Rogue Warrior Carpet F-Bombs
The most impressive thing about the latest iteration of first-person shooter Rogue Warrior is what it used to be, not what it has become.
It’s no longer a game being developed by Zombie. It’s no longer using the Unreal Engine 3. It no longer hopes to deliver an on-the fly cooperative experience… or any cooperative experience for that matter. It no longer will introduce multiplayer maps constructed of tiles.
In fact, Rogue Warrior’s key selling point appears to be pony-tailed former Navy SEAL Richard Marcinko’s over-the-top use of nonsensical catch phrases and ability to dispatch enemies by stabbing them in the forehead.
Bethesda said during a presentation of the game last week, that they weren’t happy with the original direction of the game, so they decided to step back and start over.
This time, they went with developer Rebellion, and asked them to turn it into more of a “personality shooter” leaning heavily on the personality of Richard “Demo Dick” Marcinko who both wrote the books the game is based on and is the lead character of the game.
They also landed Mickey Rourke as the voice of Marcinko. Why not have Marcinko do his own voice?
“You find in life people who are the real thing can’t necessarily voice act,” said Bethesda’s Pete Hines. “If you asked someone to go into a jungle and kill a bunch of people you’d pick Dick. If you want a guy to portray a guy who goes into a jungle and kills a bunch of people, turns out you pick Rourke.”
In the game you take Marcinko into a 1980s’ North Korea to try and disrupt a ballistic missile program. You end up tracking the some anti-ballistic missiles into Russia and once there “blow the shit out of stuff.”
“You play as Demo Dick, a seriously bad-ass character,” said Rebellion senior producer Sean Griffiths. “He is going to use infiltration, sneak and peak and a more gung-ho style of play.”
Besides the typical running and gunning of a first-person shooter. Rogue Warrior has some pretty intense kill moves. About 25 of them to be specific. The ones we saw included slicing open a person’s throat, repeatedly knifing a person in the kidneys, tossing an enemy off a bridge and even plunging a combat knife into a person’s forehead.
“Dick has seen these kill moves and whole-heartedly agrees with them,” Griffiths said.
And, of course, there’s all of that Demo Dick personality, illustrated most obviously with his catch phrases:
“This place is Goddamned begging for party favours.”
“Jesus fucking Christ”
“Ah damn.”
“Fuck me.”
“April Fool mother fucker.”
For his part Marcinko isn’t just OK with the phrases, he loves them. “He curses way more than that in real life,” Hines said.
The original game, Hines said, didn’t feel like it was enough about Marcinko and his personality. Marcinko enlisted in the Navy in 1958, transferred to SEAL Team Two in 1966 where he served two tours in Vietnam. In the late 70s he became the first commanding officer of SEAL Team Six, the US Navy’s premier counter-terrorist unit. In the 80s he formed Red Cell, which was tasked with testing the security of naval bases, nuclear subms, ships, civilian airports and embassies.
In 1992 he wrote his autobiography, Rogue Warrior, which went on to become a New York Times best seller.
The real tragedy of Rogue Warrior the video game isn’t just that it seems to have become a generic shooter with a notable faced slapped on it, but that it effectively condenses nearly forty years of service in Vietnam, the SEALS and anti-terrorist units down to a string of profane catch phrases and two dozen absurdly violent kill moves.
Hines says that the game is meant to be about what Marcinko is doing and who he is and points out that the books Marcinko writes are about 20 percent truth and 80 percent BS, which is, Hines says, Marcinko’s personality.
Taken as a tongue-in-cheek 80s action romp, I suppose the game could find an audience in the same way 50 Cent’s Blood in the Sand has. But to do so it’s going to be a little less serious and a little more kitschy, from what I saw.
Now built using a proprietary game engine, Rogue Warrior is expected out this fall for the PC, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360. 
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Comments (AU Comments | US Comments)
@VenomStrike: Korean.
Jacob Stephen Cook
@supo: ...I wanted to use the real thing!
Bergerac
the Chinese man getting flipped over the rail is hilarious! haha
VenomStrike
@supo: I don't know, WET seems to be the type of over-stylized action romp that Stranglehold tried so desperately (and failed so miserably at) to be. I, for one, have become wholly interested in WET.
Not quite sure about this game, though. Seems far too generic.
Well this sucks. I was genuinely interested in the original game design. Why the hell would you decide to bastardize it so severely?
SG_Mahonay
@murderface_:
HAHA, how long have you been holding out for this to happen?
'Bout time there was a hero with a bun in his fucking hair.
murderface_
@Greenstuff-Alex: Yes they were.
"...points out that the books Marcinko writes are about 20 percent truth and 80 percent BS, which is, Hines says, Marcinko's personality."
Sounds like Tropic Thunder all over again. Was Nick Nolte's character based on Marcinko? Hmm...
