Alright. RoboCop: Rogue City is done and dusted. This game managed to retain RoboCop authenticity while providing a completely new story. They even brought in Peter Weller to voice Robo/Alex Murphy. All told, it took me right at 20 hours to complete the game on normal difficulty.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3141822192

So…visually, this is very much what you’d expect. Nice graphics depicting RoboCop era Detroit. This game very much works for the modern era, but also would be perfectly suited to 1987 as well. The audio was also on point. The sounds in the world sounded great.

Now, the voice acting itself is what I’d describe as a mix of really good and very intentionally bad, lol. The voice actors really hammed it up for this one, and it works. The dialogue itself kept me chuckling with a constant flow of deadpan humor throughout the entire twenty hours. Highly entertaining. And, the story was perfect for the subject material.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138938717

The gameplay was also good. Mostly. Even with sensitivity cranked up, playing on the Steam Deck, the controls were a bit stiff. Given as how it’s RoboCop, I do wonder if this is an intentional gameplay decision. It made shooting fun, but also pretty challenging, and for the actual shooting cheevo challenges, I’m thinking you’d probably need k/m to finish them. Regardless, the gunplay was still highly satisfying. You do also get some special combat options depending on how you spend skill points, but I rarely used them. Punching…also highly satisfying.

Speaking of skill points, there are skill trees, and these reminded me a lot of the Mass Effect skill trees. They were, in my opinion, all useful under the different circumstances you’ll be presented with in game, a couple combat skills notwithstanding.

There is also a gun upgrade system for your trademark handgun, utilizing PCBs (printed circuit boards), which also feature what is effectively a mini game, trying to maximize the PCB while avoiding negative stats which can also occur if you don’t set your PCBs properly.

Speaking of guns, there is a pretty nice selection of weapons that can be carried in your second weapon slot (you have one for your pistol, the other for whatever you pick up). You default to a shotgun, which was arguably the most useless weapon in the game, but some of the other weapons are very nice. And with the abovementioned PCBs, you can turn your pistol into an unstoppable killing machine (being wielded by an unstoppable killing machine).

The quest system was intuitive, with main and side objectives clearly marked and presented. And, they were all relevant to the story. There were likewise other encounters that turn into side objectives, which you’ll find by exploring.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138938653

I played on the Steam Deck, on Epic settings. However, late game, there were instances of both framerate plummeting and hard crashing, which prompted me to lower the settings. Other than that, I had zero issues playing on the Deck. Battery life is right at an hour, so you’ll want to play plugged in or have a high speed charger handy.

In my opinion, cost vs value is very much there on sale. There really isn’t any replay value, but the core experience was excellent. I definitely recommend playing it.

Alright. RoboCop: Rogue City is done and dusted. This game managed to retain RoboCop authenticity while providing a completely new story. They even brought in Peter Weller to voice Robo/Alex Murphy. All told, it took me right at 20 hours to complete the game on normal difficulty. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3141822192 So…visually, this is very much what you’d expect. Nice graphics depicting RoboCop era Detroit. This game very much works for the modern era, but also would be perfectly suited to 1987 as well. The audio was also on point. The sounds in the world sounded great. Now, the voice acting itself is what I’d describe as a mix of really good and very intentionally bad, lol. The voice actors really hammed it up for this one, and it works. The dialogue itself kept me chuckling with a constant flow of deadpan humor throughout the entire twenty hours. Highly entertaining. And, the story was perfect for the subject material. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138938717 The gameplay was also good. Mostly. Even with sensitivity cranked up, playing on the Steam Deck, the controls were a bit stiff. Given as how it’s RoboCop, I do wonder if this is an intentional gameplay decision. It made shooting fun, but also pretty challenging, and for the actual shooting cheevo challenges, I’m thinking you’d probably need k/m to finish them. Regardless, the gunplay was still highly satisfying. You do also get some special combat options depending on how you spend skill points, but I rarely used them. Punching…also highly satisfying. Speaking of skill points, there are skill trees, and these reminded me a lot of the Mass Effect skill trees. They were, in my opinion, all useful under the different circumstances you’ll be presented with in game, a couple combat skills notwithstanding. There is also a gun upgrade system for your trademark handgun, utilizing PCBs (printed circuit boards), which also feature what is effectively a mini game, trying to maximize the PCB while avoiding negative stats which can also occur if you don’t set your PCBs properly. Speaking of guns, there is a pretty nice selection of weapons that can be carried in your second weapon slot (you have one for your pistol, the other for whatever you pick up). You default to a shotgun, which was arguably the most useless weapon in the game, but some of the other weapons are very nice. And with the abovementioned PCBs, you can turn your pistol into an unstoppable killing machine (being wielded by an unstoppable killing machine). The quest system was intuitive, with main and side objectives clearly marked and presented. And, they were all relevant to the story. There were likewise other encounters that turn into side objectives, which you’ll find by exploring. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3138938653 I played on the Steam Deck, on Epic settings. However, late game, there were instances of both framerate plummeting and hard crashing, which prompted me to lower the settings. Other than that, I had zero issues playing on the Deck. Battery life is right at an hour, so you’ll want to play plugged in or have a high speed charger handy. In my opinion, cost vs value is very much there on sale. There really isn’t any replay value, but the core experience was excellent. I definitely recommend playing it. [code]If you found this review helpful and would be interested in supporting my Curator group, Robilar's Reviews, it would be appreciated. Cheers. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32549618/[/code] [code]Also follow IndieGems for more reviews like this one. https://store.steampowered.com/curator/32732116-IndieGems/[/code]