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Rogan Patch Allows You To Remove The Hood, Adjusts Visuals
Rogan: The Thief In The Castle released on PC VR headsets last week. Unsurprisingly, people had a few issues with the launch version of the game.
Most notably, the stealth experience obscures the player’s field of view with a hood. The idea is to keep the experience comfortable. But a recent patch added the option to remove this feature after complaints. We didn’t find the hood too distracting, but we’re not surprised to learn that others did.
Also addressed in this patch are some of the graphical issues. People playing on VR reported blurriness (we played on Rift S and didn’t notice this) whereas the graphics on the ‘High’ setting have been improved too. Finally, developer Smilegate has removed the bothersome white screen that appears if you get your head caught in a blocked area. That could be a pretty messy addition when sneaking through tight spaces.
Going forward, Smilegate also plans to better adjust Rogan’s difficulty. In our review we said the game was simply too easy, which undermined many of the game’s stealth mechanics.
Overall, though, Rogan is a largely simplistic game. “VR stealth should be about physicality and self-awareness, with weight behind every tiny move you make,” we said in our review. “Rogan doesn’t have the agency or danger to bring realize those ambitions. In the end, this VR thief is a bit of a forgery; pretty on the outside but the beauty is only skin deep.”
Hopefully Smilegate’s upcoming improvements will tip those scales somewhat. We’ll keep you updated.
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Rogan: A Thief In The Castle Review: Gorgeous VR Sneaking That’s Simply Too Simple
There’s no doubt that Portal Studio’s Unknightly could take a page or two from Rogan: A Thief In The Castle.
Smilegate’s VR debut is, simply put, a visual feast the likes of which we’ve rarely seen in VR. Textures carry exhaustive details, the stoic medieval castle is richly littered with authentic extras and character models are inventively designed. Were you to compare the two side-by-side, you couldn’t be blamed for choosing Rogan’s shiny exterior over Unknightly’s relative scruffiness.
Flip that page, though, and you’ll find there’s much more the mighty Smilegate could learn from the more modest Portal Studios.
Rogan has its heart in the right place. It’s got a three-hour narrative-driven campaign and it does tap into the dangerous thrills of VR stealth however lightly. But it’s simply far too rigid in design and too limited in options to inspire anything like the adrenaline-fueled excitement of its contemporaries.
You play as a thief, Rogan, that breaks into a castle, intending to score a big payday but instead stumbling into a murder conspiracy. One of the kingdom’s most prestigious knights, Victoria, has been framed and you’re out to prove her innocence. That means sneaking through halls dutifully patrolled by guards and gathering evidence in her favor over the course of the campaign.
Expected foundations are in place. Rogan is a game about leaning around corners to catch a glimpse of the guards, throwing items to cause distractions and swiping keys from the belts of unsuspecting sentries. Move too fast and guards will hear your footsteps, take cover behind crates and watch through the cracks as they pass right by you. You can even smash bits of wood over heads to stun people. All of this is great fun in isolated use cases, but the individual elements rarely mesh together in a fluid way and the game’s too easy to necessitate many of its mechanics.
The only time I needed to distract a guard, for example, is when the game specifically told me to do it. For the most part, slowly walking behind an enemy until they rounded a corner was all that was needed. Rogan doesn’t have an inventory system, so you can rarely do things on the fly; the game will often give you what you need to get through the next area just before you reach it. More frustratingly you can only pick up specific things in the environment to throw or hit enemies with. Why an apple makes for a better distraction than a metal chalice is beyond me.
Enemy AI, meanwhile, sticks to simplistic patterns and won’t raise much concern when discovering the body of a stunned guard. Get found and, yes, I’m afraid to say it’s the dreaded instant fail. There’s no heart-pounding chases or desperate scraps for survival here.
Rogan’s brand of stealth is a little too streamlined to ever really feel immediate, skilled or dangerous. It’s more like a walking simulator with the occasional roadbump. If Unknightly or Budget Cuts are about throwing yourself to your knees in the last second and wiping the sweat from your brow, this is more calmly dipping your head to one side in relative confidence you weren’t seen.
You can make things a little harder by scouring levels for loot, but all this does is contribute to a seemingly meaningless number. Again, if Rogan had some sort of upgrade system, or indeed just equipment to buy and use, this would have been real incentive to scour every level. As it stands I simply gave up gathering loot about halfway in and never looked back.
Smilegate is undoubtedly trying, though, and I can’t help but wish they’d succeeded. Rogan’s world is genuinely interesting but its lore is locked behind wearisome exposition and stilted dialogue that feels pieced together at the best of times. Rogan’s voice acting, in particular, seems completely removed from the context it’s spoken in.
