The fact that Robocop is one of the least exploited intellectual properties in video games is honestly curious: on paper, the character would have all the makings of a very respectable video game spin-off and yet, apart from a couple of older scrolling shooters from acceptable quality, it has never emerged a single title capable of worthily capturing its essence.
Who knows, perhaps the motivation lies in the curious nature of Verhoeven's 1987 film, a social critique masked by the grotesque impact of ultraviolence and clichés, and capable of hiding in it themes commonly removed from the action feature film. . . All ideas that have always been missing in the video games dedicated to the series, much closer to the mediocre third film and its excesses lacking real meaning.
The work that concerns us today, however, does not pursue the superficiality of those products, and finally tries to capture the essence of the original Robocop, with all its nuances. And curiously, the team leading the project is not even one of the most renowned, since it is the Teyons to whom we owe the disastrous Rambo: The Video Game.
It is understandable that expectations collapsed after seeing the name of the promoter, aware of the house's past, but we must not forget that, after Rambo, Teyon has shown that they have growth potential with the "not so terrible" Terminator Resistance , also. to a certain respect for the material underlying the entrusted projects. So trust us when we tell you that. Robocop: Rogue City is a pleasant surprise and a game with enough soul that many of its glaring flaws can be skipped.
Fiction: lead and feeling
It is well known that Teyon is not a particularly brilliant team from a technical point of view, and even in Rogue City it certainly cannot be said that there has been who knows what evolution in this field, but we will get there in due time; However, this team of developers has a rare talent: a remarkable respect for the intellectual properties managed. Of course, Rambo: The Videogame was anything but memorable (or rather, it was for the wrong reasons), but there were already attempts to make sense of the general delirium of the action. Therefore, with more resources and time, Teyon managed to create a game much closer to the first two films than we could have imagined, and since plot that is anything but priceless, although the cornerstone of the experience is obviously the shootouts.
The fact that your creature begins immediately after the conclusion of Robocop 2 Help: the third film and all its flaws are almost completely left aside, it's a great starting point to plug some "holes" in the original series, and you have a lot of characters and events around which to build interesting stories . The writers did precisely that: they studied all the available material, trying to recover Verhoeven's vision and apply it to a video game, sacrificing as little as possible the absurd but intelligent essence of what Robocop really is (without neglecting a healthy dose of humor).
To clarify, Rogue City's campaign not only forces you to massacre groups of serial criminals, but puts the player in the shoes of Agent Murphy, constantly halfway between what remains of the man he was and the war machine he has become. Your actions, in addition, significantly influence the Detroit of the series and those who populate it and, although the ending is basically the same (with insignificant variations), it is accompanied by a sea of events and clarifications linked to the choices made in the dialogues or during the missions, without forgetting the fate of the different secondary characters. We have to admit that we didn't expect narrative management to be one of the main reasons for playing this title, but the work done is very respectable, especially if you love the first films and what they represent.
Gameplay: Dead or alive, you will come with me. Most likely he is dead.
However, at its core, Rogue City is and remains a first-person shooter, albeit an atypical one, to say the least. In fact, it is not a classic run-and-gun FPS, especially since the "running" part is almost completely missing here: Robocop is not an agile character and its maximum speed is barely comparable to a sustained march, it is incapable of sudden movements (apart from a special power that allows it to make a quick jump forward, but this must be unlocked), and during confrontations it is handled as if They were a kind of legged armored vehicle equipped with enormous firepower.
This curious approach to the action may seem strange to many, but it suits the protagonist perfectly, and Teyon has managed it all smartly enough to still provide plenty of fun during the shootouts. Good old Murphy, on the other hand, is capable of disintegrating any humanoid enemy in a few moments even with his service pistol, Each shot is accompanied by a riot of blood and explosions., and most maps are partially destructible, with concrete walls and cover that are devastated by both your shots and those of your enemies. These are all elements that significantly amplify the feeling of power of the few but devastating weapons on offer and the spectacular nature of nature.
Battles are not without strategy.- The limited mobility of your alter ego forces you to move with reasonable intelligence to avoid being massacred by the hail of enemy bullets, there is a passable diversification of opponents - for example snipers or criminals armed with explosives that force you to concentrate on targets specific objectives in the midst of general chaos - and everything revolves around a interesting development system allowing you to use several incredibly efficient powers in combat. Perks like the ability to slow down time, a temporary energy barrier, a blinding area shot, or the simple ability to heal yourself using the generators scattered around the maps can completely change the fate of a firefight and turn groups of enemies initially dangerous in absolutely trivial spending some skill points in the right place.
