Today I rolled out of bed with some extra pep in my step knowing the day was going to be strictly Robocop. I put on my Robocop tshirt, fired up the first Robocop movie and settled for a long gaming session. I’ve already been playing the game for days but today I felt might finally be the time to talk about it, even if it means taking a break from saving Old Detroit.
Dead Or Alive, Your Coming With Me:
When it comes to Robocop, Detroit is a character all its own. Tall buildings and dark streets are introduced to you by smiling news anchors showing all the nasty day-to-day violence. Omni Consumer Products, known as OCP, has taken over policing the streets through corruption, funding, and lethal force for the smallest infraction. The idea is to clean up Detroit by destroying what’s left so they can build the city of the future. Due to this take on company politics, it’s almost as dangerous in the boardroom as in the streets. That’s where Robocop comes into play after the initial robotic urban pacifier ED209 makes a pink mist out of one of the board members. The idea of an officer’s knowledge and street smarts planted in a near indestructible casing comes into play after one of the most graphically gory shootings of cinema for its time takes out Officer Frank Murphy, leaving him little more than a head and torso full of holes. The character of the movie and its quotables are so famous that most of them can still be recognized after all these years, and many appear as fun easter eggs in the game.
We Killed You!
Going through the shooting quests are the strength of the game. You can spend quite a bit of time on side quests, which are nice and count toward level points, but if all you want is to cut a huge swath through the bad guys, popping their heads like in those zit videos on YouTube, then this game will rock you. You can go through only shooting knees or crotches or anything you want so that RoboCop can make interesting and slower deaths. Not sure I would highly recommend Robobop for younger kids due to the artery graffiti being splashed everywhere, but if they sat through the original movie, they could probably make it through the game.
Holding down one controller/keyboard button and your HUD has a horizontal and a vertical line that swings down to mark an enemy or other destructible place, just like Robo does in the movies. It also helps you locate stolen items, which count toward your crime-fighting score, added up at the end of each level. Collecting points allows you to enter skills adopting Robocop to different strengths to play. One build allows you to repair at certain locations, another will let you pick the lock on safes for bonus loot, they really put a lot of effort into the side missions and skill trees so that playing through multiple times for multiple builds is practically a given.
You can play the game with a controller or a keyboard or both, when it comes to holding the target button I think the controller edges out. It works well in all the options, so I found myself going with a combination of controller and keyboard without even thinking about it. Once I got going, I couldn’t stop playing. Just through one more checkpoint, I kept saying over and over. Suddenly, the dawn starts breaking through the windows… oops.
Officer Alex Murphy, Deceased:
The graphics are great and truly photo-realistic, particularly on Robocop’s chin. The sound is crisp, but hearing the Robocop theme is really one of the best things about the sound, and hearing it takes me back to the 80’s fast with its strange but memorable choice of having a hammer on anvil sound repeating throughout. One of the most famous stars of the movie was the Auto 9mm, which, when fired, has very particular and recognizable sounds that they lovingly recreated. Robocop can’t jump; he’s a slow-walking juggernaut whose robotic clunking-sounding walk became the standard for what heavy robots sound like, and it, to, is lovingly recreated. I was concerned they might clean up the gore in the game, which, at the time, these movies truly pushed the boundaries of acceptable gore when they came out, and the debate lives on. The game has a standard level of gore, but you can also increase it, creating a massive blood bath through your skill tree, which was appreciated.
Scanning:
In these days of scanning live actors into computers and the level of usage being a hot topic watching cutscenes, I found myself wondering about what contract was made for their likeness, which can now be programmed into anything they want. Some of the great news about the game was the return of Peter Weller to the iconic role of one of the ’80s most famous cyborgs (can’t forget the likes of good old Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was considered for the role but deemed too buff for a believable mechanical cop). Weller helps rekindle a love for Robo that was tarnished a bit with Weller leaving the titular character in the third film, which most fans and fanatics agree was a travesty of a movie even for its time (few can forgive Robo’s jetpack, which I often wonder if they were mocking in Kick-Ass). Combine that with the voices of the station captain and his partner Lois, and it feels like playing one of the movies.
Thank You For Your Cooperation, Goodnight:
Robobcop: Rogue City mixes the feel of an 80’s game with a modern FPS. The photorealistic graphics, especially on Robocop, are terrific, and the sound quality made it worth playing with headphones. The game can be hard to advance but usually returning to the last checkpoint and giving another run at it can get you there. The multiple ways to play it make it great for replayability. If I were you and had even the slightest enjoyment of the Robocop movies or comic books, I’d buy that for… well, you know the rest.