Rogan appears achingly close to being decent, but it’s far too stripped back to stir up much intrigue, let alone excitement. VR stealth should be about physicality and self-awareness, with weight behind every tiny move you make. Rogan doesn’t have the agency or danger to bring realize those ambitions. In the end, this VR thief is a bit of a forgery; pretty on the outside but the beauty is only skin deep.
Rogan: The Thief In The Castle launches today on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index for $39.99. Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
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E3 2019: VR Stealth Game Rogan Launches In July, New Trailer Revealed
Rogan: The Thief in the Castle, is shaping up to be one of VR’s most visually-striking games. Don’t believe us? See for yourself in our E3 VR Showcase trailer. Oh, and we have the release date too.
The game’s due for release on July 5th, developer Smilegate confirmed to us this week. Pre-orders will be launching on June 20th. This latest look at the game packs nearly three minutes of gameplay and provides and overview of the story. The footage introduces us to Victoria, a loyal night that’s been framed for murder. She enlists the help of you, a thief, to clear her name in change for clearing your own charges. It’s a little exposition-heavy (to say the least) but it does showcase why we’re so intrigued by this one. Visually, Rogan looks a cut above a lot of other VR games.
Not only that but the stealth mechanics seem to be well-considered. You can take cover behind objects, steal keys from unsuspecting guards and clobber them over the head with weapons. In one clip the player creates a diversion by throwing a torch into a pile of hay.
On Steam the game supports both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. No word on official Valve Index integration yet but this is definitely one we’ll want to see through that screen. We’ll also be interested to see how long the experience is.
Elsewhere, Smilegate is also working on a VR dating game called Focus On You. That’s coming to PSVR.
Tagged with: Rogan: The thief in the Castle
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Stunning VR Stealth Game Rogan Gets Fresh Teaser, Full Look At E3 VR Showcase
We’ve been looking forward to Rogan: The Thief in the Castle for a while now. It’s a gorgeous new VR stealth game from Smilegate. The latest look at the title just arrived, but there’s more to come.
This brief teaser trailer for the game popped up this week. It’s just a taste of what you’ll see at Upload’s E3 VR Showcase on Monday June 10 at 9am PT. We’ll have the full version of the trailer with a much more in-depth look at the story and gameplay mechanics. We can’t wait to show you it.
For now, though, this is pretty exciting. Rogan is looking visually astonishing and its stealth mechanics seem to be well fleshed out. We really like the idea of needing to find specific items to know out guards with and causing distractions by lighting fires. This could be the answer to Thief that VR is begging for.
Until the full trailer arrives, you can find out more about the game on its official website.
For now, Smilegate is promising a summer 2019 release window for Rogan on Oculus Rift and Vive as well as SteamVR compatible headsets. We’ll definitely want to see this one through the improved Valve Index display. No word on non-PC VR headsets just yet.
As for our E3 VR Showcase? Rogan is just one of a bunch of titles we’re going to be featuring there. We’ll have new game announcements and in-depth looks at what’s to come for VR gaming in 2019 and beyond. Make sure not to miss it!
Tagged with: Rogan: The thief in the Castle, Smilegate
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Rogan: The Thief in the Castle: VR-Stealth-Titel erscheint 2019 für PC-Brillen
Entwicklerstudio Smilegate Entertainment veröffentlicht 2019 das neue VR-Stealth-Spiel Rogan: The Thief in the Castle für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive.
Rogan: The Thief in the Castle – Ab 2019 für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive erhältlich
Innerhalb des kommenden VR-Titels Rogan: The Thief in the Castle schlüpft ihr in die Rolle des gleichnamigen Diebs, der sich innerhalb eines mittelalterlichen Settings durch ein gigantisches Schloss schleicht. Auf der Suche nach wertvollen Gegenständen, Schätzen und anderen Reichtümern begebt ihr euch in Richtung der Schatzkammer des Bauwerks. Doch anstatt mit vollen Taschen zu flüchten, kommt letztlich alles anders als geplant.
Der König der Burg wird ermordet, die Wachen begeben sich auf die Suche nach dem Mörder und finden schnell ein unschuldiges Opfer. Diese Ungerechtigkeit könnt ihr nicht einfach geschehen lassen, weshalb ihr versucht den wahren Mord aufzuklären. Natürlich geht ihr dabei nicht völlig uneigennützig vor, denn während ihr durch das Schloss schleicht, wandern zahlreiche goldene Gegenstände und Schmuckstücke in eure Taschen.
Die Story soll dabei eine wichtige Rolle spielen, sodass für die zugrunde liegende Narration ein professioneller Autor engagiert wurde. Entsprechend gibt es viele verschiedene Handlungsstränge, die erst durch mehrmaliges Durchspielen völlig offen gelegt werden.
