to play it with, but its still plenty of fun as a one player game. If you like fast paced action, lots of weaponry, and all out vehicular mayhem, youll have a blast playing Rogue Trip.
