A few weeks ago we were able to lay our hands for 1h30 on the next RoboCop game: Rogue City. And it was a great surprise. We tell you what you need to know about it.
Adapting an action film into a video game can often turn into a fiasco, especially when it comes to cult works from the 80s. Rambo The Video Game in 2014 which was a real disaster. Inevitably, when the game is announced Robocop: Rogue City there was plenty to ask questions about. Yet our first approach to the game was very positive. Already because the original film is totally respected in the FPS, so much so that we have the impression of witnessing the direct continuity of the 1987 feature film. Totally uninhibited, violent at will and politically incorrect. In short, everything that is expected of a work Robocop worthy of the name.
An adaptation that does honor to the franchise
To begin with, how not to immediately mention the presence of Peter Weller, a cult actor who plays Robocop in the films? Indeed, the now 75-year-old actor returns to his role for the full dubbing of the video game Rogue City. In doing so, the VO is simply fabulous, with dialogues and acting worthy of an 80s action movie. With its dose of testosterone and well-placed punchlines, we feel all the love of the developers for this period splendor of Hollywood cinema. It’s very simple, during the cutscenes we almost have the impression of attending a scene from the film, we believe it and the fans will love it. The adventure begins when a hostage taking takes place in a TV channel. Obviously police officer Alex J. Murphy, alias Robocop, is sent to the scene. But while the local police summon our hero to watch out for the presence of innocent civilians in the area, he walks with a determined step in the enclosure of the building to put his feet in the dish in every sense of the word. , armed with his faithful compensated Beretta M93R. It will bleed. The first thugs guarding the main entrance will understand their pain when our first 9mm burst knocks them down.
Old school and ruthless
FPS old school obliges, we start to strafe at all costs without really paying attention to our cover. The enemies howl, and we continue our progress without flinching. First detail and not least, our main weapon strangely has an unlimited number of ammunition, it’s a shame. Then very quickly we will pick up an Uzi submachine gun to have bigger magazines and feel overpowered, to finally end up with an AK-47 in our hands after 15 minutes of play. Totally uninhibited on violence, our character tears off arms in great gusts of 7.62 without batting an eyelid. Small important detail, part of the decor is destructible and our balls go through (thin) walls and other elements of the environment and we find ourselves in crumbled decors in a few seconds. The bullets fly, the opponents take cover and try to surround us, it’s a disaster for the opposite camp because Robocop is a war machine, literally. Or rather a finely honed police machine. Our life bar finally drops quite a bit at the very beginning of the game and there are health kits in the form of bites all over the rooms of the main building.
Not the end of a penny, for example, you can grab computer or TV screens with your whole hand to project them on the opponents, the same goes for certain chairs and tables. If you are looking for tactics and finesse, you will have to look elsewhere. Robocop assumes its 80s action movie and 90s FPS side in a Duke Nukem. We advance, we explode an enemy, we attend a cutscene, end of story. Or almost. The hostage-taking finally ends in a bullet time where you have to save each of the hostages by shooting as many bandits in the head as possible. What is particularly tasty is that the cinematics and overall all the dialogues provide a lot of details on the universe of Robocop and on the “psychology” of the character. The man behind the machine is still out there somewhere, and he has feelings despite feeling no mercy for the criminals and other bad guys in the city of Detroit.
humor and violence
Not devoid of humor, the game then propels us into the city police station in which a colleague asks us to replace the reception. This gives rise to a grotesque scene in which Robocop himself must solve an insignificant neighborhood affair. For the occasion Rogue City leaves us the possibility to choose between several response options to steer the conversation in the direction we want. You are free to be an intractable cop or on the contrary conciliatory even if it is not necessarily this last notion that characterizes our protagonist the most. A little later, after a few adventures, the details of which we will spare you to avoid any spoilers, we find ourselves investigating a kidnapping in the sordid suburbs of Detroit. If the game offers fairly closed environments for several missions, it also has a semi-open world in which it is possible to freely explore the city to complete side quests. After a hundred meters in the middle of rats and rubbish, Robocop arrives in a building halfway between a clandestine gambling hall and a brothel in which we will witness (or rather commit) a real carnage. Our heavy and powerful mechanical arm detaches a gatling from its foot which was used to protect a street to spray everything that moves in the perimeter. It’s a hecatomb, in the middle of the night, in this nauseating dystopian city of Detroit in which crime reigns supreme.
An American city completely respectful of what we can see in the film. A real visual delight at all levels since the game is particularly beautiful. Textures of faces and environments, animations, light effects, everything is there to make you feel like you’re in the movie and it works like hell. The only point of reservation that we have for the moment concerns the rather raw aspect of the formwork of the fights. If they are quite enjoyable, we may regret a somewhat stupid AI at times and the feeling of having game mechanics from another age. It’s pretty old school and until we have a definitive version in our hands, it’s hard to know if it’s intentional or not. But it is clear that we simply loved our demo on Robocop: Rogue City. Finally the oldschool works perfectly well in the adaptation of a film from this fabulous decade in terms of action (1980).
WAIT Robocop: Rogue City… A LOT!
Robocop: Rogue City is clearly not going to revolutionize the FPS genre, but it is a nice manly slap in the gums, and a wonderful tribute to the 1897 film and generally to all action films of the 80s/90s. Anti 2023 at all levels where we find ourselves with an old-fashioned protagonist with arms as big as the calves of a rugby player who allows himself to assassinate criminals in cold blood before any form of interrogation. What more can be said ? Everything is still possible on the side of disappointments, but for the moment we can’t wait to get our hands on it.