Developed by Bits studios and published by Kemco Rogue Ops is yet another 3D third person action adventure. You the player take control of Nikki Connors, a counter terrorist agent working for a covert branch of the NSA called Phoenix.Years earlier Nikki bears witness to the death of her husband and daughter in a car bomb attack in Istanbul and thus her motivation is geared towards finding those responsible for the death of her loved ones. Joining the Green Berets, honing her skills and ultimately being headhunted by Phoenix. Nikki becomes one tough killing machine. It transpires that her husband also worked for Phoenix and thus the doorway to uncovering the truth behind his death is now open.

Gameplay:
Rogue Ops is an interesting game indeed, as Nikki your job is to undertake a variety of covert missions which include assassination, infiltration, escape, subterfuge and a whole lot more. Nikki is not alone as she has a team back at HQ giving you orders and generally guiding you via your earpiece (sadly not the Xbox communicator).

Armed with a wide range of weapons and cutting edge gadgets to aid in her endevours, Nikki is pretty tough and obviously well trained for these missions. The gadgets range from a grappling hook, thermal visor, grenades, electronics disrupters, a retinal scanner device and more. These being used numerous times during the course of the game. The visor being most used as it enables Nikki to see potential threats through most walls.

The weapons themselves range from a silenced pistol and sniper rifle to throwing stars and a tazer. These all being effective silent means of dispatching foes. However Nikki's most powerful and deadly weapon is in fact her own fighting skills. These are performed when Nikki successfully sneaks up on an enemy undetected, she is able to pick the pockets (for keycards or extra ammo) and then deliver a killing blow to the unsuspecting enemy. This is handled by the computer but requires the player to input various directions on the control stick within the time limit to successfully execute one of these killer moves.This is an interesting concept and works quite well, it also eliminates any traces of blood that would have been spilt from say shooting an enemy. This is where Rogue Ops comes into its own whereby it allows the player to incorporate their own style into the game. Do you opt to go guns a blazing with little regard for stealth and human life or do you opt to sneak your way through the levels with minimal casualties? This presents multiple ways to accomplish tasks which are not always apparent at first.

Rogue Ops also utilizes the Xbox headset which enables players to change weapons and gadgets by simply holding the white button then speaking into the mic, such as "pistol" or "sniper" will select these weapons for you. A nice feature but perhaps totally pointless, especially as you have to press and hold the white button first. It would have been far more intuiative if these were performed on the fly without having to hold any extra buttons down.

Rogue Ops also has its fair share of puzzle moments where the use of a particular gadget and some quick thinking on the players part are required. These moments are a welcome addition to the gameplay and add some variety to the proceedings.

Graphics:
Graphically Rogue Ops looks pretty neat with its cartoon style look as opposed to going for realism. Nikki looks sexy and is well animated as she traverses through the varied levels. Its nice to look at a female character's rear for a change (did I really just say that, I must get out more). There are some nice graphical touches on display such as the visor warping the screen when deactivated and the xray representation when performing a one hit kill on an enemy. Overall very solid, convincing environments and characters.

Sound:
Sound is very typical for a game of this type with the usual mix of intense music when Nikki has been discovered to the more gentle tones for when she is sneaking around. The weapons fire is simplistic yet works. The voice acting is totally stereotypical. In fact some of the voice actors sound identical to those featured in Splinter Cell, namely the Russian enemies. Maybe this is just me but I am sure you will agree when you hear them. Overall the sound is functional at best and nothing that will drive emotion through your heart whilst playing. Although personally I feel the gameplay is what most people will be focusing on here.

Longevity:
Rogue Ops is a fairly short game with 8 levels of varying length to wade through. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from and the ability to replay completed levels. I must say that the hardest difficulty is the best in terms of longevity as the default settings are a little on the easy side. For the ultimate experience of this game I would go as far as suggesting starting on the hardest difficulty. Sadly there are no multiplayer modes and although there are multiple routes to take on most levels I am sure many players wont wish to play the game again on completion.

Round Up:
Rogue Ops is an average game at heart as it borrows many features from the greats such as Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell. However Its execution is a mixed bag as in my opinion the game is flawed in many ways. For example Nikki can perform awesome combat moves on unsuspecting enemies yet lacks any fighting skills if discovered. A punch and kick move would have been more realistic for these moments. Then there is the issue of the actual gameplay. The player is not rewarded in any way for completing missions stealthily. This will make many players give up and simply run and gun their way through the game, somewhat missing the nuances that the developers put into the game. A results and ranking screen would have been nice at the end of each level as well. Then there is the enemy AI which although displaying some of the traits of room clearing from MGS2 is usually quite dumb. Enemies will stand there in line whilst Nikki shoots each one in the head .

Overall Rogue Ops is an entertaining title that will amuse most games players. However, trying to emulate games which are simply much better in design is a bad thing. The one hit kill system is good yet not implemented well enough and the voice commands are a pointless novelty. Hopefully if there is a sequal then Nikki will add her own innovation to the table instead of copying others which will ultimately grant her more respect. A definite rental.

Pros:

• Nikki is Sexy
  
• Some cool gameplay moments
  
• Varied levels
  
• one hit kills
  

  Cons:
  

  • Much better stealth games out there
    
  • No rewards for stealth play
    
  • No real innovation