Robocop has appeared in a ton of games of varying quality over the years, but now we have a surprise release for mobile phones. Based on the upcoming remake of the same name and published by Glu Mobile, Robocop is a free-to-play title that presents the iconic character in a bit of a shooting range. An iOS version is available to download right now for the low, low price of nothing, while the Android version coming later this month.
The official line:
"In 2028 Detroit, when Alex Murphy, a loving husband, father and good cop is critically injured in the line of duty, the multinational conglomerate OmniCorp sees their chance for a part-man, part-robot police officer. Join the OmniCorp program to become RoboCop, the ultimate law enforcement officer! Battle human crooks, robot enemies and learn how to defend the citizens from the corrupt streets of Detroit."
Glu Mobile makes a lot of these free games so they're good at roping people in. There's a couple of things you'll notice right off the bat. First of all it certainly looks fine- the graphics are good and Robocop himself, controversial new costume or not, is well-rendered. Given that the game is free-to-play you'll have what seems like a lot of options to upgrade your character and buy new weapons, and you will play a bunch of missions before you find all the in-game timers and premium currencey doing their best to block your progress. Want to upgrade your weapon? You won't just have to pay the money for it, you'll also have to wait an increasingly longer amount of time. Can't have you enjoying yourself too much for free! It all happens so slow that you won't know just what happened before you're being asked to pony up dough.
The actual game is nothing special, either. Robocop always hides behind cover like he thinks he's made out of flesh (Robocop don't hide!) and has to pop out to shoot some enemies that come rushing at him. Sometimes there will be someone you have to capture so you'll have to aim at their gun to shoot it out of their hand, or sometimes there will be a boss. The more levels you play the closer you get to fighting the classic ED209, although with all the timers in the game it seems like it could take you months (or certainly lots and lots of cash spent on in-game currency) to get to that point.
One thing that irks me is that his iconic gun (the one that makes everyone stop shooting at the police shooting range, in awe) doesn't look, sound or work anything like it does in the original. But hey, free Robocop game. If anything else it's probably better than the remake, which will likely hit theaters with a resounding thud next month.
