For a lot of people, 2023’s RoboCop: Rogue City was—well, it wasn’t really proper game of the year material. It was a bit too janky to be considered in contention with some of the biggest games of the year, though everyone who played it agreed that Teyon’s take on the Detroit defender was probably the best RoboCop game ever made. Who needs a perfectly polished game when you can play as a walking, gun toting fridge who shoots creeps in the dick on a regular basis? Rogue City was just proof that fun was the most important thing.
Fans mostly believed that RoboCop: Rogue City would just be a nice one-and-done affair, especially with the ending of Rogue City tying nicely into RoboCop 3 and Murphy’s battles against Kanemitsu, but Teyon decided they’d treat us with one last go. Some “Unfinished Business”, so to speak.
This standalone expansion continues the story of Rogue City, giving more context to the mercs that Murphy clashes with throughout the first game while taking Robo to a new location teeming with bad guys, and you know what? More of the same sounds fine with me.
Opening with the Metro West precinct destroyed, Unfinished Business sees RoboCop tracking the mercs responsible to OmniTower, an OCP apartment complex that’s now been inundated with heavily armored goons. Along the way, Robo will make allies with the residents, take out scores of hired thugs and even discover some ties to his past pre-cyborg upgrades.
Yeah, so one of the biggest claims during the advertising and trailers for RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is that it’d let you control human Murphy as well as Robo, and that is true. Unfortunately, it also proves why Teyon are much better suited at making FPS games with virtual invincible protagonists, as the gunplay and movement with human Murphy just feels awkward and stiff. Mercifully, there’s only one level with this version of Murphy anyway, which doesn’t last too long either. There are other human levels, though they involve more stealth, platforming and puzzle solving. They’re a fine change of pace for a game that’s about relentlessly shooting crooks, though people are still going to treat them like the MJ missions in Spider-Man.
As for the rest of the game, you’re playing as RoboCop doing RoboCop things: killing perps in the most violent and robotic way possible. Considering you’re playing an accurate version of the original RoboCop and not the remade version that looks like a dude in motorcycle gear, metal Murphy isn’t going to be slide cancelling and wall running through levels. Instead, you’re like an inevitable force of nature, tanking everyone’s bullets while you line up headshots, or charging forward to grab one enemy and use him to bowl over his mates. It’s a ridiculously fun power fantasy, and even though you can get killed if you’re too complacent, you always feel like the strongest person in the room.
All of the tools and abilities from the original game are back, including the upgradable skills and chip boards for your Auto-9 Machine Pistol, allowing you to create the ideal RoboCop loadout you want. Regarding skills specifically, the game starts with two points in every category, meaning you start the game with abilities like shockwave, armour, focus and dash, which helps sell that this is a continuation of Rogue City, but Robo doesn’t get any other new skills to play with.
It doesn’t mean there aren’t new additions though, including takedowns, in which Robo uses the environment to eliminate an enemy quickly, along with some new weapons to use. Naturally, the headline grabbing weapon is the new Cryo Cannon, which is exactly what it sounds like. Even though the Auto-9 remains the most powerful gun in the whole game, especially after upgrades, the Cryo Cannon is a lot of fun to use, causing plenty of destruction and leaving a lasting impact on the level that looks stunning. Graphically alone, it might be one of the best ice weapons in gaming.
Again, the jankiness makes a return too, and even though it’s part of the game’s charm to watch a merc’s body ragdoll and glitch out after they get chucked across the room by Robo, during play it felt like a few more serious glitches reared their ugly heads. During the Murphy mission, I got softlocked because one character wouldn’t move into position, though that was fixed with a reload.
Still, a nastier glitch permeated through the back half of the playthrough where Robo wouldn’t pick up new weapons despite holding X. Either nothing would happen or the weapon would disappear. Normally, it wouldn’t be an issue when you have the infinite ammo Auto-9, but one late mission sees Robo trying to recover his Auto-9, leaving you to rely on weapons dropped by mercs, but if you can’t pick up those weapons? You see the problem.
Despite the glitches though, RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business was a rollicking good time, and that’s mostly because Teyon have found themselves an identity and niche that hardly anyone else has filled. In an era of twitchy FPS shooters, Teyon have given us games where you decimate everyone as a heavily armoured juggernaut, and it’s a breath of fresh air.
Something else that’s a breath of fresh air too is the price. At £25, this feels like a return to the cheap and cheerful, budget era of gaming. For veterans, it’s a low asking point for some “more of the same” goodness, while newcomers can pick up the old game and Unfinished Business for about the same price as a normal AAA game and get two enjoyable adventures out of it. Robo might’ve finished his business now, but if Teyon can find a third reason to drag RoboCop onto the streets of Detroit for some baddie blasting, I’ll be there day one.
An Xbox key was provided by PR for the purposes of this review.
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