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Well this brings back memories. RoboCop is a franchise I grew up with. Once it was everywhere. Movies, animated series, comics and video games. But those days are long gone and not without good reason. Much as they tried, nothing ever managed to recapture what made the original movie a cultural landmark. After an already inferior sequel, the film series went off a cliff with RoboCop 3. The various series ranged from lacklustre to outright disappointing and I can't remember a good RoboCop game since the SNES era, that's about 30 years ago. As such, I was somewhat surprised to see this. Surprised, yet intrigued. So I bought this and it went straight to the top of my play list.
Considering the state of the franchise, I was admittedly not overly optimistic. The game early on didn't do much to convince me otherwise. It felt rather janky, predicting some major game-breaking bugs that would follow, the controls were not responsive enough, the lip syncing wasn't on point, even the scene direction felt somewhat off. Some early cutscenes involving RoboCop in particular had such weird angles that made RoboCop look tiny, instead of imposing which is what I was hoping for. Further damaging the experience. To make things worse, this game being primarily a shooter, the key aspect of the gameplay, shooting, felt clunky and not particularly satisfying. RoboCop is basically a wimp at this stage of the game. Despite my better judgement I kept playing and the game started making more of an impression. At first, it was amusing tidbits such as RoboCop stopping in the middle of a warzone to investigate a stolen wallet. Then I thought, eh well, good ol'Robo is one big clunky machine, why shouldn't shooting feel clunky too? So, I began to enjoy the flair of the game and kept playing. I am glad I did. The longest segment, what I call the mid-game, was about to start and that one is a doozy.
Following the prologue, the game opens up an area of Detroit for RoboCop to explore. There are several side-quests on the streets, many of them quite interesting. RoboCop gets to play detective and not just shoot everything that stands in the way. I mean there is that too, just not only that. Roaming the streets and upholding the law as RoboCop is disarmingly satisfying. I didn't know how much I wanted to do that until I got to do it. Made me wonder if a fully open-world RoboCop game could have been something to wish for. Just as importantly, with RoboCop gaining new skills and better weapon upgrades, the gunplay improves dramatically and becomes much more fun. The shooting part now works. At least until the late game. And here comes perhaps the game's greatest shortcoming. The mid-game is its peak. There are very few side-quests in the late game, very little roaming. It effectively devolves into an endless shootfest, with story cutscenes in-between. It might have just worked anyway, if by that point RoboCop wasn't so powerful that the balance completely broke down. Early on, gangbangers pose a threat. The first ED-209 is nearly too powerful an enemy. Late game Robo can mow down entire armies. It's rather less satisfying than it may sound.
Leaving aside gameplay and technical considerations for a moment, the game is fanservice gold. Peter Weller is back to reprise his iconic performance as RoboCop and the game wisely chooses to position itself between the first and second film sequels. In practice ignoring the disastrous third film and all its baggage. OCP is again a force to be reckoned with. Gone are the comically dated Japanese zaibatsu and their cringey ninja robots. This isn't the early 90s anymore and Japan isn't taking over the world any time soon. The Old Man is back and finally we get to see the conclusion to his story rather than have to accept they just dropped a bridge on him mid-sequel. Both the premise and plot felt appropriate and faithful to the better parts of the franchise. The game can be violent and serious and it can be sarcastic and funny at the right moments, often in quick succession. It may not exactly nail the dark satire of the first film, but then again very few things ever have. So close enough will have to do.
Purely as a shooter, this is a decent, if rather uneven and unpolished, experience. With a strong middle and weaker early and late phases. It's not a game for the history books, but it is good enough to be enjoyable. As a RoboCop experience though this shines. To put it simply, this is RoboCop 3, forget the movie. For RoboCop fans who have been starved for decent content featuring their beloved supercop, it's an oasis in the desert. It is telling that even though the game has a respectable length, it still felt too short. It left me wanting for more. So much so that I actually played the game twice before I had my fill. A rare feat. I definitely recommend this game to every RoboCop fan out there, maybe also to some more forgiving shooter fans.