RoboCop: Rogue City review

I’d Buy That for….Fifty Dollars?

Since the release of Data East’s 1988 arcade game, developers have long attempted to adapt RoboCop into interactive form. Unsurprisingly, most early attempts concentrated on the action, letting players seize control of the cybernetically enhanced police officer as they gunned down legions of goons. This style of side-scrolling shooting formed the basis of two console-based sequels, as well as the 1993 crossover RoboCop Versus The Terminator.

Of course, hardware limitations meant that many of the nuances of Paul Verhoeven’s film went unrealized in games. But now, the medium has matured, allowing to touch on topics like AI having autonomy, militarized police, rampant consumerism, and the amount of control corporations wield. Forty years on, technology is now capable of recreating the themes that made the original movie feel surprisingly poignant.

Obeying the Prime Directives

Fortunately, RoboCop: Rogue City doesn’t get preachy on these topics. Instead, it mostly mimics the campy tone of the 1987 film and shifts from seriousness to silly with the nimbleness of SEGA’s Yakuza series. One moment, you’re emptying your Auto-9’s 50-round magazine to turn perps into vapors of pulpy, red viscera. The next moment, you might be entertaining an NPC kid by doing the RoboCop dance. And occasionally, the developers inject just a morsel of satire between firefights.

As such, Rogue City feels like an expansion of the original film. It’s difficult to not be impressed by developer Teyon’s adaptation of dystopian Detroit. On the streets, there’s a thick layer of grime smeared across all the derelict storefronts. But behind the reinforced entrances of OCP’s corporate headquarters are the real villains. They lurk in sterile cubicles separated by spotless glass partitions.

And pleasingly, gunfights in the OCP offices offer an adequate amount of environmental destruction, with plenty of glass to shatter and workplace equipment to splinter. If you want, you can grab and toss a CRT at foes, which will explode like an electrical grenade. And yes, there are some methodically recreated settings from the film, which will undoubtedly delight admirers of the film. Much of Rogue City feels like RoboCop fanatics making a game just for RoboCop fans, similar to Teyon’s approach for Terminator: Resistance. Hopefully, the team is making plans for Hans Gruber’s digital henchmen.

Your Move, Creep

And yes, RoboCop handles like a man encased in a metallic suit. So, you won’t be moving from cover to cover with the athleticism of a Special Ops operative. Instead, you’ll be trudging around with each footstep hammering the ground below you. Even when you robo-sprint from a thrown grenade, it’s little more than a leisurely jog. Although you can reduce the amount of incoming damage by pieing a corner, Robo is far more of a tank than your average first-person meat-pie, allowing you to take quite a bit of damage before needing to replenish your health. And given that so many first-person shooters exhibit mobility, it’s enjoyable to play what feels like a new character class.

Rogue City occasionally breaks from the Reagan/Thatcher era, though. Occasionally, the developers bring the property up to date, with bits that do playful things like having the character open up to a therapist. And while the unexpected moments are clever and there are also comical side-missions that will have Robo issuing parking tickets, the developer understands that you didn’t sign up for self-reflection with a cybercop. No, you’re here to shoot up shit and trigger Hollywood-style explosions. And Rogue City is good at that.

The Intermittent Crossed Wire

Peter Weller’s voice and appearance really strengthen the experience – especially since the actor does such a good job. His original performance was one of the original film’s unrecognized virtues, allowing a bit of human vulnerability to periodically peer out from that iconic silver helmet. Here, the sporadic offering of dialog options demonstrates Weller’s range. It’s a shame that the rest of the performances can’t measure up. Sure, there are the expected taunts of perps, but Rogue City struggles to generate more than B-movie villainy. And occasionally, the voice acting just falls out of sync, which is less annoying than the three crashes that occurred across the twenty-hour playthrough.

While the boundaries of Rogue City’s boxed-shaped areas become noticeable across the game’s generous trek, there are some augmentations that help offset fatigue. Routine police work is a reliable source of XP, which you can pool into extending the length of slow-motion segments, improved thermal vision, or enhanced armor that can ricochet ballistic back at the baddies. Plus, there’s something amusing about writing tickets for minor infractions amid a city inundated with life-threatening criminality.

Conclusion

Oddly, it’s the mundane moments that make Rogue City work. While gunning down goons with a green-tinted, CRT-styled heads-up display is undeniably fun, brief departures into police procedure ensure that the game isn’t just a rudimentary adaptation. Teyon’s made a game that builds on the film’s foundations, letting us loose to clean up an accomplished recreation of dystopian Detroit.