What I was expecting ... "Doom clone in Robocop skin"
What I got ... "Fantastic Robocop movie disguised as a video game"
This game studio could have phoned it by treating Robocop as yet another Doom Clone run-n-gunner. Just mindlessly throwing you through levels that make no sense to chase some paper-thin plot that is easily forgettable.
But, they didn't.
In the same vein as Robocop, they followed prime directives:
1) Robocop is first and foremost a COP. There are action areas, but they also have you go around investigating and solving crime, from petty misdemeanors to felony investigations. It's a bit of a walking simulator while doing so, but it puts you in the shoes of a COP doing COP work, not just just generic run-n-gunner Doom Clone guy.
2) Build a new story upon the old stories. They didn't just throw in stuff from the movies that didn't make sense. Everything that's woven together in the story, the locations, etc all makes sense, and builds upon the Robocop stories.
3) You're playing an interactive movie. There are cut-scenes and area transitions. But, most of the time you are playing out the story live. You follow up on clues, investigate, resolve an issue, move to the next issue, follow up on the main objective, move to another area... you are ON DUTY and playing your part in the movie as it goes.
These 3 things make this a fantastic game.
I think the biggest compliment I can give it is the "butt in seat" factor. I'm an older gamer. I get bored with games easy these days. They need to really draw me in. If I'm getting up every 30 minutes to go check laundry or something, then the game is lacking. This game had me glued to my seat for a few days straight. I took on the role of Alex Murphy / Robocop, and had a fun time doing so.
Special mention in the gun modding part. You get motherboards for your gun with different abilities and layouts that you plug chips into to unlock.. increased damage, aim stabilization, etc. But, some mobo's have special abilities, like infinite magazine size, explosive bullets, etc. You get these little chips you have to plug in to try to unlock the "good" nodes while avoiding the red "bad" nodes. The chips route power through them depending on which of the 4 sides they have connections on. So, it becomes a sort of puzzle game trying to min/max your gun using the mobo's "maze" layout. You can merge chips to get higher grade ones, but they might have different connectors. So, you have to decide if you want to sacrifice some to try to get a better chip, or try make due with what you have. I don't know why, but this was extremely fascinating and satisfying to me. I loved modifying my gun.
If I had any gripes about the game it might be that they reuse one city section quite a bit. (the police station and a city block sort of act as "hubs"). But, as the story pans out, they do so for good reason. You're following different leads, and solving different crimes each time.
Other slight gripe would be the plot is telegraphed quite a bit on some things. A good mystery novel puts all the clues in front of you to try to solve the mystery yourself before the big reveal. Well, this one sort of spoon feeds you some plots points, so you can predict them when they come up.
But, overall, this is a fantastic game. I felt immersed, and had a blast playing it. Very few games do that for me these days.
