Reviving classic films in videogame form is a challenging and risky endeavour. The risk of tarnishing the cinema franchise with a poor console adaptation is a bitingly constant concern, which is amplified by the unforgiving swarm of pedantic aficionados, who will poke and prod at every little kink and cranny, yapping incessantly about authenticity and faithfulness to the original source material and moaning about how their nostalgia has been crushed by a new ineffectual game.
Remarkably, Robocop: Rogue City is a shooter that manages to sidestep the threat of vitriol thanks to developer Teyon, delivering to us the most authentic version of the uber popular 80s classic as they can possibly churn out with a console controller. The result? Rogue City doles out its own brand of justice by complementing the films with an awesome flesh-shredding simulator starring the incomparable robotic policeman, but after a while it grows long in the metallic tooth by failing to evolve beyond its existence as a repetitive shooting gallery.
Unlike the dirge of licensed games that stuffed retail and supermarket shelves back in the early noughties, Rogue City is very much its own game backed by the horsepower of callbacks and insatiable references to the Robocop films, while at the same time presenting us with a wholly new experience by bridging the second and third films with its own story, already distinguishing itself completely from the old 2003 Robocop game, and all other pretenders released before and since.
Rogue City carries on from where Robocop 2 left off by seeing Mr Robo metal man securing hostages down at the Channel 9 news station, where he begins hallucinating visions of his wife and son, reminding him of his former human state as Alex Murphy. Soon afterwards Robocop’s brain is fitted with a monitoring chip courtesy of Max Becker, who OCP assign to keep tabs on Robocop’s performance, so he can stay on the straight and narrow instead of going rogue like the city of Detroit-hence the game’s title. The notorious biker gang known as The Vultures are running roughshod over the Motor City’s streets, and new threats aim to dismantle the police force by replacing them with an army of drones.
Though Rogue City could be passed off as a videogame adaptation that vacuums up all the references and spews them wholesale into your face, Rogue City avoids these troublesome pitfalls by complementing and fitting comfortably into its position as a viaduct between the second and third films, whilst doling out credence to the original 1987 classic. So rather than expectorating familiar bile, Rogue City hushes freshness like minty Colgate-in other words it feels like a game that’s connected seamlessly with the films, an ideal and essential companion piece for die-hard fans.
Don’t worry about Robocop being some mid-00s licensed tosh, as it’s fully capable of making you the human/machine hybrid without skipping on the all-important details. Robocop trudges commandingly forward whilst you can hear the repetitive clink of his legs taking each metallic step, allowing you to feel like you’re an unstoppable law-enforcing cyborg. The sense of empowerment Rogue City injects you with through movement is simply outstanding, making for a compelling reason to keep mowing down crooks on the seedy streets of Detroit.
Shredding down rank and file is likewise graphically and gorily awesome. Robocop’s Auto 9 is supremely integrated into the gameplay, so you can rip lead and whole slaughter all over criminal body parts, ravaging through them like they were merely fleshy clumps of skin ready to be minced up for the local slaughterhouse. When Robocop gets his chromatic appendages on sub-machine guns, shotguns and assault rifles though-chopping down scourge becomes even more pleasurable without the agonizing recharge of the Auto 9 to worry about. That shottie really packs a punch and will become a brain-blowing favourite, but a simple submachine gun is still very adept at departing chunks of cheek from gangster’s faces. Likewise, the sound of the weapons are as devastating as they are to utilize, further showing how exemplary and pleasingly impactful Rogue City is to play. To nick an overworn cliches, Rogue City makes you feel like Robocop.
Despite how awesome Robocop feels to play though, the missions boil down to rote shooting galleries most of the time, and much like in the films, Robocop is fluent at pinpoint shots to criminal craniums whilst these scumbags hold hostages at gunpoint. Sure it feels badass to smash downs walls and empty your clips or chambers into the torsos and skulls of the rank and file, but the magic fades the more they happen. In addition, the ending is an unpleasant surprise you won’t see coming.
