How did you feel about the story? Discuss.

[Jazman2k]

Do you want this game to be official canon? Why? Was there something you didn't like storywise? Would you have done something differently? What was the best part, what was the worst? It would be nice to "hear" other peoples opinion about the story.

[SkyNET]

I had never seen the movie, not entirely anyhow, before I started playing the game. Yes, indeed.
I finished the game yesterday morning.
Then. that night, I went ahead and watched the DC version of the film, and I must admit that the game feels like it was designed to be RoboCop 2. Like how the game took the place of the second film, which I heard was terrible in many aspects. Primarily since the game begins virtually, some time after the film concludes. I am not sure how much time has passed, since the police went were in the verge to going into strike in the movie, which never pans out, but does in the game.
I adored them, the film and the game.

[cszolee79]

Originally posted by WingZeroSys:

Wendell should've been either Clarence Boddicker's brother, or Cain's.

Alas he is Hans Gruber's.

[Jazman2k]

Originally posted by WingZeroSys:

Wendell should've been either Clarence Boddicker's brother, or Cain's.

Actually he wasn't the real brother of Emil. He was just hired by OCP to get emotional response out of Murphy. I wonder who Wendell really was. And I think they revealed him little bit too soon. It would have been nice to keep the mystery going on for a bit longer.

[Mastodon_2]

Originally posted by cszolee79:

Originally posted by WingZeroSys:

Wendell should've been either Clarence Boddicker's brother, or Cain's.

Alas he is Hans Gruber's.

That was my thought when I first saw him!

[SkyNET]

Maybe he is from a Die Hard project that got scrapped. LOL.

[TheDutchGhost]

Warning, lots and lots of spoilers!

Originally posted by MonkeyBone:

I quite enjoyed my time. If I had any major complaints I suppose they would be:

-ulysses. We didn't need an eager puppy when we had Lewis.
-Old Man becoming Robocop 2. On one hand I'm very happy we got to fight it, on the other I wish he had a unique model. I can't imagine the old man would want to put his brain in a death machine over something more functional like Robocop, especially after the talks with him about humanity and stuff. Either way though I am glad it was a boss fight.
-the main bad guy wasn't all that interesting. He didn't have the charisma of Bodicker, or the presence of Kain. I found him quite boring to be honest.

That's honestly all I've got story-wise. A few hiccups but leaps and bounds above most AAA titles.

Yeah, I am also not a big fan of Ulysses.

Yeah it would have been cool of the Old Man had his brains implanted in a complete new cyborg body made up by the game designers. I think the old Robocop 2 body or if this is a new one based on it was perhaps used because the designers wanted to use the design from the movie like they have done with other elements from the first two movies.

Agreed, The New Guy was not that well developed as an atagonist. I still have no idea what the guy's really motives were other than making Detroit fall into chaos. Personally I think the villain and his plotline would have worked better if Rogue City was to tie into Robocop 3 that this guy was perhaps recruited to create chaos in old Detroit to justify OCP's actions of bringing in the Rehabs and make the residents leave so they could tear the old city down.
Also, seeing how project Afterlife actually turned out, he never had anything to bribe Murphy with. The project is a dud, decades away from producing human like cyborgs. Even the Old Man had to resort to having his brain installed in a cruder cybernetic body.

Originally posted by slymanrc:

Having just completed my first playthrough ("Murphy" path), I think the story was rather compelling, though perhaps a little too heavy-leaning on the nostalgia. Which while that was a huge plus in most aspects of the game, it can actually serve to hurt in the writing department. In this case it was minimal, just serving to make the story a bit predictable but no less enjoyable or satisfying.

Honestly, even with that predictability, with everything else the Teyon brought to the table in this game... I was still edge-of-seat through it all.

Agreed, I do think the designers went a little too overboard with Robocop 1 and 2 references, as if they were not confident in creating new additions of their own that would fit the setting.

Originally posted by Chaingrower:

I feel like one of the weakest was Wendell. Because of his nature of being a facade, there was hardly anything really to him. The various gang leaders under him all felt like better characters than he did, so I think his character as a whole is what I'll call the weakest part.

