Prior to the current console generation, the last decent RoboCop-related game was RoboCop vs. The Terminator. It wasn't until Teyon released RoboCop: Rogue City that fans of Detroit's metallic cop got another fun game that captured the action of the first film while also throwing in some absurdity along the way. Two years later, we're getting a new RoboCop game with RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business, a fairly lengthy expansion to the original game rather than a full-on sequel.

The first thing to note is that this is a stand-alone expansion rather than DLC for the first game. You don't need the main game to play Unfinished Business, and you can jump into this title without any prior knowledge of the first game. However, if you played through the first game, you have to start building your version of Alex Murphy all over again, as none of your personal or gun upgrades will carry over into this new campaign. There is a new story and some additions to the general gameplay mechanics, but the overall presentation remains the same as before.

The story starts with RoboCop arriving back at his precinct to see the aftermath of a slaughter. The precinct is a mess, with just about every officer dead. RoboCop finds that Sergeant Reed is wounded but alive, and those who assaulted the precinct stole the diagnostics chair that RoboCop uses at the end of his shifts. All signs lead to the OCP OmniiTower, which has just been taken over by a gang of mercenaries. While the tower isn't under police jurisdiction, RoboCop is being sent in to prevent those responsible from using the chair's technology to create something nefarious.

The story's setting feels like a RoboCop-themed version of The Raid: Redemption or Dredd. The beats aren't exactly the same, but one man's ascent up a tower with constant fights along the way makes things sound awfully familiar. This is more of a benefit than a negative, as it means the experience is more focused. One of the complaints about the first game's narrative is that there seemed to be too many story threads fighting for attention. While this game has a few deviations from the main campaign, they all tie in to the story rather neatly. Even if you don't put much stock in the plot for an action game, it's good to see that the game isn't being too ambitious without the payoff.

From a gameplay perspective, don't expect too many changes when compared to RoboCop: Rogue City. RoboCop still lumbers about a stage, and running puts your speed at the same level as regular walking in other games. Then again, RoboCop can take on a good deal of damage before dying, and you can always find an electrical box to fill up if needed. You also can carry a few health charges, so you can fill up a good chunk of your bar at any time. You always have your Auto-9 pistol, but you can also pick up any gun that others drop. This includes sub-machine guns and a few rifles with varying zoom levels. You can also pick up certain objects like dumpster bins and CRT monitors to throw at people, and while you lack a melee attack, you can grab some enemies and throw them at others or bash their heads into the environment.

The previous game's leveling system also makes a return, but it's been streamlined to place the upgrade focus on combat and XP gain. None of the investigation upgrades have made the journey. Auto-9 upgrades are also back, and you're given a good deal of freedom when it comes to trying to equip your gun with things like more devastating bullets or a single shot capability. You need to have the right board for it, and you can't use modules that activate negative effects. It doesn't take long for the game to use these systems, since getting modules seems rather trivial early on. XP is gained at a good clip, giving you enough points early on to fully max out one trait.

All of this culminates into a combat experience that works very well for the source material but is flawed in a few ways. Headshots always produce squishy results, but shots to the limbs and groin are also viable if you want a kill. All of the guns you find are fine, and you will pick up and use them often out of habit, but nothing will beat the Auto-9, since it has unlimited ammo and does a good deal of damage even before you start to power it up.

The same can be said for your other abilities. Having a flash bang punch is neat, but you'll often forget that you have it. The slowdown effect is used enough times during a breach that using it outside of that feels unnecessary. RoboCop is a tank who can take a ton of damage, but it also means that the only way you'll die in the game's default difficulty level is if you aren't paying attention. There are enough health charges in the game that dying feels impossible even before you start to level up RoboCop's defensive and health capabilities.

Enemies take cover but are otherwise dumb enough to keep themselves exposed, so firefights can feel like glorified shooting galleries, so you won't need to be strategic about how you fight. If this were any other shooter, then this would feel like no effort was put into making the game exciting, but the fact that this is RoboCop changes that outlook. He is supposed to be this invincible army of one who doesn't need a ton of help or firepower to bust criminals. The game captures that feeling so well that any of my minor gripes are thrown out the window; changing things to make the game feel modern ends up hurting the overall experience.

The only big change from a combat perspective comes from the presence of a new gun. The cryo cannon is a new weapon in the game's back half that lets you freeze enemies in place. It's a pretty effective weapon, since the freeze effect is almost instantaneous, but there is a decent waiting period before you can use it again. It's a neat gun, but like every other weapon in the game, you'll tend to use it more as a means to keep the gameplay varied rather than as something you'll rely on in tough firefights.

While it would have made more sense to stick with the gunplay since the story is all about scaling the tower, Unfinished Business occasionally adds in some of the side activities from the main game. The investigative portion actually starts off the game, and you use this ability in the mainline quests and side-quests. Conversations happen naturally with some of the tower's inhabitants and leads to the light police work seen in the first game, albeit with more of a lighthearted tone. The game does a good job of conveying the series' dark, absurd humor. You'll convince someone they aren't in danger of committing a crime since none of their other predictions have come true.

There are a few issues that detract from the game, as they convey a lack of polish in places or dismissal of some issues from the original game. The checkpoint system is still rather unforgiving, so you may retread large parts of a level since the checkpoints are so far apart. To be fair, you have a better chance of experiencing this when loading up a save. Death is a rare thing due to your superpowered state, but it is something to note. The loose physics system is still in play, as you may shoot someone with a standard pistol and see their body somehow fly toward you only to get caught up in shelving and eventually fall to the floor. Some shadows can appear as noise on doorjambs and some civilian faces, no doubt the product of Unreal Engine 5's Lumen going haywire for a bit. Frame rates can drop a tad when entering a new area or accessing a computer terminal, and the game sometimes has lag when you decide to use your sights to aim your gun. One interesting bug only happened on Windows, as loading from a save caused textures and geometry to take 15 seconds or more before fully loading into the environment — despite being loaded from a NVMe drive. This didn't occur when playing the game on Linux on a SATA SSD instead.

In the end, RoboCop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business is a solid and more focused version of the kind of things offered by the main game. The story is straightforward but good, while the flashbacks become essential to the story instead of acting as diversions. While the gameplay remains relatively unchanged, it is still a thrill to walk around as a nearly invincible metallic man. The addition of the cryo cannon is neat, even if you might not use it all that much. The game does lack polish in places, but the solid shooting and darkly humorous interactions with the tower's populace will make you more forgiving of some of the visual anomalies. If you're a fan of the franchise or shooters in general, you'll have some fun with Unfinished Business.

Score: 7.5/10