During the last Steam Summer sale (2025), I picked up a game that I had my eye on for quite some time. It had the hallmarks of an exciting, stylish shooter: nonstop action, a great gameplay loop, and a no-nonsense progression system. Moreover, it had a great anime style, classic arcade ship visuals, and decent writing. The problem is that the game is as short as an actual, honest-to-goodness arcade cabinet shooter, with a single run lasting you no more than an hour to finish. Despite that, I had to give Rogue Flight a shot.
I had played the game’s demo long ago, near the end of 2024. The moment I played it, I knew this was something special. We don’t get arcadey games like these anymore, and I was instantly hooked. I’m actually surprised that I waited this long to get the game. Fortunately, the Summer Sale was the final push I needed to push through, despite my ever-growing backlog of unstarted games.
The game takes place in a future where an A.I. defense network called A.R.G.U.S. went rogue and laid waste to humanity and its armies. The few survivors banded together to form a feeble resistance. Their efforts paid off when they discovered the hidden research facility called the BOW. This facility housed the experimental fighter, ARROW. No one alive truly knows what the craft is capable of, and won’t have the luxury of finding out with A.R.G.U.S. tightening the noose.
It is at this moment that Nadia Sawas, the only remaining pilot on Earth, stepped up to go on a desperate mission to take out A.R.G.U.S., or die trying.
The gameplay is fast and unforgiving. It rewards precision and quick thinking, and punishes sluggish movements. And believe me when I say that one lapse in judgment and you’ll find yourself on the brink of death.
In terms of arsenal, Nadia has a handful of options open when dealing with rogue machines. She has an on-board switchable weapon system to deal with mobs and bosses. Missiles for burst damage potential. Lastly, super bomb technique that clears the screen. On that part, the drifting animation is always a treat to watch.
Nadia starts with the fighter’s built-in Vulcans. These do reasonable amounts of damage, but bullet travel time leaves you vulnerable to counterattacks. Your first run unlocks the Laser subset. This has the highest DPS, by my measure. However, you need to be precise and accurate to get the most out of it. On your second run, you will unlock the Wave subset. Its wide spreading attack can decimate large clusters of enemies. The Electric attack is the last subset you will unlock. It’s arguably the best weapon in terms of balance, though I prefer the Laser for the sheer firepower.
Each mission sees our ace pilot flying through a long corridor well behind enemy lines. It’s your typical on-rails experience made popular by games like Star Fox. Essentially, you’re going from point A to B and shooting anything that gets in your way. You can perform barrel rolls to parry incoming shots. And when things get truly dicey, you can perform a drifting attack animation that clears the screen of all minor enemies.
The bosses at the end are your typical large target with lots of guns aiming at you. There’s not much to build on as they are just targets that need to be destroyed to slow down A.R.G.U.S. in some way, so there’s no need for them to be anything other than a moving target. It’s not as if our enemies are motivated by anything other than our destruction. That applies for 99% of all shoot ’em up bosses, in fairness. I guess the only thing that sets them apart is how quickly they can kill the player if they are allowed multiple hits at once. If that all-or-nothing approach is good for you, then have at it.
When I said that Rouge Flight is very short, I meant that literally. If you’re going into this game, don’t go expecting a grand space epic lasting for about 8 hours. At best, the full campaign will go for 4 hours.
The way the game goes about shaping the narrative is that for every new “route” you decide to take, the ship gains experience and becomes more powerful. It’s similar to Edge of Tomorrow, where Tom Cruise repeatedly undertakes the same mission until the cycle is broken. (Groundhog Day for all my older movie goers out there.) Each new loop builds up the ship until its final form, where it can support the number of jumps necessary to complete the mission and return home in one piece.
I usually don’t like this kind of repeating gameplay, but it works for the narrative of the game. At least it’s not asking you to backtrack an inverted castle or framing it as if everything was a dream.
Later updates for the game introduce new game modes like an arcade mode and time trial runs. These activities extend playtime a bit longer, as long as you keep aiming for a higher score.
Difficulty and story aside, what I really like about this game is how the cockpit view is implemented. Whenever you go into first-person view, you have a greater level of precision with your shots. This helps track small, fast targets for that ever-important kill chain counter. Moreover, it’s a lot more thrilling to fly by instinct and judge whether an enemy shot is close by feel of the projectile. If you’re up for a different challenge, you should try completing the whole campaign in cockpit view. You’ll have more respect for the boss’s attacks when you aren’t relying on your peripheral vision.
The biggest hurdle I see for this game is its asking price. On normal days, it goes for as much as $20. That’s a bit much for a game you can clear in an afternoon, even if the present and gameplay are a cut above the rest. Even for a dollar-per-hour value, that makes no sense. Furthermore, the lowest sale only cuts 20% off. That’s still not enough for most players looking for value above all else. If you’re looking to take this on a flyer, I hope this article at least helps you in some way to make an informed decision.
Rogue Flight is one of the best on-rails shooters I’ve played in a long while. It’s beloved for what it is and the feel it’s trying to capture, but I totally understand why people will hesitate to pick it up, given its regular price. As of the writing of this article, the game has only garnered a measly 194 reviews, despite being praised by those who reviewed it. If that’s not disheartening, I don’t know what is. I hope this game gets a sequel of sorts from the same studio. They’re on the right track with this one. All it needs is more content to satisfy a wider range of players.
