I don’t know any quotes from the movies – Robocop: Rogue City Review

Developer: TEYON | Platform Played on: PS5 | Playtime (and Platinum): 12:45

Despite being a Film and TV Production graduate and just generally a nerd, there are still a ton of individual movies and series that I just haven’t seen. Amongst them being RoboCop (I’ve seen the 2014 reboot but gun to my head, I don’t remember a thing about that movie). I know the basics – Alex Murphy – a cop killed in the line of duty – is revived as a cyborg tasked with policing the streets of Detroit. The film is uber violent and satirises the nature of policing and corporate meddling in public services. Given that the potential buyers of the game may not have even been alive for the original film (Releasing in 1987 with an 18 rating, a person would have to be born in 1969, making an original fan 54 years old as of the games release.), the developers had a fine line to walk to get everyone up to speed. The game is a sequel to the original movie (I’m assuming retconning the two poorly received sequel movies) but doesn’t require knowledge of the movie. Newcomers are brought up to speed on who RoboCop is and the world he inhabits quite naturally through dialogue and story beats. I think a perfect balance has been struck for getting new people on board without lecturing and patronising those who already know the RoboCop IP – there’s nothing like the Wayne Family murders that every Batman movie insists on having for example.

The story follows an invasion of the Channel 9 news station by local gang, the Torchheads. A big time crime lord, dubbed “The New Guy in Town” has arrived in Detroit and they want to offer their services. What begins as a routine Police job turns into a grand conspiracy involving the New Guy and the OCP – the company that owns the Detroit Police Department. There’s corruption in the city, and it might very well reach to the top. The story is decently well paced and interesting, split into chapters that consist of some open sections and more linear levels. The final mission acts as a sort of epilogue which was a bit meh – almost feeling like a DLC mission from the PS3/360 days. The ending also falls a little flat, merely being still screens with dialogue. The story does what it needs to for the kind of game that it is, it’s not going to win awards but it’s not really written for that.

The developers of the game have come out and said the game is an RPG rather than a shooter, which is not disingenuous but perhaps a little misguided and ambitious. There are side quests and there are dialogue options within conversations, both are fine but neither would be a huge loss if they weren’t in the game. I did enjoy the side characters, so I suppose I’m glad they’re involved. The dialogue options don’t amount to much though, save maybe for changes to the slideshow ending the game has. Not worth replaying based on that. The game also offers skill trees which are mercifully basic – a bunch of XP from kills and quests gets you a point, you can upgrade different facets of your character – Health, Damage etc in a linear fashion. You get more than enough without pursuing every quest to max out like 5 of the roughly 10 branches so you needn’t worry about getting behind the curve of the game.

With the game being an RPG but not really, there’s not much in the way of loot to collect beyond the various crime paraphernalia you collect for XP. That’s not to say there is none. While RoboCop can pick up any weapons enemies use, he is always equipped with his side arm pistol. In the world, you can find parts to upgrade your pistol – these come in two forms: Boards to load upgrades into, and the upgrades themselves. I quite enjoy this system, the boards have different buffs that need connected by the upgrade parts you collect, each with a % and a shape, so you need to piece together shapes that fit and have desirable numbers. Boards also have negatives on them, so the player can’t just reap all of the awards all of the time. The system is a bit too easy to abuse though, and not long into the game I had a buff that meant I didn’t have to reload. Given that the pistol has infinite ammo by default, not needing to reload kind of broke the game.

In a stark but refreshing change from other FPS games that try to reinvent movement, RoboCop is deliberately simple. There’s no crouch or slide or taking cover, there’s no jump or grapple. There’s an unlockable slide (Unlocked in the aforementioned skill tree) which is situational at best but beyond the ability to sprint, you’re a lumbering juggernaut. Games can struggle with power fantasy characters, you’re so strong and your abilities so vast that nothing poses a challenge and eventually the novelty wears off and boredom can set in. RoboCop does a great job at making the player feel strong, but never so strong as to make the game a repetitive slog. While you can quite easily walk into a room with 8 goons and leave with a comfortable amount of health, as the game goes on positioning and management of more dangerous threats becomes important – to this end, the game introduces enemies with stronger firearms like Grenade Launchers and Snipers, as well as new enemy types like ones that can call in reinforcements. When I explain it like that, yes it is a video game and yes the opposition scales up as the game goes on – stating the obvious. There’s just not a more nuanced way of saying that while you are strong, you’re not invincible.

Any issues that I may have with the game are due to its limited budget, reflected in its more reasonable price tag. It’s very clear to see the passion in this title and anyone who has played the Terminator title by Teyon know what to expect. There will be many people who come to this title and leave pleasantly surprised, which is always a nice thing. Gun to my head, I think I still prefer the Terminator game but Dead or Alive, you should play RoboCop: Rogue City (Got it in there in the end, happy days).