New RoboCop game Rogue City is violent, satirical and surprisingly deep

RoboCop is a victim of the mistreatment that video games have suffered. Outside of Data East’s very good 1988 arcade game, studios have condemned RoboCop to appear in mostly lousy licensed video game schlock over the past 35 years.

November’s RoboCop: Rogue City may reverse the cyborg crime fighter’s fortunes, based on a meaty demo released on Steam earlier in October.

RoboCop: Rogue City is wise to borrow from the harshly satirical style of Paul Verhoeven’s 1987 original film. The opening newscast establishes Old Detroit’s crime-ridden status and Nuke, a designer drug that is highly addictive. (Rogue CityAfter the events of RoboCop 2.The third RoboCop film in which RoboCop is given a jetpack was introduced by the movie. The opening of the game is satirical. Rogue CityIt almost manages to say something. The developer has tried to go beyond a RoboCop-style shooting gallery, despite some clumsy dialog.

First mission of the RoboCop: Rogue City is pretty much that, though; Robo and his partner Anne Lewis raid a TV station that’s been taken over by a gang called the Torch Heads, led by a Keith Flint lookalike. RoboCop and Lewis clomp through the station’s corridors and stairways, and players dispatch scores of armed gutter punks using high-powered guns. The game features exploding crates to fire at, computer monitors that can be thrown, health packs to be consumed, and enemies which are easy and dumb to take down. This is pure RoboCop power fantasy; you’re a walking tank with mostly infinite ammo and programming that demands you mete out justice with your burst-fire hand cannon.

Image: Teyon/Nacon

You can find out more about this by clicking here RoboCop: Rogue CityThe TV station is much more intriguing after its hostage-takers are freed. In this scene RoboCop experiences a minor malfunction and flashbacks of his days before he became cyborg. Hallucinations involving his widowed wife and son cause him to basically shut down — a “glitch” caught on camera that benches RoboCop and fosters public suspicion that he’s incapable at best, extremely dangerous at worst.

RoboCop is given a diagnosis at an OCP police station and told to recalibrate. It’s here that Rogue City starts to reveal it’s more than just a first-person shooter: RoboCop will have to not just uphold the law (by killing a bunch of dudes), but also serve the public trust. He’s tasked with carrying a scofflaw off to the drunk tank. In the police station he has to interact with citizens, who report crimes and others turn themselves in. RoboCop must inform the next of kin, in a darkly humorous moment, of the death within the family.

Old Detroit was a sight to behold. Rogue CityOpens up more. In search of the Torch Heads’ leader, RoboCop goes into investigation mode. Teyon seems to have borrowed a bit of inspiration from the Fallout games here; RoboCop can interrogate citizens, pushing them authoritatively to reveal more information or lightly threatening them with punitive measures if they don’t cooperate. NPCs are either friends or foes depending on the way you interact with them.

Image: Teyon/Nacon

Robo’s explorations allow him to collect evidence, and by doing so he is able to literally remove drugs from the streets in exchange for XP. Occasionally, there will be a firefight, but it’s evident in the first couple hours of Rogue CityTeyon’s goal is to create a RoboCop that has a richer experience. (I didn’t get to write any parking tickets during my time with the demo, but you can do that too.)

While the shooting itself is bloody, hyper-violent fun — clicking on bad guys either makes their heads pop or their bodies collapse into rag dolls — there also appears to be some depth to the combat. RoboCop comes with a skill tree which can be unlocked to expand the character’s capabilities. Upgrades shown in the demo include slow-motion vision, a shockwave that can stun or kill foes, a dash-punch, and psychological influence that can boost NPCs’ trust in RoboCop. It’s not quite Fallout’s SPECIAL system, but it’s pretty close, in terms of customization for Rogue City’s light role-playing aspects.

What is the best way to get in touch with you? RoboCop: Rogue CityThe aesthetics of the film is superb. This game borrows visual elements from other games, even down to exact set replicas. RoboCopThe following are some examples of how to get started: RoboCop 2.. RoboCop and other supporting characters, such as Lewis, Sergeant, look great. Reed is a great looking character, and looks close to its live action counterpart without being distracting. Teyon has nailed both the look and feel of RoboCop, who lumbers just slightly faster than Peter Weller did in the character’s full armor.

The first few hours after RoboCop: Rogue CityIt will be amazing if Teyon is able to make the 20-30 hour campaign as captivating. The full game is out soon — Nov. 2 on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X — so there won’t be long to wait.