RoboCop is back in the all-new video game RoboCop: Rogue City, a surprisingly fun and engaging action RPG with killer gunplay and a narrative that builds on the 1987 original.
It’s been a long time since we got a proper RoboCop game. The last true attempt was a 2003 console game for the original Xbox, developed by Titus Interactive. To say it received unfavorable reviews would be an understatement.
Many RoboCop games try to focus on the action aspect of the franchise. Look to the NES games, Robocop vs. the Terminator, or the two mobile games released in 2004 and 2014. Those games are all about mindless run-and-gun action, which is about the furthest you could get from the thesis statement of RoboCop.
But there’s a glimmer of hope on the horizon. Polish developer Teyon, the team behind 2019’s surprisingly well-received Terminator: Resistance, has taken a swing at RoboCop with RoboCop: Rogue City.
To the surprise of perhaps everyone, the end result is a shockingly good RoboCop game that, while not perfect, respects the beloved source material.
RoboCop: Rogue City – Key Details
- Price:
- $49.99 (Standard Edition – PC) | $59.99 (Alex Murphy Edition – PC)
- $59.99 (Standard Edition – Console) | $69.99 (Alex Murphy Edition – Console)
- Developer: Teyon
- Release Date: November 2, 2023
- Platforms: PC, Xbox Series X|S, PS5
RoboCop Playing Game
For RoboCop: Rogue City, developer Teyon approached the game from the actual thematic elements: exploring RoboCop and his humanity, punctuated with satire, black humor, and bursts of over-the-top violence. The result is a game that lets players live out their RoboCop story, making decisions that shape the character and his world.
In Rogue City, a mysterious crime boss known only as The New Guy is taking over Old Detroit, inspiring gangs to step up their criminal activities to gain his attention. During one gang encounter, RoboCop suffers a malfunction after being damaged, which causes the public to doubt his efficiency. RoboCop, now haunted by the lingering memories of his previous life, must find a way to stop The New Guy while grappling with his humanity.
The game uses the plot of Murphy’s resurfacing memories to great effect. There are wonderful story beats of RoboCop in therapy, where players can discuss the realities of RoboCop’s existence or stonewall their therapist. The game also toys with the player to drive home just how broken RoboCop’s mind is. Some genuinely unsettling moments may not be scary in the traditional sense, but they will certainly make fans of P.T. or Eternal Darkness smile.
Of course, this is also a bit problematic from a storytelling perspective. The entire first movie was about RoboCop coming to terms with his humanity, death, and rebirth, which got something of a reset so they could tackle it again for RoboCop 2. While the game does offer some interesting moments for player choice and character exploration during RoboCop’s therapy sessions, I couldn’t help but think that RoboCop had already sorted this out.
Dead or alive, you’re coming with me.
RoboCop: Rogue City eschews the run-and-gun formula that has plagued decades of RoboCop games. There’s plenty of action to be had, don’t get me wrong. The gameplay loop typically involves exploring a large, relatively open chunk of the world. Here, RoboCop can interact with civilians, identify violations to fine, help solve routine crimes, and chase the next piece of his main questline.
I enjoyed these segments. The level from the demo is arguably the strongest. Still, there’s some nice variety between leisurely missions where you explore Old Detroit or tense missions where you’re raiding an enemy facility. Quieter story missions and more arcade-like “Efficiency Missions,” where you’re competing against an ally for more kills, sprinkle in a little variety but don’t overstay their welcome.
There’s also a surprisingly deep character-building system here that would feel at home in any other RPG. RoboCop has a skill tree that offers useful upgrades like RoboVision highlighting all enemies, hacking turrets, or the ability to reflect small arms fire. I didn’t get enough XP to max out the skill tree in my playthrough, though this could be because I favored the Public Trust route, which nets far fewer points.
The iconic Auto-9 handgun also gets an interesting upgrade system. RoboCop will find PCB motherboards with unique perks and slots. Placing chips into the PCB upgrades the Auto-9, giving it new abilities. I was particularly fond of a PCB with an auto-loader perk. This removed the need for reloading, allowing me to rain bullets down on foes to no end. With the RoboVision upgrade and enough chips to upgrade Armor Piercing, RoboCop went from a walking tank to a mobile turret.
RoboCop: Rogue City serves the public trust
Only a handful of Rogue City’s characters are returning from the films. Sgt. Reed and Officer Lewis are the obvious ones, but fans of the movies will recognize other minor characters, like Cecil and Mayor Kuzak, as well as more obvious ones, like The Old Man. They’re all used appropriately, and no one left me with a thought of “well, that makes no sense for them.”
The new characters are where the game shines, though. You’ll encounter a new corrupt OCP exec, a potentially corrupt mayor, a quirky junky police informant, an ambitious reporter who regularly crosses the line, and an overeager police cadet assigned to be RoboCop’s watchdog. These characters have meaningful interactions with RoboCop both in the context of a police officer and as Murphy. The game rates how you interact with them and other NPCs via a system centered around RoboCop’s prime directives. You’ll get points based on whether you Upheld the Law (enforced justice regardless of the outcome) or Served the Public Trust (acted in the interest of a citizen regardless of the legality).
The characters will also periodically turn up to offer RoboCop advice or help. I enjoyed talking to them and playing out their quest lines, but aside from wanting to get to know them, the game didn’t seem to factor them in too much. I might get some info here and there, or a story beat probably would have changed, but I couldn’t really find a point where the game’s difficulty drastically shifted based on how RoboCop treated them. The only real reward seemed to be what slide I got at the end of the game, though one character was clearly being teased for a potential sequel.
