RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business continues the crime-stopping adventures of the titular RoboCop in a new standalone game that’s too big to be a DLC, but so similar that it can’t be called a sequel. It’s clear Teyon wasn’t done with RoboCop, and it turns out neither was I. While my affinity for the movie series is not as strong as others, being able to step back into the metal boots of RoboCop has been another fun romp. There’s plenty more criminal scum to put away, and RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business takes some risks and even some liberties, trying to avoid the first game’s pitfalls to deliver another great power fantasy where limitations exist – and mostly succeeds.
Unfinished Business picks up shortly after the events of Rogue City, still set between “RoboCop 2” and “RoboCop 3”. RoboCop has been called to action in Old Detroit as the Metro West police station is attacked, and the perpetrators have killed almost everyone you interacted with there. After this event, RoboCop is drawn to OmniTower where you’ll spend the rest of the game as you work towards solving this crime. You’d think being stuck in the confines of this tower would be too samey or oppressive, but Teyon was able to explore unique and diverse looking locations and other creative ways to avoid that. Peter Weller once again reprises his role as RoboCop, the former cop known as Alex Murphy, whose purposefully dry delivery is funny. This time there’s a “woman in the chair” to help guide you towards liberating the tower of all the criminals there.
When comparing this to the first game, I beat it 15 hours when completing most of the side missions along the campaign. There’s less missions, but you’ll spend about two-thirds of the original game’s time in them. Unfinished Business still has plenty of collectibles to find, side missions to uncover and pursue, and places to just soak in the atmosphere and environments. Without a sense of urgency driving the story, so it becomes a game you’ll want to take your time in the game world. Replayability is rather low once you’ve completed the campaign.
Smartly, you start with all the abilities from the first game. You can flashbang, slow down time, put up extra armor to prevent incoming damage for a short time, and dash. Along the way you’ll pick-up new weapons like the freeze gun or utilize night vision in dark areas. There’s a new instakill finishing move that RoboCop can perform on weakened enemies. Not only does it look cool, but it ensures that they don’t get up. Teyon still hasn’t really resolved the skill points issue from the first game. All the skills breakdown into seven categories: combat, armor, vitality, engineering, focus, scanning, and deduction. Each skill point invested increases their effectiveness, and at certain levels where they will introduce a buff. The problem is, I never felt like there was a certain tier of a skill I had to have, or if I did, felt like it took too long to get. And this is an issue with RoboCop: Rogue City as well, not just Unfinished Business. I wish this system was revamped into something snappier. Though I suspect if you were to play this and go back to the first game, they probably wanted to have parity between the two.
As you traverse OmniCorp Tower, you’ll encounter a plethora of new enemies like shield bearers, machine gunners, turrets, drones, and of course flying drones. None of the enemies you encounter were annoying, except maybe the roller drones, if they caught you off-guard. Otherwise, they are all easy to learn behaviors, and so countering them with minimal damage to RoboCop becomes effortless.
RoboCop’s gameplay happens in two ways: law enforcement and detective. RoboCop will have to shoot his way out of situations for the majority of the game. But, there are often times where the game slows down to let you breathe, and let his investigative side come out. Using the scanner built into his visor lets you see in the dark areas, for which there are a lot of. In either scenario, RoboCop has two modes of traversal: walking or walking with a purpose. He can’t really sprint, he can’t jump, and he can’t crouch, so his lumbering movements are charming and as robotic as you’d expect him to be.
As this is game is primarily set at OCP, you’re mostly indoors throughout the game. However, the game cleverly does flashbacks that not only gives you variety in playing as non-RoboCop characters, but also places you in open areas set during the daytime. While it’s no spoiler, you’ll also get to play as ED-209. And yes, it feels as good as you think it does – now that as a whole game would be very exciting.
Like with the first game, you’ll have main missions to follow, but along the way civilians will ask you for help, and you can choose to help them or not. The side missions are rewarding from an experience perspective, but they often go in ways you aren’t prepared for. The game is not afraid to just have fun, like the side mission that was a sequence puzzle to help open a stuck washing machine door. While they won’t all be memorable or engaging, there’s no reason not to do them. Plus helping people can be good. The main missions are no slouch though, with memorable sequences like escaping a trash compactor slowly ready to recycle you, or
When engaging with the public, you’ll be given several dialogue choices. You can play RoboCop as robotic and lawful, or more like the human Alex Murphy that he used to be. There’s no ramifications or benefits to playing either side, but Teyon just gives you the leeway to do so.
I actually played about half the game without DLSS enabled, and I was getting 75fps on average. Once I turned on DLAA, I actually dropped down to 65fps. Though enabling DLSS with DLAA + Frame Generation, I averaged around 107fps. Even for a first-person shooter, the nature of RoboCop’s movement doesn’t feel like above 60fps is required. That said, seeing the run at above 100fps certainly feels better. The game once again runs on Unreal Engine 5, utilizing Lumen and it looks absolutely gorgeous in both interior and exterior environments. I didn’t experience any stutters or major performance issues while playing through the game.
My PC Specs:
– Linux (6.15.6-2-cachyos)
– Intel Core i9 13900K @ 5.8GHz
– ASUS ROG RYUJIN II 360 ARGB AIO Liquid CPU Cooler
– G.SKILL TRIDENT Z5 6000MHZ 64GB (32×2) DDR5 RAM
– ASUS ROG Strix GeForce RTX 4080 16GB GDDR6X
– WD_BLACK SN850X M.2 (4 TB)
– LG UltraGear 34GP950B-G (21:9 Ultrawide @ 3440×1440)
RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business picks up right where Rogue City left off, and explores so many new ideas, it absolutely needed to be a standalone experience. Teyon has made an incredibly satisfying game that serves as a great companion to the films without stepping on their toes. Unfinished Business is highly enjoyable, the new missions, locations, weapons, and enemies make everything feel fresh and new. RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business doesn’t completely payoff, but it’s a ton of fun. “Excuse me, I have to go. Somewhere there is a crime happening.”
A Steam code was provided in advance by the publisher for review purposes
