Promising good old fashioned co-op FPS action, Half-Life remake dev's Rogue Point has finally hit early access

A totally original creation from the team behind the Black Mesa Half-Life remake, Rogue Point has been blipping on my radar for a while now. While it has a lot of the hallmarks you’d expect from tactical PvP shooters like Counter-Strike and Rainbow Six Siege, this is in fact a co-op, PvE FPS game. In the current climate, that’s probably for the best. Well, my time waiting for Rogue Point’s arrival is up – it just launched in Steam Early Access.

For me, there are two ways to approach making a great co-op shooter. You could take the Helldivers 2 approach – create sprawling battlefields, throw hordes of enemies at players, and give them a huge arsenal of increasingly ridiculous weapons and gadgets to play with, all in the name of relentless action. Or, you take the Ready or Not route – make a sandbox designed to be approached with strategy, tactics, and communication, with the goal of making something that feels really immersive. I often find that games that loiter in the middle of these two extremes aren’t as fun or impactful, but Rogue Point might prove me wrong.

In squads of up to four Rogue Point soldiers, you can drop into missions and act as the resistance to privately hired armies. These groups of mercenaries are hired by wealthy backers who are looking to secure pieces of a business empire that’s now up for grabs, after the death of the world’s richest CEO. Before each mission – whether that be as part of the campaign or one of the four ever-evolving, replayable levels – you can pick a loadout and a starting point. An overview of the map can also be doodled on by all players to help plan routes and flag areas to avoid.

From there, it’s down to you not only to complete your objectives (which range from simply killing targets, to gathering intel, to rescuing hostages) but to maximize how much cash you earn. Successful kills, headshots, assists, and other actions all earn you cash that you can invest in your loadout for the next mission.

Alternatively, you can wager your money for the chance of new gear and rare items through the game’s Dead Drop mechanic. Let me stress that this is not something you can pump real money into, but it’s a chance for you to spend in-game cash on a randomly rolled set of gear. It might be handy if you’re down to your final few dollars.

The gameplay leans into the tactical realism of Ready or Not – you’re not a massive bullet sponge, shooting requires a decent amount of accuracy, and moving strategically from cover points is important. In true Rainbow Six Siege fashion, you can also breach doors and use cameras to see what’s behind them. As I mentioned, though, Rogue Point plays both the co-op shooter fields. You can absolutely go loud, and there are some less-realistic enemy types – like berserkers with machetes – that you’ll have to watch out for too. If you like a bit of lunacy and mayhem, then there’s plenty of opportunity for that here too.

Rogue Point is out right now in Steam Early Access. For its first two weeks, you’ll be able to buy it with a 20% discount, making it a very enticing $16.99 / £14.44. If it looks like the kind of game you and your pals will enjoy, head to its Steam page here.

I hope my concerns about middle-of-the-road co-op shooters don’t apply here – Rogue Point looks like some good old fashioned FPS fun, and I hope it can be exciting enough, despite not going fully down the tactical route nor the ‘endless hordes and explosions’ route.