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  • RoboCop: Rogue City

    From Mr Rob@21:1/5 to All on Fri Nov 3 18:40:59 2023
    I watched a few demo gameplay videos on YouTube and wasn't really
    enthralled by what I saw. I didn't bother with the demo myself based
    on those impressions.

    I then watched a few review videos after release, most of which
    concluded that you needed to be a RoboCop fan to really
    'understand/get' what the game is about. I passed on buying the game
    at �44.00

    I bought it for �25.00 from GMG yesterday in a moment of weakness and
    had a mild attack of buyers remorse after a few minutes playing. If
    you don't like RoboCop, and indeed, as one reviewer put it, if it was
    called anything else but RoboCop it would probably get panned.

    It's not terrible, but at the same time it's hardly engrossing or
    makes me want to play more than a few minutes at a time. I'm not quite
    sure what a comparatively small number of reviewers are so excited
    about.

    It's RoboCop. It's sort of OK as a shooter. It's also a bit bland and
    samey after even a short while.

    --
    Rob

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Justisaur@21:1/5 to Mr Rob on Fri Nov 3 19:07:54 2023
    On Friday, November 3, 2023 at 11:41:04 AM UTC-7, Mr Rob wrote:
    I watched a few demo gameplay videos on YouTube and wasn't really
    enthralled by what I saw. I didn't bother with the demo myself based
    on those impressions.

    I then watched a few review videos after release, most of which
    concluded that you needed to be a RoboCop fan to really
    'understand/get' what the game is about. I passed on buying the game
    at £44.00

    I bought it for £25.00 from GMG yesterday in a moment of weakness and
    had a mild attack of buyers remorse after a few minutes playing. If
    you don't like RoboCop, and indeed, as one reviewer put it, if it was
    called anything else but RoboCop it would probably get panned.

    It's not terrible, but at the same time it's hardly engrossing or
    makes me want to play more than a few minutes at a time. I'm not quite
    sure what a comparatively small number of reviewers are so excited
    about.

    It's RoboCop. It's sort of OK as a shooter. It's also a bit bland and
    samey after even a short while.

    You can always play the old game from 1988. Not bad, that one.

    - Justisaur

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From H1MEM@21:1/5 to Justisaur on Sat Nov 4 10:06:53 2023
    Justisaur wrote:


    You can always play the old game from 1988. Not bad, that one.

    - Justisaur


    The hours we would spend at the hotel watching somebody play it (we were
    little kids and lasted less than 5 minutes). If somebody got to a new
    level, a crowd would form around the arcade cabinet.

    As for me, I put most of my robo-time on the Amstrad CPC port, which is "interesting". The music is different and IMHO superior to the more
    standard nes based ports, and it even had digitised voices reading the
    prime directives.


    As for the new one... No time to try the demo. I heard something
    interesting things like that Robocop can sit on a desk and do paperwork,
    or that shooting at the crotch of a felon will trigger a different
    animation or sequence.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Mr Rob@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Nov 4 09:57:07 2023
    On Sat, 4 Nov 2023 10:06:53 +0100, H1MEM <[email protected]> wrote:



    As for me, I put most of my robo-time on the Amstrad CPC port, which is >"interesting". The music is different and IMHO superior to the more
    standard nes based ports, and it even had digitised voices reading the
    prime directives.

    My fist RoboCop gaming was on the C64, I played the 2003 PC iteration,
    I remember that it was OK. I liked the RoboCop comic entries when I
    was younger.

    Looking back through the history of RoboCop gaming, according to what
    I can read on the internet, it hasn't been a prolific or terribly
    successful franchise as far as games go.

    I played a little more of Rogue City last night. It is fairly dull and repetitive thus far.


    --
    Rob

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Nov 4 09:56:50 2023
    On Sat, 04 Nov 2023 09:57:07 +0000, Mr Rob
    <[email protected]> wrote:

    On Sat, 4 Nov 2023 10:06:53 +0100, H1MEM <[email protected]> wrote:



    As for me, I put most of my robo-time on the Amstrad CPC port, which is >>"interesting". The music is different and IMHO superior to the more >>standard nes based ports, and it even had digitised voices reading the >>prime directives.

    My fist RoboCop gaming was on the C64, I played the 2003 PC iteration,
    I remember that it was OK. I liked the RoboCop comic entries when I
    was younger.

    Looking back through the history of RoboCop gaming, according to what
    I can read on the internet, it hasn't been a prolific or terribly
    successful franchise as far as games go.

    I played a little more of Rogue City last night. It is fairly dull and >repetitive thus far.

    I think one of the problems is that the "Robocop" franchise isn't
    really a good fit for video-games. It really only has the one titular
    hero to differentiate it from the 'real-world', and there's only so
    much that character can do. Were the developers allowed to EXPAND the
    universe - add more Robocops! - maybe it would work, but restricted to
    only using Alex "Super-Cyborg" Murphy? The character really doesn't do
    anything but walk slowly and shoot (okay, sometimes he drives a car).
    There's just not enough space to move the story.

    Thus, bound by such a severe restriction, it's no wonder we get such a
    watered down experience. It's even worse because they forced this game
    into an open-world. It MIGHT have worked as a linear corridor shooter
    where the developers had better control of the pacing and story, but
    in an open world? What little gameplay there is has to be spread ever
    more thinly.

    TL;DR: Other franchises translate well to the video-game genre.
    Robocop, not so much.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)
  • From Spalls Hurgenson@21:1/5 to [email protected] on Sat Nov 4 09:48:45 2023
    On Fri, 03 Nov 2023 18:40:59 +0000, Mr Rob
    <[email protected]> wrote:


    I watched a few demo gameplay videos on YouTube and wasn't really
    enthralled by what I saw. I didn't bother with the demo myself based
    on those impressions.



    I haven't played it either and have only seen it on Youtube gushingly
    promoted by fanboys, and I too can't understand the enthusiasm for the
    game.

    I mean, sure, it's Robocop, and it seems a more honest conversion of
    the license than any we've seen so far. It is a lot more gory than
    previous video-game iterations of the franchise (although, from what I
    could tell, nowhere nearly as gory as the movie itself). But the
    gameplay seems to repsect the property a lot more than other games.

    But the gameplay seems entirely unexciting. The enemies are completely braindead and that - coupled with the protragonist's tank-like ability
    to absorb punishment - makes the combat look like a complete and total
    grind. Oh, I'm sure later in the game there are some tougher enemies
    but - given the movement speed at which our eponymous hero moves - I
    can't imagine those would be anymore fun either.

    Its open world doesn't impress me either. Its side missions seem
    pointless filler and the world itself doesn't seem to have a lot of
    life or interactivity to it. Robocop is a killing machine; it's not
    like he's going to be solving crimes by talking to people, or
    sneaking, or looking for clues. It's just clunk-clunk-clunk into the
    nearest hotspot, shooting bad-guys and picking up collectibles. It's
    not the sort of gameplay that even REQUIRES an openworld, except as a time-killer.

    "Robocop: Rogue City" reminds me a lot of "Terminator: Resistance",
    which similarly nailed the look and feel of its license, but failed to
    provide a fulfilling game-play experience (Similarly, the "War for
    Cybertron" video games from the 2010s that utilized the
    "Transformers" IP). These games are love-letters to devoted fans of
    their franchises but do not have the game-play that makes the game
    entertaining to more casual fans (or people who don't know or really
    care too much about) of the IP.

    But, again, maybe "Robocop: Rogue City" isn't really that bad. Like I
    said, all I really know about it is from what I've seen on YouTube.
    But what I have seen hasn't convinced me to rush out and buy the game.

    --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
    * Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)