The drones served as a good red herring for the missing brains. Becker's attitude helped confuse that, what with him outwardly hating the perceived human inefficiency of Murphy.

The old man was the highlight for me, and probably would have been even without the ending reveals. Talking to him at his old home, and later at the hospital were some of my favorite moments in the game, along with seeing his memorial in OCP. The 'save' ending really felt right to me to conclude his story.
His conclusions seem pretty justified for someone desperate to see his dream realized, and who clearly thought highly of Murphy.
Going crazy in the body feels fitting enough, considering the scene in 2 where Cain kills Angie, plus of course, all the prototypes before him. The old man was the first we know of who *wanted* to be put into one, so he shouldn't be suicidal like the prototypes were.
Using that particular body was strange story-wise, but obviously it was for the player to have a chance to fight it as a final boss.

Not story but I will say, that final boss fight itself was underwhelming. It needed more varied attacks, showing off the rest of that thing's arsenal

As I mentioned before I fully agree that Wendell was not a very strong or compelling antagonist. Before he turns against OCP his criminal activities are mostly to cover up the work he is doing for OCP. Then he decides to turn on OCP because the Old Man is now dead and he wants to take over?
Stronger motivations were needed.

Yep. I was also thrown off by the drones. When I saw them I though it confirmed my theory about the brains Wendell has having removed from corpses, using these like Alex Murphy's brains were used, with the reveal that when we would shoot them apart that these would come out. But no, they are fully machine creations.
Speaking of which, why did Wendell have so many brains collected? Project Afterlife seemed primarily focused on extending the life of the Old Man after his natural death as the project was decades away from anything that it was advertised as. A few sample brains for experiments I could understand but why so many?

Yeah. The Old Man's aggression was a bit out of nowhere even if I understood why he would be pissed at Becker. But why kill all the office workers, guards, and scientists? Well they probably would think the Old-Man-in-Robocop 2 is perhaps some out of control war machine but would he not have informed his inner circle about the change he would be undergoing? And they making sure no one see the Old Man reborn when he returns to OCP headquarters?

With Cain I always though it was Cain's own mind in conflict with his new programming, explaining why he turned aggressive against a former gangmember/squeeze. Basically his cop program kicking in.

Originally posted by WhitePhantom:

I liked it although it was limited by being between 2 and 3, and a lot of the story was written to steer us towards recreating scenes from the first 2 movies. Like Ghostbusters the videogame it's more of a checklist of scenes rather than an original story.

It would've been nice to see a new robot threat for Murphy to face rather than reusing existing cyborgs. How about something original like a group of failed Robocop 3 attempts who managed to escape OCP and become terrorists? Focus more on cyborgs wanting human rights with Murphy stuck between both sides.

Still I really enjoyed the game and I'll take it as canon, at least as a way of explaining why the Old Man wasn't in 3.

Yep, agreed as I mentioned earlier. I wish Teyon had added more new material in the style or feel of the original and just reused some scenes and materials.

I definitely would also have liked to have seen new robots and cyborg style enemies. It was really fun to see Robocop 2 and one of the abandoned prototypes again but new designs would have been so welcome, definitely as later game foes.

Hmm, sorry but I have to disagree with your suggestions regarding cyborg terrorists. Not because I question your ideas but I feel those work better in a Deus Ex game and not really in Robocop.
The themes you mention are interesting as they did play a part in the main campaign, but other than Robocop and the Old Man there are no cyborgs like them unless some other corporations are building these at the moment.

I consider this game fan fic like the comics on explaining the absence of the Old Man in Robocop 3, but a fun fan fic. In one of the comics the Old Man also became a cyborg but more like Robocop. He also was a lot more... well evil.
I got the idea from the Old Man in Rogue city that he may be ruthless but not 'evil' or psychotic, at least not until his 'upgrade'.

[Jazman2k]

Originally posted by TheDutchGhost:

I got the idea from the Old Man in Rogue city that he may be ruthless but not 'evil' or psychotic, at least not until his 'upgrade'.