Also if you fancy a good yarn and characters entree to match the meaty feast of the gunplay, you’ll be somewhat disappointed, seeing as Rogue City is more concerned with continuing the story from Robocop 2 than reinventing the FPS genre. There’s nothing wrong with the lack of innovation and of course, it’s a videogame that connects two films, but without an interesting hook, the story is left feeling like a dry and unseasoned chicken tender.
Enemy types escalate from general street gangsters riding cocksure-like around on their motorcycles, to a heaping army of seek-and-destroy robots hellbent on your evisceration, as well as incendiary boss battles against rocket-chucking drones. You’ll believe it’s all a cakewalk early-on as you rip apart and massacre squads of drug-obsessed and melee-mouthed thugs, but the further on you venture, the challenges of overcoming the hordes gets trickier.
The ballistics emanating from the intense bombardments from all manner of flesh and circuitry are thrilling and at times unrelenting, but Robocop‘s formidable endurance and firepower is usually more than enough to repel persistent onslaughts. If you’re finding yourself overwhelmed during boss encounters, you can always hurl red combustible containers as they are in abundance, and are satisfying to see explode into those brutish electronic faces.
More assistance comes in the form of wall-mounted recharge stations for Robo to fully regenerate his health, and he can grab health packs in a pinch to replenish his vitality – so no, there’s no auto-regeneration here, so ensure you grab all those pickups as soon as you catch eye on them.
Much like his 80s movie cyborg brethren The Terminator, Robocop is astute at scanning objects in his environment. Analysing and collecting pieces of evidence strewn about the levels is necessary if you want a good rating at the end of the level, but there are times you’ll need to survey messy office desks and vehicles for important narrative-related evidence. Sometimes it’s unclear what Robocop should be analysing onscreen and on occasion he’ll need to be quick to solve problems thanks to a countdown timer, but these investigative sections are otherwise straightforward if rather forgettable.
Missions in Rogue City start off in a linear fashion, but once you’ve been through training and introductory preamble down at the police station, you’re given your first assignment to patrol the dark and foreboding Motor City streets. From here, you’re granted some freedom to discover what lurks down the steamy concrete alleyways and inside a selection of leisurely stores such as an amusement arcade and a video rental store.
These open areas encourage you to deviate from the main quest by having you tackle side missions where you might want to help Pickles track down a film or breach buildings and cordoned off places to assist armed police. The amount of side quests you successfully complete add up to your end-level score, so they’re well-worth checking out if you want to knab an A grade once you return to the police station.
The upgrade system in Robocop is straightforward, augmenting him with an array of useful attributes such Focus, which increases the duration of slow-motion, so you can finally grab that pesky achievement for scoring 250 points at the shooting range, or you can spend points on enhancing Robocop’s health, armour, deduction and scanning. These boosts grant Robocop a powerfully progressive essence, where you insert a minor perk point into one of his abilities and feel the differences every time, which reflects how central he is in his own game.
Admittedly it’s tough to be impressed with the visual aesthetic consisting of dingy apartment buildings, prisons and hospitals, but Robocop has never been about verdant vistas and uplifting scenery-it looks like a game where you’re meant to go and kick some punk ass in a city and environment that insinuates bedlam and hostility. Rogue City isn’t much of a looker, but when wholesale carnage and splattering hooligan chunks all over place are your main directives, you won’t be complaining. For as much as Robocop commits to cleaning up the city, he does ironically make a huge mess of it-someone has to clean up all the blood and guts y’know.
Sound design is authentically Robocop as you’d expect given how this lauds the authenticity of Rogue City. Voice acting is faithful along with the hammy dialogue and quips. Music and sound packs a huge punch as well, providing the quintessential tones and tunes that plonks you into the unique mechanical mindset only the Robocop franchise can give you.
Conclusion
When a game from a beloved film universe is developed with such fervour, everybody can rejoice in it. Robocop: Rogue Legacy is one such videogame adaptation that shows how unremitting faithfulness to source material and devotion towards replicating the look and feel of the films results in a truly immersive and moreish experience. Rogue City isn’t without chinks in its titanium Kevlar, due to its failure to evolve throughout, and a spongey and unnecessarily steep endgame, but if all you’re after is a badass game that does Robocop justice, then Rogue City is mission accomplished.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
