Streets of Rogue 2 is the much awaited sequel to the hit indie, sandbox RPG from 2019. The goal of the game was extremely simple yet intriguing, go through randomly generated cities by either sneaking, fighting or both to defeat the mayor of the city. There are destruction mechanics such as walls breaking, cars exploding etc, sort of a mix between GTA and Stardew Valley. Its sequel had an original release date for this year but has been pushed to 2025.
What’s So Interesting About it
One of the most interesting things about this game is that just like Stardew Valley it is being created by one person. The premise continues from its predecessor but the sequel is planning to add a bunch of new features to the game such as Quest Generation, More areas such as Forests, Beaches, Docks, Sleep schedules for players and many more.
It is clear from the features being worked on that Streets of Rogue 2 will intend to build upon the systems of the first game and there are a lot of features being worked on that will no doubt enhance the experience from the first game by miles.
There will be new NPCs, local co-op modes, texture revamps, dungeons, itemizations and hundreds of other things that the developer mentions that he intends to work on. Due to all these new features the game is being delayed to 2025. Online Multiplayer functionality is also going to be worked on which may take an extended period of time due to the development being a one man army.
The Developer’s Burden
Matt Dabrowski is the solo developer who’s working to ensure he can meet fan expectations for the sequel. He had openly spoken about the daunting task of changing the game’s format to an open world system. This open world system needs to work well with the previous systems that were put in place in the first game through updates such as classes and perks.
Since objective tracking is getting a rework due to the open world format, the way the missions themselves get laid out need to be revisited. This also requires a revisit to the overall progression system of the game to see if anything breaks or not.
Another problem Matt is facing is the design of the UI, since the scale of the game is increasing the UI needs to be consistent throughout and needs to serve its purpose as efficiently as possible to new and old players alike. Since new classes are being added, Matt also mentions that new and more diverse vehicles are being worked on to be added to the game also, so that players don’t feel that the sequel is less GTA-esqe than the original.
Streets Of Rogue 2’s Potential
These last couple of years have been the indie gaming industry’s dominance, with flop after flop coming out of triple A studios players have slowly gravitated towards the indie scenes with games like Hades, Dead Cells, Blasphemous, Risk of Rain 2 etc popping off and gaining a record number of players. Streets of Rogue had also climbed the charts in a steady pace too proving yet again that graphics and visuals aren’t everything.
Matt had also mentioned that the game will have a bunch of modes available to play from the beginning, one of which is set to be a perma-death mode another being an open-ended sandbox mode where the player must survive by any means necessary.
Streets of Rogue 2 is getting a delay but it is being delayed for the best reasons any fan or player can hear. Matt is hard at work figuring out all of the systems that need to work along with several of the designs that have been mocked up for it, due to which it is going to take some time for the game to come out. He has already proven his skills in making games thus there is no doubt it is going to be worth the wait.