The role playing elements They are worthily integrated into the game not only because of the powers we just described, but also because of a customization system dedicated to Robocop's iconic weapon, the Auto-9. If you obtain some dedicated motherboards during the campaign, it is possible to change the functionality of the weapon, increasing its power and accuracy through chips that must be carefully placed to obtain all possible improvements.
In general, it is an adequate and functional system, which we liked and held up throughout the adventure; However, the Teyon developers were unable to completely eliminate its shortcomings in its design and stumbled over some of the basic concepts. Yes, in simple terms, if you're looking for a "good" shooter, this is not where you'll find it: the firing areas of each weapon are deliberately excessive to maximize the overall delirium, and it's almost impossible to aim accurately. beyond the covers with the muzzles of normal fire (sometimes even with sniper rifles it happens that the bullets fall into "invisible zones" that slightly protrude from the various structures); there general difficulty management, then, it's pretty crazy, due to some of Robocop's powers being actually too effective (slowing down time literally halves the challenge level) and Auto-9's ability to become more powerful than 90% of weapons in the space of a few hours. obtainable from the corpses of opponents.
Another problem is related to the pacing of certain sections, e.g. Rogue City loses a few beats on larger maps - which are often just large explorable scenarios with scattered secrets of little importance, whose slowness of the protagonist does not make it particularly pleasant to shoot - and in the investigation phases, too basic. At least the "city" maps are often filled with side quests that break up the rhythm and make Murphy's travels much more enjoyable, but the best sections of the title are still undoubtedly the most linear and rhythmic.
Technical Sector: a polishing hand is needed here
What has been done above is much stronger than expected and we were honestly surprised by the ability of a very basic overall structure to hold up against everyone. approximately 10/12 hours of the main campaign (They may go up for completionists, but Rogue City still isn't a particularly lasting experience.) Of course, Teyon's work will not win who knows what awards or be among the milestones of the genre, but it is undoubtedly a faithful and very valid spin-off of films that deserve greater representation in the world of video games.
Unfortunately, however, as mentioned at the beginning, the overall quality drops significantly when studied closely. technical sector, because apart from the destructibility described above and the very detailed polygonal model of Robocop himself, the rest is pretty poor.
Graphically, Rogue City is an old game full of problems, with animations that are often boring and limited, maps whose view is practically non-existent (although, given the setting, in this case it was difficult to get a spider out of the hole), and numerous glitches and graphic artifacts as we advance through the areas. to the area. Also the optimization did not seem perfect to us- Although the game is lightweight and scalable overall, we noticed some unwarranted crashes and a nasty crash tendency that led to the game abandoning us at least four times. If you consider that I control Sometimes they activate only once the setting has been changed or an entire scene has been completed, a sudden shutdown at the wrong time can be extremely irritating. There is no shortage of more "major" bugs, however, and we saw the screen go completely crazy when using precision sights or certain explosions, not to mention some enemies disappearing into thin air in the middle of some shootouts and other hilarious antics. . At least, outside of the aforementioned problems, nothing serious enough to completely ruin the experience or block our progression has never happened to us.
The sound is not much better, thanks to the dubbing, which is a compliment to define as fluctuating. Peter Weller returning to play the lead is absolutely perfect. in the role, but the same can't be said for most of the other characters, whose performances clearly border on the amateurish. The music, on the other hand, is not bad, although it is mainly arrangements of classical songs and that is why it works well. Little more to say: clearly Teyon's growth as a development team has only just begun, but there is still a long way to go before approaching excellence.
Conclusions
Tested version PC with Windows digital delivery Steam Holygamerz.com 7.0 Readers (45) 8.2 your voteRobocop: Rogue City pleasantly surprised us. Given Teyon's past, the risk of a spin-off of dubious quality was just around the corner, and instead the Polish team demonstrated a remarkable capacity for evolution, pulling out of the hat a title extremely respectful of the first films and capable of entertaining. Well, we are far from the qualitative levels of the peaks of the genre and there is still a lot of work to be done in the technical sector, but the fact that there is finally on the market a title capable of capturing the satirical spirit of Verhoeven The film is undoubtedly a excellent news, especially for those who appreciate the underlying message.
PRO
- It recovers the spirit of the first film very well.
- Fun and excessive, despite its simplicity.
- A more accurate and successful narrative than we expected
AGAINST
- The exploration is quite tedious.
- Mechanics that are far from refined and many clunky elements in the systems.
- Mediocre technical section and quite a few errors
