Part man. Part machine. All cop.

That’s the gist of RoboCop, a film property that kicked off back in 1987 as something both satirical and prophetic of American culture. Decades later, it’s still the perfect source material to center a game around. Admittedly, hearing that Polish developer Teyon was bringing the cult-classic movie franchise to life on video game consoles was concerning, but the studio has put its best bionic foot forward with RoboCop: Rogue City. Sure, Teylon’s Rambo: The Video Game was a mediocre mess, and Terminator: Resistance needed a lot of post-launch work to get into fighting shape, but for its take on one of the most definitive action movies of all time, Teyon nails its latest adaptation brief with a gung-ho splatterfest of violence and surprising tenderness resting beneath $90 million of OCP’s finest hardware.

RoboCop: Rogue City is a game rife with technical issues and its fair share of visual hang-ups that make it look like a fresh remaster of a PS3 game. At its core, though, it’s a satisfying shooter with a few smart ideas thrown into the mix as you trudge toward overconfident criminals and transform them into bloody giblets with your Auto-9 hand cannon. Oh yes, RoboCop: Rogue City is as flawed as the plot of RoboCop 3, but this love-letter to ’80s cinema is more than just a mindless machine aiming to fire off a few rounds of fan service.

An interquel set between the events of movies RoboCop 2 and 3, the game tasks the law-dispensing cyborg formerly known as Alex Murphy with dismantling the Nuke-peddling gangs running rampant around Old Detroit in the wake of Kain’s death. Crime is as bad as ever; criminals have all the subtlety of a Saturday morning cartoon supervillain; and RoboCop is starting to experience more flashbacks from his previous, fully human life. Things quickly pick up, though, as RoboCop digs deeper into the case. Mechanical ghosts from the past, power-hungry OCP executives, and rival gangs all combine to create a tale that pays homage to the original trilogy of films.

There are some surprising twists and turns along the way, all enhanced by a game that goes all in on its commitment to ’80s action with aesthetics of the era. I’m talking hair that requires enough product to create a hole in the ozone layer, tight jeans, and corny one-liners delivered with a self-aware tone that nails the tongue-in-cheek attitude of the original film. It doesn’t matter just how badly the odds are stacked against RoboCop. He always has his sidearm and a one-liner locked and loaded when he takes on Detroit’s biggest slimeballs.

Even better, Rogue City is loaded with references to the films, ranging from an incredibly accurate reconstruction of RoboCop’s police station, to small touches like the back bumper on his patrol car slamming into concrete whenever he exits his precinct building. From subtle camera shots reminiscent of the films to familiar locations and products, RoboCop fans are in for a treat whenever they spot these Easter eggs. Original film series star Peter Weller does a fine job voicing RoboCop once more, hovering between machine-like banter and cheesy one-liners, while the game’s digital incarnations of officer Anne Lewis and Sergeant Warren Reed looks uncannily spot-on.

Of course, it could be better, as bad lip-syncing and last-gen visuals can be distracting. There are a lot of technical shortfalls – an abundance of them that add to the sense of PS3 and Xbox 360-era jank that’s on display here. It really heightens the feeling that this game was made on a shoestring budget. Still, with just how much content that Teyon has managed to cram into this tribute to cinema’s most violent decade, Rogue City hits that nostalgic mark with the same level of precision as RoboCop perforating the penis of a would-be rapist.

The cybernetic elephant in the room though, is whether a game focused on faithfully emulating the admittedly dated look and feel of RoboCop be fun? After all, Old Detroit’s finest peacekeeper moves with all the grace of his universe’s SUX 6000 car.

At first, RoboCop maneuvers exactly like that, engaging in shootouts where the main aim is to soak up damage and unleash a barrage of lead that leaves enemies clutching at bloody stumps where their arms used to be. Random thugs are no match for RobCop as he punches their teeth into another city; he can shatter their spines by hurling them into load-bearing pillars, and he shrugs off damage with ease before needing to pop a healing kit to recover his energy.

There’s a deliberate slowness to RoboCop that emphasises his tank-like construction and plays to his strengths. As you get deeper into the game, more challenging and heavily armed enemies begin to show up and can put a serious hurt on RoboCop. However, Rogue City bridges this gap with a well-balanced series of upgrades spread across his cybernetic frame and trusty Auto-9 sidearm. The better you perform, the more experience you earn, rewarding you with skill points that can be used to give RoboCop a wider arsenal of skills, more healing options, and passive buffs that turn him into the ultimate law enforcement machine of tomorrow.

Your sidearm also benefits from unlocking motherboards that can be used to improve its efficacy. Combined with a fairly in-depth system of using the right chips for the right enhancements, that weapon lives up to its cinematic legacy. Not only can you fine-tune the spread of rounds, rate of fire, and damage unleashed by this primary weapon, but you can augment it with skills that allow for ricochet kills and precision damage. Again, this is an excellent time to remind you that one of the best combat strategies in RoboCop: Rogue City is to always aim for a downstairs headshot if you know what I mean.

All of this together creates an experience that plays differently from what you’d expect a RoboCop game to be. Yes, there are no shortage of moments when you go in guns blazing, ever wary of the fact that RoboCop doesn’t jump or crouch out of harm’s way. He just moves in, slowly and inevitably, and then he unleashes an ungodly amount of ultra-violence at anything in front of him. Rogue City plays to those power fantasy strengths, making you feel like the cop cyborg who effortlessly cleaned up a drug den on his own in the 1987 film – but it also comes with a surprising number of tactics that force you to think fast and react even more quickly to everything coming at you.

The even bigger surprise here is the amount of downtime spent between these missions. Rogue City lacks that sharp sense of satire and anti-consumerism that made Paul Verhoeven’s original film so memorable, although it does try to replicate some of that sarcastic edge with middling results. Instead, the game focuses on the humanity of RoboCop between the action-packed sequences, along with small missions in which you get to know the characters around him, do some detective work, and engage in some banter on the side.

It’s pretty basic stuff, but it does show that Teyon has its heart in the right place. The developer could easily teach a university course on RoboCop with the wealth of knowledge that it has for the franchise.

RoboCop: Rogue City doesn’t attempt to reinvent the franchise that birthed it–we’re looking at you, terrible 2014 movie remake–and it’s a decision that makes for a refreshing experience. Sure, it’s a basic game where you rinse and repeat RoboCop’s prime directives of going to a point on your map, interacting with the public, and murdering a small army of goons, but it doesn’t need to be much more than that either.

Similarly, it might lack the killer satirical hook of its source material, but it makes up for it with solid detective work, focused single-player action, tender moments of self-reflection, and an uncomplicated adventure that confidently blazes a path forward for the kind of game that it wants to be. Namely a no-holds-barred single-player experience unburdened by multiplayer or live-service elements. Again, that’s refreshing in 2023.

Released on 2 November, RoboCop: Rogue City is now available on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.


RoboCop: Rogue City review

It might be rough around the edges, but RoboCop: Rogue City makes up for its technical shortcomings with a solidly entertaining story, sharp writing, and killer action that accurately captures the spirit of the movies it’s inspired by.

 8
RoboCop: Rogue City was reviewed on PS5