Drop it, scum! - A big conversation about Robocop: Rogue City

At least Robocop: Rogue City and found unheard of popularity among ordinary players (up to 90% of positive reviews in Steam), many see the game no more than a monosyllabic shooter of the second echelon, speculating on the nostalgia for the old cinema cinema. And there is a share of truth in this. In fact, Rogue City is a complex work, all the components of which are interconnected and, at least, deserve accounting when summing up the final conclusions. The fact that the game imagines, what is its charm, and why, contrary to everything, a good shooter, and I propose to talk in detail.

I myself am not susceptible to nostalgia - the robocop was not elementary in my childhood - but the scrupulousness with which the game enters himself into the context of the films uses my ovations. There is a certain difference between the exploitation of recognizable images and the careful attitude to them, and Rogue City, of course, is the second option. From a common mood to barely noticeable privateities - the game recreates in detail what these films were.

Actually, what is a movie about a robocop. Briefly, these are grotesque-burning militants in a slightly diligent setting-the handwriting of the director Paul Verkhoven is affected. According to the exposition, the hell is happening with the world - in South America, an atomic power station explodes in the coast of the Amazon, the rebels in the south of Africa threaten to undermine the hydrogen bomb, the US defense satellite, in oversight, inflicted a series of blows over their own territories, killing two former presidents, the military submarine was found in the middle of the incomprehensibly where and opened fire in an incomprehensible wayto whom, the war police officer ED-209 during the detention again shot someone not that, and so on, and so on. However, this is just a background, outlining the widespread crisis, and which is much more important for a direct plot, is social tension within the United States, in particular, in Detroit, the famous city of engines, the city of the bankrupt and crime sites.

From genuine Detroit, Kinoschina almost inherited nothing, calling the complex criminal situation and, perhaps, a black mayor. And you will not immediately say which of the city options-real or fictional-better. In films about a robocop, the scope of crime reaches such an extent that gangs are refueling in whole areas where the police do not dare to meddle, and the police themselves are shot like frantic dogs, regularly replenishing the necrologists. The crisis of power and the economy has responded here - a city that cannot maintain law enforcement, delegated this responsibility of the private company Omni Consumer Products, or OCP. Corports took up the matter not out of their own nobility, but out of the desire to absorb the city whole. Only then, in order to destroy and erect a new utopian delta City, in which there will be neither crime nor poverty on the site of the old Detroit. However, residents of poor areas are unlikely to find a place in the new world.

But these are plans for the future. So far, in the framework of the preparatory stage, OCP needs to find a new effective tool against unbridled crime - effective, trouble -free, and to serve it was cheaper than a police state, of course. Robokop, a former policeman Alex Murphy, who was brutally killed in the service and who risen in a new mechanical body, became such a means.

And, in general, the 1987 Robokop is, in fact, Cyberpank in the most typical form is a planet, immersed in endless chaos, growing the gap between the rich and the poor, the state’s refusal to violence in favor of private supercorpions, cyborgs and the idea of ​​continuing life in a synthetic body, finally. What is not in Robokop is the network itself, cyberspace, as well as hackers and everything else, which is associated with the genre. Therefore, this is rather a fantastic anti-utopia, but in the horizons common with cyberpank, and the absence of all kinds of hints on the Internet in the "robocope" makes it even more vintage, located in its unique coordinate system, where developed robotics coexists with retro cars and analog TVs.

And within the framework of the cyberpanus genre, it is somehow not customary to be a parody. And the "Robokop", by moments, is a frank parody, and what is very black. Whether it is hysterically screaming mayor, appealing to the personal feelings of the townspeople, but did nothing useful for them, who was ready to take money from the mafia, just to disperse from OCP. Or this wonderful marketing, presented, for example, a means against a sugar sugar, which should protect the skin from the consequences of the destruction of the ozone layer and, perhaps, can cause cancer in the user. And what is the Magna Volt anti -theft system, capable of frying an unlucky thief of cars, which, obviously, does not contradict the current legislation. We live in such a world.

