Is Robocop Rogue City worth the price point of 50 dollars? The short answer depends on your style of play.
I know that is not a valid answer, but the answer is no; wait for it to go on sale, and here is why.
It's not a great game, and we can tell you why.
The robocop game story is fun, to say the least
The start of the game is the slowest and weakest of the game. Rogue City takes place between the original films 2 and 3. The events of RoboCop are touched a bit in this game.
A new big shot is slowly taking over the city by the new guy, and it's up to Robo to save it. Thanks to the original robocop actor Peter Weller returning to help cast the game and tell the story. We get more out of the legendary hero we call Robocop.
The game touches on the premises of Mental Health, seeing how Robo still has a human brain that suffers from trauma. You get to experience the past trauma of Alex Murphy while trying to decide how human you really are.
The story tends to grow on you, but not at the beginning, seeing how things start off in a generic way. The game has a decent beginning regarding teaching the ropes on a mission classic gaming.
There's a story in this game. It just takes time to get interested. The developers do a great job of capturing the feel of Old Detroit. Like the films, the city was dark, gritty, and filled with people who looked like criminals. Teyon tries to bring that feel to the game. Unfortunately, their engine must be outdated because of the need for more civilians. But the look is on point. I wished they had added some more elements to the game free-roam.
The sound effects are great for this game and even hold the original.
The start of this game is the biggest drawback in the Robocop game
Remember how Starfield first came out, and every article said it takes hours before the game gets fun? Well, this is true about Robocop Rogue City. The game is slow and stiff. The cutscenes look at times like the budget was spent on getting Peter Weller to return.
I know graphics are not everything, but it does play a part. At times, the game can look great, but far more times, I kept thinking, is my graphics card broken? The game is pretty good-looking. However, this game should have been released in 2010.
There is no emotion in the character faces, not even from the robot. The characters ' faces are blank and motionless during cutscenes where there should be high emotions showing. I wished they would have added some more tension to their faces.
We can give them a pass because this was made by a more minor team. But what is with the wave of enemies? This is unsurprising since this game was developed by the same company that developed Terminator Resistance.
The controls are not fun, nor are they creative for this game. Robo is extremely slow at walking, and his run keeps me into playing this game. Yeah, you can turn into a tank and ram the enemies.
But you will enjoy that feature once you play hours and level up your skill tree. For every joy, there is something that comes and takes it away. My biggest drawback in this game is the pacing of the character's movement and development. It's all slow the story takes its time in being explained, and the character growth takes its time, which keeps the first few hours of enjoyment of the game.
I get that this is a game about a million-dollar robot, but it's also an FPS that has simple controls and mechanics. There is nothing creative the dev team tried in this game. Nothing screams wow at you when playing. People like this game for nostalgia reasons because if this was any other game it would get a do not buy. The first mission is an excellent entry to the game, but following the next mission you see what all the game has to offer you.
That makes the beginning lackluster and the game not worth the buy.
Bullet sponge enemies, but great RPG elements, destroyed by bugs
Here's the problem with the game as a whole. The enemies are bulletproof, the game feels stiff, and to top it all off, the game feels dated.
Let's start with the gunplay. In the beginning, everything sucks the gun sucks, and you're stiff. This is why I say if you can get past the first few hours of the game things get better because of the skill tree for the Auto 9 handgun.
The best part of this game is the RPG element to the Auto 9 handgun. The gun can be a single shot a burst, or an automatic, depending on your build.
The auto 9 has different boards that allow you to make the gun have a boost in attack, faster reloading, and other types of bullets. My favorite upgrade to the handgun is turning it into an automatic with no reload. But of course with all the sweet bonuses you have to watch for the debuffs too.
The enemies are stale for a game releasing in late 2023. The enemies are small because the developers only chose to make a small base of enemies. They followed the old style of 90s style gaming. The enemies are dumb and spongy at best.
Gun fights are a hit and a miss while you want to see how your build plays out the enemies only stand around and shoot. The creativity in this game could be better. The fast enemies are just guys on a bike, and the first encounter with them is just awful.
I figured out why the look-around sliders were maxed out. This is their way to counter-act how slow robo faces the biker enemies.
The only reason I figured this out was because I turned things down once I encountered them. The bikers were zipping left and right at a pace my downsliders could not keep up.
I find it funny how fast everyone else is in this game compared to the million-dollar robot. The EDs are even quicker, and each robot stands over 7 feet tall.
