(electronic chime) - [Jake] Hey and we're back with another episode of Before You Buy, that show where we give you
some straight up gameplay and our first impressions of
the latest games releasing, as usual, it's me, Jake Baldino. And today we're talking
about RoboCop: Rogue City. This is from the developer Teyon, the folks behind the most
recent Terminator game, Terminator Resistance. It was a flawed but well-received game that kind of understood
the Terminator franchise. So, here, they've been
given the keys to RoboCop, and this is significant, because RoboCop doesn't
get a lotta video games, and the ones he has gotten
have been pretty hit or miss. This is also significant because I am RoboCop's number one fan. So, there's your context. I was really nervous going
into this, because frankly, it's surprisingly easy
to screw up RoboCop, you know, big dumb,
chunky '80s robot, right? Well, there's a lot more to it, and a lotta people miss the point. But thankfully, this
game understands that. As a diehard RoboCop fan, this is pretty close to
the escapism I wanted. If you're not into RoboCop, I don't know how much enjoyment
you'll get outta this. You'll probably see the flaws more easily, it's a fairly simple lower budget game with a slightly lower price
point reflecting that on Steam. But still, even with
some minor complaints, this satisfied me, like,
my critical gamer brain has things to point out, but
my RoboCop side of my brain is having a really fun time, and that's always the
most important thing. And of course, the housekeeping, we didn't get a review copy, I went out and just bought this and this footage was captured
on PC and is spoiler free. Now Rogue City takes place
between RoboCop 2 and 3, if you care, so, basically, it's right before the franchise
completely falls apart. Now in this game, old
Detroit is still a mess, and RoboCop is just out on the job, doing his policing thing, when a new crime wave hits the city, centered around a mysterious figure and some nasty baddies,
I won't spoil anything, so, it's up to you and
your partner, Anne Lewis, to get to the bottom of things. Now, you navigate hub areas and go into interior sections that usually bring large-scale shootouts. There are a lotta
criminals and gang members, you shoot up in this game, and the first person shooting
is awesome, actually. It's incredibly simple. RoboCop can get a few
upgrades throughout the game, but you're mostly just
blasting away with your Auto 9. You're picking up enemies
and chucking them around, and you're shooting explosive barrels. You can also pick up
objects like TVs and chairs, a bench, whatever, to throw at enemies. There's some bullet time slow-mo
and some breach sequences, and all of it is incredibly violent and destructive and excessive. Enemies are basically begging
to be shot up a bunch of times thanks to some really good
gore and blood effects and a lot of exploding heads. The Auto 9 has really great
feedback with the shooting. Even if the sound of the
gun isn't 100% perfect for a stickler like me, it's pretty close, and it gets the job done. Explosive barrels are everywhere, and enemies constantly use turrets, and they're throwing grenades, so, there's tons of chaos on screen. And the best part is that
the walls fall apart, furniture goes flying, debris
everywhere, things crumble. The destruction is surprisingly good, and really adds to the fun of shooting. Because, again, it's simple. RoboCop isn't super fast,
he doesn't run super fast, he doesn't aim super fast. He's a lumbering tank, and
the game does a good job of kind of riding a line to make it feel like you're
stomping around as RoboCop with the speed, and the sound effects, but not totally 1000%
slow, because, you know, it still needs to play well, it still needs to feel
okay as a video game. And I think they found
a good middle ground. RoboCop takes a lotta damage, and you collect these
OCP charge healing items, and eventually use environmental heals, because, of course, this is a video game. But, often you can just slowly
charge through environments, taking hits, maybe occasionally
strafing behind cover and just exploding some heads. Even if the shooting is simple,
it's the gore, the feedback, the visual effects, the destruction, and just like the
excessiveness of all of it that really sells it, it's more like just a fun arcadey shooter. You don't have to ADS and
have a bunch of precision, you're hip firing, stuff's blowing up. It's fun. And RoboCop can pick up other guns, which is fine, I guess, it's really funny to see
RoboCop use an AK, but, the shotgun is something else. It's really, really damn good. Really, again, all I can emphasize is that the combat is
simple and effective, you're not Apex Legends sliding, or like sprinting and
meleeing and no-scoping, you're just walking, and
shooting, exploding heads, having a good time, some
people might want more. But for some RoboCop
escapism, I was all about it. My only real complaint is that it loses some of that
punch further in the game, like as it gets more challenging, like, there's more to deal with. And you feel a little
bit less like RoboCop because, you can start
to get your ass kicked. I get it's a video game, they
had to make some challenge, It's kinda like the same
problem with Superman, it's like, he's invincible. How do you make that compelling
from a gameplay perspective? But, hey, what are you gonna do? The other main crux of the game is doing police work,
and talking to people. Now you may think, "RoboCop? "Having a little chat
with dialogue trees?" Well, it actually works pretty well. There's some hit or miss voice acting, specifically from some hammy NPCs, and Anne Lewis's voice actor, even Peter Weller himself
has a couple of lines that I think could have used,
you know, one more take. But, the bottom line is that there's some clever writing here. And a lot of it is presented in the wonderful recreation
of the police station, from the original movie,
or out in these hub areas. You can literally walk the streets of an 80's movie style
crime-ridden Detroit. On your way to main quests, you can issue parking
tickets, help citizens, or divert and go do some side quests. Some of the side quests are a bit slow, and kinda boring, to be totally honest. But I stuck with them,
because every so often, you'll get a really good
line, or a reference, or a funny moment. Now the game is kinda like a light RPG, in the sense that it has you
