Review of RoboCop: Rogue City – The City of Crime

RoboCop seems to be a forgotten hero in the realm of Western comics simply because he doesn't belong to the two giants DC or Marvel. The first film about this character was produced in 1987 and achieved great success, but subsequent parts gradually lost support and were quickly forgotten. However, there are still those who want to bring back the image of this legendary police officer, the latest effort being the FPS game called RoboCop: Rogue City. The game was released in early November and received a lot of praise on Steam for delivering a classic shooting experience, with a certain difference from the style of Call of Duty nowadays.

Storyline Set in the World of the Robocop Series

The background of the Robocop series is set in the industrial city of Detroit, USA. In this 80s city, criminals gather into extremely aggressive gangs. They are ready to take over the city, openly shoot each other, and even assassinate police officers. Police officer Alex Murphy is a victim when he is captured and brutally killed by them.

The Omni Consumer Products company promptly recovered Murphy's body and put him into a special project. They took his brain, erased some old memories, and placed it into a mechanical body designed as a warrior. The company advertised this project to the public under the name Robocop, a police officer of the future.

RoboCop: Rogue City takes place between the films Robocop 2 and Robocop 3. At this time, Murphy and his partner Lewis continue their fight against a new wave of criminals rising in the city. They discover that there is a new crime boss quietly entering the underworld of Detroit, wielding abundant resources. All the gangs increase their activities in the hope of advertising themselves to approach the resources of the new tycoon.

In that situation, many police officers sacrificed themselves trying to stop the violent criminals. One boss even dared to take over the television station, offering invitations and performing the execution of a police officer right on TV. Robocop once again has to draw his gun and deal with the violent troubles of this city.

It can be said that the storyline of RoboCop: Rogue City closely follows the general context of the entire series. However, if you are not a fan of this franchise and especially have not watched the 1987 movie, then players will find it difficult to perceive the hallucinations that the main character encounters about his past. You will still vaguely understand through short cutscenes and some dialogues, but the impact is not as strong.

Good Graphics but Somewhat Stiff

RoboCop: Rogue City uses fairly modern graphics, but it should be noted that this product has never been labeled as a AAA game. It's just a mid-range game made by a relatively unknown studio. And from the modern graphics platform but not to the extent of cutting-edge games, we can evaluate it as quite decent. The details are represented quite well, from the character's facial features to the vehicles and houses, but it must be acknowledged that the design still feels a bit rough, not very sophisticated.

Perhaps due to limited budget, RoboCop: Rogue City does not have a motion capture system to reproduce real movements. The lip sync when speaking still gives the feeling of classic and awkward games when motion-sensing technology for lip movement is not yet prevalent.

The character's movements are made quite smoothly. Especially the stiff, cumbersome walking style of Robocop is deliberately reproduced accurately. It's the kind of robotic gait you might see when observing Honda's Asimo.

For the setting, RoboCop: Rogue City does quite well in recreating the scene of an industrial city in the 80s – 90s. The primitive bulky computers, handwritten work files are still the main things, along with classic cars all over the streets.

Classic Gameplay, Appropriately Modified

RoboCop: Rogue City uses classic shooting gameplay. Although Robocop has a body made of durable alloy, bullets can still quickly wear him down. This dispels the illusion that robots are invincible and creates a reasonable health loss mechanism for the main character. When out of health, Robocop uses self-repair devices carried with him.

Instead of starting with a weak gun and gradually upgrading, Robocop is equipped with a modernized custom short gun called the Auto-9 with bullets and features equivalent to an SMG. You can pick up another gun from fallen enemies but only about 2 extra magazines, and you can't pick up a second gun and must switch to a new gun when out of ammo. This mechanism both allows you to experience various types of weapons but also reminds you that the Auto-9 is the unchanging weapon, and the others are just temporary.

Robocop's skill system is developed in level form. When you complete missions, you will earn experience points and every 1000 EXP will convert to 1 skill point. The point increase system will be divided into many different types from increasing damage, healing, increasing armor to support skills such as targeting sweep, unlocking safes, answering dialogue situations... The difficult thing here is that you certainly won't have enough points to increase everything, this is a way to constrain players to decide the direction for the character from the beginning.

RoboCop: Rogue City is not just about shooting. The game is designed with a mission system with many different types. In addition to attacking criminals, the main character also plays the role of a normal police officer. Patrolling, reminding citizens not to commit bad behaviors, helping colleagues, investigating cases... are what you will experience. Through side missions, you will also learn more about life inside the police station, the tensions of this profession, and the painful moments when colleagues are killed.

Robocop is designed as a machine with rigid, programmed behaviors. However, accompanying that are computer skills such as scanning the field of view to find traces, scanning suspicious objects to identify clues, scanning to identify enemies when shooting at each other. Even hidden things in the levels need to be investigated and scanned thoroughly before being seen, they play the role of secret details that will add bonus points when completed.

Conclusion

In summary, RoboCop: Rogue City is a fairly good AA-level (not yet AAA) shooting experience. If you're not too picky and don't compare it to a high-end game, then this is a game worth trying out. There are things designed beyond regular shooting gameplay and the result is a fun experience for players.

• Steam
• PlayStation Network
• Xbox Store