History repeats itself in Rogue Point, the new "roguelite tactical co-op shooter" for up to four players from Black Mesa creators Crowbar Collective, narratively at least: Alexander the Great is dead, and in the wake of his passing a coterie of generals and familial dynasties go to war to claim his power for themselves.
Alexander, as depicted in Rogue Point, is in fact "the CEO," the unnamed richest man in the world, and the pretenders to his throne are the "cutthroat conglomerates" who wage their Diadochi Wars in the most 21st century fashion possible: Via the MERX app, which enables them to "order private mercenary armies as easily as ordering takeout."
You are not actually one of the "Merx" in this scenario, but rather an "elite independent vigilante squad" determined to end the corporate wars by declaring war on the corporations. A little counterintuitive there, but if you want peace you have to justify the means, or something like that.
Anyway, as one of the not-Merx you'll square off against multiple classes of enemies, each presenting a "unique threat" in missions set across four separate locales: The airport, mall, office, and oil rig. That's not a huge variety of environments in which to run and gun, but this is where one of Rogue Point's roguelite aspects kicks in: "Each sprawling map is reshaped by the game's Parametric Design System, offering new strategies and challenges with every play," the Steam page states. "The constantly evolving gameplay ensures every mission feels as thrilling and unique as your first, keeping the excitement alive in every campaign."
There looks to be a strong element of Rainbow Six to Rogue Point, as each mission begins with a planning and loadout stage, and it's "purpose-built to reinforce teamplay" rather than just four guys running around blasting the hell out of everything that moves—although how that works out in practice, we will have to wait and see. Players will unlock weapons, cosmetics, and campaign modifiers enabling them to build unique loadouts for each mission, all of them leading into "the ultra-hard Endgame Mission," which I have to imagine will have a new and better name by the time Rogue Point launches.
Unlike Rainbow Six—Rainbow Six Siege, anyway—Rogue Point will not support PvP gameplay. "The core of the game is in PVE and that is what we want to focus on," Crowbar Collective said. "We will keep an eye on community feedback, but we think that type of experience can already be found elsewhere."
"We cannot wait to go in depth about the game, and everything we learned while creating a new IP (as well as turning Crowbar Collective into a full time development studio)," CEO and Project Lead Adam Engels said. "Just like Black Mesa, we want to heavily involve the community in our development and updates. Our community was critical in the Early Access of Black Mesa and having [publisher] Team 17 as a partner for Rogue Point helps us focus on development and community feedback."
A release date for Rogue Point hasn't been announced but it's expected to be out sometime in 2025, initially in early access. Pricing also hasn't been revealed, but it will apparently be a buy-to-play game: Crowbar Collective said it currently has no plans for in-game purchases.
