Robocop 3D

Introduction

Released alongside Robocop 3 as a PC conterpart to the 2D console ones, Robocop 3D included four 3D game modes in one, including driving, flying, beat-em-up, and FPS. You can either pick any mode in "Arcade Action", or choose the "Movie Adventure" that arrange the modes into full single player story while including cut scenes in between levels. The story opens up like with a newscast covering the recent crimewave of a new gang of criminals known as the Splatterpunks. They go on to announce the Splatterpunks have taken hostages which leads to Robocop chasing them and is the opening to the first game mode.

Modes

Driving Mode:

In driving mode Robocop must chase down the Splatterpunks and ram into them in order to take their health down. The Splatterpunks don't take this lieing down, as they fire back out of the back of their vans, meaning Robocop has to slam into the side of their cars if he wants to keep his health intact. This all takes place over an open world map where robocop can drive anywhere he wants and the mini-map is needed in order to track down the vans full of hostages. The driving mode also includes a cinematic camera mode.

Shooting Mode:

The shooting mode is the most popular mode. In shooting mode Robocop must walk through a building, shooting all the men with guns while avoiding shooting the hostages. Because of the lack of textures thanks to the vector graphics, all of the NPCs look exactly the same, so the only way to determine if a man is hostage is by their animations. The shooting retical flows freely on the screen, allowing Robocop to shoot multiple targets without having to physically turn. The standard controls for this mode only requires the mouse, with the right mouse button being the walk button and left click being the fire button. In order to turn you have to point your retical to the sides of the screen. To help you find your way to the objective there is a beeping noise, which gets more frequent the closer to the objective you are.

Flying Mode:

In flying mode Robocop puts on his jetpack and flys around the same city as in the driving mode. This is by far the most difficult mode, as it is extremely hard to avoid being it by enemies or run into the sides of buildings. The giant radar helps by giving a 2D representation of where they are in the world.

Fighting Mode:

Robocop can also fight punks and ninja robots in hand to hand combat. Just like the rest of the modes, the fights are fully in 3D where Robocop can walk freely around the room as he punches the evildoers. The controls are just like in the original Resident Evil where pressing left and right makes Robocop move left and right relative to his view and not the camera.

Gallery

Legacy

Robocop 3D was largely overshadowed by Robocop 3 on consoles like the NES, but was largely acclaimed as the better game. Robocop 3D incorporated numerous concepts that were pretty new at the time but have been replicated in newer games including a very open 3D city and a realistic HUD that animated based on in game actions like getting hit. Robocop was attempted again as a 3D FPS in 2003 in a game simply called Robocop, but Robocop (2003) was a critical and sales failure ending the line of Robocop video games.