REVIEW – If we had to define it in a nutshell, the latest adaptation of RoboCop is simply not in the same category as what Titus represented with its 2003 game (which was ugly, slow and one of its opponents could kill you with a single hit). The story, which takes place between the second and third films, will be a delight for fans of the franchise and should provide moments of fun beyond that…

 

 

Become the legendary part-man, part-machine, all-cop hero and deliver justice to Old Detroit. (Interestingly, these lines were written an hour before the official release of Barefoot… true, anyone who spent an extra ten euros on the game got access two days earlier. An idiotic element of the gaming industry that needs to be eliminated).

 

 

Alex Murphy

 

Teyon has completely managed to pick itself up from the floor it reached with the Rambo adaptation: the rail shooter genre in 2014 was not where it was two decades earlier. A couple of years later, Terminator: Resistance made some serious progress (and one of its dialogues quoted what we heard in Rambo, showing that Teyon had admitted his failure). In comparison, RoboCop: Rogue City (RCRC from now on until the end) is not so much progress, but it can also be called a fair game. The perpetrator of this bunch of characters has absolutely no intention or interest in going back to the ratings of the time. So we get a story set between the second and third films. Peter Weller, who starred in the first film, is also a link to the past, as Alex Murphy (who this time doesn’t look like Mika Hakkinen, as he did in the NES… or maybe in the C64 port of RoboCop 2). The style and mood of the films have been successfully translated into the game (maybe the series as well, but with such shabby memories of the series, it’s hard to say). The neon-drenched Old Detroit is accompanied by a sufficient amount of bloody brutality, not to mention the many one-liners that RoboCop dropped back in the day (the 2003 game still causes PTSD).

Although it’s an action game on the surface, there are RPG elements as the city slowly burns down around us. We snoop around the streets looking for crime and then stop it, but there are even side quests so you don’t have to finish the game in about 9, 9.5 hours. Of course you can shoot the bad guys with your Auto-9 pistol (there are also rocket launchers, rifles and machine guns), and the game is not revolutionary (which is why it doesn’t get a very good rating), but the atmosphere is there, which is why it was mentioned earlier that it is recommended for fans. If a gun isn’t enough, our hero can grab the bad guy by the throat and throw him against (into?) a wall. This is accompanied by iconic music, including the theme song (it would have been a shame to leave it out, but neither Rambo nor Terminator: Resistance made that mistake). You can tell that Teyon has paid attention to the source material. The authenticity is a bit lacking, but Reed’s original actor Robert DoQui died in 2008…

 

 

Lewis

 

Reed still makes an appearance, not to mention Anne Lewis, who is as tough as ever. The gameplay loop consists of cleaning up the town, then returning to the station to investigate other locations to continue the gangs and the story, all with some early 90s visuals. In terms of investigation and dialogue, RCRC has a bit of an RPG feel to it, but it’s nowhere near as deep as the first Deus Ex in 2000. There are several endings, however, and it all depends on how you behave, how the fate of the characters in question unfolds, and how you are judged by those you talk to. The lack of immersion is perhaps not a bad thing, nor is the development of RoboCop’s abilities (main categories: Combat, Armour, Vitality, Engineering, Focus, Scanning, Deduction and Psychology), as this is a way of causing more damage or even hacking the turrets so that they don’t tear us to pieces but rather the gang members.

The chip system is essentially taken from Teyon’s Terminator game, but there it was possible to make a sniper rifle that could take down a giant Skynet machine in four (4!) shots (now you can tune Auto-9 in this way). Bullet time, dashing, temporary shield, shockwave… you can experiment and in some cases blow up the environment with the overheated Nuke criminals nearby. Still, perhaps the problem is that the RCRC fails to see how it can appeal to an audience beyond the fans. So it’s a niche game, but a good one…

 

 

Oh shit. (One of the game-over scenes from 2003)

 

RoboCop: Rogue City gets a seven out of ten because it’s a good game, but it’s probably no more than that. Again, a special rating for fans: 8/10. If you liked Terminator: Resistance, this will be a nice experience. If you liked any of the first three Robocop movies, you’ll be fine with this one. It delivers the goods, and although it’s not much more than that, Teyon hasn’t disappointed this time either. If this one is expanded in terms of content, it could be a recommended purchase later on.

-V-

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Publisher: Nacon

Developer: Teyon

Style: FPS

Release: November 2, 2023.