RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business (2025)
When RoboCop: Rogue City dropped out of nowhere in the late summer of 2023, it showed that if a good developer is given the chance with an IP, and they love and care for it, then it can become a fantastic game. And that’s exactly what we got. RoboCop’s biting satire and visceral gore is perfect for a video game, and we got a continuation of what basically is the real third movie. It was dark, gritty and weirdly enough, filled with some very human and complex emotional scenes thanks to dialog that understands Alex Murphy is still under that cold metal exterior.
It was kinda odd to hear that nearly two years after the original game came out, that we would get a new stand alone expansion to the first game. Really this is more of a sequel than anything else. It transports Robocop into a new setting with new enemies and objectives. It has the same basic mechanics as the original game and really could be boiled down as “more of the same” but it also tacks on a backstory that gives us a playable Alex Murphy section.
Peter Weller reprises his role as Alex Murphy and RoboCop, since yes, there are differences to the acting and the game itself makes a distinction. This brings me to one of my very few complaints about the game, and it really is because it goes against what they did really well in the original. In the first game, you get dialog choices at the end of each level, where Robocop’s helmet gets taken off and a psychiatrist asks several questions. Allowing me to guide the answers to a more human output, making it clear that Alex Murphy is living underneath the Robocop persona and programming. However, Unfinished Business makes it clear that Alex Murphy died and Robocop is just using Alex’s body, and sees himself as a different being or more just a machine. And I find that to go against the whole underlying tone of the original game. It’s not a big issue, and there are a few other much bigger ones, but it did stand out as an odd choice, as I found it to be one of the better written games in quite a while in the early 2020’s
The main premise of Unfinished Business is that the Detroit Police Station that Robocop works at gets broken into and attacked. Robocop is tasked by the chief to go take down the assailants who are holding out in the city’s OmniTower, a OCP governed mega complex taken over by mercenaries. Sadly Murphy’s trusty partner Anne Lewis really isn’t in the game much, and relegated to a supporting character. Instead we get a lot of radio and intercom conversations but there are several surprises that more than make up for it.
The vast majority of the game is a fairly linear experience of going through hallways murdering anything that walks, but is broken up by little open ended hub areas, that provide a nice respite from the continual chaos, and this game brings the chaos in spades. Before diving into the combat, the hub areas allow Robocop not only to explore OmniTower’s derelict conditions but let’s the cop part of Robocop stand out, as he not only helps people but solves a bit of crime too. These moments again, provide some much needed levity to the heavy tones the game deals with, and drops some unbelievably dark and depressing material, but gives some hope with Alex Murphy’s signature upbeat attitude as well.
The game’s combat is intense right from the very beginning with enemies constantly flowing in one after the other from the start. I found myself overwhelmed very early on, but managing to utilize some of the game’s more interesting mechanics, like Robocop’s visor finding ricochet points and using cover to take out several guys at once helped mitigate the feeling of being cornered. Robocop also can take advantage of some slow-motion to really deal a lot of damage in a short amount of time. The gore is also laugh out loud awesome in a way that a lot of games don’t do anymore. The Auto-9, Robocop’s signature handcanon is so unbelievably powerful, that a single shot can shear an enemy's limb clean off, or make someone’s head explode. It’s quite a site and makes each encounter a blast.
The inclusion of the new Cryo weapon also utilizes the Unreal Engine 5’s beautifully rendered particle effects and anytime someone or something gets frozen, I end up standing in awe with how gorgeously it makes each ice crystal look. It’s also a great way to circumvent some of the more difficult encounters by freezing several of the harder enemies at once and taking care of a small handful at once. The upgrade system carries over from the original game and being mindful to learn the little minigame can wield a fully Automated and unlimited magazine with no reloading for the Auto 9. It feels like an unlocked cheat code.
The main issue that I really had with the game was that during several points in the game, a different playable character gets introduced. I found this broke up the flow of the game and caused some unnecessary pacing. Originally being thrown back into the past and seeing Alex Murphy hanging out with other cops and going on a call with his cop buddies and partner was really cool. But the other two characters I felt didn’t add much of anything besides helping pad out the motivations for these characters in the story. I do have to commend making entire levels dedicated to these sections of the game that don’t really serve much of a purpose, it’s a tribute to the team’s dedication to true art.
One minor thing is the game did crash on me quite often, but that’s because I was running a mod to play it in full VR, and given the choice I will always choose to play a game in VR. Playing a Robocop game in VR feels like the final upgrade to what a true RoboCop experience should be. Given a few more months, I bet the VR mod’s profile for RoboCop will be perfected and it will run flawlessly, but the crashing every once in a while was a hindrance, that brought upon myself… but it was worth it, as the Unreal Engine 5 makes ever grimy surface and sparky explosion feel like I’m really living in the world and that I have become RoboCop.
For a game that didn’t need to exist in the first place, and for what could have been a couple hour DLC the team at Treyon continually show how much deep love they have for the RoboCop franchise. Each interaction is grounded and real, every combat encounter becomes a battle to the death and by the end, it’s earned its “expansion” title. Making the way up the OmniTower, there is no irony lost to notice that this is basically the premise of the Judge Dredd 2012 movie or the 2011 Indonesian movie The Raid. I would have loved to see Judge Dredd show up, or maybe this is a backdoor pilot for making a Judge Dredd game next from the developers.
For anyone who loves RoboCop this is a must play, obviously it's directly connected to the original 2023 game, so I’d always recommend to play the first game and then dive into the expansion, it’s well worth the asking price of $30 and does expand the wonderfully written characters of the game. If Robocop isn’t a love, but more of a passing fancy, the carefully recreated 80’s aesthetic and great gunplay and violence more than make up for it. These are games from developers that love what they do, and we need to support more of these games. It’s a perfect showcase of the bygone era of middle tier games that no longer exist. Supporting these games will bring these games back, it’s just up to us to stick to the prime directives.