Robocop: Rogue City [Review]
Image: Teyon / Nacon
I’d buy that for a dollar!
Teyon’s RoboCop: Rogue City helped me fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a cyborg that delivers hyperviolent justice. The game is completely successful at delivering a total RoboCop experience, though it’s more akin to Irvin Kershner’s RoboCop 2 (1990) than the razor sharp satire of Paul Verhoeven’s original RoboCop (1987).
In RoboCop: Rogue City, the player is Alex Murphy, RoboCop. He’s a resurrected cybernetic police officer in the Detroit Police Department, privatized and funded by OCP (Omni Consumer Products), the corporation that is also RoboCop’s creator. The game picks up after the events of RoboCop 2 (1990). Like in the film, OCP is cutting costs at the DPD, deliberately kneecapping the department’s effectiveness in order to realize its own goals, such as replacing Old Detroit with Delta City, a corporate “utopia.” In this backdrop, the “New Guy,” a new crimeboss with mysterious goals and connections to RoboCop’s past emerges. Murphy must investigate and stop the shadowy project the criminal is building, all while dealing with an OCP goon that wants to shut him down, grappling with hallucinatory visions of his own past, and struggling to define his own identity as man or machine.
Image: Teyon / Nacon
The story checks all the boxes for RoboCop. A struggling police force stretched to its limit, nefarious corporate intrigue, personal identity crisis, and a crime-ridden near-future dystopia. In tone, the game takes a lot more from the sequel than the first film. There are touches of satire, but none of it is as biting as the original. Some criminals and civilians are played far over the top in an attempt at comic relief that isn’t very effective. The game is peppered with radios you can find, that allow you to play radio commercials similar to the TV spots in the movies. Some are excellent; most are either too long or just mildly amusing. These negatives aside, this is better than RoboCop 2. I felt really engaged, and the drama and writing is solid compared to the goofier movie sequel. It only gets better as the game goes on.
Peter Weller returns to voice RoboCop, something I was very excited about. His vocal performance is good, but the model animations don’t measure up to his physical performance in the films. Something about his movement in cutscenes doesn’t feel heavy or deliberate enough. There are a few returning characters such as Murphy’s partner Anne Lewis, Sergeant Reed, and the OCP CEO, though none of these actors returned. Most vocal performances were decent. My impression of the performances however may be tainted by the stiff body and facial animations on the character models that look to be a generation behind the rest of the game’s visuals.
Image: Teyon / Nacon
My negative feelings on the character models and animations contrast with my admiration of the game’s environment art. Old Detroit and its surroundings are incredibly realized in the game. Whether bathed in neon at night or overcast in the daytime, the world is just beautiful—if you can call this future Detroit that. The environments feel lived in, grimy, and alive; there’s great attention to detail in textures, props, and the city’s inhabitants. Stepping out into the night for the first time in the game just blew me away. This, aside from the gameplay (which we’ll get to in a moment), really creates the immersion that makes you feel like you’re in one of the movies.
With its gameplay, RoboCop: Rogue City lets you inhabit RoboCop’s body. Movement is slow and heavy as you hear his clunking footsteps. Though this may frustrate some players, it worked for me and helps sell RoboCop’s power. You can hold a button to enable RoboCop vision, highlighting things in the environment that you can scan. Later in the game you can use this to do things like highlight spots on the wall that you can shoot to ricochet bullets into enemies, just like in the movies. Sometimes I did wish there was some kind of cover mechanic; this wouldn’t be true to the character but it’d make gunfights a little more interesting. While you can pick up a variety of weapons from dead enemies, RoboCop’s classic Auto 9 gun feels great to use and I fell back to it for most of the game, especially since it’s upgradable.
Image: Teyon / Nacon
RoboCop himself is upgradable, too. Finding evidence, killing enemies, and completing quests earns experience that turns into skill points. Not only can you upgrade basics like damage and armor, you can also upgrade skills like engineering, deduction, and psychology. The skills may give you additional moves in combat like slow motion or dashing, allow you to better observe the environment for clues, or give you more favorable dialogue options to resolve encounters.
While highlighting enemies with Robo Vision and shooting their body parts off or having to battle ED-209 feels great, I also liked the policework the game has you do. As you wander the city during main story quests, you do things like issue tickets and break up fights. You stumble into murders you must solve by hunting for clues and interviewing suspects and witnesses, or find citizens that need help. RoboCop’s prime directives are to serve the public trust, protect the innocent, and uphold the law, after all.
Image: Teyon / Nacon
I did experience some bugs while playing. The worst was that sometimes the game would switch out of combat mode and into exploration mode in the middle of combat, which resulted in having to restart from the last checkpoint. Other bugs would occur like firing off a whole clip when I wasn’t pushing the button to fire. These didn’t happen constantly, but frequently enough to be noticeable. This isn’t a bug, but it would also get a bit irritating to continuously hear enemies yell stuff like “he shot my hand off!” when they were already dead.
All in all, I had a great time with the game. RoboCop: Rogue City both a worthy entry into the RoboCop canon and a ton of fun. Buy the game! You have 20 seconds to comply.
RoboCop: Rogue City is available now for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
