RoboCop: Rogue City Xbox Series X Review
| Game: | RoboCop: Rogue City |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Nacon |
| Developer: |
Since 2003, the lack of a RoboCop game on a console is surprising, considering the iconic character’s potential in a violent action game. Teyon, the developer behind Rambo: The Videogame and Terminator: Resistance, has experienced mixed success with nostalgic licenses but has now shifted their focus to the police cyborg.
Presenting a completely original plot, RoboCop: Rogue City is set between RoboCop 2 and 3. With its satire and dark sense of humor, the story captures the films’ essence better than RoboCop 3. This time, RoboCop starts glitching during a hostage rescue, recalling aspects of his past life, prompting OCP to evaluate his performance. The plot features comic book-style villains, side stories, and returning characters, offering a compelling enough narrative. Additionally, original actor Peter Weller contributes his voice and likeness, providing an even more authentic RoboCop experience.
RoboCop: Rogue City offers a first-person shooter experience, providing a perspective of Old Detroit through the eyes of RoboCop. The game features intense, over-the-top violence and destructible environments, delivering action that can be described as fun and spectacular. Being RoboCop, the game is also quite a lot slower than many FPS games are, although the character is still more manoeuvrable than you might expect. With authentic sounds, including RoboCop’s heavy footsteps, enhanced robotic vision and slower movement speed, the game effectively immerses you in the role of the cybernetic lawman. The famous theme tune is present and correct as well.
RoboCop’s default Auto 9 pistol comes with unlimited ammo, while additional weapons can be found during gameplay, each with finite ammo. Leveraging RoboCop’s strength, it’s possible to pick up heavy objects like motorbikes and explosives, allowing you to then throw them at enemies, adding an enjoyable dynamic to the gameplay. Additionally, you have the ability to grab hold of or punch enemies with RoboCop’s metal fist when in close proximity. This further emphasizes the cybernetic lawman’s capabilities that go beyond those of a normal human being.
The game incorporates a partial recharging health system, but the remainder of your health must be restored through pick-ups. There is room for improvement in the game’s damage feedback, both visually and audibly, especially when RoboCop is nearing full destruction. The current indicators are not as informative as they could be, often requiring you to divert your attention away from the action to check the energy bar for a clearer understanding of your current health status.
The enemy AI in RoboCop: Rogue City isn’t anywhere close to remarkable, but it fits well within the context of a RoboCop game. The real challenge comes from facing hordes of enemies, and even on the toughest Extreme difficulty, the true test of difficulty only truly emerges as enemy numbers increase in the later stages of the campaign. The presence of larger bosses adds a refreshing variety to the overall action though.
RoboCop: Rogue City doesn’t adopt a fully-fledged open-world format, but many environments feature mini open-world elements. This design allows you to engage in side tasks, discover collectibles (including stolen items like wallets, handbags, and jewellery), locate upgrade boxes, and more. The primary missions often entail intense shooting sequences with a high body count, while side tasks unfold as separate mini-stories. Some of these tasks involve RoboCop performing amusing activities like administrative duties, issuing parking tickets, and addressing noise complaints. Additionally, certain missions require investigations, where you use RoboCop’s vision to scan specific elements in the environment. While these investigations could have offered a bit more challenge, they do introduce variety to the gameplay.
RoboCop: Rogue City introduces a duo of enhancement systems, allowing players to enhance various aspects of RoboCop’s abilities such as health, armor, and damage inflicted. Upgrading grants access to diverse perks, including the initial health perk that enables health recharge via fuse boxes. Additionally, focus upgrades lead to a slow-motion perk, while combat upgrades provide an enemy stun ability. Each category offers up to three perks, providing a multitude of upgrade possibilities. Furthermore, the Auto-9 pistol can be upgraded separately through a chip upgrade system, akin to Teyon’s very own Terminator: Resistance, though the game’s own explanation for this system is somewhat unclear.
RoboCop: Rogue City impressively captures the look and feel of the RoboCop films. The grimy city environments mirror the tone of a city in dire straits, and the game utilizes Unreal Engine 5 to fantastic effect with eye catching lighting and reflections. RoboCop himself also looks superb, although the human character models are kind of low quality and suffer from lack of emotion and poor facial animation. On the whole though, it’s an attractive game that seamlessly blends beauty with the ugliness of the futuristic RoboCop universe.
While RoboCop: Rogue City might lack the polish seen in true AAA games, akin to Terminator: Resistance, it’s evident that the developers crafted it with genuine love and respect for the source material. The game features a action packed campaign, presenting a story that easily surpasses RoboCop 3’s narrative. It successfully captures the dark humour, as well as the explosive, and bloody action that are characteristics of the best RoboCop films.
Note: Since I wrote this review, RoboCop: Rogue City has received an update which has added in a new tougher difficulty level as well as a New Game Plus mode.
