Xbox Series X Review: Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion Remastered (2023)

If you've ever played Turok 3: Shadow of Oblivion on the N64, you know what that one was like. It wasn't the frame-rate crime that was Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (1998), but 3 still ran like big time butt, borderline unplayable in spots. Look. We put up with a lot of single-digit frame-rates back then. It was what we had. Thankfully, things have changed, and a lot of these old games are getting updated to look all spiffy and run nice on modern systems. They did it with the first few Turoks, but I figured they'd stop before 3 because it's so different from the others. But they didn't!

Turok 3 is different because it's very Half-Life (1998) of them; the focus on narrative is much more pervasive. Instead of distinct levels, you get a lot more interconnected areas. Instead of the sprawling, maze-like messes of the first two, Turok 3 is super linear. Overall I think this is a net positive, even if it makes the game generally pretty easy, because I'm just happy to not be lost in the meaningless, more-or-less identical corridors of Turok 2. Nevertheless, Turok 3 is a bit too short, with some aggravating sections, and a questionable level of replayability. You get two different characters (and a few unlockable ones), each with their own weapons, skillsets, and a few exclusive areas to explore, but in general the differences between them are pretty surface level.

In addition to a playable, barf-free framerate, the developers also added more ammo and health, as the dearth of pickups in the original version of the game made it much harder than it needed to be. And they took away the multiplayer! If you've played the original Turok 3, you likely remember that the multiplayer bot matches were excellent garbage, deeply customizable to break things apart with variable running speeds, anti-gravity, tons of weapons, and weirdly cramped and strangely innovative level design. They let you break it with some crazy settings and it was awesome. If they update this game, they should totally bring it back because without it, the Turok 3 package is a bit sparse for the asking price. Wait until it's cheaper! That's my advice to you.

Xbox Series X Review: Robocop: Rogue City (2023)

The first RoboCop (1987) is amazing. This likely isn't news to anyone, but I still find it wild that such a brutal, truly anti-corpofascist film could ever be released by a major studio. And then they made the sequels. RoboCop 2 (1990) is ooooook, it's fine, it has that child drug dealer, and RoboCop 3 is itself a crime. I went to the 2014 reboot and remember nothing about it. They also made some RoboCop video games! They're trash too, except for RoboCop Versus The Terminator (1993) on the Sega Genesis (and definitely not the SNES version), which was stupid hard but had cheats (thank god) and buckets of blood.

Anyway, this is all to say the RoboCop franchise is a total mess. Thankyfully, RoboCop: Rogue City attempts to clean up this mess. Taking place after the events of the second movie, Rogue City is a hybrid FPS and robo-role-playing adventure game, and a large part of it is a tribute to the series. When you're not shooting dudes and walking forward slowly, you're talking to dudes and walking forward slowly. Sometimes they ask you to find cats, find their sons, and hand out parking tickets to cars parked too close to fire hydrants. These parts, especially the more open world sections where you (Mr. RoboCop) walk around the streets of Detroit and talk to folks, can become fairly boring and the conversations drone on for too long. Still, there's some good character work and writing here, with choices that have effects on both the narrative and gameplay, but thankfully this mundane activity is then offset by some incredible shootouts. Rogue City is brutal. You kill guys really good in a lot of different, upgradable ways. This is the best part of the RoboCop Simulator. The combat is incredibly satisfying, in-depth, and shockingly customizable.

RoboCop: Rogue City is a fairly long game for a modern FPS, although too much of the 10 hours or so it takes to complete the game is dedicated to long stretches of dialogue. By the end the of the game, however, I found that the commitment to so much conversation actually worked somewhat in the game's favor and the characterizations paid off. Unfortunately, the final act does wear out the game's welcome by the end with one too many reveals and turns and final final boss battles. Nevertheless, if you dig FPS action and need something new to play, Rogue City is worthwhile.