RoboCop: Rogue City review – I’d buy that for several dollars

RoboCop: Rogue City – your move, creep (Picture: Nacon)

You wouldn’t expect much from a low budget tie-in to a much abused 80s franchise like RoboCop but Rogue City is surprisingly worthwhile.

The problem of too many sequels, in both cinema and games, is not a modern phenomenon. Some concepts do lend themselves to an ongoing storyline but most action films, particularly those from the 80s and 90s, do not invite further elaboration. Their sequels at the time were mostly awful, with Aliens only working out by switching genres, while Terminator 2’s success was thanks to a massive increase in budget and James Cameron being at the top of his game.

Movie companies nowadays try to sidestep the problem by going for a reboot instead, but too often these completely miss the point of the original. We’ve now had two modern Ghostbusters films, and several games, that aren’t in the slightest bit funny, with the most recent movie not even trying to be. Meanwhile, the quickly forgotten 2014 RoboCop film lacked both the social satire and the over-the-top violence that defined the original, as if no one in charge had ever sat down and watched the film properly.

Polish developer Teyon clearly has though. Their love for the original movie is evident in every pixel of Rogue City, resulting in a significantly more satisfying experience than both the reboot and RoboCop 3 (we have a secret soft spot for the first sequel). And yet, at the same time, it still exposes some of the limitations of video game adaptations and the difficulties of trying to continue what is a near perfect movie.

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Teyon already has some experience with 80s classics, via 2019’s Terminator: Resistance. That was an unusual game in that it was not a very good shooter but it did have a much better plot than any of the post-Terminator 2 films and some interesting attempts at characterisation, which you wouldn’t normally expect of an action game, and especially not a cheaply made film licence.

It recently got a next gen upgrade, which we’d hesitantly recommend if you can get it cheap and you’re a Terminator fan. Although Rogue City is a far better exploration of the same gameplay and narrative concepts.

A first person shooter, Rogue City is set squarely between RoboCop 2 and 3, with pointed references to the latter which essentially makes it a prequel – or RoboCop 2.5 if you like. The plot starts with a new gang in town trying to inveigle itself with an equally new crime kingpin, as RoboCop begins to experience paralysing flashbacks to his life as an ordinary human.

RoboCop and his partner Lewis deal with the threats in the usual shoot-first-and-ask-no-questions-later manner but the second surprise of the game (we’ll get to the first in a moment) is that the gunplay is actually really good. It’s not nuanced – RoboCop isn’t one for taking cover or jumping around – but it feels great and has some of the most satisfying head shots we’ve experienced in a very long time.

There’s an extensive set of skill trees for various additional abilities, many directly inspired by the movies, such as the ability to bounce bullets at an angle from highlighted spots on the wall or the chance to tank small arms fire and have it bounce back at enemies.

Some are pure invention but things like a bullet time ability and an area of effect stun still seem reasonably in keeping with RoboCop’s MO. You can also grab and throw items and people and there’s an excellent line in destructible scenery, that leaves areas looking absolutely devastated when you’re finished with them.

When you use the left trigger to aim the screen goes into the low resolution RoboCop vision from the films, while all the sound effects, from the iconic footsteps to the little computer beeps and gurgles are exactly the same as the movies. Despite what we feared from the title screen, the soundtrack is also straight from the first film, which adds enormously to the authenticity.

The first surprise to hit you is that the graphics are excellent, or rather the backdrops and robots are. The game takes place across a few smallish open world hubs, many of which recreate locations from the films or are clearly inspired by them. And they look fantastic, almost photorealistic at times, with paper spinning about in the breeze and lots of environmental effects. ED-209 looks great too, and he and the other boss battles are a real highlight.

The game’s structure is unusual, as you split your time between hanging out at the police precinct and then going out on missions to one of the hub areas. Most you visit more than once, often at different times of day, but at the end of each visit you can’t go back to that instance of it and if you miss any side quests there’s no way to go back to them in the same playthrough.

That seems unnecessarily limiting, especially as there’s no New Game+, but wandering around Old Detroit you realise this is not only an excellent RoboCop simulator but also the closest thing there’s ever been to a proper Judge Dredd game, which is not surprising as the original film was heavily influenced by Dredd. RoboCop is a good guy though and while he does gun down criminals without mercy, he’s also quite happy to spend his time giving out parking tickets and arresting people for graffitiing – or letting them off if you so choose.

