RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business finally puts me in control of the series' iconic ED-209 bot, and it's as silly as it is violent: "Realism is not a part of RoboCop at all"

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business doesn't just see OCP Crime Prevention Unit 001 (formerly Officer Alex Murphy) with some, well, unfinished business, but developers Teyon, too. Going hands-on, this followup to Rogue City feels extremely similar to play, and for good reason. At first it was closer to something like a DLC, but, "after a couple of months" working on it, communications manager Dawid Biegun tells me, the studio realized "we have too much content".

Promising around eight to ten hours of story, it's about as long as a proper sequel would need to be, but is introduced to me as a standalone expansion. Even so, while Biegun says it builds on some story elements in the base Rogue City, you don't need to have played it to get into the action here. As mercenaries attack a police department with a mysterious new cryo cannon, and take over a massive residential block called OmniTower, it's up to the officer known as RoboCop to fight his way inside and sort things out with extreme prejudice.

Dead or alive

Playing through the first three levels and then skipping to a later one, the business might be unfinished, but it is still business as usual. Clomping around relatively slowly like a tank, RoboCop is able to scan and pinpoint enemies with a green overlay just like the movies, taking out goons with high-powered weaponry. Being slow just emphasizes the feeling of power, cooldown abilities to slow time or raise shields meaning I feel like I can take a lot of hits.

Enemies can be grabbed and thrown around too, and environmental hazards can be used to thwack enemies into objects to cause a bloody mess, such as big ol' industrial fans. Bits of cover can be blasted away with weapons to open them up to headshots (the pistols feel great), and RoboCop's vision highlights areas of wall I can use to ricochet my bullets around corners. The huge tower feels like a real space structurally, but one that RoboCop can turn to his advantage.

And yes, just like in the original Rogue City, you can also shoot enemies in the nuts for no real benefit, but as a tip of the robo-helmet to the movies. "It's still here. It's still available. It's still effective. It's still, I would say, good looking," Biegun laughs. "For the fans." Likewise the sounds of guns and the action are meant to closely evoke the films, and even some of the lighting of the OmniTower is meant to resemble '80s movie lighting. "We don't want to use the word realistic, because realism is not a part of RoboCop at all," says Biegun – moreover Teyon wants to portray the heightened reality of the series.

Quickly, though, the action does escalate to be more frequently tense than in its 2023 precursor. RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business features fewer detective elements and a greater focus on action. Biegun calls it "more dynamic" because of it. There are more weapon types – including a minigun and eventually the cryo cannon itself, and more enemy types to unload into.

The enemies aren't just new models, either – but are designed to shake up the pace of encounters in Rogue City which, fun though they were, could become a bit samey. Enemies with shields require you to think about how to catch them off guard, and drones and jet-pack wearing foes emphasize the verticality at the heart of the OmniTower. It sure beats just combing balconies for where squishy enemy heads are about to reveal themselves, and keeps me on my toes even from early on. Later on, they tell me there will be ninja androids.

The single setting, the OmniTower, also allows Teyon to play with literally escalating action and keep the pace tight. There are still moments where things slow down a tad, from RoboCop assisting scared residents to one section that has me go Star Wars as I blast the gears of an encroaching trash compactor's ceiling. But, for the most part, it feels natural that the higher I climb the tougher the threats I'll come up against.

The action even moves beyond RoboCop. The later mission I play sees me take control of the digital circuits of ED-209, the series' iconic heavily armed bipedal enforcement droid. I feel the weight of the machine, but it's a real power trip to stomp through the environments, cycling through a machine gun and rocket launchers to blast the heck out of swarms of enemies. It's a better machine fantasy than the more cumbersome mechs found in Doom: The Dark Ages, and is a highlight of what I get to play. I won't spoil too much, but one particularly funny moment even nods to ED-209's inability to tackle stairs that genuinely makes me laugh out loud. It's great to see Teyon still understanding that there's a real sense of humor to RoboCop's over-the-top nature.

In fact, as with Rogue City, a lot of work has gone into ensuring Unfinished Business feels like a legitimate part of the RoboCop world, the team discussing everything with the rights holders. "We have creative freedom as a developer," Biegun confirms, but this includes the likes of technology and types of guns available, as they want to avoid it seeming like "they created something out of nowhere" that doesn't fit the series.

Which is all to say that the cryo cannon – which hangs heavily over the game's opening hours – is an official addition. While I've yet to try it myself as it's at first in the enemy's hands, it's one of Biegun's favorites to use: "I really love this weapon because it has an impact on the environment. When you shoot it, it will leave ice all over the place so you can, if you walk through it, hear the crunches."

RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is more RoboCop but not just more. It's all dialled up. More action. More weapons. More over-the-top. I can't wait to see how high the OmniTower really stretches. I'll find out soon enough, as RoboCop: Rogue City – Unfinished Business is open for, erm, business on July 17, 2025 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

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