Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business

When Jonas - who wrote a review of Robocop's previous escapades - and I discussed Robocop: Rogue City, we both agreed that the atmosphere was captured perfectly in many ways. One can make a comparison with Indiana Jones and the Great Circle from last year, where the feeling as a whole was better than the game itself. Because in both Robocop and Indy's adventures, the charm of the films is captured - often in several parts quite brilliantly. But at the same time, it is dragged down a bit by game mechanics that do not work completely satisfactorily. But precisely because the atmosphere is so faithful to its model and at times so superb, it becomes fun to experience despite its shortcomings regarding the game design.

Now, just over a year and a half since Robocop's last adventure, comes a continuation that in development started as a DLC but instead grew into a separate game. A "stand alone" with a shorter playing time and lower price tag, but which does not require the basic game to be purchased and run.

The police station, which served as a hub in Robocop: Rogue City, has been attacked and when Robocop investigates it, he finds lots of police officers dead. The station is largely in ruins and it will of course be the tin man's job to find out who is behind the cruel attack. He is pointed in the direction of a tall building called OmniTower where his task is to quickly get to the top of the high tower. Then follows an eight-hour slaughterfest that concentrates mainly on the raw action we also got a lot of in Rogue City.

There are still some simpler elements of puzzles and detective work, but the focus this time leans towards fewer quiet moments and more on shooting your way through. Unfinished Business retains the same skill tree and much else from the main game itself so there are no radical changes here. We find several elements such as breaking down doors, evidence lying around that gives experience points, things that can be thrown and things that explode. If you've played Rogue City, there is nothing that directly surprises you in terms of gameplay, quite simply. It mainly throws new types of enemies at you and, as I said, there is a never-ending focus on shooting hundreds of bad guys.

It's like a slightly slower Call of Duty. Where Robocop's rigid movement pattern does not allow him to rush forward or smoothly throw himself into cover. Here it is important to clean up corridor after corridor, room after room of lots of scum. All the action is just as raw as last time - there's even a new type of "take downs" where Robocop can use the environment to destroy threats in some creative ways. There are also some new weapons and some game sequences that offer surprises. Some of these new enemies introduced can also take a lot more of a beating, so while your weapons can shoot simpler enemies to a bloody pulp, there are some that require you to empty multiple magazines into them. I found that I had to use the abilities to slow down time or blind the enemies significantly more in this than I did in Rogue City. Precisely because there is simply more and tougher opposition to shoot at.

We also get moments where you get to play as Alex Murphy. The man who later became Robocop and even though it's mostly action there too, it's still fun with a little variety. Some sequences are also high-octane in just the right way and even though there are many thousands of bullets to be shot, there are also some calmer sequences where you encounter other characters and can perform side missions. If you want to do these, they take place within zones as Robocop's further journey then locks out from these.

Especially the sequence before Murphy became a tin policeman also offers some welcome light outdoors. Since OmniTower quickly becomes quite monotonous in its design, I noticed in retrospect how good it was to experience some greenery and daylight. However, there are some environments in the tower that contribute to the experience, but for long periods it becomes much of the same.

As a whole, this is not really a much worse experience than Rogue City was. All the raw action is still there, and it's also turned up a notch, the concept is generally the same and that's perhaps the main problem. Because the place where it all takes place offers endless corridors and environments that after a few hours become far too similar. Had it been a DLC, it would certainly have been possible to shorten and focus the experience. Now as a stand-alone it becomes a bit too drawn out and repetitive. However, I must admit that it is still very entertaining to play as an armoured plate elf and just make your way through. Since the game's action works well, it's fun.

The visuals are in some places very nice. Sure, the environments this time are much more monotonous than they are in Robocop: Rogue City, but both the detail and the technology are impressive. It gets a bit Unreal Engine-unimaginative at times with a rather plastic surface but many areas are really nice. However, it suffers from one major problem and that is that it occasionally has a tendency to stutter for a split second. When you perform a take down, it is done as a small sequence and here the problem often becomes all too apparent. The game freezes and a black box may appear for a brief second. These freezes occur frequently in other cases as well. However, there may be longer sequences where the game runs perfectly fine, to come parts where it stutters more frequently. It's simply a bit rough around the edges and was more noticeable in some sequences when it could be downright disturbing. Then I was able to drive on for an hour or so without it happening at all.

In its messy journey up to the top floor of the tower, Robocop: Rogue City - Unfinished Business often succeeds well with what was perhaps the most important thing about Robocop: Rogue City. It captures, once again, the atmosphere in a fantastic way. In places it's very stylish, the voice acting is good, and even if you're a tin cop who can take a lot of beating, there are enough tough threats to make it a bit challenging in parts.

It has some annoying performance issues and because it lacks the freedom of patrolling the streets of Detroit or returning to the police station between missions as occurred in the main game - it also becomes much more monotonous. However, all the action is very entertaining, once again, but there are moments when you feel that it becomes a little too streamlined and simple to lose some of the entertainment value that was there last time. It would also have been nice if some new element was introduced among the skills or detective work, for example. Something that made it feel a bit more like a new game than just being a sort of 'DLC/sequel' mix. It's like it's just as fun but just a bit worse. But you still feel like Robocop again. Which is the most important thing anyway.