engaging in conversations, deciding your responses, and the game taking note of those choices. A big example is like, you can choose to embrace
the humanity in you and let a kid doing graffiti
get off with a warning, or immediately give him
a ticket on the spot, like the uncompromising robot cop you were designed to be by OCP. Walking around these pretty detailed, and gorgeous hub worlds, finding items, talking to citizens, it kind of just feels like
a really light version of the modern Deus Ex game hubs, and I don't totally
think that's a bad thing, but again, it's just
nowhere near as complex. It does play it pretty safe though, here, like you're not really doing too much, and a lot of it feels a bit standard, and I think that's amplified by one thing the game is lacking in some spots, especially when it comes
to the side quests, is any excitement in the presentation. Characters look kinda janky and ugly, the lip syncing is usually off, and the game doesn't
feature a ton of music. It actually has a lotta quiet moments, to where I wanted a little
bit more bombasticness, if that makes sense. But where it lacks in that,
it does really do a good job of feeling like what
RoboCop should be doing. He is serving the public trust. You are walking around,
getting to know the community, and helping it committing,
justice, you know, and doing that type of stuff,
it's interesting, for me. Also game wise, there is a skill tree. It's got a surprisingly large amount of little nodes to unlock. Conversation stuff like psychology points, that unlock more responses when, say, you're interrogating a suspect. To just having more
health, unlocking bullets that will ricochet off your
armor and hurt enemies. A little bit of a dash, stuff like that. It's not groundbreaking, but
it's just compelling enough. You add to the skill tree
with points that you earn through finding OCP training
discs or by leveling up. You gain XP by progressing, doing stuff, and collecting evidence
in the environment, and that evidence is everywhere, it's just stuff to click
on and pick up like drugs, incriminating photos,
stolen wallets or purses. It's actually kinda funny how many there are, everywhere. There's also a kind of unlock system for your Auto 9, as well, which is a little confusing at first. But you can upgrade your spread,
fire mode, armor piercing, make it full auto, stuff like that. Upgrades themselves, well
they're not groundbreaking, but again, it's the Auto
9, it's awesome as is. You can only do so much, but I'm glad they found
little ways to change it up, you know, even if it's simple. Graphically, I did have
some little visual bugs and flickering here and there, and a moment where character
dialogue just didn't happen. Another time I had character dialogue, but characters weren't
opening their mouths. This, coupled with the fact that some characters and their animations, like I had said earlier, don't
really look great up close, makes it all look and
feel less than perfect. It is, again, like I said, and I know it's like an overused
reviewer word, but, janky. But you know what, in a weird way, this is exactly the production
level RoboCop deserves. Thankfully, though, it did
run really well on my PC, and I had no actual
game-breaking problems at all. No hard crashes, no quest
glitches or anything like that. But again, the thing
I wanna emphasize here is that the game gets it. Tons of little details, here and there, went a really long way in impressing me. I'll probably keep like
the Robo fanboy stuff to a separate video on
my other channel, later, on youtube.com/jakebaldino,
I linked that below. But, just the writing,
and some moments here really show that the game gets that RoboCop is not just
about a cool sci-fi robot cop, it's a satirical world with a lot of comedy over the top stuff, lampooning American excess,
consumerism, corporations. And the game reflects
that through dialogue, but also, TV and radio broadcasts scattered throughout the world. Some clever bits in some cutscenes. As well as lore-accurate
graffiti, and signage, and advertisements everywhere, it really can be a treat for fans. It smartly cherry-picks elements from stuff beyond the
first movie here and there, to build out a cohesive
RoboCop world concept that makes sense. This, I will say straight
up, is the RoboCop 3 that we should have
gotten, in a lot of ways. Nothing in my mind will
ever compare, ever stack up to that original Paul
Verhoeven RoboCop film, but, this is by far, full stop, the best video game
representation of the robot man. It doesn't outstay its welcome, like 15 hours give or take
depending on how you play, and depending on what you're doing, and, yeah, it might not
blow everybody's doors down, but it is a good video game fun time, it understands the fun
factor, the chaos of it all. In some levels, you got
guys with explosives, you got guys on motorcycles, and you have crazy weapons, and shit is just blowing up everywhere, and it's just good clean, good
old fashioned video game fun, and sometimes, we need that. But of course, this is a Before You Buy, you know how this goes by now, I give you some pros, some
cons, and some personal opinion, and now I wanna hear yours
down in the comments. I wanna know what you think
about RoboCop: Rogue City, of course, if you jumped in during like the early access
pre-order period thing. Or if you're waiting to get it,
I'd love to hear from people who played the game but never
actually watched RoboCop. I wasn't sure if a lot of
you guys would like it, but I've heard from some
people on social media that they are. Do you fall in that camp, and what is your experience
with other RoboCop games, have you been playing
RoboCop games, like me, since the NES days? Woof, let's talk anything
RoboCop down in the comments, but if you like this
video, hearin our opinions, seeing some gameplay on the
screen, if this helps you out, steers your decision, clicking
the Like button helps us, we would appreciate that, really. But, if you're new, we put
out videos every single day. You can always find me on
social media at JakeBaldino. Thank you guys for watching, and we'll see you guys next time. (portentous orchestral music)
(gun fires) (criminal yells) (head bursts) (gun fires)
(criminals scream) (metallic clacking) (guns fire) (criminal yells)
(explosion) (gun fires) (electronic warble) (criminal yelps) (electronic shimmer)