In puncto Gameplay steht schleichen, täuschen und hinterhältiges Vorgehen an der Tagesordnung. So taucht ihr in die Schatten ein, versteckt euch hinter Kisten und Truhen und entgeht dadurch den Augen der Wachen. Um vorwärtszukommen gilt es Türen zu öffnen, kleinere Rätsel zu lösen und Schlösser zu knacken. Dabei könnt ihr selbst entscheiden, wie ihr vorgeht.
Entsprechend habt ihr die Wahl entweder per Taschendiebstahl einen Schlüssel vom Gürtel des Wachoffiziers zu entwenden und damit unbemerkt voranzuschreiten oder mit der Holzhammermethode vorzugehen und der Wache ordentlich eins auf die Glocke zu geben. Als Dieb seid ihr nicht unbedingt stark auf der Brust, dafür könnt ihr allerdings aus dem Hinterhalt angreifen.
So überrascht ihr in den Raum eintretende Wächter hinter einer Tür oder werft Münzen zur Ablenkung. Im Notfall steht euch zudem eine Pistole im Ärmel zur Verfügung. Auch Verkleidungen sind stellenweise auffindbar, um selbst in ein stählernes Gewand zu schlüpfen und dadurch unbemerkt durch die Korridore zu wandern.
Rogan: The Thief in the Castle soll innerhalb des ersten Halbjahres 2019 für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive erscheinen.
(Quellen: Upload VR | Video: Smilegate Entertainment)
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New VR Title ROGAN Revealed at PAX Australia
PAX, in its various incarnations, has become a big event for videogame fans, and now the PAX events are starting to see big reveals and announcements. At PAX Australia in Melbourne, developer Smilegate Entertainment have revealed a new virtual reality (VR) title called ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle.
The new title was being showcased at the HTC Vive Free Playzone booth. ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle is a stealth-based action adventure set in the medieval era.
Players take on the role of Rogan, who is a thief who is involved in various intrigues as Castle Blackstone. The development team say one of the main selling points is an involving storyline that was written by a professional novelist.
The medieval castle has been carefully detailed, allowing players to fully explore the environment, and 3D spatial sound has been applied to ensure a more immersive experience.
Players will be able to enjoy the title in various different ways, as players can choose to engage in open combat, or use various abilities such as pickpocketing, hiding or distracting guards with various tools. There are also various difficulty levels, and the development team says the full story can only be revealed by multiple playthroughs.
“When we revealed the title for the first time at PAX Australia this year, we received countless favorable comments from players at the site for the sense of immersion and thrilling stealth action gameplay that they have never experienced before in other VR games. We are planning to continue developing more new VR games that satisfy the needs of players and move forward in new markets and platforms,” said Dae Jin Kim, Director at Smilegate Entertainment.
ROGAN: The Thief in the Castle is being developed for multiple different VR platforms, including HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, it is expected to be released in the first half of 2019. The official trailer is available to view below.
For future coverage of new and upcoming VR content, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Rogan Is A Visually Striking Take On Thief In VR
Unknightly might need to watch it’s back; there’s a new Thief wannabe in town.
Rogan: The Thief in the Castle is a visually striking new Oculus Rift and HTC Vive game on the way from Smilegate Entertainment. As the name suggests, the game’s set within the confines of a giant castle. You have the misfortune of visiting the castle on the day of its Lord’s murder, putting guards on high alert. Instead of deciding to swipe loot for yourself, then, you set about trying to prove the innocence of one of the crime’s most likely suspects. Check out the trailer below.
To that end, you’ll sneak through environments, swiping evidence and avoiding the steel of guards. Smilegate says players will need to heavily rely on the game’s 3D sound system to listen out for footsteps that will clue you in on approaching guards. You can also make your own noises as distractions and create ambushes using weapons to get out of tight spots (though taking enemies head-on is not advisable).
It sounds like Rogan will be a challenging affair. Guards will be able to spot you if you linger around corners and cracks for too long, and will react if you make the slightest noise when they approach. You’ll even need to make sure doors are closed once you’ve passed through them. Visually the game looks pretty promising, though we’ll have to wait to see how it holds up inside a headset.
This all sounds pretty promising, though we won’t know how many of Rogan’s promises will be met until we get our hands on the game for ourselves. AI can be a tricky thing to get right in these types of games, especially when you add VR on top. Meanwhile, Portal Studios’ Unknightly is another excellent take on the stealth genre in VR, though it’s admittedly rough about the edges right now.
Look for Rogan to land in the first half of next year.
Tagged with: Rogan: The thief in the Castle
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