Soulflare77
Not familiar with the guy - I'm guessing he's like the American equivalent of Andy McNab. Oh God, Bravo Two Zero: The Video Game. That's all we need.
@excel_excel: Yeah, thats more of an issue of "hire more goddamn voice actors". It's not like they can't forward the cash.
supo
@Roxas13th: Err Mickey Rourke is not some washed up actor haha, he may be a bit crazy but cmon.. Sin City? He was pretty damn awesome as Marv.
supo
@tsukijin: YES! Thank you! I would have been very disappointed if I was the first one to bring that up.
@Brian Crecente: Eh, I don't think either of them really do. WET just seems to be using sex appeal and flashy Max Payne action, without any of the awesome story that made Max Payne so great.
And now Rogue Warrior.. I was far more interested when they first announced it as a hud-less open area coop game. Now its on the same level as 50 Cent/Matt Hazard. Ugh..
supo
@EDGE: Ya it would make sense if the main character was a gay make-up artist who struggles to make a living and meets ends by letting his end meet with a lot of oddly shaped phallic objects.
No Im not homophobic you flashy homo mob!
Hmm, were Dead Cell from MGS2 based upon this Red Cell? They seem to do the same sort of thing, and have a similar name.
Greenstuff-Alex
@phantomax: Oh my god so fucking true. Every single black person in Megaton sounds the same except for the sheriff. Terrible
Wait.."Demo Dick"? Okay so I guess this is just supposed to be a comedy game with a bunch of violence? Because I'm not sure how anyone's going to take that name and those catch phrases seriously.
Deathbearer
I thought this was an April Fool's article upon first reading, and then I checked the date.
Wow.
So it went from a technically quite interesting title to Soldier Of Fortune with one-liners?
knownspace
What a dreadful concept.
@Roxas13th: Anything is better than the "black dude voice" from Oblivion and FO3.
phantomax
@EDGE:
**"Rogue Warrior"
Though "Rouge Warrior" could make for an interesting title too...LOL
@Roxas13th: OK. sorry gotta call you out on that crap. The Wrestler was definetly NOT a crappy flick. And he didn't seem washed up in that movie. at all.
Marcinko is a badass! This guy was talking about counter terrorism before almost anyone had a clue what it was. I have enjoyed some of his books most notably "Rouge Warrior". I hope the game lives up to the legend.
As pathetic as that might be Hines is right about actors vs. reality.
@phantomax: so instead you get a washed up actor that is somehow popular after doing some new crappy flick... hooray
@Brian Crecente: Apologies, I somehow seemed to have dreamed another WET announcement. But in general, there's been a lot of Bethesda (read mainly fallout franchise) announcements in the past few weeks.
Is it just me, or does this game just look incredibly bland and uninteresting?
Santar
@Elchris: yep, Uncharted 2 info in less than 2 hours yippeee, not bethesda but yippeeee
Richard Marchinko is utter slime.
StratfordX
Wow look at that main character. Rename this Origins: Boris The Blade aka Boris The Bullet Dodger aka Boris the sneaky fuckin' Russian
@WhiskeyJak: WET has serious potential. Not so sure about RW
@Elchris: 4? I see three. They did just host their gamer's day.
"You find in life people who are the real thing can't necessarily voice act," said Bethesda's Pete Hines."
I guess they must have used the real thing for their previous games.
phantomax
finally, a Steven Seagal game I want to play.
Well, it certainly seems like you weren't impressed with what Bethesda had to show last week Brian! And by reading what you wrote I can understand why.
WhiskeyJak
Has anyone else noticed that Bethesda are going nuts with their press releases recently? 4 Bethesda articles on Kotaku alone today...
Looks interesting enough.
Maybe.
@Deathbearer: It's his nickname. They certainly just didn't make it up. Check out his autobiography at the library sometime. Most of the language and over the top violence is just part of his life.
Severely disappointing news. I was looking forward to the multiplayer in the original game. They were going to do some different things with it. Now it looks like every other third-rate shooter. And I say this as someone who really enjoyed the book the game is 'based on'. Even if it wasn't all true, it was a fun read.
@Jacob Stephen Cook:
wheres the birth certificate?
VenomStrike
It sounds like they scrapped the original and just had the "license" painted on to "generic shooter #346".
Also, these look like bullshots to me somehow....but I know Bethesda can make some awesome looking games.
@Roxas13th: Mickey Rourke has never been washed up.....he's never in need of work. You must be thinking of Gary Busey.
Also, I'm guessing you've never heard of Sin City?
@Taurus_McGee: Thank you. I just spent the last five minutes staring deeply at this apparently quasi-fictional character, trying to figure out where I've seen him before.
It's like Mitchell hit the steroid bottle instead of the Redken.