The shooting is fun in this game, to say the least. The game has a shooting challenge between Robo and whoever he opposes every few chapters. That could be the EDs or fellow officers like the swat team. The challenge is called the Efficeny challenge and the goal is to kill the most enemies.
Some simplicity is good, and this is one of them. If you win the shooting challenge, you get bragging rights and more XP for your leveling. Leveling in this game can be a hit and a miss, depending on your interest in doing every little thing offered.
Each chapter provides enough side missions and clues for you to look for. At the end of each chapter, you have an evaluation that tells you your grade. Of course, finding all its hidden evidence and side missions adds to the score.
If you want to complete only some of the side quests and find all the evidence, you don't have to. I skipped most of the side quests because not all of them were worth the time. Some are worth the time just because of the story they tell.
You only need to complete the side mission if you want to get that A-plus grade at the end of each chapter. Remember that completing the side mission and finding all hidden evidence goes towards your XP leveling.
The game does a fine job of making you feel like a cop at times. The developers even added a Parking tickets system for Robo to hand out during the very linear platform experience through the City of Old Detroit.
But once you make it to the game's midpoint, while the story gets better the gameplay takes a turn because after a few skill tree picks. You can make Robo feel like a tank.
Of course, you can't make the player a complete tank, but you can get a bit of that feeling in the middle of the game. When you breach you can go in gun blazing or grab an enemy and toss them like a complete piece of paper. Small changes here and there for you to play the game how you want.
The free roam is a hit and a miss, depending on which side of the spectrum you fall under. Some people like myself love open-world gaming, while others like more platforms. The game is not open-world, in this case, is a good decision for this style of game. The map is linear and small, which makes sense for this game based on its shooting style and the direction the game is heading.
Robocop is a decent First person shooter that reminds me of Doom. Each gun fights sets you against tons of enemies with perfect aim, and it is up to you and your resources to survive the battle. The grabble can provide some over-top action bringing a tiny element of mechanics to the game.
It's a nice touch in dialogue options, as Robo has in his conversations. Depending on your choice, robo can sound human or like a robot; then there is the in-betweener where he sounds like the law being laid down with an Iron fist. The more skill points you put into his dialogue the more choices you can choose from. The outcome of the decisions does not seem thoroughly thought out because there are no consequences for option.
The only thing that follows the choices made from the conversation is your relationship with the people and the people of old Detroit. If you say something they like you will see a message saying they will remember that. But something needs to be genuinely drawn out. It would be nice if each individual's relationship would have helped during gunfights or some extra points.
Like an action movie, the game sometimes makes you feel like an over-the-edge hero. Picking up the enemies' weapons feels much stronger than your gun initially. But this must be because of how the dev team made this game. Enemies seem like your bullets do not affect them. No matter how often you shoot the enemy, they show no signs of being hit until you finally kill them.
I could only play the game in short sessions because the game kept freezing or glitching, which would end my game. so you can only imagine the frustration I had playing this game. Sometimes, I got through a wave of enemies, and the game would crash on me, forcing me to reload that same part. I have no complaints about checkpoints in this game because they work fine.
It's not the worst game, but it's not the best game
The new Robocop Rogue City gets a 6 out of 10, for its outdated style of gameplay, stiff character design, and riddled game-ending bugs. No way is this the perfect first-person shooter. It could have been a better action game if they had ditched the RPG elements. If the team had just allowed players to unlock specific skills as they progressed through the game there could have been better return value.
The design of this game felt like it was meant to be a classic shooter style. When you play this game you think of games like Doom, Duke Nukem, and Serious Sam. Instead, when you play this game you get the feeling of newer game elements being used in a game made for 2012.
There are bugs and game-ending glitches that have made my playthrough a rough time. Overall, the game had moments that kept me going with the story. The more you play the better the story becomes. Once you complete missions, you can get a story from the side missions. Like one of the officers being kidnapped in the primary mission, and you find his remains in an ice bucket then have to tell his family about his death later.
Robocop touches on some heartfelt moments to tell a story, some with joy and others with social satire and there are a small amount of side missions that come together.
To add to that, the game is slow-paced for a first-person shooter. This game does have some unique parts that make you say whoopie, but it has some of the most stale, and I do mean stale beginnings and non-engaging enemies.
It was fun to see a classic being brought back to life, but it could have had a better direction. The only good reason you should buy this game is if you have been wanting to play a Robocop game, but I like the game to go on sale. To complete the game is a short time payers can look to beat the main story in 8 hours and maybe 12 if you are looking to 100 percent.
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