RoboCop: Rogue City Review

"Dead or alive, you're coming with me!"

Campaign

January 18, 2024 at 9:42pm
By Jason Stettner

Head to the hardened streets of Old Detroit in order to deliver the law, and be the hero that this grim city needs. Set between the second and third films in the series you step right into the shoes of Peter Weller’s Alex Murphy, better known as the iconic RoboCop!

This is very much its own story so you won’t necessarily need context of the movies, but it certainly helps you understand the struggles of the lead more effectively. The stage is set with a slow burn into understanding who you’re really up against. It has that ridiculous level of over the top action, narrative and style that could only be present from this particular era.

It starts out slow where you tank out onto the streets and assault a taken broadcasting center. It’s effective in presenting the world and style of this experience. From there you move through some repeating segments across a variety of locales.

Some slightly open world scenarios where you get to do smaller side quests if you’d like and even deliver the law by handing out parking tickets if you so choose. It’s all rather entertaining and provides extra fun to pad out your time in the best of ways.

The main story is decently chunky offering some crazy moments, deep looks into the character’s motivations and also good surprises along the way. It’s got a good set of environments, and varied ones at that though they are very linear.

Gameplay

As mentioned you’re moving through largely linear spaces during missions with tight slightly open world environments during some free segments. It’s clear what your goal is and occasionally if you look around you might find some extra things to use.

I would heavily recommend keeping an eye on your pistol chip upgrades as the game can get weirdly grueling otherwise. There’s one aspect where there is a bit of a problem, and that is with the performance. Like with most Unreal Engine 5 games this one has some striking visuals, particularly considering its budget. At the same time we do see some performance drops within the two modes.

There are two options for Xbox Series X, both being a dynamic 1440p that’s achieved with a temporal upscaling from a lower resolution. One is targeting 60fps and the other 30fps. Lumen is used as a ray tracing effect here as well. The image quality is actually fairly great with high quality texture environments and a world that does match the movie style very effectively.

They even do wild overlays that you see as RoboCop and the destructive aspects are great. The world can get smashed about due to your presence as can the folks you blast with satisfying headshots in particular. You have a limited but effective arsenal of weapons and can also throw things or people about.

The Conclusion

RoboCop: Rogue City is fun, it’s a great time that perfectly matches the era it’s aiming to replicate. There are some performance issues and while the story is solid it’s not necessarily mind blowing either. It works, it’s serviceable to this character and the overall world. It has some, maybe surprises and interesting moments that come up.

What really matters is that you definitely feel like a slow moving tank, basically you’re RoboCop in all its strange era specific glory. It’s satisfying as you melt enemies along the way, destroy the environment and also are able to actually be a police officer too. It’s a neat balance. The world is a bit simplistic though with linear paths and repeating scenes.

It has some strange difficulty spots but for the most part it was just a blast. I had a good time with it, and it was a satisfying adventure. I’d love a sequel where they fine tune weaker spots here or there and they truly could deliver something that’s top tier amazing. If you’re a fan of the films this does seem like a love letter to the character, and it was great that Peter Weller was able to reprise the role.

Read our Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Review
View our Game Hubs

RoboCop: Rogue City Review on Xbox Series X
Review Code Provided by Dead Good PR

Rating Overall: 6.8