OCP itself is an extremely extreme corporation, and the robocop will remain their main success both in terms of the merger of a person and car, as well as in terms of achievement in the city of law and order. In the 3rd film, OCP was almost absorbed by Japanese partners-another reference characteristic of Cyberpan-but turned into dust even earlier. However, the 3rd part turned out to be a rather lousy picture in itself, and the events described there least of all I want to take into account as canonical.

Well, what about the game itself - all this is in it. All these ridiculous terrible news, delusional advertising of goods and services unsafe for life, ridiculous politicians and businessmen, whose connivance coexists with radical considerations, as well as poverty and banditry resonating against their background, unpromising and general decline in life in such a place. Rogue City very carefully reproduced distinguishing moments from the film, emphasizing this difference between the funeral grotesque and terrible reliability, walking hand in hand. In other words, the game not only gives the scenery from the films, but also their spirit, individualism and key essence are conveyed.

But regarding the plot of the game, you need to make a remark. Of course, films about Robocope are flesh from the flesh of the 80s of American entertainment cinema, sometimes stupid and not very adhering logical structures. The plot in Rogue City, in principle, is the same - in general, serious, but not very reasonable. But in this case, this is not considered a drawback, because it was not so easy I talked about how many video games took from the original source. The story told in Rogue City is the same ultra 80s as the plots of original films, perfectly fit into the context and structure of stories about the robocope.

Moreover, in some places the game allows himself to explore the topics raised by the franchise much more deeply than the source did the source. First of all, this applies to Robocop himself and his ambivalence - the conflict between the machine form and the human nature. Although Murphy is subordinate to the programs sewn into it, his human brain still remembers his former life, his wife and son-the outbreaks of these memories lead to circuits, glaines, which is why the issue of the suitability and replacement of the robocop, as well as his humanity, the possibility of having civil rights, flashes again in the public, and of course in OCP. Up to the point that a personal psychotherapist is assigned to Murphy, the answers to the questions of which will determine the degree of self -awareness of the protagonist.

However, the tragedy is that this internal conflict https://rouge-casino.co.uk/ and elections around it are ghostly. For example, I decided to abandon the personality of Murphy and become an automaton in the law enforcement service - however, no, by the end of the game the protagonist quite clearly speaks of himself as a person, thereby leveling all my participation, leveling my choice and taking it up to the narrative element. And, frankly, the answers that the player are free to choose more likely to arrange a psychotherapist to us, Dr. Olivia Blanche, and not to reveal the identity of Robocop himself.

As for the villain of history, this is another direct native of his times, Wendell Antonovsky is a rather charismatic person for a one-dimensional mercenary, who at some point turned his head ambitious thoughts that he was able to clean up the whole Detroit, arranging a real occupation of the city. What Antonovsky intended to do, if he did, he remained a mystery, but his plan from the very beginning was not accustomed to think. However, this is not all the oddities of the plot - the antagonist all this time secretly worked for OCP, and not only pested Robokop, sending visions from a past life, but also actively stole human corpses. For what? As I understand it, in order to conduct all the necessary studies and allow the head of the OCP with the meaningful nickname "Old Man" to achieve digital immortality before his body gets the earth.

And this, in principle, is a good story, and only the deliberate elaboration of its individual turns-like the seizure of Detroit-and the general superficiality remind that Robokop is still a relic from the last century and should not be too seriously treating it.

I mentioned Dr. Olivia Blanche - she, homeless, nicknamed "cucumber" and several more characters will accompany us throughout history, acting not so much by plot triggers as, again, an element of the environment. And this, in principle, is not bad - another opportunity to get acquainted with that Detroit a little closer. And the elections in the dialogs for them even affect something-at the end of the game of each of the second-aligning heroes, one of the endings awaits, conditionally good and bad. That's just, no matter how I tried, I achieved success only in relation to the reporter. Well, that is, as success - she joined an extremist organization from the final film of the trilogy, but, based on the context of that product, this is rather a positive outcome. Here the "cucumber" was less fortunate - he was swallowed by a giant python. Retrofuturistic Detroit amazing city.

