365//365: Day 043 – Rogue Trip (PSX)

By now, we’re all caught up to the history of the Twisted Metal franchise. Original developer Singletrac, created two great games, replaced with 989 Studios to make two sub par games, and then replaced again by Incognito, comprised of former Twisted Metal developers, to make a decent final TM game on the Sony PlayStation. What some of you may, or may not know, is that Singletrac kept busy while 989 Studios butchered their series. In fact, Singletrac made their own vehicular combat title, in Rogue Trip. Not only was Singletrac on top of their game, but they may have crafted a title that was superior to their first creation.

You can knock these planes off the runway. Definitely a pre 2001 video game.

Obviously the story is going to be different from Twisted Metal, but the one provided by Rogue Trip is actually quite flexible. Set in the year 2012, you play as one of over a dozen different vehicles/characters, in an attempt to become a tour guide of a lone tourist on each stage. Load them in, stop off at designated photo op icons, make come cash each stop to purchase weapons and health replenishment, and so on. All the while, you have a half dozen other mercenary tourists driving around you, trying to blow each other up, and even eject your tourist and keep them to themselves. You are not forced to keep hunting for the tourist, or go through every photo op. You can play the game as a straight up car combat game.

The story seems flimsy, but the flexibility in how you play the game adds a lot to Rogue Trip. Playing tour guide, while fending off others trying to steal your tourist, or chasing down the vehicle with a tourist, or just fighting straight up, you have several ways to approach how you play the game. In some ways, it holds more depth than the Twisted Metal series, as the goal of the game is not one dimensional. Simply put, Rogue Trip is more approachable, more engaging and has more variation through story alone, than the Twisted Metal series.

Of course a new story means new characters. Singletrac produced some memorable characters through the Twisted Metal franchise, especially with Sweet Tooth. While Rogue trip does not have that single character that everyone will remember, they do have a new line up that provide their own attitude and looks. Meat Wagon is a take of the Oscar Meyer wiener truck, complete with a special attack that bashes people with its giant metal hot dog. Ozone drives an old style ambulance, which looks oddly like the Ghostbusters vehicle, which shares a similar special move to Twisted Metal’s police vehicle, Outlaw. Destroying Angel is a sexy nun behind the wheel of a school bus with barbed wire on top of the vehicle. While the vehicles and characters behind them are Couldn’t necessarily be called rip offs of any Twisted Metal character or vehicle, they can’t real be called memorable.

Although the location is somewhat similar to a stage in Twisted Metal 2, the layout is much different.

The differences more or less end there, however. The resemblances begin to emerge almost immediately. It its own right, Rogue Trip does look visually appealing. The vehicles are well detailed, in a world around them that has a good amount of detail. Sometimes these stages don’t look like they are in a world that’s been decimated and worn down, especially the first stage in the airport. Although the amount of destructible pieces around you have increased in number, as well as size. Jets on the run way can be taken care of, some walls can uncover larger areas to explore, and so on. Overall, it looks cleaner than Twisted Metal 2, has more detail, and suffers no real slow down when the action gets intense.

The control scheme remains roughly untouched. The most noticeable change is a double tap of the acceleration setting off your turbo. It actually feels a bit more comfortable have it set up this way, eliminating the need to hold a stand alone button button. Vehicular controls feel quite a bit tighter, making turns easier and 180′s much smoother to perform. In a way, Rogue Trip feels like it controls better than any Twisted Metal game on the Sony PlayStation, which helps quite a buit whe you have six enemies coming at you from all around.

As with Twisted Metal 3, Rogue Trip introduces a soundtrack that features a musical group. However, unlike TM3, Rogue Trip is not filled with out of place, mood catching tunes. The Might Mighty Bosstones provide the soundtrack for Rogue Trip, and for the premise of the game and the action going on, it feels quite fitting, and quite good. Not TM2 good, but on its own, its enjoyable, and fits in well with the action going on. The rest of the audio is not composed of much stock recordings for the most part. The explosions fell a bit more powerful, and everything else  feels fresh enough, with little repetition from previous game in the genre.

Seems like Rogue Trip has more explosions going off than all five Twisted Metal titles combined.

While there’s honestly not much I can complain about with Rogue Trip, there’s a couple of things I would have loved to have seen, mainly better damage scaling. Most vehicles seem to have no major advantage over the other when it comes or armor. With that said, some of the power ups available are a bit overpowering. I should not be able to take out just about any non boss vehicle with 3-4 full Stinger missile hits. Also, the Flamethrower range is so poor, it ends up being completely useless unless there’s a multi car melee going on. While the AI gang mentality of the Twisted Metal series is not present in Rogue Trip, I would have loved a bit more aggression from my opponents. Chasing me for 5 seconds and giving up half the time isn’t pushing me to be on my toes. Finally, unrelated to the game its self, I wish Singletrac would have released a true sequel to this game. I dig the variation and different ways to approach the gameplay. Maybe with another title, characters would feel a bit more established, and then more memorable.

Rogue Trip is definitely a game to put in your travel plans. It’s one of the strongest PS1 titles out there, and almost on par with Twisted Metal 2 overall. If you’ve grown frustrated with the direction that the Twisted Metal series took on the PS1, Rogue Trip is more than worth the ride..

Rating: 8.9