Robocop II

STORY / GAMEPLAY
Nuke, the newly designed drug hits the streets of Detroit and Robocop must put an end to this. The best way to do it is to raid all the safe-houses and factories that produce and supply the market with Nukes and shoot everyone except of their bosses in charge. Your orders are to arrest those guys alive! Additionally, you must destroy any Nuke found in your way. Note that the C64 version resembples the NES version. Thus, gameplay (and graphics) are way different than the Amstrad release. Robocop is called to navigate through a set of platform environments killing, arresting and collecting drugs. You can arrest gangsters by punching them until they fall down and you can use your almighty 1000-bullets automatic pistol to take down the rest of the villains. You should arrest enough people otherwise the gameplay will change in a first person shooter perspective (!). Apart from the attacking villains or the snipers popping out from windows, Robocop must watch for deadly gaps or water pits which will instantly terminate him. Most of the times, your desperate attempts to safely maneuver "Robo" to the next platform, will eventually crush him down. In the "frustration" section, there are very hard bosses, as well as some ability-testing levels. The overall gameplay is rather tough and Robocop's awkward inertia makes him almost uncontrollable, especially when he lands or performs a jump just before or after a deadly gap. He seems to “slide” a lot and often plummets over the edge of a platform leading to certain death. Smooth and precise movement is required and it takes some time to master the awkward controls that sometimes respond in a very slow manner. OK, though the game is hard to play, it’s also pretty addictive and there are plenty of neat touches to keep you in, plus some loads of secret screens to discover.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Robocop 2 graphics are good, offering nicely done backgrounds and quite sizeable sprites, while the city landscapes and factory/safe-houses’ interiors are beautifully detailed and colored! The ability testing levels are a nice addition and are played from a different perspective. The sound of the game is cool too, using the original tunes taken from the arcade version (and the movie) along with a few decent sound FX such as gunfire and explosions that complete its "battling" atmosphere.