A new, modern Robocop is launching Thursday November 2, 2023 called Robocop: Rogue City to Steam/PC, Playstation and XBox (no, not coming to Nintendo Switch). Description via Wikipedia:
The game features an original storyline based on the first three RoboCop films. It is being developed by Teyon, and is published by Nacon in partnership with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which holds the rights to the franchise.[11] The three companies worked together to ensure the game is faithful to the films;[13] the development team watched them multiple times to incorporate their satirical aspect, especially that of the first film.
RoboCop: Rogue City was developed using Unreal Engine 5.[2] Original RoboCop actor Peter Weller returned to provide his voice and likeness for the game.[14][15] RoboCop’s sluggish movements are also incorporated,[6] despite first-person shooters generally using swift gameplay. Piotr Latocha, the game’s director, said that reaching a balance on RoboCop’s movements was one of the biggest design challenges on the project: “He’s kind of slow and tankish, and we need to be true to the lore, but also we cannot be super slow and super heavy”
Official preorder trailer from publisher Nacon:
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Official gameplay overview video:
The deluxe edition of Robocop: Rogue City is called the Alex Murphy Edition and here’s what those who spend an extra $10 will receive – the biggest thing perhaps being 48 hours early access to be able to play the game — on Halloween October 31, 2023:
The “Alex Murphy” Edition throws you into the thick of the action for an even more exhilarating experience. It includes:
The base game
The “”OCP Shotgun”” side arm
The hero’s damaged armour, taken from the first RoboCop film (cosmetic)
The “”Prototype”” version of the Auto-9 gun (cosmetic)
The digital artbook containing 100 pages of images, with comments from the game developers
Become the iconic part man, part machine, all cop hero and bring justice to the dangerous, crime-ridden streets of Old Detroit.
In the PlayGamesMore Discord on Halloween 10/31/2023 at 8am PST (GMT-8) we’re giving away one Steam/PC key for the Alex Murphy Edition of Robocop: Rogue City. PGM members should check the #now-playing subchannel for details how to participate. Are you planning on buying and playing Robocop: Rogue City at/near launch? Which platform? Console, PC, both, neither?
UPDATE 11/2/2023 @10:00am PST: My launch Robocop: Rogue City review posted to Steam is written and shared below. There are no story spoilers, so safe to read if you’re concerned about story spoilers:
Mixed emotions on Robocop, but the TL;DR version is simple: recommend waiting for a sale on this one, because this has AAA pricing but lacks the features and depth to justify. I bought two Alex Murphy editions, btw. One was a gift for one of our group members as a giveaway and the other for me.
First, the good. There is a lot to love about how the story incorporates better elements of the Robocop movies. I’m talking the first two, really, as those were the ones worth watching/rewatching. The language, the blood spatter, the shooting system is all good, although it takes a bit to get used to first person shooter with a controller.
I have two ultra high end gaming rigs, so running this at epic settings at 4K with 120hz+ OLED at 100+FPS is no problem. Found the graphics to be definitely a notch above average. No, they aren’t as good as Cyberpunk or Mortal Kombat 1, but they are good. As for how Robocop looks? Yeah, his lips look a little bloated and Anne Lewis is a mix between the younger Lewis in Robocop 1 and as she got older and was more weathered in sequels. I though the voice acting was merely OK, not great, not bad. It didn’t disappoint. The sounds are for the most part good, if a bit plain at times.
Now, for the many things I do not like. The save feature sucks. I mean, you can’t save where and when you want. Instead, it autosaves at cut scenes. This means if you aren’t a cut scene and need to exit out, when you return you’ll have to redo the fights leading up to the cut scene. Some might like this, I don’t. There are a decent amount of save slots, however, so saving at different checkpoints is OK, but again, why can’t we save ourselves. This is 2023, not the late 80s when Robocop hit theaters.
That fact that Robocop is limited in environment objects that can be interacted with is another major bummer to me. I want to be able to pick up and look at EVERYTHING, not just very specific things. You go into a storeroom and there are some cool things Robocop could “use” to creatively take out bad guys, but nope, can’t use them. There are scattered files and nuke drugs to pick up all over the place, but it’s like you have to look in every single room, in every single nook and cranny to find them and be bummed out that you can’t interact with other things that would be cool. Letdown.
You can’t drive that bada$$ OCP car. Robocop is purely a walk around and bust lawbreaking people on foot affair. At least as far as I played through up to the writing of this review. Is it ever possible to drive a car like in Cyberpunk? A miss for me. I want to drive around, too, not just walk everywhere. The sounds, as mentioned before are pretty good.
Saving what I like least for last. The lack of any different play modes besides first person shooting. If you are a huge first person shooter fan, then maybe this is appealing, but for those of us that loved the old Robocop arcade games from Data East, this first person with no scoring, no leaderboards, no multiplayer is … thin. It leaves me wanting more than the story mode. I do like the story mode, but it’s like needing DLC to give me more.
Can we get the original two Robocop arcade modes? Or at least a more open world mode? This all feels a bit unfinished to me for the pricing. If it had more modes, multiplayer, leaderboards and arcade mode with callbacks to the Robocop arcade history, I’d be all about this game, but instead I’m feeling like it’s just a stripped down first person shooter Robocop that is worth maybe $20 or less.
I do appreciate the passion from the developers to put some of Robocop’s soul into this release, but it’s missing vital parts of what the Robocop gaming experience was like. Robocop is the best cop ever. Part machine, part man, and here he’s reduced and limited by the environment, by the linear missions and side missions (you do need to do those for the best grade) and that all is a bit tiring instead of super fun as any exercise in replayability.
For these reasons and perhaps a few more I have yet to discover, can’t recommend this to my friends. I like it enough not to refund it, so keeping and will play. And one last good thing, it’s playable on Steam Deck. But at the end of the day, I’m not inviting friends, dead or alive, to come with me on this purchase.