If there is one movie series that left a mark on me as a child, it is Robocop. The idea of a police officer getting injured so severely that he was going to die but being saved by being turned into a cyborg cop was mindboggling. Now, a piece of our childhood has returned to us in the form of Robocop: Rogue City.
Robocop: Rogue City Features An Original Story, Bringing Back Members Of The Original Cast
In the world of Robocop, you are protecting and serving the public trust in lower Detroit. It is one of the worst places in this dystopian universe, where a corporation tries to control everything within the city. Rogue City takes place between the periods of the second and third movies. Nuke is running rampant throughout the city. It is clear Robo couldn’t take care of it all during the second movie. Now, it’s time to deal with it. Lewis returns as his partner, as do other familiar faces from the film as well. Peter Weller even reprised his role of Alex Murphy, which made me happy to hear his voice playing the titular character again.
In this completely original story, Murphy is trying to stop gangs from killing hostages and making bodies disappear. It puts his partner into the line of fire as they go after the bad guy. Wendell Antonowsky is his name. He is the new guy, and there are hints about who his brother is. I discovered who it is, but I will let you rack your brain about who his brother was. It is an excellent callback to the first movie. Robo also has some tech issues as he starts remembering his family, even when he is face to face with the enemy. This leads to a much deeper plot at hand.
You only see Robocop in the cut scenes, where he looks amazing. But this is a first-person shooter through and through, so don’t expect to get a good look at him 24/7.
Armed with your trusty Auto-9 Pistol, gang members will not stand a chance against you. Throughout Rogue City, there will be up to twenty weapons to wield, so have fun finding them all. The grenade launcher and the heavy machine guns are a lot of fun. Your main weapon is your life. After the first big mission, you gain access to upgrades for this weapon. Once you get automatic fire for the Auto-9, it is game over for the bad guys. I have found that headshots are the best policy when it comes to Robocop. To upgrade the weapon, you will find chips that can be modified when you enter the Police Station near your recharging chair.
Some nodes can be upgraded by adding OCP chips to them. These chips are found in OCP container boxes, which are spread out throughout the world. Each node adds bonuses and some negatives to your weapon. Upgrades are important, especially with certain robots named ED that show up later in the game. I had to turn the joystick settings almost all the way up to counter the sluggishness of aiming on the PlayStation 5. It was a lot smoother on the PC in the demo.
Robocop: Rogue City also features RPG elements. Robocop has a skill tree that can be upgraded to make him better. For every one thousand points of experience, you earn one skill point for upgrades. Skills for attack damage, armor, engineering skills, and more will be available to you. Whatever kind of detective you want to be is as simple as choosing the right skills for your own version of Robocop. Even early in this title, you will see safes requiring level six engineering skills or a safe combo. I feel like this was done this way because the New Game Plus mode was recently added for players to go through it more than once. You keep your skills from the previous run-through and play at a much higher difficulty.
There are missions and side missions to accomplish at every zone you travel to. The Police cruiser is your access to the different areas based on story need. Within every zone, serving the public trust and upholding the law is paramount to leveling Robocop up. Some side missions are as simple as stopping people from tagging buildings or placing parking tickets on cars parked next to fire hydrants. The more extensive missions involve finding criminals involved in homicides and discerning how to find them. With your RoboVision, it is easy to see clues around the area. Investigation works similarly to the Arkham games, and that’s a big plus for it. You can’t glide or jump, but give me Robocop this way all the time, and we will have a good day. The areas explored during these missions are expertly designed and graphically amazing, even on a PlayStation 5, which I have the game on. I played the demo on PC and honestly preferred the PC version because of the increased framerate and graphic settings. Either way, it plays well and is visually appealing.
Wrapping Up
The good people at Teyon have hit this one out of the park. Robocop: Rogue City is a surprising hit in my eyes, and I hope everyone can look at it. The graphic artists have captured old Detroit from the movies in a new way, and the gameplay mechanics are designed at a high level. This is the treatment Robocop should have had a long time ago.
