RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business review: feature creep

RoboCop: Rogue City reminds me of Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay. Both games are based on movies, but they tell their own stories. They both play, for the most part, as traditional first-person shooters, with an occasional switch to third-person perspective for conversations and other actions. They both understand their characters and the specific power fantasy they provide. For Riddick, that’s being a cunning killer. For RoboCop, that’s the feeling of being an unstoppable bipedal tank who can pick creeps up by their necks and throw them through plate glass windows. 

Developer Teyon gets this character and world, from the satire of corporate greed and the dehumanization of technology (which feels even more relevant in a world of AI slop) to the little details in how RoboCop moves. I especially appreciate the way he holds his off-hand out like a ballerina when aiming his pistol in cutscenes, or how he slowly steps out of a car, torso-first. Even the way the cruiser vehicle’s body scrapes on the ground as it hits the ramp out of the station, kicking sparks into the air, is spot on. So, where can you even go from there? How more RoboCoppy can you get? 

With the new standalone expansion, Unfinished Business, the developers dare to ask the question: What if you could also play as a normal guy? 

In the main game, Teyon disrupted the pacing with a variety of creative side missions, ranging from delivering judgment at the police station to ticketing illegally parked vehicles across the Detroit hub level. Unfinished Business takes place almost entirely in a single, massive tower block, so it doesn’t have the same luxury — though you do occasionally slow down and help residents, there’s a forward momentum to it that the main game didn’t have. Because it’s essentially the most recent Judge Dredd movie, except you’re RoboCop, Teyon relies on flashbacks to achieve the same thing. 

As well as RoboCop, you play a section as Murphy when he was NormalCop, a section as a scientist escaping from muggers, and another as a disgruntled mercenary trying to escape his boss. While they do disrupt the pacing, no one bought the RoboCop game to play as ordinary people who can’t even grab enemies by the throat, never mind throw them through a window. They do their best to remain novel, changing the healing mechanics so they’re closer to Call of Duty, giving you a jump and crouch button, and handing you a torch, but there’s still that major issue: you’re not RoboCop in the RoboCop game. I will, however, make an exception for the short section where you remote control an ED-209 and stomp mercs into goo. That’s good. You can even pop an Achievement for falling down a flight of stairs. 

When you are RoboCop, it’s excellent, if a bit one-note. Unfinished Business is a proper shooting gallery of goons. Every area is stuffed with clown car monster closets full of them, and they pop out in seemingly endless waves for you to cut down. One of the things the main game suffered from was how easy it was to sweep the room with your firearm like it was a scythe, popping enemy heads like you’re reaping a field of wheat. There was rarely any need to change elevation — just spin left to right, right to left at head height and watch the red mist fill the air. Unfinished Business introduces flying drones and jetpack enemies, forcing you to engage with the vertical spaces in levels and taking your aim away from head height, making for more engaging encounters. 

Environments crumble, crackle, and tear apart as you and the enemies rip through each area with a torrent of bullets. Hit someone with a shotgun up close, and they comically ragdoll away. Few shooters make the act of pulling the trigger as exciting as it is here, and the new toys you get only make it better. 

About two-thirds of the way through, you get access to the best cryogenic weapon I’ve ever seen in a game. A huge thing, it charges up slowly and then, blam – it spits a ball of energy at your target, breaking apart on impact and doing massive damage as it freezes a large area around the impact point, leaving icicles and frosting people and environment alike. This ice stays there, filling the screen and soundscape with the crackle of winter. There’s also a gatling gun and a rail cannon, which both tear through scenery and flesh unlike anything else from the main game. 

Still, Unfinished Business hasn’t solved the issue with your primary weapon, a hip-holstered super pistol that you can modify to be the best weapon in the game. There’s plenty of choice in how you modify it, but almost every high-level configuration feels game-breaking, whether it has an unlimited magazine or is fully automatic (or both!). 

Unfinished Business also suffers from stuttering issues on Xbox Series X whenever you move between areas. It doesn’t impact combat often, but the hitches you do get are regular and noticeable. It’s great that the game lets you inhabit RoboCop, but nobody wants to feel like the RoboCop from that gif. 

Unfinished Business is a bit of a weird one. It improves a lot of foundational stuff from the main game, but it also tries some new things that don’t quite land. It has better combat encounters, but its side missions aren’t as well thought out. Its lack of hubs is also a disappointment after watching Detroit and the PD change throughout the main game. Still, Teyon is the only studio doing these love letters to classic movies at this quality level, and there’s a lot to like if you go in with your expectations in check and your brain turned all the way off.