Caine Must Pay

If we’re being totally fair, RoboCop 2 is a bad movie. It tries, in many ways, to live up to the original film, but a combination of the lack of Paul Verhoeven in the director’s chair plus a ton of executive meddling on the part of the studio sank any chance the film could be good. Fans were disappointed in a movie that went too hard, too goofy, and too far, all combining in a somehow bland film that was basically, “let’s do the first film, but more!” The studio should have backed off and let the creatives come up with something truly interesting, but they didn’t and it sank the film.

It’s no surprise, then, that a video game based on the movie would be just as bad, then. The arcade game was developed by Data East, who also handled development on the first arcade game, and they come back to do, like the second film, “the same thing again, but more!” That’s really what they deliver here, a game that hits all the same beats as the first time, in much the same way, with very little added to the experience at all. In effect, if you played RoboCop in the arcade and desperately just wanted more of that, this was exactly what you asked for. Just, as they say, be careful what you wish for.

Like the film it mirrors, RoboCop 2 follows the adventures of Detroit’s finest protector as he works to bring down an illegal drug-running gang, led by the charismatic cult-like leader, Caine. Through a couple of early stages, RoboCop has to fight through the goons that make up the gang, cleaning up the streets of their filth before working his way up to Caine. After a highway chase that leaves Caine near death, the mad scientists at OCP revive the criminal, turning him (quite literally) into RoboCop 2. From there, our hero has to battle through more goons, and then the mechs and machines at OCP, to finally take on Caine and destroy not only his robot body but the bit of human flesh still within his metal frame, killing the villain once and for all.

The arcade sequel plays a lot like the original. Like the first game, RoboCop 2 is a combination belt-scrolling beat-em-up and shooter. As the cyborg, you can punch and attack bad guys, along with performing a few different additional beat-em-up moves. Grapples, grab punches, and throws are all available, and a few of those moves can do solid damage. You also have your gun, the rapid fire pistol, and you can collect a number of other limited-use guns along the way. Managing your street attacks and shooting is the best way to get through the game.

The basic action of the game is fine. Data East knew their way around arcade games and, as proven by the first title, they could handle the basic mix of punching and shooting that these games called for. They didn’t do all that much differently this time around, essentially just build a set of new stages with the same mechanics for the hero to move through once more. Again, more of the same, but bigger! That was the order of the game, and the company stuck to it for the basic stages.

A couple of stages do have spots where RoboCop turns from the belt scrolling and faces the background. Then the game switches to a kind of shooting gallery game play, reminiscent of the first games literal shooting galleries. These sections kind of suck, though, as it ruins the forward momentum of the game. The forward action is the best part of the game, while these sections are just basic shooting, which is honestly the least interesting part of the experience. They feel like padding to stretch out an already short (five stages and 25 minutes of gameplay) game.

And they’re redundant because the game still has the shooting gallery bonus stages as well. This time they’re couched as chase sequences, with RoboCop riding a vehicle (a motorcycle the first time, a cop car the second) while shooting at vehicles and helicopters that are trying to kill him. These at least feel more dynamic because you’re on a backdrop that is moving forwards, but the effect is still the same. These sections were tolerable but not great in the first game, and we certainly didn’t need more of this kind of action in the sequel.

With that said, there were parts of the game I liked. For starters, the game looks really good. While the first game looks solid enough, it does feel a touch aged now, looking back at it with modern eyes. The sequel, though, has bigger and brighter graphics, with more detail and more colors. Everything feels richer, crisper, and bigger. This is a greatly refined game with much better graphics, showing a level of attention and care that is certainly appreciated. In arcades, at the time, I’m sure this looked like a showstopper.

And I do think the final boss battle is interesting enough. Unlike the other bosses in the game, which are single fights, Caine is a four part battle, with RoboCop fighting him across various sections of a larger stage, taking out parts of Caine’s body as they traverse the environs. The Caine fight itself isn’t that interesting, mind you, as he’s a bullet sponge with similar attacks in each phase, meaning you’ll be doing a lot of the same stuff, for a long time, before finally finishing the game, but I like the idea of this evolving fight across an entire stage. I wish it were more involved, but I think the basic concept works well.

Finally, this really isn’t that great but at least it’s something: Data East managed to keep themselves from reusing the same bosses over and over again as much in this title. The first game had the same bosses, especially the ED-209 fight, over and over. This time around ED-209 only shows up once, a miracle in and of itself. And then boss fights that do repeat essentially downgrade the fight to a sub-boss before building to something else. It feels like I shouldn’t give too much credit for essentially, “you didn’t copy your work as much as you could,” but still… points where it’s due, I guess.

Still, on the whole this game doesn’t find much it can do better or different from the first game. It feels very repetitive, very padded out, very much a copy of the first game. The first title was great, of course, a solid arcade adventure that fans loved. This one is the same in most ways, with little in the way of improvements, and a few things that feel worse. It would have been better if Data East could have done more, instead of more of the same, and that holds this game back from even feeling like a better experience than the original. It’s the same, but bigger! Fans wanted something better than just that.