You may already know ASUS’ ROG (Republic of Gamers) for their range of high-end, gaming-focused PCs and laptops, but did you know they have a game as well? It’s true! ROG Citadel XV is a free FPS with a bunch of different minigames and genres to play around in, and it’s just added a free DLC that throws even more action into the mix.
The SCAR Runner DLC introduces parkour-focused levels into the mix, tasking you with navigating a series of increasingly difficult levels and solving puzzles as you go. Some of the puzzles will be particularly tricky, but not all hope is lost – the answers may well lie hidden on the new ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE laptop, as long as you have the right tools to find them.
There’s even a giveaway to celebrate the launch of the SCAR Runner DLC, with prizes including a brand new SCAR 17 SE laptop and a complete peripheral package. There’s a lot to unpack here – let’s start by taking a closer look at the game.
ROG Citadel XV, as already mentioned, is a single-player FPS set in the far-flung future, and has you joining the G.A.M.E.Rs and playing around in the sci-fi styled fortress. Not only is there a cute little robot called Omni who’ll show you around, but you also get to try out a variety of different guns in the shooting gallery, and check out some of the latest real-world ROG hardware and peripherals up close in this virtual space.
ROG have been steadily adding more and more to the game, including minigames that let you try out different genres of game like top-down arena shooters and pinball, along with updated products to fiddle around with and get a closer look at. And the SCAR Runner DLC will bust players out of the headquarters and into the wider world beyond.
Continuing the storyline established in previous releases, SCAR Runner will send you into Goemon City to solve the puzzle of a cryptic message sent to the G.A.M.E.Rs. Goemon City is a gorgeous, neon-lit place full of parkour courses to navigate and puzzles to solve if you want to find out the meaning of the message, and it’ll truly put your first-person platforming skills to the test.
We’re talking lasers to dodge, enormous walls to run across, huge leaps of faith, and a trusty whip you can deploy to pull you towards certain points in the world. And you’ve got a clock continuously ticking as you run, pushing you to go faster and faster to score some truly unbeatable times on your runs. It’s intense stuff, but for the platforming thrill-seekers out there, it’ll push you to your limits as you shave seconds off each run.
You’ll also need to solve some puzzles as you go too, beyond the puzzle of how to get from A to B as quickly as possible. Some of these puzzles will require some outside-the-box thinking, which will neatly tie in with ROG’s latest laptop.
The ROG Strix SCAR 17 SE is a sleek and seriously powerful piece of kit, with up to a 16-core Intel® Core™ i9-12950HX, the fastest mobile processor available which can hit boost frequencies of 5.2Ghz and has amazing single-thread and multi-thread performance.
You can also have up to an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti Laptop GPU and 128GB of RAM, and you have a choice between a 360Hz/3ms FHD screen or a 240HZ/3ms QHD screen, so you won’t miss a thing even in the most intense games. It has super fast storage, with up to four SSDs, and even its external connections are lightning quick, with Thunderbolt 4, WiFi 6E, and PCIe Gen 5 support included.
But the SCAR 17 boasts another little secret – the clues to solve SCAR Runner’s toughest puzzles. These clues are hidden in plain sight, but you’ll need a UV torch to see them properly. Who knows what you might uncover?
Naturally you’ll need a SCAR 17 of your own to uncover said secrets, but ROG are offering up a chance to win that and much more with their giveaway. Running until June 30, five winners will get their hands on the laptop, while four winners will receive a peripherals bundle containing the ROG Strix XG27AQM, ROG Gladius III Wireless, ROG Scabbard II, and ROG Fusion II 500.
There’s more on offer, of course, including some stylish ROG merch and even a ROG Phone 5s. You get to have fun while entering too, as the competition only asks that you play ROG Citadel XV for about 12 minutes to get your first entry, with five more entries available if you complete other tasks in the giveaway widget.
You can check out the SCAR Runner website for more info on the game and how to enter the giveaway. And even if you don’t have a ROG PC or laptop right now, you can download ROG Citadel XV on Steam completely free and play the SCAR Runner DLC today. Grab your laser whip and put on your running shoes – it’s time to hit Goemon City and post some top times.
