RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business Review

One of 2023's biggest surprises, RoboCop: Rogue City, was a heartfelt tribute to the classic 1980s action films. Now, Teyon brings Officer Murphy back for Unfinished Business, a standalone expansion featuring improved visuals, a fresh story, and plenty of opportunities to dispense justice the RoboCop way.

It's tempting to say that they don't make movies like RoboCop anymore. In terms of over-the-top action and unapologetic violence, that's certainly true. As the soulless 2014 remake proved, the razor-sharp social satire of the original is also something modern blockbusters rarely attempt, although series like The Boys arguably carry that torch today.

Paul Verhoeven's RoboCop remains a timeless classic, and unfortunately, its portrayal of ruthless corporate greed feels more relevant than ever. It's difficult to imagine where the franchise can go in live-action form, although Amazon is reportedly developing both a new movie and a TV series. Like Indiana Jones, RoboCop faces the challenge of being inseparable from its original star—thankfully, Peter Weller once again returns to voice Alex Murphy.

While Rogue City never had the budget or polish of titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, it was an unexpectedly ambitious and confident shooter that understood what made RoboCop special. More importantly, it demonstrated how to build a meaningful standalone expansion.

A New Story That Stands on Its Own

Technically, Unfinished Business is a direct sequel to Rogue City, but the two stories aren't tightly connected. You don't need to play the original to understand what's happening here.

The game takes place sometime after the events of RoboCop 2 and contains a few more references to RoboCop 3 than its predecessor. However, the overall setup owes a clear debt to Alex Garland's 2012 film Dredd, likely as a nod to the fact that Judge Dredd was one of the original inspirations behind RoboCop.

The story begins with an assault on RoboCop's police precinct, leaving numerous officers dead. Murphy's investigation leads him to a massive decaying apartment tower owned by OCP—the corrupt corporation responsible for creating RoboCop himself.

The building feels like something pulled directly from Mega-City One, filled with heavily armed mercenaries led by a mysterious villain who knew Alex Murphy before he became the iconic cyborg lawman.

RoboCop Is Stronger Than Ever

One pleasant surprise is that you begin the game with nearly all of RoboCop's major abilities already unlocked. His temporary energy shield returns, alongside electrical attacks and the wonderfully ridiculous ability to ricochet bullets off angled surfaces to eliminate enemies hiding behind cover. The first-person shooting remains fairly simple and admittedly repetitive, but it's also incredibly satisfying. Headshots feel fantastic, enemies explode into showers of gore, and every shot from the iconic Auto-9 pistol carries tremendous impact. The game starts with a reasonable level of challenge, but as you unlock upgrades and install increasingly powerful electronic boards into your Auto-9, things become dramatically easier. Normally, this would be a major criticism. Instead, I found myself grinning as my upgraded pistol transformed into an almost unlimited machine gun capable of shredding heavily armored enemies in seconds. The new freeze gun deserves special mention as well. Both players and enemies can use it, and it works exactly like Mr. Freeze's iconic weapon from Batman.

More Than Just a Shooter

Although Unfinished Business is primarily a first-person shooter with virtually no traditional puzzles, it shares surprising similarities with games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Between combat sequences, players encounter peaceful areas where they can speak with civilians and complete side missions. The smaller, more confined environments mean these side quests are relatively simple, but many feature amusing and bizarre requests from local residents. RoboCop also gets plenty of opportunities to pet cats, which somehow feels completely appropriate. During criminal investigations, players can choose whether to issue warnings or fines to offenders, although these decisions have fewer long-term consequences than they did in Rogue City. The game's modest budget means the writing never reaches the level of the original film. Dialogue can feel somewhat routine, and some localization issues remain noticeable.

Still, there are plenty of memorable moments. One particularly amusing exchange has someone asking RoboCop why he always walks directly into danger, to which he simply replies: “I have night vision.” Teyon clearly understands the absurdity and satire that made RoboCop memorable, although their own attempts at recreating that balance only succeed some of the time. The game briefly touches upon themes of police violence and vigilantism but never explores them in much depth. Likewise, it's disappointing that OCP's executives, who provided some of the best moments in Rogue City, barely feature in this story.

New Ideas and Flashbacks

The core gameplay remains almost identical to Rogue City. Environmental kills are the only major addition to combat, but the expansion introduces several other gameplay variations. Players occasionally experience flashback sequences featuring Alex Murphy before becoming RoboCop, alongside several sections starring other characters. One particularly disturbing sequence places players in the role of a woman being stalked through the night. Unfortunately, these segments often last too long and are easily the least enjoyable parts of the game. The same can be said for certain detective sections, which amount to little more than walking to a crime scene and scanning clues like a simple hidden-object game.

Improved Visuals and Surprisingly Good Destruction

One of the expansion's biggest surprises is the opportunity to play as ED-209. Watching the giant enforcement robot annihilate enemies—and unfortunate OCP executives—is pure entertainment. The destruction effects throughout these sequences are surprisingly impressive. You won't level entire buildings, but by the end of a firefight, walls are covered in bullet holes and chunks of concrete litter the ground. Graphically, Unfinished Business is a significant step forward compared to Rogue City.

The environments already looked good, but now they approach AAA quality thanks to the excellent work of Teyon's artists. The game is also noticeably bloodier than before, although it still doesn't quite match the extreme violence of the original films. Character models and animations have improved considerably. They've gone from “absolutely terrible” to merely “dated,” resembling a polished late-generation PlayStation 2 title. Enemy AI feels similarly old-fashioned, but aside from occasional lip-sync problems, major graphical issues are surprisingly rare.

Final Verdict

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is another heartfelt love letter to one of cinema's greatest action heroes. Its shooting remains incredibly satisfying, Peter Weller once again delivers a fantastic performance as RoboCop, and the improved visuals make Old Detroit more atmospheric than ever. The gameplay can become repetitive, some story elements fail to reach their full potential, and the flashback sequences overstay their welcome. Even so, Teyon clearly understands what fans want from a RoboCop game: brutal action, dark humor, memorable one-liners, and the chance to enforce the law with overwhelming firepower. If you enjoyed Rogue City, Unfinished Business is an easy recommendation. And if this is the future of RoboCop in gaming, I'd happily serve the public trust, protect the innocent, and uphold the law all over again.