Be the future of law enforcement in RoboCop: Rogue City.
Developed by Polish Dev Teyon and Published by French Publisher Nacon, RoboCop: Rogue City was released worldwide on 2nd November 2023. It is available for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
Today we’ll be looking at the PC version, which will cost £44.99/$49.99 and will require 51 GB of storage.
Part man. Part machine. All cop.
RoboCop: Rogue City is set after the events of RoboCop 2 and sees Murphy cleaning up the mean streets of Detroit while chasing down a new player in town, the aptly named “New Guy”. There will be plenty for you to get involved with along the way. From issuing tickets to illegally parked cars, getting a get well soon card signed around the precinct to, of course, shooting your way through hordes of gang members. You can also get involved with politics or a little corporate whistleblowing.
I have to give it to Developer Teyon, for all of the failed attempts at reviving or rebooting the RoboCop franchise over the years, they’ve smashed it here. The aesthetic is bang on. The over the top violence and one-liners are all here. Not only does RoboCop look pulled straight from the movie but also getting Peter Weller back to voice the titular Tin Man was a welcome addition. Add to that bringing back fan-favourite characters such as Sergeant Reed and Robo’s partner Anne Lewis. However, it should be noted that most of the cast are original creations for the game.
Gameplay
The game is split up into small sandboxes and more linear set pieces. During the sandbox areas, you will do things such as issuing tickets in Detroit or helping out your colleagues at DPD. There’ll be the occasional time when you’ll pull your weapon out, but these are, as a rule, the more relaxed parts of the game. Comparatively, it is the other parts that really make you feel like RoboCop. The gunplay here isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it’s also exactly how I feel it should be. Slowly stomping around while RoboCop’s trusty Auto 9 kindly removes criminal scums’ heads from their bodies.
In addition to the Auto 9, enemies can be melee’d whereupon they explode in a red mist, grabbed and thrown or killed with environmental attacks. RoboCop also has an array of powers he can use to help him uphold the law. However, these need to be unlocked via upgrades.
Upgrades People!
Speaking of upgrades, there are two separate upgrade trees. Both RoboCop and the Auto 9 can be upgraded independently. RoboCop himself is upgraded with a classic point allocation tree.
Conversely, the Auto 9 is handled more like a puzzle. Firstly, the Auto 9 must be equipped with a circuit board. Then the board must be filled with chips. The idea is to fill the board to give your weapon as many positive attributes without sending power to the red segments, which will take power away from its attributes. It’s not nearly as convoluted as I’m making it sound, to be fair. But it can result in some pretty great perks for the Auto 9. The circuit board below has the following perks; Auto Bullet feeder so it never needs reloading, ricochet, so you can bounce bullets off things to hit enemies in cover and more gore, which should be pretty self-explanatory.
Graphics & Audio
RoboCop: Rogue City is a testament to Teyon’s love for the series. They did an excellent job bringing RoboCop to life and he looks fantastic. There were occasional graphical glitches. I got the dotted white floor that seems to have plagued others, but it was nothing game-breaking. The game, for the most part, ran smooth as butter. Though truth be told, I did once have to close and reopen the game as my FPS dropped through the floor for seemingly no reason.
I do find it funny that in 2023, we still have invisible-legged protagonists. I don’t know if it’s something that always bothers me, but the slow thuds of RoboCop seem kinda laughable when you look down and there’s just nothing there. In any case, RoboCop looks amazing, as does the seedy underbelly of Detroit.
The audio design is on point too. Both your steps and your attacks feel and sound weighty. Most of the voice cast did a stellar job. Although some others were just kinda terrible. Sorry, Soot. The music was peak. From the background music to the rock music listened to by the games gangs, it feels exactly as 80’s as it should.
Longevity
The main story should take you around 10 hours to complete, though a completionist run should see that time closer to 20 hours. I’m not sure about the game’s replayability. There are a few choices that have consequences, but nothing that would make me want to play again to experience the other possible outcomes. The game was fun, but it still feels very linear in its story for the most part. This would very much be a one-and-done game for me, personally.
Final Thoughts
Overall, I really enjoyed my time with RoboCop: Rogue City. Sure, it doesn’t really innovate on the genre and the gunplay feels, I dunno a little dated. But it’s also exactly what I want to see more of. Games like Cyberpunk have that anti-corporate one-man army vibe that is present here, but it just doesn’t have the same feel. RoboCop: Rogue City is the best the 80’s had to offer in a modern-day packaging. Fantastical over-the-top violence and overtly cheesy one-liners, with polish. Brilliant.
RoboCop may prefer justice served cold, but the only thing we’ll be serving here is a Thumb Culture Gold Award!
Disclaimer: A code was received in order to write this review.
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