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Streets of Rogue Review

Peace Was Never an Option

Streets of Rogue is a game that feels like you took Grand Theft Auto and made it into a Rogue-Lite game. I like to play the game, and I am going to explain what I think about the game in this review.

Streets of Rogue
Streets of Rogue
Developer: Matt Dabrowski
Price: $ 19.99
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot
  • Streets of Rogue Screenshot

Streets of Rogue Review Information

Why Did I Review This Game?

Because I have owned the game for years, and I love to play it.

How Long Have I Been Playing Streets of Rogue?

I bought the game in 2019. At the time of writing this review, I have played the game 94 hours and won a few times.

How Did I Review the Game?

I started by playing a demo version on Itch.io. After that, I decided to buy the game while it was in early access on Steam. I own and play the game on my Steam account.

Since I play this game often, I wrote this review from memory. I played a few game sessions to check some things.

How I Got This Game to Work on Linux

Streets of Rogue is a Linux native game. But for some reason, it was not correctly detecting my Xbox controller.

I tested some things, and nothing I tried worked. So I decided to try playing the game with Proton. That seemed to fix the issue.

I am playing Streets of Rogue on Steam with GE-Proton-7-43. That is the GloriousEggroll version of Proton.

The main menu is shown.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

Gameplay Review

How Does This Game Work?

Streets of Rogue is a Rogue-Lite game. The goal is to get to the final level and become mayor. Each session or run is randomized. While the levels will remain the same, the things in them will be different.

The game is mostly combat and exploration. You run around and complete quests and often get into fights.

To get to the next area, you have to complete or fail all quests. How you go about completing levels and missions is up to you.

The Streets of Rogue map and missions are shown.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

The Different Characters Are Nice

The characters in Streets of Rogue are nice. Some characters are good at combat, and others are good at avoiding fighting.

Streets of rogue has many characters to select.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

I tend to play the game aggressively and fight everybody. I like playing characters like the soldier.

One cool thing in the game is big quests. Every character has a unique quest that you can complete throughout a run.

Completing this quest often unlocks something big for your current character. In some cases, you become a different character afterward.

Doing some of the big quests is annoying. But since they are optional, I suppose that is not too bad.

Do them if you want to, or ignore them. Even if you fail the big quest for a run, you can still make progress for extra experience points. I think this is a nice detail.

Want something different from the characters offered in the game? You can make your own character. The system works very well.

In Streets of Rogue you can create custom characters.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

The Game Is Very Open-Ended

One of the defining things about Streets of Rogue is that you can play the game and beat it how you want to.

You can go out of your way to avoid fights if you want. The only requirement is that you beat all current missions.

Bribing a bartender NPC by giving them an item.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

If you fail a mission, it gets marked as completed anyway. But you won’t get extra experience points or the reward for it.

Many of the non-playable characters (NPCs) won’t fight or attack you unless you start a fight or make them angry. You have time to decide how to beat missions and form plans.

Multiple NPCs are viable.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

On the last level, you can be like me and fight the mayor and all of their guards and win the game that way. Or you can win an election.

I can’t think of any other Rogue-Lite game where you can win the game without defeating a final boss.

The Combat Is Fun

Since I only play the game by fighting everybody, I noticed how well the combat in the game is.

Things are pretty simple, and the AI is not smart. But to survive you have to be careful about how you pick fights. I find myself having fun thinking of how to outsmart the NPCs.

Most NPCs will not attack you on sight. NPCs in the game are not enemies in the traditional sense.

You have to consider the risk of fighting someone who is not hostile to you if you don’t need to do it.

Often in fights, things get messy, and bystanders become angry and join in and try to beat you up, as well. A lot of the time, the police will join in and try to fight you as well.

The streets of Rogue game over screen. YOU DIED!
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

Item management is important

You find so much stuff and items in this game. It becomes a bit of an item management simulator eventually. Some of the items are only useful in very specific situations. Others you don’t want to use often.

To be fair, the game lets you hold a lot of things before it becomes an issue.

I suppose running out of item space encourages players to use items often to beat missions instead of holding on to them forever. Or you can sell them.

The streets of Rogue inventory screen is shown. I was holding many items.
Screenshot of Streets of Rogue Steam game.

The Levels Are Nice

You start off in the slums of the city and work your way up to more expensive areas and the end where the major lives. As you progress areas have more security and situations become harder to deal with.

This keeps things interesting as in later areas you can’t just go around starting fights with everybody as if you are not careful things will become hard very fast.

The Online Play Sounds Nice

The game has an online play function. I have never played this game with another person once, but it sounds like it would be interesting.

Presentation Review

How the Game Looks

The art style of the game is basic. I can’t say I dislike or like the style.

Everything is detailed enough that you can see and tell what things are. I suppose that is all that matters.

How the Game Sounds

The sounds in the game are good enough. I think the sounds in the game are quite expressive and a big part of playing the game.

I like the soundtrack in the game a lot. I feel it fits the theme of the game very well. I like instrumental music pieces, and this game has many that sound great.

One of my favorite songs plays in the second area of the game. I think it fits the theme very well.

My Thoughts on the Value of the Game

Purchase Price

Streets of Rogue is $20 (USD). You can buy the collectors edition that has all DLC for $35 (USD).

Is Streets of Rogue Worth Buying?

I feel my purchase of the game was worthwhile.

I bought the game in early access. I don’t do this often for games, but I enjoyed the demo of the game so much that I felt confident I would enjoy the final product.

I have seen the game put on sale for as low as $5 (USD) during Steam sale events. So you can always wait for the next big sale if you feel like being patient.

Do I Recommend Buying DLC and Other Content?

Here is the DLC offered for Streets of Rogue.

  • Streets of Rogue Character Pack $6 (USD)
  • Streets of Rogue Soundtrack $5 (USD)
  • The Making of Streets of Rogue $5 (USD)

I think the character pack is worth it. While I feel these characters could just been in the base game, I think they add enough variety to be worth buying.

I don’t buy soundtracks on Steam as I feel other platforms like Bandcamp are better options. I rather manage everything elsewhere.

I don’t think paying money for The Making of Streets of Rogue is worth the money.

To be fair, it does look and sound cool. But I rather buy in-game content. I suppose you can decide if this is something you want or not.

The only DLC I have bought is the character pack.

My Overall Thoughts on Streets of Rogue

Streets of Rogue is a well made Rogue-Lite game, and I like it a lot. The game keeps things fresh with new characters. The game also doesn’t become stale quick because of all the things that can happen in levels.

I look forward to the developers progress on the sequel game. Streets of Rogue 2.

Do I Recommend People Play Streets of Rogue?

I recommend playing the game if you like Rogue-Lite games and want to play something that can be chaotic sometimes.

Streets of Rogue is the kind of game you can play many times and still see new things.

You can also download a play a demo version. While this version is outdated, the gameplay is not that different than the release version.

Will I Keep Playing Streets of Rogue?

I play the game somewhat often. I want to beat the game with more characters. Maybe someday I will try to win without fighting everybody in sight.