RoboCop is a gloriously entertaining action movie and satire which like many ’80s movies has spawned several lesser sequels and several lesser video game adaptations. RoboCop: Rogue City is the latest to try. Last year’s Nacon Connect stream featured an underwhelming “gameplay reveal”; this year’s Nacon Connect features a “gameplay overview”. Step below to judge its whelm.
For a start: as an overview, I don’t feel like it gives much of a view over. It’s two minutes long, there’s a tiny bit of combat, and I still have no idea what it’s perp-targeting layer is actually about. Is it like Fallout’s VATS? Is it just a visual gimmick? No idea.
More broadly, combat doesn’t look particularly engaging. There’s a moment where you grip and throw an enemy, and another where you slip into slow motion, both of which should be great. They can’t puncture the uninspiring arcade setting or the general impression that the shooting and movement appear barebones. In fairness, RoboCop is a hard thing to make a first-person shooter out of – and arguably, the more successful you are, the less successful you would be at conveying the original film’s satire.
Rogue City is being developed by Teyon, who previously made the Terminator: Resistance. Craig Pearson’s review for us found it underwhelming enough that he started imagining other games that could be made based on Terminator instead. I won’t do the same to Rogue City before its planned September 2023 release, and will instead choose to remain hopeful that there’s more to find beneath its shiny metal exterior.
