At this year’s Hi-Rez Expo we learned more about upcoming team-shooter Rogue Company. Development on the game is chugging along, and we can most likely expect a 2020 release.
From what we know so far, Rogue Company mixes the tense decision-making of games like Rainbow Six Siege with frenetic gunplay. Creative director Scott Zier emphasizes that a player’s ability to handle their weapon will be a big part of winning in the game. Rogue Company will boast a large selection of conventional firearms, as well as some unique and unusual guns informed by the game’s zany universe. Players will also be able to customize their weapons with different attachments, like recoil compensators and quick-reload magazines.
Hi-Rez is building Rogue Company with esports in mind. The game will have multiple 2v2 and 4v4 objective-based modes. Between matches, players will be able to build custom loadouts with different abilities and weapons. Players can also use gadgets like drones and deployable shields. Teamwork, proper team composition, and map-specific strategies should be a major part of playing the game. Note also that players cannot re-spawn: In this game, when you die, you die.
The universe of Rogue Company
Rogue Company‘s characters and setting are the work of Hi-Rez advanced game designer Evelyn Fredericksen. In her words, the game’s operatives are “fiercely individualist people from all walks of life.” Each of them comes with their own distinct — and often prickly — personality, as well as their own unique ability. Dallas can reveal and track high-priority enemies, and Trench deploys barbed wire traps, for example.
Fredericksen is a new addition to Hi-Rez, having joined the studio in May 2019. She is a Blizzard veteran, having helped shape virtually all of the company’s modern titles. Over the past two decades she has worked on World of Warcraft, StarCraft 2, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and Diablo III.
Rogue Company will be free to play and will feature full crossplay across Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, and PC at launch. On PC, the game will be distributed through the Epic Games Store. Players can sign up for the Rogue Company alpha while waiting for an official release date.
