RoboCop the game that revives the essence of classic films
Image credit: Capture/image of RoboCop: Rogue City.
Source: 3DGames
Summary
- Name of the gameRoboCop: Rogue City
- Launch dateNovember 2, 2023
- DeveloperTeyon
- Publisher: Nacon
- Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC
- Genre: First-person shooter, narrative action
- ContextBased on the RoboCop cinematic universe, the game is set between films 2 and 3, in a Detroit plagued by crime, corruption and unscrupulous corporations.
History and narrative
You take control of Alex Murphy, aka RoboCop, a cybernetic cop who fights crime on the dangerous streets of Detroit while uncovering a conspiracy involving both criminals and the mega-corporation OCP. RoboCop and his classic characters are beautifully rendered, including the voice and face of original actor Peter Weller. The game captures the critical essence of the original universe. Dialogue is simple but effective, and there are moral decisions that influence the narrative.
I think the story is average, it entertains and fulfills its purpose, but it's not something that will surprise you or that you will remember over time. There are characters that manage to generate rejection, like Becker, who I hated, and they fulfilled that feeling. Decision making stands out to me in games, although in this case what you decide isn't really going to affect your experience at all. They are decisions and alternate paths that serve more to address the game world and its characters, rather than change the main story. The narrative does feature some moral decisions and, if you pay attention, there are scenes that represent quite well the real world and how some business or political decisions affect our society.
Gameplay
Combat is robust, with a focus on RoboCop's raw power: every bullet feels heavy, and you can grab enemies and throw them into walls or shoot them in the limbs. There's also moderate exploration and crime investigation. RoboCop's character can feel too slow, and against slightly faster enemies the difference is very noticeable. We can throw objects from the environment, shoot explosive barrels, and use different weapons beyond the typical RoboCop gun. However, those weapons feel a bit limited, since, on the one hand, the ammo runs out very fast and, on the other hand, the reload speed of some of them is exaggeratedly slow. I understand that it's not 2 seconds, but in moments where you need to reload quickly, it's simply not possible.
It has an easy to understand upgrade system: you gain experience, get skill points and can upgrade armor, damage, deduction (which helps you get more experience), engineering, concentration, among others. Once you unlock all of them, you feel like an indestructible machine.
The enemies are generic and repetitive, and some even on easy difficulty are bullet sponges. I spent up to 3 mags on certain enemies. Also, the game tends a lot to throw several enemies at you in one area, focusing more on quantity than real strategy. The cover system is bad: RoboCop is very stiff and the game doesn't allow you to take good cover. Enemy AI can also be clumsy, standing still in one place waiting to die.
A very negative point in my experience were the bosses: they are horrible. If the normal enemies are bullet sponges, get ready, because the bosses are three times as bad. You face the boss ED-209 and you think of the movie, which is fine, but his first battle is terrible: it's very long because of the life bar he has, there's no way to cover well from his attacks, resources are very limited in the area and, even worse, you face him up to 3 times in the game. For a linear and short game, repeating bosses seems unacceptable to me. Even worse is the final boss: a battle that ruins the game for many. Even on easy it's annoying: a sponge of bullets that chases you non-stop with no need to reload. It's a very stiff and slow combat that goes on forever. On normal it's quite a challenge, but more because of the bad design than because it's really difficult.
Learning to play is easy, it has simple to understand mechanics, so the learning curve is short. Despite its many gameplay errors, for some reason the game fulfills its purpose of having fun, and even encourages you to keep advancing. It has a lot of room for improvement, but in practice it's more fun than it looks.
Graphics and visual design
The graphic quality is decent. However, for a next-gen game, it could have been better. Many of the characters look very robotic; sure, RoboCop should be like that, but the others should look more human, and they seem to have the same expressions as RoboCop. Character modeling, especially RoboCop, is excellent, as it should be. Urban textures and lighting effects are well done. The game presents the city of Detroit and has parts where you can walk freely around the city, with some interesting details. Its artistic style is a dirty and eighties realism that fits perfectly with the RoboCop universe.
Sound and music
It includes orchestral music inspired by the original theme of the film, which adds a lot to the atmosphere and makes you feel like a hero. It has a couple of memorable soundtracks, mainly the start menu and critical moments of action, but the rest does not stand out. The sound effects are satisfying, especially the gunshots. Headshots are the best in this section. As for voice acting, Peter Weller stands out as RoboCop. The rest of the cast fulfills its role without standing out, practically the voice acting is taken by RoboCop. I don't consider him outstanding either, perhaps because of the character's personality that doesn't allow much expressiveness.
Difficulty and accessibility
The game offers several difficulty levels. I recommend playing it on normal, as it offers good challenges without the combat becoming boring. Of course, you will have to upgrade your character, because if you don't, the final missions get complicated. On easy there shouldn't be much of a problem, except for the final boss. On hard difficulty, the game gets quite complicated.
In terms of accessibility, it has limited options. There is basic customization of controls, but not many advanced options (e.g. adaptive text or color blind support). I would say it has the basics.
Additional content
The campaign lasts between 8 and 12 hours if you go directly to the main objectives and on the lowest difficulty. It only offers the campaign, so it is a short game. By focusing only on the campaign, its replayability is low. You can replay the game to make other decisions or alternative paths, however, these changes do not affect the main story at all, so there is not much incentive to see what happens if you do something different.
The game has interesting side missions, such as solving police cases. Although they are not mandatory to improve the character or to advance, I recommend to do
some of these targets. Some are good, some not so good. No DLCs
nor are there expected to be in the future.
Technical Aspects
Its performance is stable on next-generation consoles. On PC, it requires a decent GPU to maintain 60 FPS in ultra. In my experience, I had some bugs and glitches, mostly unimportant, although I did suffer an annoying one against the final boss: once I defeated him, the cinematic didn't jump, and I got stuck in the battle arena with the enemy posing as a trophy in a museum. I had to restart the battle from scratch. Overall, it's well optimized, with reasonable load times and good support for different resolutions.
Value for money
Its launch price was $49.99 USD, which is appreciated considering that nowadays many games sell for $70. However, I still don't think it's worth that price. While it has an entertaining story and decent gameplay, I wouldn't pay more than $15 for this game. It's not one I would buy out of the box. I totally recommend waiting for a sale, because it's not worth its full price.
Trophies / Achievements
- Platinum obtained: Yes
- Percentage of trophies: 100%
- Estimated time: 10-15 hours
- Platinum difficulty: 2 out of 10. It is very easy and short, it really only has a couple of challenges, but they are simple. You don't need to do all the secondary objectives.
Conclusion
RoboCop: Rogue City is a tribute to the classic character, with a narrative that respects the critical tone of the original films. Despite some technical, combat and accessibility limitations, its gameplay, immersive atmosphere and the presence of Peter Weller make it a recommendable title for fans of retro FPS and eighties action movies, a title that is worth it if you are a fan of the character and if you want a quiet game to pass the time.
My final rating for RoboCop: Rogue City is:
3.5/5