@b-radicate: Those screens look really disappointing; kinda like they're using Gamebryo or something. I can't believe they stopped using Unreal 3.
DocSeuss
@darkgodofdeath: I don't know - the guy in the third picture who just had his throat sliced open looks remarkably bored, so that has to be some sort of bad omen about the game...
Taurus_McGee
@Zenian: I actually thought he looked like Paul Mitchell, the hair product guy. Who wouldn't want to play a video game whereyou get to give some terrorist guy a fabulous haircut, before lopping his junk off? Know I would.
Taurus_McGee
@VenomStrike: it says north korea in the article...read it
Oh noes! He cusses and is a sentry stalking expert?! The Horrorz i tells you. Can't wait for this game.
Reminds me a tad of Soldier of Fortune, playing that guy certainly made you feel like a (nontypical videogame) badass. This sesems to be like steven seagal: the game.
There needs to be a game with a bunch of ridiculous 80's movie action heroes in it trying to save the world from terrorists. Dolf, Arnold, Steven, JCVD, the entire cast of Predator, and Gary Busey too.
this game looks terrible. are they using the same crappy engine from oblivion and fallout 3 for an action game? i hope not. gonna pass on this one.
Steven Segal the game, I'm in.
Deise
I've lost total interest after hearing the co-op was dropped. That was my main reason for wanting this game.
Let's just get this out of the way now, the graphics look like balls ("you can't judge a game by screenshots, it's early, bla bla bla" i know, just pointing out the obvious. Call my John Madden Jr.). That said, I'm all for some swearing in game. One thing that's KILLED me with the GRAW series is the utter lack of swearing. "Captain Mitchell get out there and kick some BUTT"... really? is that what they'd really say? "Darn captain we're being fired at" it just felt so PG i wanted to puke. Combat is chaotic to say the least, dropping an F bomb and a few "shits" here and there never hurt anyone... right?
i couldn't even finish reading the article. this one look like it's going straight in to the stinker bin.
@Santar: It's not just you.
i loved that game the first time i played it, when it was called splinter cell chaos theory
dgd1542
@VenomStrike: the preferred nomenclature is "Chinaman".
orielbean
In the pic, is that the same Korean guy from Crysis?
When I see pony tailed action figure I think, Steven Segal, but as he was in Nico about the law, not now that he's just an over weight, Elvis looking loser. Maybe I should get him some Alli for his birthday.
CartBlanche2
I'm officially meh'ed by this lineup. While all for Bethesda broadening it's content offerings beyond The Elder Scrolls and Fallout, I'd rather them go the nouveau EA route and try to launch some strong new IP's, rather than take the Blactivision approach of building a library of B level copycats to stand along side their one or two AAA franchises.
I just don't see how slapping the Bethesda name on a generic third person action game, is going to be good for the brand.
The shoulda-been-canned-when-it-was-pitched... WET and what's now looking to be an incredibly generic first person shooter? Sorry, but everything that made Rouge Warrior stand out against the other million military FPS's is now gone and being replaced with Mickey Rourke? Fuck that!
The original idea I actually liked. Now I'm just in disappointment.
I admit it - I've never read "Rogue Warrior," nor any of Richard Marcinko's books. A look at his biography via the article makes it seem to me that Bethesda could make a pretty solid entry into the tactical shooter genre. The current proposed game seems like little more than Duke Nukem with a pony tail. Brian makes a good point, I suppose, in saying that if considered a romp it may be fun. The question is, though, is Bethesda trying to make a tongue-in-cheek shooter, or are they putting knives through foreheads and swearing like a character in a Tarantino movie because Marcinko says that it's cool?
CohnBred
@Bravepower: It's still April, my friend. Let's all hope "April Fool, motherfucker," is the punchline.
CohnBred
@Brian Crecente: Aye. They just had their event in London.
@phicaluk: Very similar, except with more lying and self promotion.
@Kounji: or Rogue even.. because Rouge would be a pansy game
Kounji
@Taurus_McGee: This dude is a fucking bad ass in real life. They should call this Richard Marcinko's Rouge Warrior. or Richard Marcinko's Cut a Mother Fucker six times before he even realizes you're there.
Kounji
@orielbean: Secret Asian Man?
@Greenstuff-Alex: Ah, I was just about to post that. Yeah, that's where the inspiration of Dead Cell came from.
This sounds like pretty much everything I hate about your common generic shooter.
I'll give this a miss for sure.
Karma
*weeps in self pity because of no TES announcements*
99-Luft-Balloons
@Kounji:
Hahaha, yeah, this dude has a ridiculous track record. He's not just some military buff, he's an incredibly important person in the history of US special forces and has commanded the top special forces units in the entire world. Real life badass, most definitely.
Blah8