I never considered old man evil. Ruthless, yes. Shrewd businessman? Sure. But not a murdering sociopath that enjoys killing everyone and everything. That's why It was a HUGE disappointment that Old Man was the final boss in the game. Can't really see at all the the old man wants to be a cyborg, or at least put into the Robocop 2 chassis.

Also the main villain was very boring. I feel like Teyon tried bit too much here. Introducing Ulysses was to me, pointless. Not a bad character, but kinda pointless.

We finally had Lewis back and they got rid of her very quickly. It sure was disappointing.

[Dax_B]

I've reached the old factory and feel like the story has fallen completely off a cliff. Enemy types that get thrown at you here are Robocop 2 prototype rejects, and Teyon have started falling back on using Terminator : Resistance gameplay to pad the game out.

Also, failing to see the antagonist's logic here. Robocop costs too much to keep running and uses too many resources. So I'm going to make a whole army of these units instead that are somehow less strain on said resources? huh, what?

[Mastodon_2]

Originally posted by Dax_B:

Also, failing to see the antagonist's logic here. Robocop costs too much to keep running and uses too many resources. So I'm going to make a whole army of these units instead that are somehow less strain on said resources? huh, what?

Do you believe everything he says, or do you think he might be hiding his true feelings? Secondly, did you actually listen to the dialogue in the game?

The reason OCP have a problem with RoboCop is not so much that he takes a lot of resources to run (he has his engineers, psychotherapist, jars of baby food etc), I'm imagine that given how effective RoboCop is and how he can go into dangerous situations that would almost certainly see other officers killed, I'd imagine that RoboCop is actually great value for money.

The real reason OCP don't like him is because they can't control him and use him like the mindless tool they want him to be, because he retains his humanity - this is a pretty important character development point in the game. RoboCop is a figurehead for the downtrodden good citizens of Detroit, the people who want to get by in life, but are stuck between relentless criminality on one side and the overbearing corporations on the other. OCP wants to evict people to make Delta City and then screw them over with "additional costs" (again, this is mentioned in the game).

RoboCop is a lightning rod for social and political issues, particularly around law enforcement. The 'public trust' interaction moments in the game highlight the difficulty between upholding the law to the letter, or using discretion and allowing people to get away with crimes when perhaps their circumstances have left them little other choice. RoboCop is relatable to the public he serves, he is a hero figure and people care what he says and does. OCP doesn't want humanity in their policing, they want cheap, reliable and predictable law enforcement for the city they have all but taken over.

The UED bots are cheap, you can tell by looking at them that they are far less sophisticated than RoboCop. They don't come with the need for psychological management, they won't question orders and in the case of a public uprising, they could be used as a suppression force. With the scale of economy of manufacturing, one UED probably costs less than a police officer's salary for a few years. The UED doesn't need training, doesn't need to be paid, doesn't get holiday, can work 24/7, never gets injured, never suffers psychological trauma, never uses discretion, just slavishly upholds the law. That is why OCP want to replace human officers with robots.

Anything that Becker, the Old Man or Antonowsky says on the matter can't be trusted.

[maloce]

I dunno why ppl care about the "official cannon". The franchise is kinda dead, who cares? This is better than Robocop 2.

[󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡󠀡]

It's enjoyable. But could have been better. Emil's 'bro' was boring, lacked the charm of proper Robocop antagonist. Nowhere near the level of Boddicker or even Kane. And old man going nuts in a robocop2 shell was just unneccesary in my opinion though i can uderstand he is just corporate rich bastard high on power that wanted to live forever because he is "better than the common people and had vision". It's like Rockefeller asshоle wanting to live forever prolonging his life with medicine and tech normal people have no access to. Thank God they can't live forever... yet.

For the most part i liked Becker because he is a colorful corporate asshоle and like Bob Morton just more of a ♥♥♥♥. Funny as hell.

[c5]

Loved it. I feel like it'll become the Robocop equivalent of Ghostbusters 2009 where people treat it as a true installment. The new characters were fantastic and I loved all the arcs. Robo had a good arc. It actually salvages the weird changes in Robocop 3 by explaining them in a fun way that makes sense. Best Robocop story since the original film and that's coming from someone who has warmed up to Robocop 2 over the years