My friends call me Murphy.
Of course, these characters all pale in comparison to the main attraction. Peter Weller returns as RoboCop and his less-dead incarnation, Alex Murphy. The game explores the notion of RoboCop struggling with his humanity, and Weller sells all these scenes.
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
Weller’s performance is pretty spot-on. I at first thought it was a bit more emotional than I recalled, but a great moment contrasting RoboCop and Murphy’s mannerisms really highlights how well he still slips into the role.
The other characters don’t feature their original cast members (many of whom have sadly died in the 36 years since RoboCop’s debut), but the additional voice work is pretty good. It’s a shame the likenesses aren’t always there or, in a few rare cases, present at all. Despite being referenced multiple times in conversations and flashbacks, no one involved in the murder of Alex Murphy ever actually appears in the game. Clarence Boddicker and his gang hang like grim specters over this story, but no one so much as says his name.
We’re only human.
The resulting mix of old and new characters and story elements results in a weird vacuum that RoboCop: Rogue City exists in. On its own, the game is really solid, with a great story and fantastic gunplay. Arguably, you could remove the RoboCop license, and you would be left with a perfectly serviceable sci-fi RPG that cribs the best ideas from Fallout and Mass Effect.
But it’s a RoboCop game that assumes you know what’s happening. RoboCop’s origin and how it relates to Rogue City’s story is alluded to but never really detailed. For new players who are uninitiated or were born in a time when RoboCop was all but a dead property, there’s a lot they may not understand. There are multiple references to old characters – including the game’s final boss – that have only a whisper of a setup. If you didn’t do your homework, you might miss out on why major story beats matter so much.
Those who love the franchise have their own problem. RoboCop: Rogue City, like every piece of RoboCop media since 1987, lives in the long shadow of the original movie. The humor is good, and the action is great, but it still doesn’t hold a candle to the twisted satire, black humor, and gory revelry of the original film. The franchise’s tongue-in-cheek tone is still intact, mind you. RoboCop will dispense plenty of gory justice, and there are some great dad jokes when issuing violations.
It wouldn’t be so bad if you could escape it, but the game regularly makes allusions to the films. This includes one of the game’s big bads, who is said to have a direct tie to a key character from RoboCop. The New Guy, with his plain black suit, long black hair, and penchant for smoking, would feel generic in any game. When he directly draws a comparison to villains from RoboCop, it just serves as a reminder of how much more dynamic those characters were.
System malfunctions in RoboCop: Rogue City
It is worth mentioning that the game did seem to have several issues, though rarely were they so great that they impacted gameplay. There are some graphical glitches I encountered, from characters phasing into each other to Sgt. Reed vibrating in place like he’s The Flash trying to reach another universe.
There were also a few instances where RoboCop would just get hung up. Maybe I’d find myself unable to use the D-Pad in a menu, or he just wouldn’t pull his gun out again if I tried using a stun grenade while in slow-mo. Restarting would fix these, and the game’s checkpoints are fairly generous, so I never lost much progress. Of course, these may be already patched by the time you’re reading this.
The most frustrating bug I encountered had to be an audio issue during the game’s finale. The audio was slightly slowed down and horrendously out of sync, but this cleared up after a reboot. It was during a marathon session of my playthrough, so it could have just been due to having the game running too long.
Somewhere, there is a crime happening.
This brings us to RoboCop: Rogue City’s biggest hurdle. I am often remiss to discuss an ending in a review, but it bears mentioning here: RoboCop: Rogue City genuinely threw me for a loop with its final boss.
The problem isn’t the finale itself. I really enjoyed what I thought was the final level, what I thought was the last encounter with the game’s primary villain, and what I thought was a great moment exploring the precinct one last time, learning how my actions impacted the game’s characters.
The problem is the game doesn’t end there. Another boss is suddenly thrown in. This character comes practically out of nowhere with barely any explanation, and it’s a nail-biter of a battle. The game is a moderate difficulty on normal; while I had a few encounters that pushed me to the limit, I could usually get my health back up or find a way out of a situation. The final boss was orders of magnitude more difficult to the point where it took me an hour and multiple attempts, the last of which I barely survived. Maybe it was me. Maybe there’s a gimmick I failed to trigger. However, I was disappointed and frustrated to feel like I beat the final boss by being cheesy when I had been able to solve problems with my available tools in every other encounter.
I am not opposed to a massive, difficult boss fight, but it felt jarring. If the game had ended before that fight, I would have loved the quieter, down-to-earth finale that reflected on the growth of the characters and RoboCop. Instead, the game’s conclusion is a sweaty, stressful fight that I won by the skin of my teeth, followed by a slideshow straight out of a Fallout game.
The Verdict – 4/5
It would have been easy to make another mindless FPS with this license. Instead, Teyon gave RoboCop: Rogue City a more thoughtful narrative with solid FPS combat and surprisingly deep RPG elements.
It’s not a perfect experience. Players unfamiliar with RoboCop will find a wonderful action RPG but may be lost or overwhelmed by the narrative. But die-hard fans will find a respectful, entertaining entry in a beloved franchise. Regardless of where you stand, though, RoboCop: Rogue City is a hell of a game and an effort that warrants checking out.
Reviewed on PS5
