Roger’s $0.02 - Surprising Sci-Fi Gaming (Patreon)

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been dual-playing two different video game titles. Both can be comfortably classified as science fiction but with two very different approaches to tone and gameplay. But what unifies them besides their category label is how unassumingly engrossing they ended up being. Games that I was very much on the fence about when I started out playing them but I felt more fond of them by the end of the games.

Nostalgia is a bit of a recurring theme in many of the cultural products of our current zeitgeist. So much so that reboots and sequels are common currency in the movie and television biz. Video games are no different. Enter “RoboCop: Rogue City”. Both a love letter to Paul Verhoeven’s seminal 80s dystopian sci-fi action flick and a sequel to his first and second movies of the franchise. You play the titular RoboCop, a beat cop who was savagely murdered by organized crime and subsequently turned into a law enforcement cyborg by the conglomerate OCP that runs the police department and most other things in the city. The game developers have done an impressive job recreating the look and feel of the original two movies for the game. Iconic locations, like the police department and Alex Murphy’s home, are reproduced incredibly well. You feel like you're in those scenes from the movie. Peter Weller, the actor who played RoboCop in the first two movies, lends his voice and facial likeness to the character.

The game itself is a bit deceiving at first. Initially, It felt like your typical FPS reskinned with a RoboCop veneer. But everything from the way RoboCop moves to the trademark targeting boxes keeps you immersed in the game's world of Old Detroit. You fight a new crime boss that has taken the reins over Old Detroit’s gangs, alongside the traditional friction between the police department and its OCP bosses, plus a dysfunction in RoboCop’s psychological make-up that causes him to stall out. As you start, the game feels like any other FPS but as you progress and the story unfolds you start to see the RPG and Mass Effect-like dialogue elements. 

After my first couple of hours with the game it felt more engrossing,  but I was still skeptical at how long the game could keep my interest. By the second day of game playing I was hooked. The story itself was very much in the style of the original movie and touches upon some of the social commentary of the first movie, and adds its own, specifically if RoboCop is his own person or just private property devoid of any real agency or even rights. The actual action portion of the gameplay is pretty rote. Shoot and more shoot. All the enemies felt pretty much all the same except for the bosses. Not much in the way of a variety of the character models or their actions. But at the end of it, I came away rather content. If I were to letter grade “RoboCop: Rogue City” I would give it a “B”. Definitely worth a play.

Hot on the heels of RoboCop: Rogue City is a game that feels like its exact opposite “The Invincible”. “The Invincible” is a hard sci-fi game based on the late Polish author Stanisław Lem’s 1964 novel of the same name. Like RoboCop: Rogue City “The Invincible” puts you in a first-person perspective. But unlike Rogue City, there’s little action going on. You don’t really shoot at anything, except for one scene, nor are you worried about power-ups or a health meter. In fact, much of the game is exploration and figuring out where to go. You play Yasna, an astrobiologist, who must explore the alien world of Regis III to locate her missing companions. During her search, she uncovers alien life that might have a role in their disappearance. “The Invincible” is more of a branching narrative game with outcomes based on player choices and less about how fast you can press the fire button or do inventory management. If you need a kill counter or multi-player mode in your games this is not the title for you.

A key part of what makes “The Invincible” so engrossing is the level of scientific discourse that permeates the experience. The game’s origins as a hard sci-fi novel, where concern for scientific accuracy and logic are key, is reflected in the experience. As you explore the planet you’re in constant contact with a colleague orbiting the planet where you trade hypotheses about your experiences and reason out scenarios. There’s no “Deus ex machina” or surprise villain that springs out of nowhere. To round out the experience are the lush visuals of an alien landscape. I cranked my visual experience out to Epic in the game’s settings. A majority of the locations and scenes are incredibly picturesque with views that are both surreal and sublime. Coupled with an eerily haunting soundtrack the game is definitely an other-world experience, just don’t come in expecting an action-adventure title. I would definitely grade this game an “A”.

Although “The Invincible” seems like such a different game from “RoboCop: Rogue City” it shares one notable similarity with the shoot-em-up besides being a sci-fi game. I initially had an ambivalent feel about both these games but the more I played the more I wanted to finish the game. I wanted to see the end to see and experience. And the finales for both these games were well worth the effort. They felt fulfilled. Something that I didn’t feel with Bethesda’s Starfield. If you find yourself looking for something to play over the upcoming holiday season I heartily recommend either game.