Rogue Trooper is an interesting beast, and I don’t just mean because he’s blue. It generally feels really well adapted from the comic, both when it comes to the gritty setting and the unique abilities of his equipment (complete with talking personality chips from fallen comrades). Gunnar can be deployed as a sentry gun, Helm can hack terminals and project a holo decoy and you take scrap metal from dead enemies so Bagman can manufacture ammo, upgrades and health at your request. All fairly unique then, except on normal mode most of these extras prove largely pointless since you can waltz around soaking up bullets and endlessly taking easy head shots. Even so it’s still an enjoyable romp with some quality cut scenes.

Notch it up to Massacre though (unlocked after completion) and it’s a whole new game. Snipers must be fooled with the holo decoy or you’re toast and the use of suppressing fire from cover, Gunnar-as-sentry, stealth kills, laying traps using micro mines and carefully rationed ammo means suddenly the game feels wonderfully challenging. All those toys you mostly ignored the first time round become invaluable and a joy to use successfully. I rarely bother completing a game twice but something compelled me to do so here and I’m not regretting it.

Certainly pick this one up if you like a bit of third person action mixed with stealth, strategy and a good story straight from the pages of 2000 AD. In fact it’s almost good enough to make up for the dreadful (ahem) Dredd vs. Death, though sadly it barely charted. Do play it on Hard to fully enjoy it, especially if you grab the PC version which is a mere 18 quid on Play. In the mean time, I might just track down a few Rogue Trooper compilation books.