RoboCop Rogue City review: Revival shows dystopian future has become the present

So RoboCop’s parody stings a little less since the future became the present. In this belated game tie-in from little-known Polish developer Teyon, it’s as if the last 36 years never happened. Part-human, part-android uber-cop Alex Murphy is still cleaning up the drug-addled streets of a crumbling Detroit but a new Mr Big has taken control of the city’s notorious narco-networks.

RoboCop: Rogue City is the latest in a long line of spin-off games rooted in the nihilism of Verhoeven’s original and its mockery of corporate-run “urban pacification”. But this is the one that most effectively captures the scuzzy reality of the film, helped by Peter Weller’s involvement as he reprises his role as Murphy.

There’s no mistaking Rogue City for a scathing indictment of right-wing politics, however. This is a first-person shooter that’s more comfortable with firing guns and blowing stuff up than tossing off pithy one-liners about mindless consumerism or media manipulation.

RoboCop’s a killing machine who wades through back-alley shoot-outs and wasteland warfare with punks shouting pathetic insults as they wander into his crosshairs. He can’t jump and can barely jog, so most missions resemble a lengthy bout of slow-motion target practice. Occasionally, he’ll pause to pick up a projectile — a TV, a motorbike, a keg of gas — which explodes in a satisfying ball of flame as it connects with any thug unfortunate to stand in his line of sight. Jarringly, amid all this bedlam, Weller’s delivery of RoboCop’s lines (“Reinforcements have arrived” and so on) sounds as if he’s just popped a jumbo bottle of Valium. His rallying cries are more like the depressed patter of Marvin the Paranoid Android from The Hitchhikers’ Guide to the Galaxy than those of a superhuman.

For all its flaws, Rogue City hews closely enough to the look and feel of Verhoeven’s classic to remain pleasingly entertaining. Teyon clearly lacks the budget for a major-league project, mostly clearly shown in the game’s flickering cut-scenes.

But the developers’ love for RoboCop is evident in its commitment to the nihilism of the original film’s vision, not to mention the authenticity of its audio and Weller’s contribution as the metallic voice of the tin man himself.