History VideoGame / RobotCity

* CondensationClue: Turning the thermostat in your apartment all the way up reveals a message left by Katherine for Dr. Poole on the bathroom mirror.

* YouAllLookFamiliar: Due to the limited CGI of the time, most of the robots you meet are sparse in variety. Worker robots have a number of varying paint jobs, while the Supervisors all have the same silver chassis, compared to the books where each one is different. The only way to tell one robot from another is by its ID info, shown on your comlink.

* LogicBomb: This is almost to be expected when a robot violates the Three Laws. [[spoiler: Also how you defeat Avery's guard robot.]]

* MadScientist: Dr. Avery, who published an in-universe book on the Laws of Robotics, believes that positronic brains are the next step in evolution. His motives are...vague, at best. While useful, not all Spacers accept the safety of this concept, hence Dr. Poole's abhorrence to its potential downsides.

* MadScientist: Dr. Avery, who published an in-universe book on the Laws of Robotics, believes that positronic brains are the next step in evolution. Furthermore, he created Robot City using a material that could be manipulated solely by its integrated computer network, allowing for rapid construction in minutes. His motives are...vague, at best. While useful, not all Spacers accept the safety of this concept, hence Dr. Poole's abhorrence to its potential downsides.

* CompressedAdaptation: The game compresses elements from the first two books in such a way that they [[AlternateContinuity don't entirely follow the original timeline]]. For instance, your life pod lands right in the city [[spoiler: instead of on a remote asteroid]], and Katherine and Dr. Poole came together in a shuttle, [[spoiler: rather than teleporting here with you via the Key.]]

* FutureFoodIsArtificial: Your escape pod has food and drink options, but regardless of your choices, the former is delivered through a tube, and the latter intravenously, complete with artificial flavoring. Later, the only food source Robot City has is [[FoodPills a couple of pills]] packed with a full day's nutrients.

* TheReveal: [[spoiler: Dr. Avery reveals at the end that you are his clone, placed in the DARLA pod as a test subject for Robot City to allow its robots to understand humans.]]

* {{Cloudcuckoolander}}: One malfunctioning robot [[that was traumatized by Dr. Poole's murder]] comes off as this, spouting random quotes while stumbling through the city streets. Alpha can temporarily fix it with the proper cube installed, allowing you to properly interrogate it for information.

* [[spoiler: SelfDestructMechanism: Dr. Avery decides to use this to obliterate Robot City itself, just after you save it. You do get the option to stop him, though.]]

* AlternateContinuity: The game [[CompressedAdaptation compresses elements from the first two books]] in such a way that they don't entirely follow the original timeline. For instance, your life pod lands right in the city [[spoiler: instead of on a remote asteroid]], and Katherine and Dr. Poole came together in a shuttle, [[spoiler: rather than teleporting here with you via the Key.]]

* TheFaceless: Dr. Avery, who spends the entire game monitoring Robot City from presumably an off-world spacecraft. When he finally talks to you at the end, all you see is [[TheVoice an audio graph of his voice]]. Averted with you, however, given that some of the endings show your full body. Even more so in the original novels.

* FeaturelessProtagonist: You, having no identification other than a label on your jumpsuit reading "Derec", which doesn't help much, being the name of a company that makes jumpsuits. Furthermore, your tissue, facial features and DNA have no match in any database. The original novels even had an ID code on his jumpsuit that was only a test code. You are able to talk, at least. [[spoiler: Dr. Avery reveals at the end that you are his clone, placed in the DARLA pod as a test subject for Robot City to allow its robots to understand humans.]]

* BaseOnWheels: In times of emergency, [[spoiler: like now,]] the city's command center detaches from the rest of the city and flees underground to protect itself from input. You have to track it down in a mining robot and dock with it to get inside.

* UndergroundLevel: A mine below the city, late in the game, where you have to find the moving core computer in its tunnels.

* UndergroundLevel: The city's mine, late in the game, where you have to find the moving core computer in its tunnels.

* ComputerVirus: Dr. Poole had created [[spoiler: a virus that would destabilize the city's network and eventually force it to break down; he died just after he uploaded it through an unprotected access port. To fix it, you have to find the data card it was stored on to allow the central computer to write an antivirus from its source code.]]

* * GhostCity: Compared to the novels, Robot City proper is mostly devoid of activity. The only robots you'll come across in the open are the occasional worker robots in the alleys between streets.

* BeautifulVoid: Compared to the novels, Robot City proper is mostly devoid of activity. The only robots you'll come across are the occasional worker robots in the alleys between streets.

* Cloudcuckoolander: One malfunctioning robot [[that was traumatized by Dr. Poole's murder]] comes off as this, spouting random quotes while stumbling through the city streets. Alpha can temporarily fix it with the proper cube installed, allowing you to properly interrogate it for information.

* ImprovisedWeapon: Dr. Poole's cause of death was blunt trauma to the neck, and exploring the city turns up blood on a Calvin Wrench, a tool which was assigned to a worker robot that mysteriously stopped working.

* FeaturelessProtagonist: You, having no identification other than a label on your jumpsuit reading "Derec", which doesn't help much, being the name of a company that makes jumpsuits. Furthermore, your tissue, facial features and DNA have no match in any database. You are able to talk, at least. [[spoiler: Dr. Avery reveals at the end that you are his clone, placed in the DARLA pod as a test subject for Robot City to allow its robots to understand humans.]]

* ChaosArchitecture: Due to the city's abnormally shifting state, this will often happen while you're exploring it. One passage you went down will be different when you turn around, or back alleys will become dead ends.

* TheFaceless: Dr. Avery, who spends the entire game monitoring Robot City from presumably an off-world spacecraft. When he finally talks to you at the end, all you see is an audio graph of his voice. Averted with you, however, given that some of the endings show your full body. Even more so in the original novels.