The plot in Rogue City, in addition to immersion in the past, does something else important-it is a connecting bridge between the 2nd and 3rd part, explaining, for example, where the same old man disappeared. In particular, even though Kane was eliminated, his brainchild, the Newc drug has not disappeared from the streets, and entire underground laboratories continue to produce this rubbish on an industrial scale. Also, the dislike of OCP managers to Robocop, episodic in the cinema, in the game received expression in general, the new character, Max Becker, who hated Murphy with some kind of pathological passion. Well, the already mentioned "disorder of the psyche" of the most important hero.

Other characters from films, of course, there is also here. But I could not decide for myself - this is the quality of the graphics, or video game Lewis is completely different from the film. The features, as if, are the same, but the general texture of the face is different.

Game process

Probably the most controversial part of Rogue City is her gameplay. And it's not even about shooting - although, partly, in it too. Let's say, a significant part of the pleasure from the game is not shooting as such, but how it is decorated. Shooting of limbs, blood fountains, explosions, all kinds of accompanying destruction, the roar and weight of the weapon, finally do not concern this topic, because it is quite scrupulous, but in general, in the overwhelming number of shooters, we kill people. And the more believably this is done, the more pleasure brings. Whether Dikarskaya is the nature of man, or a safe expression of anger - decide for yourself. The bottom line is that at least Rogue City gameplay is little, but playing it fun. Although the game can be dismissively called "Tyr", it is a very swift shooting range that looks brutal, encouraging accuracy and, despite the general slowness of the robocop, which requires to be mobile.

Personally, my claim to local shooting is the supply of enemies. Of course, I understand that if people in the game were dying of one bullet like in real life, then there would be nothing to play here, and I really want to press the trunk’s trunk - this is the main dopamine lever. That's just, in situations where you have to apply up to three hits in the head so that the goal so agrees with death, I begin to lose a sense of reliability of what is happening and, as a result, the pleasure of the process. This does not happen often, but still. Some opponents, like the bikers "vultures", as if they have a lot of health than the same punks, although outwardly nothing indicates it. Total, when the enemy stands the line in the chest, I can still accept this - all the more so since these are fucking drug addicts - but when the same happens with hitting the head, the play begins to fall apart.

In fact, the cause of my difficulties can be an elementary scatter of bullets, as well as the fact that the solitary regime of fire is not at all suitable for the default pistol of the robocop, Auto-9. He has something like a pumping system, which involves the correct placement of processors on the pistol printed house. How electronic stray can increase the damage of firearms, and even the volume of its store, it is better not to think.

In fairness, the automatic mode of firing from the properly pumped Auto-9 almost completely leveles the designated ludonarratic dissonance, but at first the gun, of course, is mediocre. But Murphy can choose an additional unit of weapons, and if his own gun does not always reach the goal, then the good old Desert Eagle already condemns scum from the streets with one hit. The problem is only in the limb of ammunition for such weapons.

Otherwise, shooting at Rogue City is gratifying - sections diverted for shooting are quite long, but the skirmishes themselves pass almost as quickly as if it were a real fight against an indomitable cyborg with a target indicator and fire superiority.

Though a strong guy, but still not immortal, and to be sluggish, they kill in Rogue City very quickly. Moreover, I did not notice the difference between the game on the "high" and "medium" settings of complexity - you grab them the same. To survive the hero helps, first of all, an activated shield that reduces incoming damage, a kind of first -aid kit and a number of other, more situational objects and abilities.

In addition, the game has pumping and the robocop itself. And she raises me only one question: "Why is it here?". As many as 8 positions, truly useful of which only 2 are damage and armor. Some of the attributes do not make sense at all - for example, pumped skill of engineering allows us to reprogram turrets. You know how many turrets I met in 18 hours of game? - Exactly 2. There is also an autopsy of the safe - when you grow a characteristic to the desired condition, then no safe will meet you - they are present only in the initial episodes, and there are no such attention to yourself.

