Review: RoboCop: Rogue City
31.10.2023 - 09:17
/ destructoid.com
/ Alex Murphy
After I played the demo of RoboCop: Rogue City earlier this month, I mentioned I had never watched the RoboCop sequels. Because of recommendations from the comments on that article, I finally watched RoboCop 2, and I’m glad I did.
Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t as good as the original, but it still had worthwhile parts. The biggest issue, though, is its resolution. It spends a lot of its runtime setting up interesting narrative threads that all begin converging, and then they just wrap it up with a boss battle. The end.
RoboCop: Rogue City has a lot of problems, but it also has a great deal of spectacular successes. Chief among them is the fact that it grabs a lot of the dangling threads of RoboCop 2 and finally gives them the resolutions they deserve. There’s bad news, however. The developer, Teyon, also acknowledges and sets up for RoboCop 3, and I cannot condone anyone legitimizing that mistake. We should erase that mistake.
RoboCop: Rogue City (PC [Reviewed], Xbox Series X|S, PS5)
Developer: Teyon
Publisher: Nacon
Released: November 2, 2023
MSRP: $59.99
As I alluded to, RoboCop: Rogue City is a game that falls smack between RoboCop 2 and RoboCop 3. It ties up loose ends of the former and leads into the events of the latter. It involves the eponymous cyborg trying single-handedly hold the city of Detroit together while navigating the fact that his creator, Omni Consumer Products, is the city’s single biggest threat.
If you’re unfamiliar with the series, it’s about police officer Alex Murphy who, after being brutally killed by thugs, is resurrected as an unstoppable cyborg by the morally bankrupt OCP. I respect 1987’s RoboCop for its nuance. At the forefront, it’s a fun, R-Rated movie for the whole family. However, it is an absolute lasagna of themes that include (but are not limited to) what makes us human, the dangers of profit-driven overreach, and the role of law enforcement in modern society. It’s really good stuff, and the dumb name actually plays into its corporate themes.
I’ve always believed that RoboCop, much like Superman, would be a difficult subject to authentically adapt to the video game medium. The character is a garbage truck on legs. He’s practically unstoppable. On top of that, his fastest walking speed is “stroll.” However, Teyon looked at this, thought it was awesome, and somehow created an effective game around it.
When the guns come out, RoboCop: Rogue City is focused on making you feel every bit as unstoppable as Alex Murphy. There is very little visual feedback to damage, even when a grenade explodes at your feet. The first real warning that your armor is starting to crack hits when you’re at 20% health.
The Auto9 pistol you are constantly equipped with never runs out of ammo and