RoboCop: Rogue City

A love letter to the first two films (we don't talk about the third!), Robocop Rogue City is another in the recent FPS subgenre I call 'Tank Shooters.' Like WH40K: Boltgun, this game features zero cover, overpowered weapons and base enemies that are little more than walking blood balloons. The difficulty comes from swarm tactics and the environment itself. This game is the antithesis of 'mover shooters' like Turbo Overkill and Dusk: you cannot avoid being shot, running is little more than brisk walking and the environment does not encourage cover or flanking. So, why am I recommending this game? It's a power trip; mowing down punks is surprisingly fun, the weapons feel and sound like the death cannnons they are and the graphics are some of the best I have seen from a AA title in years. The mix of crisp shading and refined textures through Robocop's hazy CRT lens filter comes shockingly close to what the films showed as Robocop's default vision. All of the major and minor characters are here and, although some of the VO is clearly not coming from the original actors they do give a good attempt. Remember, this is not a AAA title: Teyon pushed this game out with a budget a fraction of what Activision or EA would have needed. If I'm gushing so hard on this game and what it has done - made an absolute blast of an FPS using a character that until now would have been relegated to an arcade lightgun shooter - then why 4 stars and not 5? In a word: optimization. Teyon has fallen into the same trap as most modern developers and relied on upscaling tech to generate a steady framerate. My setup is far beyond the recommended specs but requires FSR3 to get a steady FPS when more than 5 NPCs are on screen. At the same time, I imagine that upscaling is the only reason portable PCs can run this title at all. The developers at Teyon clearly love Robocop and this game is as close as we can get to a new, old, Robocop sequel.

Robocop is love letter to Robocop fans. Cool combat, cool story, very well made game based on Robocop movies. I highly recommend it. I was waiting for GOG release but there was no annoucement that the game would be coming to GOG, so I ended up getting it from Epic Games Store. GOG please annouce games earlier, even if they won't be released at the same time as on Steam and Epic. GOG is my preferred store over Steam and Epic.

While some of the voice acting is weird and they seemed to mess with the story a bit they really captured the feel of the movie. Shooting people is incredibly fun and they fleshed out the gameplay with an open city where you actually do police work and investigate crimes. The skill system adds depth and you can even get different endings depending on your choices.

And they sure know how to play to their strengths: fueled by passionate love for a movie franchise that manifests itself in a lovingly-crafted world with good attention to detail in action, sound and music. Of course, that means taking the bad with the good: amateurish acting performances (with matching animation) and a merely serviceable script, all developed in the standard clunk of Eurojank. However! I'd be lying if I said this isn't EXACTLY what I wanted regardless. So many 5-star AAA games nowadays end up being 3-star experiences due to gameplay frustrations, exhausting lengths and an over-inflated sense of importance. Most of the time, I just want to turn my brain off, sit back and have some fun. Not every release has to be an attempt to push the medium forward! As expected, Teyon has done it again, crafting an interactive love letter to a bygone era of moviemaking. In some ways, this game does it better than Terminator: Resistance did, especially with its over-the-top violence and destuctible environments. And boy, did bringing back Peter Weller ever invest me in Robo more than I expected! (Some of his dialogue has a great, dry humour to it.) There's a few surprises, too, including some genuinely touching side missions and side-acting chops. In short, Robocop: Rogue City may be another 3-star game, but it's another 5-star experience!