Pumping like nothing else in the game looks at Atavism, as if it had to be shoved only for the simple reason that today it was the norm of Gamdev. Well, also because the player has a motivation to perform additional tasks in the game.

And these additional tasks often cause bewilderment. Before, I praised Rogue City for the efforts to achieve authenticity with films, but this does not cancel the fact that side missions in the game are usually uninterrupted. Instead of doing something worthwhile, you are forced to crawl forward-forth on the proposed fragment of Detroit, acting as no other than the audience of fascinating stories. For example, the mayor’s niece stole the car - go figure it out: look for the tracks of the wheels, then go to the car repair shop, listen to the story that the assistant mechanic is a good guy with the bad past that haunts him, and so on, and the like, and the like. The player’s participation in such productions is minimal, and they themselves are far from so good to deserve our attention. In separate quests in the police station, Robokopa literally give tasks in the spirit of "bring-give", and once I even had to run after the towel for the officer in the shower, as if I were an internship, which they were funny, or someone else.

However, there are interesting among these missions, as when the “cucumber” and I went to the video rental under the pretext of “help him to find the desired film,” which turned out to be not the primary motivation of the tramps even with genuine love for cinema. Or the case of an drug traffick, whom we had scooped up in jail and who discovered that he likes to do was washing even more than all this criminal life - during his subsequent riot he alone will refuse to participate, continuing on duty in the laundry. But at least half of the interactive stories that the game has, devoid of any humorous or emotional filling, is realized in a rather mediocre manner and, frankly, only spends the player's time. The only excuse for such side missions can be a desire to learn more about the virtual Detroit, well, and rest after shooting, due to its schematics, capable of tires.

In other words, gameplay Rogue City is a kind of rail shooter that not everyone will like, and a very nondescript simulation of the open world, necessary only to stretch the passage. And, in general, although the game can be scolded rightly for this, this is not a great blasphemy - I get my aesthetic pleasure from the local shooting, and you can skip annoying optional missions, even though the character will lose in the pumping.

Technical side

And finally, a little about how the game works and looks like. Looks quite decent, and even beautiful. But although local people are distinguished by a good study, it is still impossible to call them realistic-they are too plastic.

But with performance, everything is somewhat sadder. For one session, I have to run the game three times-for the 1st time it does not want to start, after which, through pain and humiliation, it is the main menu in 5 FPS;For the 2nd time, Rogue City is already launched adequately, but microstaters will pursue you the whole game. And only to the 3rd attempt, the game finally comes to his senses and works as you expect from it, and then it slows down. Nothing critical, but unpleasant. Otherwise, I did not meet any bugs or mistakes of the game for 2 passages, except for sometimes a bizarre registration.

Rogue City, frankly, the game is not quite self -sufficient - most of its advantages refers to the fact that it is a product in the Robokop franchise, and it can be overlooked if the audience is not interested in the local setting. At the same time, it is an entertaining, but a flat shooter in which you are trying to shoot targets faster than they will deal with you. Well, at the end, the open world, which at least partially works for immersion in the setting, but the project is rather not needed. And yet, I risk saying that Rogue City is a decent video game work. If only because it is precisely what entertains its viewer, both narrative and gameplay, there is something to see, there is something to listen to - the world and its inhabitants are eccentric, the shooting part is loud and bloody, the scenery and the picture in the game is pretty.

Well, personally for me it is also a shooter in which you can feel the pleasure of shooting - the power of a weapon that breaks life - at least sometimes the game itself spoils this impression. At a minimum, I can imagine how I return to Rogue City after years - the game is competent enough to make it possible. And besides, there are very few such projects that they would so clearly and convincingly into the space. Rogue City can also be loved, then respect, and the general uniformity of the gameplay cannot be considered a flaw in the eyes of those who love games for emotions and the opportunity to communicate with the virtual world. My recommendations.