The ultimate RoboCop simulator (Picture: Nacon)

It is odd though, just how ordinary many of the side missions are. There are multiple ones that involve straight detective work, with no violence at all, and at least two instances of helping people find their lost cats. While back at the station, optional tasks include fixing a faulty fuse box and getting people to sign an injured officer’s get well card.

As weird as that all sounds it’s not played for laughs, it’s just meant to be a mundane moment in an otherwise hectic day. That would’ve made a lot more sense with a different character though, rather than the larger-than-life RoboCop, and only emphasises the fact that the game lacks the comedy and satirical edge of the first movie.

It’s not missing entirely but OCP – the evil corporation that made RoboCop and runs the police – barely play a role in the game until the last few hours, beyond a cartoonish attempt to create an analogue to Miguel Ferrer’s character from the first movie. The game really needed frequent cut scenes featuring them throughout, especially as once you do get to OCP’s headquarters that’s where all the best lines are.

A voice on a Tannoy instructs employees that being shot does not grant you a day off work unless you’re hospitalised, while a poster proudly proclaims how many people have been made redundant that month. While one indifferent employee admits, ‘Selling something that doesn’t work? That’s advertising for you.’

The game really needed more moments like that woven into the main story, which is otherwise a very loosely told plot about a new big bad wanting to take over both OCP and crime in the city, which could have been cut and paste from any other action game or movie.

The game reflects on the excesses of corporate greed in the margins but not in the story itself. It’s also disappointing that there’s zero commentary about the role of the police, who are all presented as paragons of virtue, with OCP being the only ones that are corrupt. The movies didn’t really get into that side of things either but that would’ve been even more reason to do so now.

There is some attempt to show RoboCop still coming to terms with his lost humanity, but it’s really only going over old ground, even if your sessions with an initially sceptical psychologist are unexpectedly well handled – with multiple dialogue choices and a Telltale Games style indication that characters will remember what you said and how you acted.

This allows RoboCop to make it clear whether he considers himself a machine or a man, or something in-between, but how you treat other characters also affects them, including a rookie cop OCP is trying to use as a stooge and a junkie informant. The right things to say, to influence the direction you want, aren’t always obvious either, so it’s not just a case of merely acting good or bad.

In story terms, the game gets by but it’s more the mechanics of the storytelling that are interesting than the script itself. Although it does get the corny superhero elements of the character right, with a number of good lines; RoboCop taking solace in his ‘large supply of bullets’ being one of our favourites.

The other problem with the storytelling is that while the backdrops look great, the human characters do not. Surprisingly, they’re almost all based on the original actors, even relatively obscure ones, but while you can tell who they are the facial animation is awful.

In fact, the animation across the board is dreadful, with characters sliding across the screen like someone posing action figures. Importantly, the game doesn’t get RoboCop’s robotic movements right, with almost none of the weird flourishes and inhuman flexes from the film – so it’s a good job it’s only the cut scenes that are third person.

Incredibly, the ‘I’d buy that for a dollar’ show is not in the game (Picture: Nacon)

Since he’s now 76, we’re assuming Peter Weller didn’t do the motion capture, and it shows, but he does do the voice and he doesn’t phone it in at all (even though a dull monotone, with the occasional unexpected inflection, is exactly what RoboCop is meant to sound like). The other actors are considerably less impressive, but the films’ intentionally over-the-top tone means it’s much less of a problem than it could’ve been.

If you have no love of RoboCop you can probably take a point off our final score but even if you hate it (is that possible?) this still has an interesting and innovative take on action game narratives, that deserves further exploration. Although there’s little connection in terms of gameplay it’s not hard to draw comparisons to recent big budget narrative games like Alan Wake 2 and Spider-Man 2, particularly the latter, which is also adapting an existing franchise.

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Spider-Man 2’s story is more cohesive, and has much higher production values, but it’s only Rogue City that allows you to alter the story and influence the fortunes of the main characters. Although we can’t help now but wish for RoboCop Versus Terminator, it would probably be best for Teyon if they got a considerably bigger budget for their next game and worked on an original property of their own creation.

Nostalgic throwbacks like Rogue City are fun but the only reason our interest doesn’t peter out after the first few hours is because of the new ideas it brings to the table. If it could only have matched that with a toothier script, and a bit more of the old ultra violence, Rogue City could’ve been the definitive RoboCop sequel.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X, and PC
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Nacon
Developer: Teyon
Release Date: 11th November 2023
Age Rating: 18

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You wouldn’t expect much from a low budget tie-in to a much abused 80s franchise like RoboCop but Rogue City is surprisingly worthwhile.